Prael

My sister took my boys and myself to eat Thai food here at Prael. One son ordered the shrimp fried, and said it was super good. My other son ordered the yellow curry medium spicy, he said he loved it. I tried his yellow curry, it was delicious but I preferred my red curry better. The yellow curry is a little sweeter than the red. My sister ordered shrimp paste fried rice, sweet sticky rice with mango, and we all split a seafood soup with coconut. All the dishes were awesome and the service was on the spot with the server always topping off my water cup. Again, great food with very reasonable prices. You won’t be disappointed. Prael’s is our new go to Thai food restaurant.

This place is great. I enjoy the Kai Kua which is stir fried flat noodle with chicken. The classic Thai dishes are tasty, can’t go wrong. I also enjoy the crispy rice salad with pork. Good for dining in, take-​out, or even delivery with a $ 15 minimum. They do take card which is good but I think they have a $ 10 or $ 15 dollar minimum. A lot of good Thai eats in the neighborhood (Thai town) and Pra el is one of them.

The S.O. and I go here all the time. Food is always delicious and the wait staff is incredibly nice and hospitable. We love getting the Chicken Larb, Drunken Noodle, Pad Thai, Stir Fried Rice with Chicken, Coconut soup, and Yellow Curry. But you can’t go wrong with anything you order. Atmosphere is very casual, hole-​in-​the-​wall Thai joint, but authentic and good.

Great Local Thai Spot. Always have the Fried Fish Cake and Tae Chew with Tum Yum and Phở Noodles. Good food and Good price. Good Job Prael!

I came here first time 2 weeks ago through Unilocal after reading good reviews. Ordered the Pepper Garlic beef and spicy shrimp soup. Both were great!
However, just went to this place again today. Ordered the same pepper garlic beef and this time with white rice. The beef didn’t seem fresh and the caramelized garlic was so hard to chew.
But the deal breaker was the few days old rice mixed in with fresh rice. I eat rice everyday and I know what fresh rice tastes like and what bad old rotten rice tastes like (and smells like). Every second bite had the bad old rice taste but I kept quiet and finished my meal.
I could not get rid of the bad old rotten rice taste out of my mouth even after chewing gum for hours. I still have the feeling of indigestion and keep burping and it’s been 5 hours. Thank God I haven’t had food poisoning though.
Horrible experience! Guys you need to get your act together! Never going there again!

This place is the best. I love the coconut soup and pad Thai. I recommend this place 100%

We ordered food to go but heck! Even then i was satisfied. It took about 15 minutes to get the food after ordered but it was fine. Should have been beeter if we called in advance
The food here is freaking amazing.
Not to mention how sweet the people were

Just got pickup from Prael. I’m not usually one to write a Unilocal review… But this place was that good. Got the panang curry with chicken and a whole young coconut to sip/​eat. Scooped out some of the coconut meat and added it to my curry. Curry came with a very generous portion of meat. A lot of times thai places will skimp on the meat in the curry, but that was not my experience at Prael. A generous amount of food that will last me for another meal as well. Will definitely be back. The people working there were also very pleasant.

I get this for carry out about once a week because it’s 1) friggin delicious, 2) right off the 101 where I tend to exit and there is always parking in their lot, and 3) they have a great vegetarian menu (it’s not posted online for some reason). Even if it was not super convenient, I would still come here because it is the real deal. After spending a month all over Thailand and loving the food, this is the only place I’ve been around here where I feel is the most authentic AND they get it spicy enough if you ask. Nice people. Say «thank you» or «hello» in Thai and you will get some welcoming and appreciative smiles.

Been here about 3 times already, tried several dishes and I like what I’ve tried. Orange chicken pad Thai, broccoli beef, chow mein, pepper steak, bbq chicken, pepper calamari, fish. You name it. My only beef is the orange chicken needs more sauce comes or too dried sometimes, and the calamari needed way more flavor, but I’ll keep going back.

This place is considerably better than the thai restaurant across the street from it. I ordered the panang curry to go and it took about 10 minutes to prepare. The curry was flavorful and the portion sizes are huge. Curry comes a la carte so you have to order rice separately. They have a parking lot in the back but they share it with the laundromat so it gets crowded.

Salty fish rice was not done well. Crispy rice salad with lettuce was good. My favorite was the fried shrimp roll appetizer. The catfish had too much spices, not heat spice! Overall I had new food I’ve never had and it was a nice lunch.

Totally a feast for the senses! Flavors explode in your mouth. Don’t miss out the Shrimp Paste Fried Rice, it’s a must try.

