Sawasdee Thai Restaurant — Restaurant in Vancouver

My families, friends, co-workers, and I have been going here for years. It’s a very well known restaurant on Main Street to dine. Reservations are a must. Each time we go, on any day, it’s a full house. There is a lot of support here from the community.

I have notice after the pandemic prices have jumped and portions have shrunk. Now this is everywhere not just here. If you’re looking for value this is not the place to be dining at. Is it the best or extravagant? No. I’ve had better. But don’t get me wrong. The food is delicious and still passes the standard.

It’s a hit or miss here each time I dine here. It’s disappointing the portion size is smaller. I remember I could order a pad Thai and a curry with rice for 2 people and be majorly stuffed feeling satisfied. Now ordering a stuffed chicken wing appy, with a pad Thai, and a curry with rice still leaves 2 people hungry… and paying more on top before the tax and tip. Don’t get me wrong. I’m willing to spend. I’m not shy to spend. But as a consumer there are other Thai places that leave me very satisfied and full.

I want others to know that this is still a great place to eat. There is nothing wrong with eating here. Thai food is very comforting and full of amazing flavours. I just don’t think they are at their best level to charge what they are charging, that’s all.

Improvements? Thai milk tea could use a little more strength. It needs a wake me up power.

Portion size. Even if you were to up it by a level rice bowl it can make a better experience for your consumers. Like 3 or 4 fluid size ounces.

Honourable mentions? Try the tamarind pad thai. Try the stuffed chicken wings. The spring rolls stuffing is almost identical to the stuffed chicken wings. Curries with coconut rice. Pad see ew Thai milk tea

Service team. They are wonderful. Thank goodness there’s never a bad experience after all these years. Any issues, I was never shy to bring it up. They are always fixed accordingly.

Overall. It was like… borderline so close. SO close to a 4 star rating in my opinion. This is coming from a chef who use to have over 15 years of professional culinary experience. If there was a decimal point rating. I would do minimum 3.5 to 3.6 rating for the food. 5 stars for front house service after all these years. Very polite and quick to make adjustments and listen to...

Coming in here a few times not being able to get a table due to full reservations, until i finally made a reservation for 2 this evening. The food did not disappoint. It is very hard to find very good thai restaurants that do not compromise flavors of origin. The curry was sweet, salty and bold, really good with rice. The whole fish was also good, slightly fishy, but the sauce was also sweet and slightly sour. The level of requested spice for being mild is on point, it does not compromise the pallet. The crying tiger beef was delicious, its grilled so you cant go wrong. Its tender and fun to eat on its own or with rice- but i do recommend requesting medium well cause it can come out a bit more rare for my personal preference. Overall the food was great and portions are just right.

Now this is the only thing that made the whole experience uncomfortable, i know prior to booking tables they do let you know that if you are a 2 person guest theres 1.5 hours of seating time and 3 or more guests its 2-3 hours more. I understand the whole idea of this so that other guests can have a chance to get their table. The one thing for sure as a customer coming in to a restaurant is having to feel rushed. We arrived at 5:30 but didn't get our food till 6:00 so therefore our time was cut short. I find it quite disrespectful when you still have food on your plate and your mouth is quite full and a server approaches you “hi thank you for coming, another person will be taking this table now, they have reserved this spot” - as a customer standpoint when you hear that while still physically eating is quite beyond me. I simply don't care if another person is waiting- let them wait. We personally felt like we were being kicked out and being rushed to leave instead of having a great time and planning to order a dessert its quite uncomfortable feeling. We live in a world full of rat race where people constantly rush and i just don't understand the idea behind it, when none of us are promised on this earth. This restaurant would have been fun to dine in, but i feel this need that i have a timer. Its ridiculous!!!! Please accommodate a better solution for this, id honestly just...

Tldr: it is decent but not outstanding or special enough to warrant the efforts in getting a table.

Had a platter with half crying tiger beef and half pork jowl plus squids. They tasted fine (pork was really good) but we wish they were served a bit hotter. It came with a small portion of sticky rice which was fine but seemed to be just kind of there and wasn’t exactly a good match.

The stir fried rice noodles were a bit too heavy and sweet for our taste but still delicious. Red curry with roasted duck was rich and packed with ingredients. For this dish however, we thought the duck would be the focus; it was instead shredded into small chunks submerged in the bowl of curry.

Can’t comment on authenticity but it has a chic, upscale vibe like everything else on Main St unlike a traditional establishment. Overall the food was really solid even though it might not guarantee a revisit.

The reason for this 4-star review was mainly about how confusing the booking system and opening hours were. We have tried to book a weekend dinner over the past few weeks. 7pm is the only logical choice because they close at 9 + 2hr limit, but it was always fully booked, leaving only 8pm which doesn’t make sense to reserve. They open for lunch at 2pm on the weekend which is strange but understandable. We saw on the website that they were doing a Mother’s Day event on Sunday starting at 11 so we called and asked for a table at 1pm, but they were confused by that and said they would still be starting at 2pm. As of today the information is still on the website so perhaps the restaurant can clarify on that.

Another thing is that the booking system they use (TB dine) is honestly awful. Unlike alternatives like OpenTable, they don’t show a calendar view to give people a clear picture which date/time slots are available. Instead you have to select it one by one and hope for the best. You pick 2pm and you can’t see if 7pm is available without reselecting.

I’m probably not revisiting unless they have better hours and become...