Sweet Rice and Spice

Since it opened in mid-2021, Garden Grove’s QT Golden Market Place hasn’t lived up to its considerable promise as a mini-mall and food court with space for 20 small-ish Asian restaurants and shops – between low foot traffic, intermittently staffed businesses, and vacancies, it has desperately needed better draws and marketing to get people in the door. In mid-2024, Sweet Rice and Spice took over the space formerly occupied by Viet-Thai fusion concept Thai MQ, bringing a small but strong menu that’s supposed to be Laotian and Thai, but leans more heavily on the former than latter in execution.

Twenty choices include dishes that may look familiar to Thai fans – including papaya salad, khao soi, and drunken noodles – but use decidedly different, Laotian-style preparations. For instance, the papaya salad is tinged with just enough gray fermented fish sauce to delight fans of that funky smelling ingredient, while freaking out those accustomized to typical Thai sweet and sour aromas. Similarly, khao soi arrives here not as a yellow curry bowl with thin egg noodles but rather a Vietnamese bun rieu-style red soup with wide noodles and diced beef or chicken. Drunken noodles still taste of soy, but even at “mild” spicy level have atypical peppery heat and just enough oil to feel silky on the tongue. Containers with additional chili oil, red pepper, and preserved peppers are included with items as appropriate to bring the heat levels up as you prefer.