Thai Town: Noodles at Sapp Coffee Shop

 

I love noodles and the best boat noodles I’ve ever found is the bowl at Sapp Coffee Shop. The broth is amazing and everyone knows it. It’s not a new find and plenty of people flock to Sapp for the boat noodles. They are also famous for their jade noodles. I hadn’t had those as I can’t seem to give up my boat noodles– I prefer soupy noodles over dry noodles. However, my friend did order the jade noodles and now I know why they’re so good. The green noodles are springy and it only gets better after you mix up the crab, pork and other toppings. You can add some fish sauce or other condiments to the bowl but it seems just fine without other flavors.

We started our meal with the deep fried crab rolls. I have a weakness for Thai appetizers. Invariably shrimp or crab and served with a sweet chili sauce, it’s a non-fussy nosh while you wait for your noodles.

 

Unlike other Thai places I’ve been, Sapp doesn’t have half bowls of their popular noodles. However, if you get a friend to share, that may be the best way to get the best of both worlds.

Sapp has three kinds of boat noodles. You can get just beef, beef and offal including tripe or pork. I always get beef and offal because I love tripe. This bowl also comes with deep fried pork skin, meatballs, beef, tendon all in a glorious blood-thickened broth. It’s so thick, I would actually call it soup more than broth.

 

 

I didn’t try the recommended vegetarian dish of Chinese broccoli which Sapp happily added tofu to but our friend really enjoyed this dish. I would recommend getting a bowl of rice to go with to round out the meal.

The next time I go to East Hollywood aka Thai Town, I’m going to try the other noodles which I believe are awesome but will be they be as awesome as the boat or jade noodles?

Sapp Coffee Shop

5183 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90027  —  (323) 665-1035

© The Minty  2013