The Second Owl is a new-ish Thai-Laotian restaurant, located on the corner of 2nd and La Verne in Belmont Shore, Long Beach. It's all metered street parking.
They are the second outpost of Owl Owl, in Signal Hill. I had never been to either but a friend suggested we check out the new spot and I was game.
- Crispy pork belly. This appetizer offers a thin strip of pork belly that's been roasted until the skin crackles and then comes with two dipping sauces. One is sticky/sweet, the other more like a prik nam pla. I'm not sure the microgreens do much besides serving as garnish but the pork belly was crispy, not dry, and worked well with both sauces. I would have preferred slightly larger bites but this wasn't annoyingly small or anything. 7.5/10
- Sea bass larb. Basically larb-meets-ceviche. In concept, it makes sense since both use a lot of acidity as their base flavor. In execution: I was rather underwhelmed by it. Part of the issue for me was the portion size. With larb I've had elsewhere, you don't feel like you have carefully portion each bite out but here, as you can see, their serving size is small enough where I didn't feel like I could just dig in. Instead, since we were sharing it, my friend and I had to focus on not taking too much per serving. Also, I'm just not a fan of shrimp chips and would have enjoyed this more if they went with conventional lettuce cups. 5/10
- Pad kee mao. This was off their lunch specials menu which comprises fried rice, several noodle dishes, and their green curry. The pad kee mao here was fine but also instantly forgettable. 6/10
- Quick note: their lunch specials all come without a base protein included. Any protein, from tofu up to pork belly, is at an additional price. This isn't unusual in and of itself: at most Thai restaurants I've been to, there's usually a pricing scale to upgrade your protein, i.e. steak or shrimp is going to cost more than chicken. However, I don't think it's unreasonable for a customer to expect at least one base protein to be included and folded into the price (like tofu). That's especially true for a lunch special because part of the point of those is to simplify a menu with some of your greatest hits and make them enticing. Having to decide whether I want to pay extra for a single protein to add to my noodles doesn't feel enticing.
Overall: I don't think The Second Owl is "your average Thai" restaurant; they're clearly trying to do something more creative, which I'm all for. But, as you can see, the meal didn't leave much of an impression on me. It's entirely possible that we didn't order the best dishes but you'd think that out of three, at least one would have been a banger. Especially for my lunch excursions, I'd rather than somewhere new than revisit a restaurant where I had an underwhelming first impression.
by soulsides
Dining and Cooking