Portland’s Langbaan wins big at 2024 James Beard Awards

The most outstanding restaurant in the U.S. is located inside another restaurant in Northwest Portland. It’s appropriately named Langbaan, which means “back of the house” in Thai, and serves a five-course tasting menu of elevated Thai food with Pacific Northwest ingredients.

It’s one of six restaurants from the culinary mastermind Akkapong “Earl” Ninsom, and this week Langbaan won the coveted and competitive Outstanding Restaurant category at the 2024 James Beard Awards.