I’m in heaven slurping chef Seng Luangrath’s longevity noodles in garlic-butter sauce, twirled up on my fork with bits of Chinese celery, shiitake mushrooms, cured egg yolk and lump crabmeat. Sweet, rich, peppery and slightly funky from padaek—the heady Lao fish sauce after which her restaurant is named—the dish is both balanced and an escapade of luxuriance.
“I based it on this buttery crab noodle dish I had at Crustacean [restaurant] in Beverly Hills and Chinese mee sua noodles, which a Chinese immigrant brought to Bangkok, according to my research,” the chef explains. “I made it Lao with padaek. That’s the foundation of Lao cooking and where most of its umami comes from.”
Over the years, Luangrath, 55, has become the leader of a veritable Lao food movement in the greater D.C. area. Born in Vientiane, Laos, she fled that country’s political turmoil in 1981 with her mother, two brothers and uncle, winding up in a Thai refugee camp for two years before an American family sponsored their immigration to Berkeley, California.
Luangrath’s marriage to Boun Khammanivanh brought her to Springfield, Virginia, in 1989. Having learned cooking from her grandmother and from people of multiple backgrounds at the refugee camp, she started catering for Northern Virginia’s Lao community. In 2010, she took over Bangkok Golden Thai restaurant in Falls Church, adding Lao dishes to the menu and later changing its name to Padaek.
After debuting her acclaimed Thip Khao in D.C.’s Columbia Heights neighborhood in 2014, she introduced a small plates and cocktail joint, Hanumanh, that recently reopened as a Southeast Asian eatery called Baan Mae (which translates as “Mom’s house” in Lao). Thip Kao is the first Lao restaurant to garner a Michelin Bib Gourmand designation. Luangrath has twice been nominated for a James Beard award.
At Padaek’s Arlington Ridge outpost, which opened in March 2023 in the former Delia’s space, the chef has expanded the concept to include other Southeast Asian cuisines, including Vietnamese and Burmese. The 3,500-square-foot restaurant seats 100 inside (including a 21-seat bar), with an open kitchen that puts the culinary team’s skills on display. An outdoor patio seats another 50.
Designed by D.C.-based Natalie Park Design Studio, the interiors are accented with rattan pendants, patterned tile work, woven cane partitions and colorful paintings by Richmond artist Gianna Marie Boccuzzi Salvi.
“I love supporting local artists,” says Luangrath. “The art reflects my vision. Palm trees, elephants, banana leaves, tropical plants and birds represent where I grew up and memories from the refugee camp.”
Dinner at Padaek is off to a good start with cocktails, which are cleverly balanced and not overly sweet. The Lychee Spritz (Aperol, St-Germain liqueur, lychee and sparkling wine) is a perfectly refreshing warm-weather quaff. The Mango-tini (mango juice, lime juice, vodka, peach schnapps) is bright and bracing.
Working alongside Burmese chef de cuisine Nyi Nyi Myint, Luangrath turns out some of the finest Southeast Asian food in the DMV. The presentations are visually stunning and the cooking fires on all cylinders: spicy, herbal, funky and sour. The kanoom jeeb—plump chicken and shrimp dumplings sprinkled with fried garlic and served with a peppery soy dipping sauce—are so flavorful that others I’ve had elsewhere seem drab by comparison.
Luangrath is known for the superiority of her laab, and the duck version at Padaek, adorned with watermelon radish and cucumber, is a knockout. For this dish, the chef dresses roasted duck meat and skin with fish sauce, toasted rice powder, chilies, lime juice, lemongrass, galangal and tons of chopped mint and cilantro to create a sensory explosion. (She used to add duck livers, but Americans disliked it, so she stopped.)
Also magnificent is siin savanh—strips of beef marinated in ginger, garlic, lemongrass, sesame seeds and fish sauce, which are deep-fried into tender, caramelized jerky and served with hot sauce. Resisting the temptation to polish off an entire order is futile.
For the dressing base of her invigorating green papaya salad, Luangrath brews unfiltered fermented fish sauce overnight with shrimp paste, fermented crab paste and palm sugar and lets it sit out for a day before filtering it.
“My team hates it because it’s so stinky,” she says, chuckling. “We have to leave the fan on overnight. It’s a real process.” Diners benefit from its umami dividends.
Stews are also a good bet at Padaek. Aom, an herbal stew whose base ingredients include chilies, lemongrass, galangal, lime leaves and glutinous rice, is loaded with green eggplant, wood ear mushrooms and dill. The flavors are reminiscent of Thai red curry, but without coconut milk. Customers can add the protein of their choosing—chicken, pork, tofu or beef brisket.
Chef Myint’s hearty, gingery gaeng hang lay, a Northern Thai and Burmese pork belly stew, also gets a thumbs-up.
Offerings unique to the Arlington Ridge location are found on the menu under Chef’s Recommendations and Daily Specials. There you’ll find delicate strips of batter-fried Chesapeake catfish atop sweet-and-sour tamarind sauce, and a whole poussin (spring chicken) marinated in lemongrass, ginger, fish sauce and oyster sauce and grilled to moist succulence. The latter comes with coconut sticky rice, but that didn’t stop me from also ordering the divine fried rice packed with lump crabmeat.
I’ve experienced some misfires at Padaek, but they were minor. The deep-fried softshell crabs offered as a special one night weren’t cleaned properly and were laden with a too-sweet mango dressing.
Padaek serves only one dessert and it’s a stunner: warm black sesame and coconut sticky rice topped with a gelato that Dolcezza created exclusively for Luangrath in a flavor reminiscent of her favorite Thai chewy milk candy. Surrounded by fresh mango and topped with crunchy fried mung beans, this sumptuous coda is a fitting send-off after a superlative meal.
What to Drink
In addition to a full bar, Padaek offers seven signature cocktails ($15), among them the Vientiane Mule (coconut vodka, lemongrass syrup, ginger beer) and the Boun Lost in Oaxaca (tequila, mezcal, triple sec, tamarind and lime juice).
Eight wines (one sparkling, one rosé, three white and three red) are available by the glass ($13 to $15) and bottle ($45 to $59).
The beer options include four on draft ($10) and two bottled ($7), one Lao and one Thai.
Padaek Arlington Ridge
2931 S. Glebe Road, Arlington
703-888-2890
HOURS
Lunch: noon to 3 p.m. daily
Dinner: 4 to 8:30 p.m. Sunday through Thursday; 4 to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday
PARKING
Ample parking lot spaces
PRICES
Appetizers: $7 to $19
Noodles, rice and curries: $17 to $20
Entrées: $19 to $27
Dessert: $13