Spicy Sugar Thai Mid-City

🇹🇭 THAILAND / Started by the daughter of one of the city's most beloved chefs and now in new hands, Spicy Sugar Thai is offering Thai Town level quality at its new location in Mid-City.

🇹🇭 THAILAND
📍 1271 S. La Brea Blvd.,
Mid-City, Central Los Angeles
🅿️ Small motel lot and street parking
🥤 No Alcohol (applying for license)

📸 All photos by Jared Cohee
for Eat the World Los Angeles

While waiting for a restock of the main ingredient of gaeng pak wan, a soup made with ant eggs available at the new location of Spicy Sugar Thai, the restaurant popped up in a wonderful homage on the pages of Time Out Los Angeles. The small outpost seems bound for glory (and big crowds) once it catches on through the city’s food media and influencer landscape, but it is still on the sleepy side so far. Thankfully the wait was not fruitless, as the leafy green had finally arrived from Thailand this past weekend.

Belizean Paradise lived at this unique location for many years but was unfortunately never sampled for these pages. The former motel diner space has recently turned over to become the city’s newest Thai restaurant last autumn, miles away from the Thai Town epicenter of the community. Residents of Mid-City can get all the hits of their usual Thai takeout joints, but the more adventurous will be pulled to the specialty items on the menu.

The Sugar in the name comes from Sugar Sungkamee, daughter of the beloved late Jitlada Chef Tui. She eventually sold her Long Beach restaurant to a new chef in late 2021, who made this expansion happen about six months ago. The menu has always been fairly broad and not southern-focused like Jitlada, and that has gone even further now with some more regional specialties from the north and northeast of the country. The latter, better known as the Isan region, is where the new chef is originally from.

If you are not given the vertically-oriented Thai specials menu when you sit down, make sure to ask for one. Unlike the treasures found on Mesa Thai’s non-English menu, plenty of translation exists for each item here so anyone can benefit. This is where you will find things like that aforementioned pak wan with ant eggs แกงผักหวานใส่ไข่มดแดง ($20, below), which was well worth the wait with deep flavors that are very hard to find in the United States. While the restaurant’s website declares it as “Your neighborhood Thai joint,” Spicy Sugar is obviously so much more!

Mesa Thai Cuisine

Unlike versions in the north and northeast of Thailand you are likely to find, the inclusion of ant eggs is on the lighter side here. The bright sourness they add is muted by their relatively moderate usage. The soup itself is deeply fermented and rich with seafood, the types of flavors that will immediately bring memories back for those that have them.

Do not let the existence of ant eggs stop you even if this does not sound appetizing, the soup is an experience you will not want to miss. The version here is unsurprisingly more of an Isan treat than those enjoyed in Chiang Mai.

Bring at least three of your friends to enjoy large format papaya salad preparations or the beautiful grilled fish miang wrap เมี่ยงปลาเผา ($45, above). This whole tilapia is prepared with salt and lemongrass and served with sauces, peanuts, peppers, ginger, lime, and onions. Grab big leaves of lettuce, throw in vermicelli and combination of sauces, toppings, and herbs, and enjoy the perfectly cooked fish with friends.

The homemade Thai calamari หมึกไข่ทอด ($18) evokes all of Thailand’s coasts with a fried specialty enjoyed at any beach town. What the English in this name and description does not hint towards is that this squid is caught and prepared with the eggs still inside, giving it a much different feeling than your typical bar snack.

The dish comes with a small bowl of sweet chili sauce, but the pieces also pair well with the spicier brown and green sauces that are served with the fried wontons given complimentary before meals (see bottom photo).

After having duck larb ลาบเป็ด ($18, below) twice on separate occasions, it might be worth choosing the beef as it seems to be both hit or miss and uses lesser cuts than you might find at other specialists in town. While medium is the baseline for this order’s spiciness and is very spicy, do not attempt to order this or other dishes mild, as this will also be a reduction of flavor. If spice is not your thing, best to choose a different restaurant altogether as mild orders here really hurt the chef’s dishes.

The Thai menu has a long list of som tum preparations, probably a good idea of one of the chef’s strengths and worth exploring. The family-style somtum tad is probably an amazing order, surrounding the dish with many accoutrements, but you can also order à la carte plates like the somtum Thai style ($16, above). As stated above, make sure this is at least medium and you will not be disappointed.

The somtum Laos style ($16.50, below) is at the top of list so the chef might wish to feature this being more in line with her Isan roots. As always, the Lao version is flavored by fermented fish and shrimp and comes salty and full of umami. You can expand on this even further and get a version with the addition of blue crab for supreme funkiness.