Thai Treats With a Fast-Food Feel

L.A. Food Court has to be the least promising name for a restaurant since Pup ‘n’ Taco. Plus, it looks like a place called L.A. Food Court: Formica tables, bathroom-tile walls and a sky-level view of the Sizzler across the street. But instead of hot-dogs-on-a-stick and bad chocolate-chip cookies, you eat Thai beef salad loaded with garlic and scorching-hot chile peppers, or pork curry, heated with green chiles and mellowed with coconut milk, or fishballs flecked with red chile, light as quenelles. If your Thai food experience is limited to pad Thai and prik king , if chicken-coconut soup is as complex you think the cuisine gets, this is the place for a crash course in what’s been happening the past few years in Southern California’s regional Thai restaurants.

Despite the fast-food decor, a hostess seats you, a waitress takes your order--she seems trained for the inevitable response, shouted over the roar of Thai pop bands: “I need another minute, please.” There are more than 300 items from several stalls, including one from the great Issan-style Renu Nakorn of Norwalk and another from the Thai-Chinese Ruen Pair, one of the most crowded late-night spots on Hollywood Boulevard’s Thai Row. Ga-tiem makes wonderfully complex curry, Rangsit serves terrific noodles, then there’s Ban Khun Phor’ chile-fried rice, Amarin Bakery’s jackfruit tart, O-Lieng’s coconut juice. . . .

* L.A. Food Court, Thailand Plaza, 5321 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood, (213) 266-1745. Prices $2.95 - $25.