Lom Wong

In 2011, Alex met his now-wife, Yotaka, who grew up in a farming community in Northern Thailand, where her family grew rice, fruit and vegetables, and raised a variety of animals. When the couple moved to the United States in 2017, they knew that they wanted to explore a culinary career — despite being professionally inexperienced — and opened a pop-up on Orcas Island, Washington, before moving to Phoenix, where they opened another pop-up in 2019. During the COVID-19 pandemic, their carryout business took off; now, their downtown Phoenix brick-and-mortar location is popular with diners who clamor for the Martins’ traditional Thai dishes.

Lom Wong’s menu is carefully curated and divided into three regions, intended to honor Yotaka’s village, the village of Alex’s Thai grandmother and the Moklen community, which Alex first encountered in 2016.

“Everything we serve comes from recipes and food traditions shared with us by people from these communities,” Alex says. “Our goal is to present and cook those dishes as sincerely as possible. Each dish is meant to be a smaller part of a larger whole, so for us, it’s less about one standout dish and more about creating the perfect meal together. That said, we both love the Kaeng Phet Charinda, and we’re especially excited about a new dish we’re serving, Hoi Pad Nam Prik Pao.”

The former features beef shank with hand-pounded curry paste, hand-squeezed coconut milk, eggplant and Thai basil; and the latter highlights clams fried in a roasted chile paste. Other menu favorites include variations on fried chicken, stir-fried wide rice noodles and plenty of additional options. An extensive menu of cocktails and natural wine is also well loved among Lom Wong’s patrons.

Critics and journalists quickly took note of the Martins’ success in the industry. Yotaka earned the prestigious James Beard Award for Best Chef in the Southwest in 2025 and, in late August of this year, the honor of a Bib Gourmand designation from the prestigious Michelin Guide.

“The recognition we’ve received hasn’t changed our approach at all,” Alex says. “With every award, we’ve told our staff the same thing: Approach it with humility and keep the noise surrounding it to a minimum. For us, recognition doesn’t mean Lom Wong should become something different. If anything, one of the coolest parts of the recognition we’ve received is that it has come from doing things entirely on our own terms. We’ve never tried to shape Lom Wong around what an award-winning restaurant is supposed to look or feel like. We’ve simply tried to present this food sincerely and create the kind of restaurant we believe in.”