The owners of Rising Sons did a smart thing by dropping the confusing “deli” from the name in its second restaurant, located at the corner of Old Sauk and High Point. If you’re not familiar, Rising Sons serves Laotian and Thai cuisine in a small, intimate environment.
A long list of soups and noodle soups, along with a smiley face, greet you on one part of the menu. Though the Duck Noodles Soup ($9.95) and the Pho Nam Tok ($8.95, rice noodles with meatballs) were tempting, I settled on the Sukiyaki ($8.95). The peanut sauce was subtle but definitely had a presence, especially with the spice that built up over time on my tongue. Everything, from the beef to the eggs to the vermicelli noodles, worked well together except the celery, the flavor of which was out of place.
Other entrees include curry dishes and stir-fried noodles dishes. I enjoyed the simplicity of the Tom Khem ($8 at lunch), which was white rice, a hard-boiled egg and braised pork. After you’re done eating the tender pork, you may want to soak up the rest of the soy sauce gravy with the rice.
The Shrimp in a Blanket ($6.95) also is a simple dish: one peeled, jumbo shrimp inside an egg roll wrapper, deep fried. I think I detected some ginger in it; otherwise, you’re pretty much just eating a shrimp egg roll minus all the other fillings.
A unique item on the menu was the papaya salad ($6.95), which I ordered medium-spicy. I found the shredded, unripened papaya to be slightly sweet, slightly sour (from the lime) and even refreshing, despite the slight burn I got from the spice. I recommend you share this bowl with someone, because the generous portion can get to be too much after a while.
Rising Sons is open every day for dinner and Monday-Friday for lunch. Note on lunch: get there early, as there’s usually just one employee who acts as hostess, waitress and cook, meaning service can be slow.
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See more photos in our Rising Sons Flickr Album.
My goodness, the crazy popularity of Madison’s first 
