PaaDee

Good food, service, and cocktails. Walking distance from all the glorious bars on 28^th.

Went here for lunch last week and I was highly impressed. Had the Pad Kee Mao and it was delicious! I’ll be back here again very soon.

Very good Thai food, authentic taste with a simple lunch menu. I had the three pork soup, the red pork is awesome. Looks like typical BBQ pork, but has a slight anise taste. The rice noodles are great, will get them when I come back. Welcoming décor and great service to boot earn Paadee a 5star in my book. Go there and you’ll agree!

this place is awesome. They have a great selection of authentic thai dishes. The wings are excellent as well. If you go at any night, at the bar you have happy hour all night which is great.

Fantastic!
I’ve been here a few times but last night was by far one of my favorite visits! Not sure if it was the cold, the half hour wait or coming from the coast. I went ahead and got my favorite dish. And it was fan-​flipping-​tastic! Like beyond amazing!
First: I’ve been on the list for Laangban for the whole year. Got my spot in August but ended up moving it again. Now I have it for February. This beautiful spot is second best thing to it. And for good reasons. I love the beautiful décor! Love the kitchen! Tiny bar! Tin cups! Giant chalk board with specials! I love it all! It’s so warm, cozy and inviting!
And the drinks! Their drink menu is amazing. Everything sounds delicious and fantastic. I went with the waterfall and I was pretty happy with my choice! Shochu! Delicious!
And the food ~ basil pork was my favorite on lunch but we didn’t find it on the menu. So we thought! it is there under the pork belly. You can get it with ground pork! Hmmmm.
Pad keemao was pretty tasty!
Chicken wings~ beautiful wings!!! You get 6 perfectly crispy pieces in a bowl with radish. Yuuuummm!
And last but not least~ my happy dish!!! Khao soi! Ahmazinggggggggggg! It tastes just like this one place I absolutely go bananas for in Thailand. It was love at first bite. You could argue it may not be the best in porland but I’ll gladly tell you that you are wrong. And instead of regular drumstick, you can get it with chicken wings or tofu. Mine came with about four or five deep fried wings. The noodles were perfect! The chewiness, the creaminess! I couldn’t finish my bowl so I brought back leftovers all the way to Seattle. And I usually don’t like taking left overs.
Talk about ending 2015 right! Too bad they are not in Seattle. I’d eat here everyday till I get sick of it! What is a foodie without an obsession right?! :D

So glad this place is pretty much at my doorstep. The wings were perfectly crispy and my entrée was amazing. I will definitely be back!

Food is great!!! They don’t have your typical pad thai for dinner but the other choices are good. They just try to be different. The bar tender is a bit of an introvert and the food takes a while to cook but the food is good. Not the most friendly if staff but for food you can’t go wrong

Their chicken wings have bonded with my soul and now we are one. They have a great bar, a nice vibe, and plenty of room to be seated at a table or booth or you can sit at the bar. Great alcohol and beer on tap selection and the happy hour menu is not to be missed.
Again, chicken wings.

Going with 5 stars cause I love Asian noodle soups and the ba mhee «pitsanulok» is great. Tangy, rich but light broth, perfect noodles (egg noodles usually not this thin), and then the meat. The usual ground sausage, the best – tender not dry, spiced – «red» pork I’ve had, and a good number of right sized crispy pork belly. Tasty, chewy fish cakes, and Chef’s chicken curry looked & smelled great. Friednly service. Lots of light.

Got the salad roll like appetizer as I wasn’t very hungry. The three tony bites that came out were a joke and the flavor was not there. The texture was also very chewy and not in a good way. My friends got pad kee mao which was decent.
The servers were a little overly involved at the table. They left a bottle so we could refill out rather small cups but I felt like someone came and poured a little more into our cups from that bottle every time we took a sip. It was quite annoying

