ShopHouse‘s second L.A. location, on the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, opened mid-October. I made a short post on it at Chowhound at the time, but I thought it might be useful enough to post here as well.
My wife and I went to check it out just before noon on opening day. I dropped her off and went to find parking. When she went in, only one other person was in line, so she got our food really quick. By the time I parked and walked in ~10 minutes later, the line was out the door. However, only about a quarter of the seating was taken. Most people were getting the food to go.
My wife’s bowl consisted of jasmine rice, grilled chicken satay, green beans, green curry, green papaya slaw, and toasted rice. I tasted it and it definitely had some kick to it.* The spices seemed authentic. I was pleasantly surprised.
My bowl consisted of chilled rice noodles, grilled steak laab, eggplant & Thai basil, tamarind vinaigrette, pickled vegetables, and toasted rice. Again, a little heat, nicely spiced, pleasantly surprised.
In and out, lunch took less than half an hour, but remember that my wife beat the line, and our meal cost less than $16 for both bowls including tax (no drinks).
*It’s not marked on the menu, either online or the to-go menus they were handing out, but on the board, there were small “flame” icons to indicate spiciness:
- None of the bases were marked as spicy.
- Of the proteins, only the tofu was marked as spicy, with 1 flame.
- Of the veggies, the order of of spiciness, from 1 flame to 4 flames, was charred corn, eggplant & Thai basil, broccoli, and green beans.
- Of the sauces, the spicy red curry had 4 flames, the green curry had 2 flames, and the tamarind vinaigrette had 1 flame.
- Of the garnish, the green papaya slaw had 1 flame.
- None of the crispy toppings were marked as spicy.
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ShopHouse
1401 3rd Street Promenade
Santa Monica, CA 90401
(310) 382-2028
All photographs © 2013 The Offalo
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