Padaek - Arlington

Lovely lunch. We ordered (1) siin savanh (beef jerky), (2) the laab, (3) the pad phed, and (4) a noodle dish with yellow curry. I would order it all again-- full of flavor and hearty portions. Everything we ordered had at least some kick, except for the beef jerky itself. The Arlington Ridge location is also great -- easy parking and an outdoor patio and modern indoor space. Look forward to coming back.

The restaurant decor is nice. Staff and owner are pleasant. That's almost the end of the up side - unless you are used to dining at Asian restaurants that cater to the perceived American palate, which tends to be made far more sugary than any authentic Asian dish. Oh, also, there's no Thai iced coffee on the menu. There is Thai iced tea. One more "Oh!" moment was when I realized I didn't see any fish besides catfish on the menu. It may not matter to some, but catfish can be hit or miss and I'm not used to seeing it as the only fish option on a Thai restaurant menu. Okay...on to the food experience.Unfortunately, the food was a huge miss. Well, visually, it was lovely. Taste is another story. My mother- in-law is Thai and is an excellent cook and I've come to know certain dishes and how they should taste very well. Based on the dishes we ordered, I can only say I would not go back. Not only was every dish, except for the chef's favorite childhood dessert (go figure), WAAAY TOO SWEET, but the prices significantly inflated for what you get. This, of course, is just my opinion. For our apps, we ordered the beef and pork jerky. While they were both tender, they both had so much sugar that they were hard to enjoy. They were both served with a small dipping dish of Sriracha that tasted like it also had sugar added to it. I have to say the beef jerky was far worse (due to the overly sweet sauce cooked on it) than the pork jerky.Our entrees...too sweet and just not great, My husband and son both got a sliced pork dish. Yeah, too sweet and just not good. That said, the meat was tender. I had some red coconut curry dish with pork belly. I guess I didn't pay close enough attention to the whole description, so I didn't realize the pork belly was not crispy skin pork belly OR that it was served over noodles. That dish was the better of the entrees, but still a little sweet and nothing to write home about...at all. The dessert was called Bua Loy. They don't tell you that it comes in a bowl big enough for three, so when we ordered two for the 3 of us, it was way too much. I should have realized this when I saw the $15 price, but I thought maybe it was due to it being a Seasonal Special. It had coconut milk, tapioca, taro, and black sesame mochi. It's served in a soup bowl and comes warm. Out of everything we had, it was the most normal tasting and not too sweet. But, by the time it arrived, no one felt like having much and we wound up taking almost all of it to go. Sadly, I think we took the uneaten portions of our meals to go with good intentions or hopes that they might taste better later. We should have just left them behind because they are likely going right in the trash. Both my son and husband threw up within 15 minutes of eating and, while we've been gone from the restaurant for a couple of hours (it's 10 PM on Saturday, 1/18:2025), I feel like the little bit I ate may come back up at any time. I was hoping for much better, but at least I can say I've been there, done that, and would not recommend it. Really, I don't know that I'd try it again, because thinking of going back there just adds to my nausea. Maybe it's just my karma for not driving to Springfield for our favorite Thai restaurant in Northern VA - Thai Ghang Waan. The food is always spot on, authentic, portioned perfectly, and very reasonably priced. I love them.

I gotta be honest, I'm a little disappointed. I've been wanting to try Padaek for years and was underwhelmed after finally stopping by for dinner. My family and I came here for a birthday dinner and ordered the tum thai papaya salad and peek gai chicken wings to start. Then did a family style dinner with crab fried rice, aom curry, kua mee noodle, and piing muu pork. First of all, the appetizers came out at the same time as all the entrees so it wasn't really an appetizer. Second of all nothing really stood out to us about any of the dishes. Like nothing was bad but also nothing was that good either. Aom curry: the dill flavor really threw us off. I'm very unfamiliar with dill used in Asian cuisine but safe to say I don't think I'm a fan. This came with a ball of sticky rice which didn't really work with the curry in my opinion. The curry just slid off the rice and didn't soak it up at all.Kua mee noodle: noodles were cooked really well but there was barely any pork belly. I felt like this could have been really good but something was missingTum thai: decent papaya salad. Only complaint is that it wasn't spicy. Mostly just sweetPiing muu: this was pretty much moist thicker cut beef jerky. The jaew sauce was very unique. This came with a ball of sticky ricePeek gai: this was my favorite dish. Reminded me of Korean fried chicken. Super crispy, big chicken wing, sweet sauce. Very good Crab fried rice: also good. There was a lot of crab in this which I enjoyed. We sprinkled some dried pepper flakes on top which was delicious Padaek left something to be desired. Service was great but not sure if I'd come back

