Chao Krung, widely regarded as Los Angeles's oldest existing Thai restaurant, has quietly reached a milestone few immigrant-founded restaurants ever achieve: the family that runs it now owns the Fairfax Avenue building outright. That real estate move, made in spring 2026 by second-generation owners Katy Noochlaor and Amanda Maneesilasan, is reshaping what happens next on the block, including a new weekly curry tradition and an expansion of the sisters' Thai-inflected burger concept next door.
The restaurant traces its roots to 1969, when Supa Kuntee, Boon Kuntee and Nillaung opened Chao Krung's first location on Western Avenue, according to LAist. Back then, the restaurant served Chinese dishes alongside Thai food to ease customers into unfamiliar flavors, a strategy Amanda Maneesilasan recalled her mother using before introducing diners to Thai cuisine outright, per the same account. Chao Krung later closed that first location and opened a second on Hollywood Boulevard before settling into its third and current home on Fairfax Avenue in 1972.
Business grew as Thai food gained popularity through the 1970s and 1980s, with staffers from nearby CBS Television City helping boost the restaurant's clientele during that stretch, the outlet reports. By the time Chao Krung was serving that growing base, it had already been feeding Los Angeles's Thai community for three decades before East Hollywood was officially designated Thai Town by the Los Angeles City Council on October 27, 1999 — the first officially recognized Thai ethnic enclave in the United States, according to the City of Los Angeles.
A New Weekly Tradition Rooted in Family Recipes
Amanda Maneesilasan and Katy Noochlaor stepped into their parents' roles at Chao Krung in 2017, becoming the restaurant's second-generation owners, LAist notes. This year, they launched a weekly Kanom Jeen Curry Night, held Wednesdays only, featuring rice noodles paired with a trio of curries and grilled skewers. Amanda Maneesilasan said curry holds deep importance in Thai culture and tradition, and she learned to make green curry from her grandmother — the same grandmother whose recipes trace back to cooking for the Royal Family of Thailand before passing those dishes down through the family, according to the James Beard Foundation.
The Wednesday menu includes Mae's Nam Ya Trout, a southern Thai coconut curry made with trout and house-ground red curry paste that takes about five hours to complete. Amanda Maneesilasan said the trout curry cannot be found elsewhere. The lineup also features Nam Prik, a roasted chili curry with smoky herbs and peanut undertones, and Gang Kieaow Waan Gai, a green chicken curry made with coconut, fresh herbs, Thai eggplant and Thai chili. Alongside the curries, Chao Krung serves Isaan-style sausage skewers and eggplant skewers glazed with roasted chili, garlic and makrut lime leaf.
Knocking Down Walls Between Two Family Concepts
Owning the Fairfax building outright gave the sisters room to physically merge their businesses. Chao Krung will remove the wall between its space and a second location of Ban Ban Burger, a Thai-inflected smashburger concept the sisters co-own, connecting the two through an archway when the burger spot opens next door this fall, per LAist's reporting. It mirrors a setup the sisters already run in Sawtelle, where Ban Ban Burger sits next to Tuk Tuk Thai, another family restaurant Amanda Maneesilasan co-owns alongside Katy Noochlaor.
Ban Ban Burger first launched in Sawtelle Japantown in April 2024 and quickly drew national attention when The New York Times featured the spot in a profile on modern American burgers. The concept's Grapow Smash burger, topped with holy basil seasoning and a sunny-side egg, later earned a spot among the 52 best burger spots in Los Angeles in a September 2025 ranking from SFGate.
A Family Track Record of Reinvention
The Fairfax expansion fits a pattern the sisters have followed for years. In March 2022, Katy Noochlaor relocated Tuk Tuk Thai to Sawtelle Boulevard after 23 years on Pico Boulevard, revamping the menu around casual Thai street food alongside head chef Amanda Maneesilasan, according to Resy. Years earlier, in April 2016, Katy Noochlaor partnered with Last Word Hospitality to transform her Silver Lake restaurant Rambutan Thai into Same Same, a natural wine bar serving Thai street food, the Los Angeles Times reported at the time.
At the family's peak, the original founders operated as many as seven Thai restaurants across Southern California before consolidating down to a smaller, more focused portfolio, Resy notes. That history unfolded against the backdrop of a region that today hosts the largest Thai population outside Thailand itself, with an estimated 80,000 Thai residents living in Greater Los Angeles, according to Discover Los Angeles.
The restaurant's standing within that broader Thai food landscape has drawn formal recognition beyond local dining circles. In March 2024, the James Beard Foundation selected Chao Krung Thai to host a JBF Greens dinner celebrating authentic Thai heritage and the family's traditional recipes. Hoodline previously noted a Bay Area pop-up tie, when San Francisco's Turntable by Lord Stanley hosted a pop-up at Tuk Tuk Thai featuring chef Amanda Maneesilasan, underscoring the sisters' reach beyond Los Angeles even as their Fairfax roots stay firmly planted.
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