If I were to write an epitaph for PaaDee, a zippy one-​liner, I would say: «Really really good date restaurant, pretty ok Thai food.» Not that this place is dying! 28^th and Burnside? Who could ask for better real estate!
This restaurant is loud, and chic, but there are two types of loud. Some places are loud i.e. obnoxious — the music is too bassy or shrill, the clientelle pure rube, the tables too close together, the traffic sounds unbearable out on the patio. Then there are the restaurants where the chatter becomes a flat sea of noise, a bedrock intimate conversations can float on and be presumably unheard. PaaDee is the latter. Date-​loud. My fellow diners, the Parks, didn’t seem to agree. But they didn’t complain about the food too much either.
The Parks are picky orderers. A server’s bane, but a great litmus test for a big douche like myself. It was busy, and our waitress was mostly patient, though there was an audible sigh of frustration during the entrée phase. I know. There were always the people who ‘didn’t really get’ Jimmy John’s. ‘It’s all cold??’ — yes. ‘And you don’t serve coffee??’ No. I may have sighed once or twice. But in a Unilocal review? Inexcusable!
For apps we got that mushroom-​corn wrap there are a million pictures of on here, with the basil dressing, and the chicken wing, and the tofu triangles. I can’t speak for the wings, but all else was very nice. The triangles were super thick, veritable pleasure prisms, and I found myself scooping up the extra pink sauce and peanut bits on my fork. But I do that with cream cheese I’ve scraped off my bagel, for the record.
(As for cocktails, go with vodka or gin or whatever equivalent — my ’12 mile limit,’ a fruity Manhattan, was okay. Ms. Park got the one with sojo and a cucumber slice, and I was jealous.)
My attitude towards the main courses may be skewed because I’m vegetarian, and don’t do fish sauce. That said, I got an eggplant dish that I’ve had at many a Thai place low and high — it was on par with the norm. And a dish that was essentially Thai drunken noodles was just so, not markedly exceptional or otherwise, though it seemed like the spice factor was doing too much legwork. Which is where my ‘date restaurant’ classification comes into play. Yes, there are plenty of Thai places in Portland where you can get food of similar quality for a little cheaper and with a more homestyle, vinyl tablecloth vibe. But sometimes you don’t want to be the only people in the house at 7 o’clock, and you may want an exciting cocktail, or to go to the Laurelhurst afterwards, and that’s when you go to PaaDee.
Please, though, get that awful lime ale off your chalkboard. Imagine a ‘Bud Heavy Lime’…

I think you really have to appreciate the true flavors in Thai cooking to love this place.
That is, you have to know that certain dishes have that smoky spice, or others have that wonderful fishiness.
I don’t think I’m a Thai food expert, but I do eat it often and enjoy the cuisine a lot. My general thoughts: 1) Super cute interior, 2) packed with people (so you might have to wait), and 3) good (but not over-​the-​top fantastic) food. But then again, I’m not a huge fan of Pok Pok so take my review with a grain of salt (if you love Pok Pok).
I would definitely go again because it’s in a great area (and if you’re in the mood for Thai it’s good), but I wouldn’t consider it one of my favorites.

3 words: Roasted Duck Curry. Order it. Close your eyes with each spoonful taking in the complexity of flavor and succulent duck that has been roasted to perfect. I asked for it extra hot and they told me it is already quite spicy. You may need to take a mid-​entrée intermission to let your mouth cool down and wipe the sweat off of your forehead. Get ready for a full body experience The roasted duck so tender and juicy with the beautiful fatty, browned skin kept on, a brilliant decision.
Appetizers: the prawn salad is a delicious light, sweet, spicy, salty salad that is worth ordering while you wait for your (roasted duck curry) entrée. The larb is also a nice light refreshing appetizer. Both are spicy, so be careful!

After visiting Thailand two years ago, I have no tolerance for mediocre Thai food. Much like Chinese food, I’ve found that most Thai restaurants in the states are mediocre at best. You know what I’m talking about: gloppy pad thai that’s overly sweet, green papaya salad that doesn’t have any spicy heat to it, green curry that’s flavorless.
I’m happy that I found PaaDee because what they’re doing in the kitchen is not your usual Americanized Thai food. It makes me happy to sink my teeth into a fried chicken wing glazed in Sriracha-​fish sauce that about takes my head off from spiciness. No pandering to the American palate here!
Down to the bird cage-​turned-​light fixtures that adorn the ceiling, PaaDee feels like a little piece of Thailand. Ok, maybe I didn’t see bird cage light fixtures in Thailand, but I saw more birds in wicker cages than I’ve ever seen in my life.
Go to PaaDee if you want to experience real Thai cooking.

One of the best restaurant experiences I’ve had at this price point. Definitely better than a lot of higher end places I’ve been to, at that.
My friend and I started by splitting the crispy chicken wings; amazing. Perfect combination of sweet, spicy, and fish sauce. Delicate crunch. We crushed them.
For dinner I had the Ba Mhee Hang and damn it’s really dank. This noodle dish has all these pockets of ingredients and flavor that are placed separately on the dish. You bring them together by mixing it, customizing the level of spice and wetness of the noodles. This dish just has such a complex marriage of flavors that really shows the chef’s awareness of balance and design in crafting these meals.
Also, I think it’s really cool that there are a bunch of Thai ladies whipping in the kitchen who know what they’re making and how to cook it better than a bunch of white people who went to culinary school. This shit is authentic as fuck!
It goes without saying that the mango sticky rice also be yummy.
I constantly crave this food, thank you Earl Ninsom for hashtag blessing Portland with your vision!!!

So, so, so, so good.
Two of us tried a noodle dish, two others had the curries. Each dish was so delicious. My noodle dish was light and initially I thought I’d been denied a dish with sauce but realized I loved it the more I ate it, it was subtle in flavor with crab, ground pork and chicken. My fellow diners had a pad see ew’esque chicken noodle dish, duck curry and the coconut curry with chicken wings. I will definitely be going back to try the coconut curry with chicken wings. We also had the fried little dumplings and fishcakes. Delicious!

