phaya-thai-food-best_josh-chang_gjeavd Where to Find the Best Thai Food in Portland, Oregon — Phaya Thai brings the rice and curries of khao gaeng dining to Portland.

From the breathless Pok Pok reviews of the early aughts to Langbaan’s outstanding restaurant win at the 2024 James Beard Awards, Portland’s reputation as a national Thai food destination has been truly cemented. The scene isn’t just prolific but varied: Thai restaurants here can be hyper-regional or dish-specific, focusing on the Thai-Chinese food found in Bangkok’s Yaowarat district or the crispy, shallot-fried chicken sold on the southern coast. The average neighborhood takeout is a few notches above what you’d find in other parts of the country, too, thanks to the city’s insatiable thirst for khao soi and pad kee mao. Our Chef of the Year for 2019, Akkapong “Earl” Ninsom, could fill this entire list with his diverse range of restaurants that span the Isan region of northern Thailand to Hat Yai in the south.

Compelling options abound outside the city—Khamdee Thai Cookhouse and Lanna Thai in Beaverton, the Chef Thai Cuisine in Vancouver, Nine Dang Fine Thai in Hillsboro. Below, however, find the finest som tum, khao man gai, and mango sticky rice within city limits.

ba-mee-noodle-house-thai-food-roundup-best-restaurant_fg3bsd Where to Find the Best Thai Food in Portland, Oregon — Ba Mee’s noodles with duck and dumplings.

Ba Mee Thai Noodle House

boise

As you might guess, noodles are the star at this cheery restaurant on North Williams’s restaurant row. Ba Mee’s house-made egg noodles are tender yet chewy enough to hold their own in dishes throughout the long menu. Inspired by street dining in the busy cities of Thailand, they appear in crystal-clear bowls of broth as islands balancing slices of juicy roasted duck or chubby wontons. They come slick with BBQ or garlic sauce, hunks of roast pork with crackly skin perched on top—and can even sneak into other Thai soups, like coconut-rich khao soi or tangy tom yum, if you ask nicely (and pay the surcharge). —Alex Frane

Chick & Pig Thai

woodstock

This unassuming cart tucked away in a Woodstock neighborhood parking lot is a favorite for its BBQ and salad sets: grilled or fried meat skewers served with rice and vegetables, or tossed with fragrant alliums and sweet-tart vinaigrettes over mixed greens. Marinated pork skewers (moo ping) wear a smoky char that’s nicely offset by a hint of sweet brininess from fish sauce and palm sugar, fortified with cilantro and onions. Be sure to grab a side of the Chick & Pig Sauce, a sweet-and spicy chile sauce with green onions. It should be liberally applied to the sets, wings, skewers, or fried meatballs. Chick & Pig is also a favorite for its bubble teas, especially in the summer. Seating is limited to a single bench, so take-out is the move. —AF

Hat Yai

Vernon, buckman

One of Ninsom’s defining moves as a restaurateur is to go all-in on specificity. Whereas many Thai restaurants attempt to cover the greatest hits from Chiang Rai to Betong, Ninsom tightened his focus to distinct regions, teaching Portland the nuances of the country’s many distinct cuisines. With fried chicken sensation Hat Yai, he partnered with Langbaan alum Alan Akwai to create a tiny counter-service restaurant on NE Killingsworth specializing in the cuisine of Southern Thailand. The restaurant hasn’t slowed much since opening, not even when it debuted a new location on lower Belmont—Portlanders and visitors alike brave lines or order ahead for Thai chile margaritas, brisket curry, and the incendiary ground pork served over rice. But most come for the eponymous Hat Yai–style fried chicken. It’s moist and tender with a thin, crispy rice and tapioca flour breading, fragrant with cumin, coriander, and garlic, and coated with fried shallots and sticky sweet chile sauce. It comes with buttery, flaky roti and a rich Malayu-style curry, ideal for dipping or dunking. —AF

Langbaan

northwest district

For more than 10 years, Portland’s hottest Thai dining has been found at Ninsom’s tasting menu spot, Langbaan—first in a clandestine dining room behind a bookcase at Paadee and now at a ring of a tasting counter within Phuket Café. Reservations open a month in advance and are often filled within hours. Guided by executive chef Kitsanaruk Ketkuaviriyanont, the ever-shifting menu draws inspiration from specific aspects of Thailand’s history and culture—past menus have focused on specific regions of Thailand, neighborhoods in Bangkok, and Thai holiday meals. No matter the theme, dinner opens with two bite-size signatures: the miang som, a vivid bite of shrimp, citrus, and coconut in a betel leaf; and the kanom krok, a crispy rice cup cradling raw scallop, coconut cream, and lemongrass. Expect soup and a few small courses before the main event, the table laden with platters of meats and seafood to share. Star pastry chef Maya Erickson closes things out with innovative desserts that often incorporate seasonal fruits (think five-spice coconut custard with Mekhong apples in fall, or Thai tea pudding with nectarines and brown butter in summer), and renowned sommelier Dana Frank is behind the wine selection that stands up to the bold parade of courses. —AF

Mee Sen Thai Eatery

MISSISSIPPI

On warm nights, the North Mississippi patio outside Mee Sen Thai is a dreamy place to people watch while twirling bites of the citrusy glass noodle salad yum woo sen. In the winter, you crowd into the exposed wood and brick dining room and cozy around tamarind sours and bowls of hot and sour tom yum soup; the latter triples down on pork (ground, char siu, and meatballs) and is a best bet for battling Portland’s rainiest days. The menu covers the length of Thailand, executing an astounding array of noodle soups, skewers of marinated meats, regional fried chicken variations, and classics like pad kee mao. Beginners: Start with your favorite of the canonical street food noodle dishes and a green papaya salad. You can’t go wrong with the khao soi here, either, delicate egg noodles and tender braised chicken legs in a creamy curried coconut broth glistening with chile oil. —AF

nongs-thai-food-roundup-best-restaurant_bkmhge Where to Find the Best Thai Food in Portland, Oregon — Lines move rapidly at the always-busy Nong’s.