Some of the best thai food I have had in Los Angeles, I highly recommend the chicken Panang

This is my favorite Thai restaurant. Ever.
My family and I have been frequenting this establishment for well over two years and will continue to return. Let’s just put it this way — real deal, authentic, bomb Thai food! And by authentic, I mean; the cooks are Thai grandma’s preparing your delicious and savory meals!
I’ve tried an extensive portion of their menu and everything I’ve had was delicious. From the noodle dishes like pad sew ew, lard na, and pad Thai, to curry dishes like pa-​nang, red or yellow chicken curry, appetizers like satay, fried shrimp rolls, and a variety of other dishes. I especially enjoy their grilled tilapia with lime sauce. Everything is flavored to perfection! If you fancy spicy, they will gladly kick it up a notch on the spice level. Soups are delicious too, especially on a chilly day. For dessert, I enjoy their sweet sticky rice with mango which is seasonal.
There’s a free parking lot in the back shared with the laundromat next door or you can try street parking. It’s almost always never packed, so you won’t have to wait around for a table. You won’t regret paying them a visit to satisfy your Thai food craving. Everyone there is so friendly, so you can expect service with a smile :)
When mom says «Let’s go to Prael!» You better believe I’m there!

This is about the 7^th or so time I’ve been to this location and it is amazing.
Pros:
The food is a good price, most items under $ 10 and the size of each plate is great! The service is good and the food usually gets out fast. The food is delicious! I have tried many different things and they’ve all been great. My favorite is the green curry with tofu, pad thai, and Chinese broccoli with crispy pork.
Cons:
Parking is limited and traffic is a nightmare sometimes. There is a lot in back which usually has a spot or two.

Aroy– mak mak! Soo good!
Crispy rice, green curry, and spicy catfish were fantastic. Pad ka prow is super too.

I stopped by here for dinner a week ago and had a mixed experience — the food was mediocre, but the service was really polite and courteous.
Though I’m not a Thai food expert, I’ve visited a lot of Thai restaurants, so have a decent idea of what I personally consider to be good food. I ordered the Chinese broccoli with steamed tofu, while my friend ordered the pineapple fried rice. I thought my food, while decent, was overly oily and a bit on the salty end. I specifically ordered the dish because I wanted something lighter, but the heaviness left me feeling a bit gross. I tried a bite of the pineapple fried rice, and while it wasn’t bad, it was definitely not memorable.
We did enter the restaurant a little past 9PM, even though the place closed at 9:30PM. However, the waitstaff was extremely accommodating and insisted we take our time even when the clock hit 9:30PM, which I really appreciated.
2.5 stars for the food, 4 stars for the service.

Location: South side of Melrose Blvd west of Normandie Ave, super close to the Northbound 101 Melrose exit. Find it in a small shopping center w brace yourself… A PARKING LOT! lol
Atmosphere: Hole in the wall, a small area is used & has been nicely decorated. Another small area is a market w Thai snacks. Yet another portion seems like it’s a work in progress but also used as storage? lol
Access: Wheelchair access from Melrose, the parking lot entry has steps down to the restaurant.
Service: The waitresses are always efficient & accommodate as best as they can.
Food: Always very flavorful, some dishes are HELLA HOT. lol I’m a weakling but somehow the lemongrass soup enchants my taste buds! lol Recently we asked for mild lemongrass soup & was tolerable. Decent sized portions for the price. Plus for a great section of vegetatian items.
Favorites:
–Thai Iced Tea
–Iced Coffee
–Fried Tofu
–Hot sour (lemongrass) soup so fresh & possibly the best I’ve had!
–Pad Thai w Tofu
–Sweet & sour tofu
–Fried Rice w plump shrimp, not greasy
–Yellow curry w Chicken yummy but HELLA HOT! lol
–Pinapple curry w Tofu Delish but so INCREDIBLY HOT it was inedible for me. I had to take it home & mix in more tofu. lol
–Mango Sticky Rice
WC: One stall for all, spacious.

Prael was recommended to us by some of my bf’s coworkers and after a quick Unilocal search, we were in.
Excited for some cheap, authentic (we’ve both been to Thailand) Thai food, we rolled i at about 830pm on a Monday night. It was as we expected based on its location in East Hollywood — a utilitarian setting in an area I might not want to walk around in alone at night. This place had all the makings of a hidden gem.
There’s no alcohol here, so take note of that if you like having a Singha with your Thai food.
Our adventurous dish was the papaya salad with salty crab. The salty crab was, well, salty, and had a very strong fishy, salt water taste. It tasted like what happens when you inadvertently swallow some salt water. Maybe some people are into that, but we were definitely not. We tried to eat around the crab and still enjoy the salad, but the saltwater taste kind of ruined the entire dish.
I didn’t fault them for that because we had chosen to be adventurous and order something we might not necessarily like.
Next was the pad see ew, which others have proclaimed as the best in LA. While it was good, it was nowhere near the best I’ve had. Pad see ew is always good, and this dish didn’t offer anything more special than any others that I’ve had. We had the combo (beef, chicken, shrimp) and the meat was a bit dry.
Lastly was my favorite dish, the coconut curry, which we had with brown rice. This was spicy and flavorful and absolutely delicious.
So why the 2 stars? Well both my bf and I have been experiencing «issues» today as a results of our meal last night. It didn’t sit well with either one of us and we eat out a LOT and at a lot of Asian places and a lot of the hole in the wall places and this has never happened. Definitely not worth getting sick for.
One week later… dropping it to 1 star… since we still haven’t completely recovered! We are still having stomach issues. so there was definitely some sort of bacteria or something. We did go at the end of the day so maybe the food had been sitting out all day and you are safe if you go earlier but I will definitely never take the chance again.