We came in specifically for the Langbaan Fried Chicken Burger special for Eater Burger Week. Limited availability (20 burgers a night) for only one week. Once seated, I asked the bartender/​server if they were offering the burger special since no one mentioned it to us. He looked completely dumbfounded & said «uhh…we don’t have a burger.» So I had to show him the Instagram post & he then said «oh that chicken thing? Let me go ask.» Way to sell it, buddy. He came back with our $ 3 drafts (great deal during happy hour, btw) & confirmed that the «chicken thing» was a go.
Since we got there right at 5pm, we also took advantage of their happy hour. We ordered the chicken wings ($ 5), squid skewer ($ 2), pork skewer ($ 2), & 2 burger specials. The skewers were not very good. Even for $ 2. The pork ping at Khao San is infinitely better. The chicken wings were delicious though. Very similar to Pok Pok’s but with more other flavors besides fish sauce & sugar. I would definitely come back for the wings.
The fried chicken «burger» was disappointing. It was definitely trying to be a Thai-​style bahn mi with some really tasty pickled veg on a ciabatta bun, but it was lacking salt, too heavy on the curry flavor, & the tempura-​fried sweet potatoes served with it were bland as well & needed a dipping sauce of sorts. It reminded me of a Lardo sandwich which I guess at $ 12 is what they were going for. I just expected to be wow’d after dining at Langbaan for the first time on Saturday & it was far from that. We’ll definitely be back for the wings & to try their dinner menu & I will update this review accordingly, but we probably won’t be coming back for their next «chicken thing.»

I was surprised with the menu. I’m from LA so I’m used to different options when I take look at a Thai menu. Upon my first observation of the menu at Paadee I was like «what the heck?» I was even more surprised that they had a cocktail list at this restaurant; which seems customary at almost every restaurant in Portland. Back home I’d be lucky to find a beer at a Thai restaurant.
No drinking on this particular occasion regrettably as I already had plans for drinks elsewhere. Instead, my girlfriend and I had the kanom jeen gang keaw gai; green curry noodles with chicken, Thai eggplant, bamboo shoots, red bell pepper, and a one or two other things. We also ordered the gai grop sam yan; which is crispy chicken with cashews, scallions, and dry chillies. It was all delicious, fresh, and full of flavor.
Also have to mention the staff and the design of this restaurant. On arrival, we were cheerfully greeted by both the host and our server. The server was helpful in describing certain dishes and did an excellent job in assisting us anyway he can. As for the décor and look of the dining room, I think the pictures can explain it all. I can only say it created a trendy and unique atmosphere.
So Paadee was startling to say the least, but definitely in a good way. The menu might have been unrecognizable but still has great tasting options.

I came here for lunch on a weekday. We were worried that it would be crowded, but we showed up around noon and there was a reasonable amount of seating left.
To start, my friend and I both ordered the Kai Look Kaey, which is a soft boiled egg topped with dry chili and shallots, scallions, and tamarind sauce. It was really tasty. For the 2^nd half of my egg, I pulled off the dried chili because it was a little too spicy for me.
For my main dish, I had the Chicken Mussaman Curry. I’m pretty sure it was the best Thai curry I’ve ever had. The potatoes seemed on the under-​cooked side, but the flavor of the dish 100% made up for that.
Water was served in tin cups with a bottle of water for the table for us to provide our own refills. The bill came out in an old «Ripley’s Believe it or Not» book, so they’re definitely trying with the cute touches.
It looked like the restaurant has a full bar. They also had a large bouquet of fresh flowers by the entrance.
Both my coworker and the waiter recommended the Green Curry, so the next time I come here it’s going to be at the top of my list to try.
Parking was street parking on the side streets.

I’m always looking for a good Thai restaurant, there are so many around Portland but, most of the time, the food is generic and mediocre. That’s not the case with PaaDee!
We came during happy hour, however, everything on the happy hour menu was very standard. Looking at the full dinner menu, all their offerings had a unique twist to them – an ingredient or different preparation method that isn’t customary. I couldn’t decided so I ended up getting two dishes.
They had me with the roasted duck and lychee, two of my favorite foods… together? It was a curry with roasted duck, lychee fruit, bamboo shoots, bell pepper, and basil. I am not sure why I’ve never thought of that combination. It was probably one of the richest curry I’ve ever had the pleasure of eating – perfect curry to coconut milk ratio. I started with the Ba Mhee Tom Yum Pitsanulok first, which had egg noodles in a spicy lime and pork broth with ground pork, roasted red pork, crispy pork belly, sliced green beans, ground peanuts, and scallions. I added a soft boiled egg. The curry was so amazing that I ignored my other dish. Don’t get me wrong, that was full of succulent pork and made for a delicious lunch the following day but I was so fixated on this duck curry. I’m salivating writing a review for it.
The ambiance of the restaurant and service was great – there was always someone being attentive and bringing us whatever we needed without being asked. I was really impressed by PaaDee – that’s rare with Thai restaurants.