Folks, this is the best Thai food in Southern California – full stop. It may just be the best Thai food in the state. Either way, this is the best Thai meal I’ve had. Renu Nakorn specializes in the spicier Issan-style cuisine from northeastern Thailand and is a complete recalculation of the menus you would find at your neighborhood Thai place. Among the dishes I tried were Nam Kao Tod – a highly spicy stir fry of Issan sausage mixed with green onion, chili, ginger, peanuts and lime juice. A wonderful fried fish, a very spicy ground catfish larb, and perhaps most amazing given it’s relative simplicity: Thai beef jerky. Best beef jerky on this or any other planet.
Two strange things about Renu Nakorn. First is it’s location: Norwalk! It’s located in a rather anonymous strip mall on Rosecrans just east of the 5 in the lost cities between Los Angeles and Orange County. That whole area has never really registered on my food radar at all and I’m kinda shocked. Second strange thing is their neon sign in the window:
It’s an obvious Twin Peaks reference, but it appears only on the neon sign and nowhere else. No hidden Agent Cooper or Laura Palmer photographs anywhere I could see.
Anyway, everyone reading this should go there immediately. Full address is: Renu Nakorn, 13041 E. Rosecrans, Norwalk, CA, (562) 921-2124. Think I’m going to stock up on more Thai beef jerky on the way home.
Boy you said it! this restraunt rocks!
Honen Tonten Yeah!