Grand Central Market is not only attracting new vendors, it's spinning off sequels to its current ones. Namely, Sticky Rice, the terrific Thai stall found in the middle of the market floor, just opened a second spot right behind its first. Think of this as following the Din Tai Fung model of expansion.

The original Sticky Rice features a small menu of rice-based dishes along with a chalkboard full of rotating specials; here at Sticky Rice 2 — as this second location is aptly named — rice also shows up, in the form of fried rice (shrimp, pineapple). And then there are the noodles.

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Sticky Rice 2 at Grand Central Market; Credit: T. Nguyen

Sticky Rice 2 at Grand Central Market; Credit: T. Nguyen

Much of Sticky Rice 2's menu, in fact, is devoted to a variety of terrific noodles. There is, for example, a very satisfying pad see ew (on the menu as “phat siew”), plus pad kee mow (“phat kee mow”). There are noodles in soup form, too: tom yum, khao soi. 

And perhaps the one reason to visit Sticky Rice 2 even if you aren't quite ready for lunch or dinner: dessert. The vendor makes some of the best kanom krok in town, those plump discs of crispy, chewy, slightly sweet coconut custard. Something to snack on while you're walking around Grand Central Market, in other words, until you're hungry enough to circle back for a plate of noodles.
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Sticky Rice 2 is open Sunday to Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Thursday to Saturday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

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