“To die for” is how a friend described the drunken noodle dish at Rustic Spoon Thai restaurant, next door to Angelino Pizzeria and a stone’s throw from old-school Mexican restaurant Ernie’s Taco House (since 1952). The trio creates an eclectic mini-Restaurant Row on an otherwise bleak strip of Lankershim Boulevard in NoHo.

The Sauce does not have to be asked twice to try a dish that includes both noodles and alcohol. Drunken noodle combines noodles, peppers, onions, the protein of your choice (chicken, beef, tofu or shrimp), with a shot of Thai whiskey.

Drunken noodle is, indeed, to die for, but I would have died twice for the fresh rolls (chicken or beef) with lettuce, cucumber and mint and the creamy-sweet curried cinnamon braised chicken breast that comes with plenty of roti—an oily yet wonderful griddled flatbread—to soak up the extra sauce. Rustic Spoon reminds us that a restaurant doesn't have to be new to be amazing.

Chicken Fresh Rolls

4384 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood, 818-754-8998