Rose Garden Uptown

When: Friday evening, 5:45pm, restaurant was pretty empty except some occasional food takeouts. By 6:30, more people coming in to eat in. But it was not full throughout the time we were at the restaurants. Experience: Food came out pretty fast and it was hot(!). Overall, service was good and they checked in on us a few times to make sure all is good. Food: - Nam Khao was fantastic. Crispy rice, the mixed minced vegetables, and the cooked sausage. Together with the lime that you can squeeze to preference, it was delicious! Haven't had Nam Khao this delicious in a while! - Pad See Ew with pork was alright. It was cooked well and a little on the sweeter side rather than savory, but missing the smoky flavor "wok hei" that would take this to the next level that I love. - Fried Sweet Fish was alright too. Fish is fried with a very thin batter but it had black pepper which my kids doesn't want as they're sensitive to anything spicy. The fish had a light fishy taste to it (fresh water fish) which would be better if they even use a little ginger to cut the fishy taste for a better taste. - Guay Tiew is very similar to Pad See Ew with the exception that it had a fried egg on the top and had seafood (shrimp and squid). - Vientiane Crispy Roll is different from regular egg rolls. Made with rice paper roll so it was crispy but also chewy, which is different and may not be what everyone is used to. Will return to try out other dishes.

A Hidden Gem! I was initially hesitant to come here because, at the time of writing, this place had fewer than 100 reviews. But I’m so glad I gave it a chance! This place is genuinely good and definitely worth revisiting. My only criticism is that the chicken in the tom yum soup was a little dry, which honestly isn’t shocking. A lot of places dry out their chicken, and getting it right is hard! But the Thai papaya salad and beef Laab Seen were excellent. Bright, spicy, flavorful, and absolutely worth ordering. This place deserves more attention!

This place is pretty unassuming from the outside, but don’t let that fool you, the food is excellent and full of flavor. The fresh rolls came with both a sweet and sour sauce and a peanut sauce with crushed peanuts, and both were really good. The Thai fried rice was delicious too, but my favorite was definitely the sweet chicken. It had just the right amount of sweetness without being overpowering, and the flavor was amazing. It’s nothing like the sweet chicken from Panda Express or PF Chang’s, where it’s mostly just sweet. The service was friendly and attentive, and the whole experience was great. I’d definitely come back and recommend giving this place a try!

Rose Garden Uptown is a Laotian & Thai restaurant, featuring many dishes common to that region but also Californian ingredients. They offer table service, but the most business was to-go orders while we dined. From that interior, you can view their mix of modern-day Instagram aesthetics and architecture with more traditional decorated woven trays on the walls and pictures of the menu items that’s nostalgic of many older Asian restaurants: an appealing combination of new and old to me, just like the menu and ingredients. And the pretty sharing plates also brightened my mood. We started with the Laotian spring rolls, filled with avocado, carrots, rice noodles, and lettuce. The two sauces—one peanut and one mildly sweet and spicy—provided the most flavor for the dish. Next came the sweet corn salad with carrots, tomatoes, peanuts, green beans, garlic, lime juice, and a mild chili. I love corn, so I expected to love this dish … and I did! Typically, I go for “hot” when asked for a spice level choice, but my friend was right to go with mild here. That added just enough of a kick to complement the corn’s sweetness. The ingredients had a satisfying variety of flavors, textures, and crunch. We aimed for Rose Garden Uptown’s Laotian specialties for our second dish, settling on the mok pa. That’s catfish steamed in a banana leaf with herbs. It was my first mok pa, and I did not know if I was supposed to treat the lettuce as lettuce wraps, so I went ahead and did so. I scooped catfish into the small leaves, added cilantro and onions, and really enjoyed those flavors and textures all together. The catfish was soft and soothing, and the herbs cooked with it imparted a wonderful freshness. I will definitely order mok pa again. Would love to try one of their four types of laab another time!

Homey restaurant with delicious food. We ordered the curry roti (yellow curry), pad Thai, and guay tiew kua gai. I like their flat noodles a lot so I'll probably try their pad see ew or pad kee mao next time. The pad Thai was ok for me, won't be getting it again. The yellow curry was flavorful and went well with roti. Their thai tea is refreshing and tastes really good. Affordable prices! Went back a couple more times and got to try their panang curry, pad se ew, and combination fried rice. Love their panang curry and combination fried rice. I definitely needed the pad se ew to be spicy.