Saladang Garden

Saladang Garden Restaurant Review:

This is the spin-off and next-door neighbor of Pasadena favorite Saladang, which offers a more interesting menu than the first outpost. Like the original restaurant, the design has a bit of an industrial feel, with exposed ducts and hard concrete surfaces, but colorful batiks and Thai artifacts brighten up the room. At Saladang Garden, however, there is also a large inviting patio, totally enclosed and buffered from the street by 25-foot-high concrete walls with artistic metal venting for light and air. This is the place to sample items like tod-mon-kao-pohd (sweet corn cakes topped with peanut sauce), salmon in curry sauce and rambutan (an exotic fruit related to lychee) stuffed with tofu, peanuts and coconut. A traditional Thai breakfast of rice porridge with chicken, or a vegetarian version, is available, too.