Fort Lauderdale is home to perhaps the best Thai restaurant in all of South Florida. This spot specializes in food from Thailand’s northeastern region, Isan. As such, they make some of the best larb in the state. There’s also a whole section of the menu devoted to som tum, including a version made with salted crab. Other Isan dishes worth ordering: lemongrass-flavored Isan sausages, kai yang (grilled marinated chicken), and mok nho mai—tender shredded bamboo shoots and pork belly wrapped in a banana leaf.

Besides northeastern dishes, Larb Thai-Isan also makes excellent versions of more Thai favorites, including a transcendental bowl of boat noodles and a very fiery kra pow. But if you order one non-Isan dish here, let it be the phenomenal khao soi. Also, please don’t leave here without getting dessert, like the kluay tod banana fritters, a perfect mango sticky rice, or scoops of coconut ice cream on a bed of sweetened sticky rice all stuffed into a brioche bun. Food is definitely the main event here, but the restaurant is also cute, colorful, and the service is overwhelmingly friendly.

photo credit: Cleveland Jennings