3353 Barham Blvd., Hollywood, easily reached from Burbank or Hollywood -- right near the top of the hill where Barham meets the freeway on the north side of the street (it's at a street light on a corner, the next to last before the freeway. I'm telling you this because if you blink, you could miss it. 213/851-5494, f. 213/851-5894
Hours: Mon-Fri, 11:30 am - 10 pm, Sat-Sun 5 pm - 10 pm, free delivery within 3 mi radius w/ min. order 10 bucks and no checks, but they take Mastercard, Amex and Visa.
Burbank can be an exasperating place to attempt lunch. It's crowded with Media Districters, expensive, and without a drive, not that good. The Sha-Sha is a great lunch place. It doesn't get abundantly crowded, but gets a good enough draw to outpace the big 6 parking spaces they have (and precarious they are too -- if you have a new car or a car you care about, or it's crowded, cheat and park on the far wall of the liquor store lot across the street). This place makes great Thai food to my very limited Thai palate. They're Pad Thai ($6.95) is abundant and very sweet. It's made with shrimp, chicken and egg as well as the usual noodles. Here's something I love about this place: you can substitute tofu for any or all meat ingredients, and they will fry it or leave it alone! They use the very firm tofu and it comes out delicious. I do not recommend the fried version for your palate or your health.
I highly recommend the Chicken Noodles ($5.95) -- Flat noodles pan-fried with chicken, eggs, peanuts and bean sprouts, and the Vegetable Fried Rice ($5.95). It's not like Chinese Fried rice -- thought it might be as fattening -- it's brown rice with big colorful veggies thrown over the top, and it makes a fine meal, especially if you add chicken or tofu.
For budgetary reasons, dietary concerns, etc. -- here's a good way to do Sha Sha: They make a wonderfully cooked brown short grain rice here, and I highly recommend ordering that for one big dollar and eating half a noodle or veggie dish over the rice. Save or share the other. I'm usually stuffed when we leave.
For those of you who like spicy: Well, you can probably ask for anything there spicy, but especially made spicy are Beef Salad ($6.95 and a good band name), Larb ($5.95, it's ground beef, chicken or tofu in lime juice with onion, rice powder and chili), and, that famous Spicy Tofu ($5.95), sauteed with mustrooms and onion in chili sauce.
They also have a selection of curry dishes -- I haven't tried them in fairness, but if you like that sort of thing.....like I said, I have a limited palate with Thai food so far, but this place is cute, small, friendly and good. If you're on your way into Hollywood, or meeting someone from there and don't feel like schlepping, this might just be your place.