I want to preface this by saying that I'm Thai, so my standards and expectations are a little higher. I'm gonna try to write this review without a "holier than thou" attitude, but in case it comes off that way...I don't care.
My party of 3 tried the following items:
1. Pa Pia Tod (fried spring rolls)
2. Pla Muk Yang (grilled squid)
3. Hoy Tod (mussel pancake)
4. Moo Yang (grilled pork)
5. Khao Soi (curry noodles)
The Pa Pia Tod (I hate to use this phrase, but...) is what it is. Decent appetizer if you're inclined to have it, but it's not anything impressionable.
The Pla Muk Yang was certainly more interesting. Grilled squid isn't anything overtly special either, so judging this dish basically comes down to the sauce. The sauce served with this is a typical Thai seafood sauce -- sweet, tangy, with a hint of spice. The sauce was well made.
Hoy Tod was the (spoiler alert) best thing we were served. It's mussels fried in eggs, adorned with bean sprouts up top. This dish is usually served with a sweet & spicy red sauce on the side, but Same Same already dishes out the sauce on top of the pancake for you. Their menu also says their sauce is a house sriracha sauce. I wish there had been a little more sauce on our mussel pancake, but it was still good.
The last 2 items were what truly brought down my expectations to a dumbfounded level of disappointment. The Moo Yang, or grilled pork, was supposed to be good. Typically restaurants that specialize in northern/northeastern Thai food offer a great grilled pork dish. I wish I could say this were the case for Same Same. The grilled pork we ordered was served very dry and bland. It seems as if there was no marinade on the meat at all, leaving all flavoring duties to the sauce served with the dish. Thai grilled pork is usually served with a chilli sauce (jaew, or ) that comes off as spicy and salty. Same Same serves their grilled pork with their own blend of jaew and what seems like sriracha. If you're wondering if this is a good combination, it's not. The sauce was very heavy on the sriracha side, creating a texture that was eerily ketchup-like. This Frankenstein of a sauce might work in theory, but it simply doesn't. Given the fact that the grilled pork itself had no flavor, and that the sauce was abysmal in flavor, this dish turned out to be our biggest regret.
The final item, Khao Soi, has recently become a popular item in Thai restaurants in the LA region. I've been on a personal mission to try as many Thai restaurants' versions of khao soi, and am sad to say Same Same's is one I would not recommend. As previously described, khao soi is curry noodles. The broth is supposed to be a rich, creamy coconut-based soup. Our khao soi was served with the typical egg noodles, fried noodles, veggies, chicken drumstick, and very little soup. There was hardly ANY soup in our noodles. What soup there was lay at the very bottom of the already smaller-sized bowl the khao soi is served in. Rather than being noodles, Same Same's khao soi was more reminiscent of an Italian pasta. Noodles, chicken, and veggies dominated the small bowl, and lack of soup/broth was clearly evident. One of the joys of eating khao soi is being able to dip your spoon into the bowl and deliciously sip the rich, coconutty soup. Here at Same Same, you can't do that. There just isn't enough soup in there to let you do that. One other note: the khao soi here is served with bean sprouts. I know for sure that's not typical of khao soi because this was the first time I've ever had bean sprouts with this dish. I don't recall khao soi being served with bean sprouts in Chiang Mai either, but it could be a personal preference thing with the cooks. It wasn't bad, slightly unusual.
All in all, I went to Same Same with high expectations and left with disappointment. I thought Same Same was trying to specialize in northern and northeastern Thai food, but going over their menu, it is actually an amalgamation of popular Thai dishes for an American crowd. I don't want to rush to say the food here is not authentic, but flavors are certainly more on the tamer side for Thai food.
I feel like Same Same has the chance to be great, but they are hitting some questionable notes right now. It seems more like the place is a wine bar that happens to serve some trendy Thai food, rather than a Thai restaurant with a wine bar. I'm not sure what their identity is and what they're actually trying to portray themselves as. This confusion carries over to their food and is something that should be easily fixed. The prices set for their dishes do tend to be on the more expensive side for Thai food. The problem with this is a lot of their dishes are "general" Thai dishes that can be found cheaper and better elsewhere, like in Thai Town. If you're going to be paying this much, you may want to try that other Thai restaurant just up the street. It's not really the same, but different. And better for now. read more