Nong’s Khao Man Gai

Downtown, Buckman

Nong Poonsukwattana achieved folklore status in Portland after arriving in town with $70 to her name and creating an empire of Thai-Chinese chicken and rice. Though her original food carts have closed, her two busy counter service restaurants serve hundreds of carefully wrapped paper parcels every day. Inside, the eponymous khao man gai: chicken and rice served with a cup of simmering broth, fresh cucumber and cilantro, and her legendary ginger sauce. The dish may seem simple, but it’s more than the sum of its parts: Nong’s chefs poach the chicken with pandan leaves and ginger, yielding tender meat and clear, flavorful broth. They then toast the rice in chicken fat and steam it with pandan. You can get the dish with peanut sauce and broccoli; swap out the chicken for tofu, vegetables, or pork; or enjoy the chicken and rice served as a soup, but the original khao man gai reigns supreme. —AF

Paadee

kerns

Before he served his first miang som at Langbaan or fried his first chicken thigh at Hat Yai, chef Ninsom had Paadee, a longtime member of 28th Avenue’s “Restaurant Row” that cuts across East Burnside. Dialed-in takes on Thai restaurant classics anchor the menu: som tum, pad kee mao, massaman curry, pork belly fried rice. But it extends beyond these staples with dishes like sai grog issan, a fermented pork sausage from northern Thailand, and ba mhee phitsanulok, a salty-sour egg noodle soup piled high with roasted pork, meatballs, and crispy pork belly. The kanom gui chai, chewy chive and rice flour dumplings steeped in a garlicky sweet-and-sour soy sauce, are a must. Lunch sets are midday meal MVPs, like the tamarind-glazed wings or pork belly noodles served alongside sticky rice, papaya salad, a jammy soft-boiled egg, and a light and fragrant vegetable broth. —AF

Phaya Thai

richmond

Though khao gaeng is a ubiquitous style of street food throughout Thailand, Ketsuda “Nan” Chaison’s Phaya Thai is the only place I know of serving the ready-to-eat curries and stir-fries over rice in Portland. The spacious SE Hawthorne dining hall sports a long counter of options, served to-order. Choose white rice or brown rice with lentils, then select toppings like fried chicken thighs in garlic sauce, salt and pepper shrimp, beef panang curry, and prik king tofu stir fried with green beans and red curry. Everything is gluten-free, and you can special order noodle dishes like pad thai and pad see ew. Don’t miss Chaison’s tropical cocktails, like the coconut pandan Negroni or hibiscus mezcal margarita. —AF

Rukdiew-thai-food-roundup-best-restaurant_alex-frane_ty7t74 Where to Find the Best Thai Food in Portland, Oregon — Fried trout elevates the pad thai at Rukdiew.

Rukdiew Cafe

buckman

The rose-pink banquettes and canopy of year-round Christmas baubles hanging from the ceiling hint at Rukdiew Cafe’s playful approach to Thai cuisine. Think pad thai topped with delicate soft-shell crab; fried rice with crispy, flaky fried trout; and the “mango paradise,” where chunks of mango and crunchy cashews splash in a sweet-and-peppery chile jam with a choice of protein. Rukdiew also serves an unimpeachable take on khao soi, which arrives with the dish’s customary tangle of supple, chewy egg noodles, plus a fried nest of them on top. Regulars know to get it with the added drumstick. —AF

som-tum-best-thai-food-roundup-restaurant_thomas-teal_fjdxp8 Where to Find the Best Thai Food in Portland, Oregon — A smattering of dishes from Som Tum Thai, clockwise from top: pork cartilage soup, moo ping, duck larb, sticky rice, field crab papaya salad, and raw salmon salad.

Som Tum Thai

downtown

Sirapob Chaiprathum—friends call him Q—runs this heat-seeker’s haven near Portland State University, up a flight of stairs off SW Broadway. He specializes in the cuisine of Northeastern Thailand’s Isan region. While many Thai restaurants offer one version of the green papaya salad, Som Tum serves at least seven different variations of its namesake, ones packing the salty funk of dried shrimp, salted duck egg, or fermented fish sauce. Other papayaless salads and raw dishes impress, like the goong chae nam pla—raw shrimp, butterflied and creamy, encircling a shot glass of lip-tinglingly spicy lime and chile dressing. A set meal named for a Buddhist temple, Pa Khao Yai, makes the best introduction to the restaurant. Salads, fried meats, and sticky rice surround a pot of flavorful pork and galangal soup. Be warned: The spice levels here may surpass any other Thai restaurant in town, so stick to mild or medium if you’re easily burned out. The restaurant’s SE Belmont sibling, Kai Yang, offers easier entry points for those who generally stick to pad thai, without losing the tongue-searing, tear-jerker salads. —Brooke Jackson-Glidden

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