Baan Sawan Thai Bistro — Restaurant in Columbia

I and my hubby have been to Baan Sawan few times. Every time, it has been a great experience. Except for 1 where they had given us Panang Curry and when we approached them, they consistently said it was Thai Red Curry. Well, Red curry does not have few veggies that they had added and does not look yellow like Panang and is not spicy either. Plus red curry has pineapple which we did not find in the served curry so clearly it wasn't Thai Red Curry! anyways, that was long back and after that we did visit this place and never had order problems. Last night, we had ordered 1 Spring Roll, 1 Tm Yum Soup, 1 Tofu Soup and 1 Mussuman Curry with Tofu and Veggies. I will say of all the different restaurants that I have dined at, Baan Sawan's Veggie Spring Roll is the BEST.. and consistent every single time! So I do give 5* for their Spring Roll. Our server brought out 1 spring Roll and 1 Tom Yum soup (half filled bowl not even fully filled bowl) and she left. I thought, she will bring 1 Tofu soup within few min. She just continued talking with her coworker. I kept asking my hubby since he mainly wanted Tofu soup and he said he didn't want it. However, I was pissed as I had ordered and she didn't bring it. Then when she brought Musuman Curry, I told her about the Tofu Soup and she said that THERE IS NO SUCH ITEM ON THE MENU AND IF I CAN POINT IT OUT TO HER SHE CAN ORDER IT!!!!!!!!!!!!! Helloo!!! When I had ordered the soup, we also had a discussion about spice levels on those 2 soups. Tom yum Soup has 1* beside it meaning the soup is lightly hot(spicy) whereas Tofu Soup had no such ' * ' so it wouldn't be spicy. not only I said these lines but I had repeated the order and I did mention 2 soup and so did she! and she came up with the lie. Then I had asked to add vegetables along with Tofu in Musuman Curry. She said it would cost $3-$4 more to add vegetables along with Tofu. I said its fine. Then she brought out the curry and I noticed there were not veggies in it. So I got up and took the menu that was right in front of where I was seated. I saw that Musuman curry comes with carrots, onions and potatoes. So basically I didn't see zucchini, bell peppers or any other veggies. All this time server was right in front of me she saw me grab the menu and reading. She then approached me after few minutes. She asked me if everything was okay and I told her how the veggies were missing. She was pointing out at carrots and potatoes!!!! I said the curry comes with these 3 veggies. But Baan Sawan has separate options for vegetables and I had specifically told to add. She went inside the kitchen and came out after few minutes and then gave a reason that as we are almost done with the curry, there is nothing she can do. She felt bad and said something about peanut curry. We had planned to go to Thai for soup specially. I was pissed as my hubby didn't get the soup he wanted. Obviously, the server did not convey the message about the soup and adding vegetables to musuman curry!! She was taking our order Verbally-like memorizing it. She was not even writing our order! so When she asked for my tip- I gave her saying if you have problem remembering & conveying msgs, make a habit of writing orders!!! Tom yum Soup tasted little sour and overall soup taste was not good. Musuman curry tasted good. For the $18.00 price for Musuman curry they should add vegetables with Tofu without extra charge! When we were half through with our food, there was a group of youngsters who had come. but soon in 5 min they left as they were looking for a different restaurant. I guess Baan Sawan did...

My wife and I love Thai food. We are fortunate that her direct report where she works has given her a gift certificate to eat here. My next review will be the tell. If there is no review added, well there you go. If there is a bad review, it takes a lot for me to be so upset I come back to give a bad review; on the other hand, a good review is the same but opposite a bad review. I will leave a neutrial one now on 12/20/2008. Since we'll probably ride the motorcycle in to visit; look for the review this spring. Since I can edit this review; I will do so.

OK, 2nd review mid 2013. I found the place just as before only a little less so. It is very small and so has the kind of service you'd expect from a pricier place; the service can't be challenged. The food on the other hand simply wasn't to my expectations. While I can't be more specific than to say, it wasn't the tastes I was expecting, nor the choices; and like most who love to eat; I hope my palette is refined enough to enjoy food out of the standard faire; it just wan't quite what I thought it would be; Perhaps I'm jaded by finding other places that cost a lot less, and the food is just as good and even better.

Still, if you want focused attention to your service, and a place built to cater to a small number of people with decent food; you might like it here. This is close to a negative review; but, I will say I baise this heavily because of price, cramped atmosphere, better than average taste and service, but not so much the place was justified for a great rating. I had high expectations; and was disappointed. So, let's leave it to others, it's a very personal choice. Was not that romantic or comfortable; I feel they take a heavy negative impact on atmosphere, and perhaps I had a touch of claustrophobia though I get on elevators regularly with no...

It pains me to write a critical review of my once favorite Thai fine dining options in town. I loved this bistro when they were completely focused on the dining part, and had full table service, but perhaps this isn't what their vision is anymore. I am reviewing specifically the bistro component, less so the used books part.

The service is fantastic, never any complaints, everything came out in reasonable time, and everyone was extremely cordial.

The criticism comes to the food, where for the price point of the restaurant it's reasonable to expect the food to be elevated past another fast Thai food restaurant. But I think the food here fell short of that unfortunately. Each of the dishes were quite unfortunate in their flavor profiles while reasonable plated for my rib dish.

The meat was braised, and the texture was not something to particularly envy. It was quite tender, I do give it that, however the flavor profile just felt flat. The salad was fine, yet was overly dressed with what I would determine to be fish sauce, making it too salty. The tofu vegetarian curry dish was also unfortunate because it had near no flavor except for a component of spice from some pepper. As another insult, the rice was not cooked well. I felt that the rice was overly dry.

I would love to give you guys another chance. I recall fondly of a sous-vide duck curry and your other chicken curry you served 3-4 years prior, which were divine. I have been wanting to come ever since, and this time was quite...