Balanced pad thai
Is there a Thai restaurant here that makes balanced, un-Americanized (i.e. not sickly sweet) pad thai? Sometimes restaurants will have a "Country Pad Thai" option that is the un-Americanized version, but I tried googling with quotes and didn't get any results. Pad thai is supposed to be balanced between sweet, salty, sour, umami, and spicy. Literally every single place that has been recommended that I've tried so far has pad thai that's disgustingly sweet with no discernible tamarind or fish sauce flavor whatsoever. It's also usually brown from the fish sauce and tamarind paste, not bright orange. Any sort of soy sauce flavor is 100% wrong; the umami comes from fish sauce. Any suggestions that meet these criteria are welcome. Thank you.
Posted May 10, 2026, 10:04 PM UTC