Review Thai plus Laotian equals something special at Padaek in Arlington

Even a cursory reading of my work should tell you I typically eat multiple times in a restaurant before I tell you about it. Several visits not only let me explore the range of a menu, they also place me in different parts of a dining room, put me in the hands of different servers and find me next to a spectrum of fellow customers. Imagine, for instance, if I only went once and the chef were off, the signature dish wasn’t available, the server was working a double or I landed next to an attention-hogging social influencer. Different meals reveal a restaurant’s strengths and weaknesses, its rhythms and priorities. That explanation isn’t entirely complete. I’ll share a little secret. In the case of the new Padaek in Arlington, I couldn’t wait for seconds and thirds of the chopped chicken salad called larb, a staple of Thai and Laotian menus that sometimes stars ground meat or tofu and invariably gets its charge from lime juice, red chiles and lemongrass. The balancing act is a good test of a kitchen, one that this spinoff of the same-named attraction in Falls Church passes with flying Technicolors. The larb is a toss of juicy chicken, toasted rice powder, the fermented fish sauce that gives Padaek its name and chef Seng Luangrath’s favorite herb, lemongrass. Galangal — reminiscent of fresh ginger when young and more peppery as it ages — lends its spark to the salad as well. This is food that puts your taste buds at full attention. (“Alive!” I texted a note to myself the first time I ate it.) Pretty much anyone can sample the pleasure, since the salad, like a swath of dishes here, is also offered gluten-free and/or vegan. The larb is accompanied by a little basket of fragrant sticky rice, from which you form bite-size balls with your fingers and palm and dunk into the sauce on the plate. The process isn’t as messy as you think, since the grains tend to stick to each other rather than your hand. Padaek Arlington Ridge is the chef’s biggest restaurant yet, with 150 seats scattered across an inviting patio and multiple rooms inside, one of which is art-filled and ideal for private functions. Luangrath says she designed her latest restaurant with her Laotian grandmother’s house in mind, so there are homey touches throughout the light-filled interior. Custom-made baskets from the mother country line the shelves, and painted flowers and birds draw eyes to the kitchen tiles and tabletops. Rattan lights hang from the ceiling and wood accents warm the setting. Padaek does its best to make you forget you’re eating in a suburban shopping center. There aren’t any live chickens afoot, as there were outside Grandma’s house, but the green of banana and coconut leaves infuses the interior. My eyes keep darting from what’s on my plate to the diminutive chef in the open kitchen. Luangrath, 54, tells me she’s spending seven days a week in her new place, and in my four visits over two months, she has been a constant sight, a hands-on coach to her team.


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