First, three stars is not bad. It is ok, and OK is a good way to describe our experience. We ordered similar dishes that we often order at our favorite Thai restaurant, Thai Noy and honestly still prefer Thai Noy. But to be fair, the overall reviews at Padaek are good, and it was busy on the Friday night we visited.For our starter we tried the pork jerky since it was listed as a speciality on the menu. However, for our main courses we ordered beef krapow and seafood drunken noodles. We ate everything we were served (as we almost always do ;- ) ) , but the flavors were not our favorite. They all leaned more on the sweet side, so this is, of course, a matter of taste but did not work as well for us and overpowered the shrimp and beef.Service was ok, but we did have to do a couple of reminders about food and drink orders, so not the best but adequate because the mistakes were corrected fairly fast.All in we had one starter two main dishes and ordered one extra serving of rice. Also, we had two beers and one glass of wine. The total price with about an 18% tip was $108. Certainly not unreasonable but to us not a great value either.If we were invited to join others, we would go again, but likely we would not initiate another visit on our own. However, I suggest you try for yourself and see if the tastes match your preferences because I think that we are in the minority on this one.

I've been twice now and it is unforgettable! The service is great and the inside is inviting. Whatever dish you get will be delicious and have you craving it later in the week, especially the Piing Muu and Sai Oua. Highly recommend and one of my favorite meals in the DMV.

If you're in the mood for amazing Thai food, this spot is a total win. The dishes and the drinks were really good--everything tasted so fresh and delicious. The service was top-notch too! The staff was super friendly and made sure we had everything we needed.The only small downside? The place is a bit cozy, and it was pretty busy when we went around 7 PM on a Saturday. Overall, such a great experience! Definitely worth checking out.

Went there Saturday Thanksgiving week. Not much crowded. We ordered sweet iced tea and hot tea Then we ordered Duck lab and Neem khao. Both were good . I had better laab elsewhere . Our pork was good so was the fried fish . But the fish was spicy for our palette. Noodles was the best . We had been to the falls church Padaek. This place is good too .

Padaek is a Laotian restaurant I had heard great things about. It's in a strip center, so there's plenty of parking, and it has a large enough dining room that I don't think you would need a reservation unless you had a really large group. I went with a friend during restaurant week and had a fantastic meal! We started with the sakoo (tapioca peanut dumplings, 7/10)) and chicken wings (9/10). The wings were outstanding, and we loved the sauce. I was a huge fan of the sakoo, especially the peanut filling. For mains, we had the sticky glazed ribs (100/10, literally falling off the bone as we picked them up, delicious sweet sauce) and the catfish curry (3/10, well-cooked but shockingly bland). We didn't know what to expect from the dessert, the bua loy (10/10), which was tapioca, squash and taro in coconut milk, but we both adored it. It wasn't too sweet, it was very rich, it was earthy and flavorful - I loved it! I can't say enough good things about it. I would definitely come back after this experience! The food was fantastic overall - the only miss for us was the curry, and the ribs and dessert in particular were fantastic. Service was good, portions were solid, the drinks looked fun, and we felt like the restaurant week menu gave us a chance to sample a lot of great options!

Really good Thai/Laotian restaurant in Arlington! Same owner/chef as Thip Khao in Columbia Heights (which is incredible and tons of unique dishes). We ordered the chicken satay, crab fried rice, shrimp pad thai, and crispy basil with chicken. All of them were excellent, but our favorite was the shrimp pad thai. Will absolutely be back soon!

Food is absolutely delicious just like the originalLocation. Derive is also wonderful. I got pork and rice which is my favorite. I really like the spaciousness of this location in contrast to the original. The server was a little odd as she didn't seem very familiar with the menu. She just recommended the priciest items. She also said they had no caffeinated drinks but clearly I ordered the green tea. Which was really tasty. I would definitely be back.