Chao Krung, LA’s oldest existing Thai restaurant, debuts new curry night rooted in tradition

In Los Angeles, Thai food is something many of us take for granted — as central to how Angelenos eat as tacos or sushi. But in 1969, when one of the first Thai restaurants, Chao Krung, opened its doors, the cuisine was so unfamiliar that its owners had to offer Chinese dishes to put customers at ease.

"My mom had a chalkboard — barbecue chicken, wonton soup, chow mein," recalled Amanda Maneesilasan of her mother, Supa Kuntee. "She'd start seeing people coming in, and then slowly introduce them to something Thai."

The restaurant mostly served L.A.'s scattered Thai community — years before Thai Town existed.

Boon and Supa Kuntee, along with Supa's sister, Nillaung, opened Chao Krung’s first location, a small storefront on Western Avenue, not long after the couple arrived in California in pursuit of a better education and a better life.

The family later closed that location for a second spot on Hollywood Boulevard, a narrow, single storefront where the same struggle to explain Thai food to Angelenos continued — and the same Chinese menu holdovers stuck around to keep customers coming in.

It wasn't until the family opened its third and current location on Fairfax Avenue in 1972 that Chao Krung began to take the shape it's known as today.

As Thai food became more popular and moved into the mainstream in the '70s and '80s, its clientele grew, boosted by staffers at nearby CBS Television City. You can see family photos in the space spanning the past few decades, in between statues of the Thai Buddha and colorful tapestries, showcasing Los Angeles' restaurant history.

Sisters Katy Noochlaor (left) and Amanda Maneesilasan (right), second-generation owners of Chao Krung, behind the bar.

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Courtesy Chao Krung Thai

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Second generation

As children, Maneesilasan and her sister, Katy Noochlaor, grew up in the restaurant — doing homework between tables, playing behind the building — wherever the family was, they were there, too.

Which is why it made sense in 2017 for them to step into their parents’ shoes. "We knew we would take over the restaurant," Noochlaor said. "We live and breathe that restaurant."

The menu still had vestiges of the original compromise their parents had to make to survive. The sisters, however, were determined to restore it to its true Thai roots.

For Maneesilasan, learning to make green curry from her grandmother was a turning point, almost a lightbulb moment, in her understanding of the cuisine.

Weekly curry nights

As part of the reclamation effort, the sisters have unveiled a new weekly Kanom Jeen Curry Night, Wednesdays only, which features a trio of curries and grilled skewers.

When I visited, small ceramic vats of curry crowded the table, alongside plates of rice noodles — steam still rising, their funky aroma enough to make a famished stomach growl.

The curries consist of Gang Kieaow Waan Gai, the green curry recipe they learned from their grandmother, made with chicken, a coconut curry base, fresh herbs, Thai eggplant and Thai chili.

Mae's Nam Ya Trout is made with tender bits of trout in a Southern Thai coconut curry, built on house-ground red curry paste, and is the most labor-intensive of the three, taking about five hours to complete. The Nam Prik is a roasted chili curry with smoky herbs and nutty undertones from peanuts. The layered flavors are savory, but when mixed with rice noodles, fresh vegetables, and dried chilies, they take on a new dimension — silky smooth at first, then leaving your lips burning the next.

A selection of Ping Ping skewers at Chao Krung, including roasted eggplant, lemongrass chicken, beef satay, and shrimp, alongside Isaan-style pork sausage.

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Sydney Yorkshire

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Courtesy Chao Krung

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"Curry is so important in Thai culture, it's part of our tradition," Maneesilasan said. On the trout curry specifically: "I can guarantee you can't find this anywhere else."

The skewers range from house-made Isaan-style sausage to a surprisingly spicy eggplant, glazed with roasted chili, garlic, and makrut lime leaf — a welcome kick from a vegetable so often relegated to the sidelines.

In addition to taking over the family restaurant, the sisters have also built their own ventures over the years — Tuk Tuk Thai, a street-food-driven spot now on Sawtelle, and Ban Ban Burger, a Thai-inflected smashburger concept located next door.

This fall, a second Ban Ban Burger location opens next door to Chao Krung on Fairfax, with the wall between the two restaurants coming down to make way for an archway connecting them. It's a literal and symbolic union of the family's two generational concepts under one roof.