Sawatdee Thai Seafood — Restaurant in Maryland

Atmosphere: small strip mall restaurant; bar and kitchen fill the middle of room with most dine-in seating in the rear. Nicely decorated. Service: when eating in or taking out, servers are always friendly and helpful. I'm taking the stars off here, since the food is good and it's more of a service/management problem. The problems are order accuracy and ingredient availability. In two recent visits, I have ordered pad king. The menu describes this item as how pad prik king is almost always prepared: green beans (sometimes red bell peppers), protein, spicy red sauce; this is the desired preparation and what I would expect to receive if the menu says it. Twice, this has been prepared as pad king, with no green beans and a mixture of vegetables (celery, mushrooms, scallions, lemongrass, peppers) that isn't in the menu description. Additionally, upon ordering this on a visit a few years back, we were told they did not have green beans available (which I prefer being told instead of getting the dish incorrect, but why don't you have green beans when they are on the menu?). This is a pretty common dish I get at most thai places; I am too often (50%?) disappointed at how it is prepared. Food: All that said, the food you do get is pretty good. Veggies cooked to just crunchy, right level of spice, good balance of veg and protein. On one recent visit we had what felt like too much soupy curry and not enough rice in the two to-go containers (each was like 75% full), but that's not a big deal; the food was still good.

Overall: wish the pad king was prepared how the menu says....

I'm sure the food's better if you want it like it's supposed to be eaten - spicy hot. And I really loved that the gentleman made the food mild for us - which most Thai restaurants can't or won't do. But my coconut curry with beef was devoid of any vegetable but peas(!), and tasted no better than my attempt to make Thai food at home. Rice and curry were served separate, which they should have been, but was out of rice beforebeingout of curry. Mother really enjoyed her Sawatdee pad shrimp, which, like my food was very conscientiously made not spicy at all as she asked. The flavor was nicely garlicky and shallot-ful and was in a brown sauce. I don't like shrimp much, however, so I didn't taste the whole to see how I liked it. Mango and sticky rice was unavailable due to mangoes being out of season - which is generally a good sign of authenticity. Thai iced tea was in a can and didn't taste too much better than a protein shake, albeit a Thai iced tea flavored one. Fresh spring rolls were good, but served with Mae Ploy - which is good, but quite spicy. Really would have preferred a nice peanut sauce. Menu prices are quite a bit higher than on Zmenu - so with 15% tip, Bill was around $45! On top of this, order at the counter - although food is brought to you at the table. Oh - and no...

Oh sawatdee how my taste buds yearn for another bite. Words can only begin to describe the experience of tasting a spoonful of the noodle soup (with meatballs of course). The noodles, the meats, the spices.... the dankness. Sometimes I’m overcome with a paralyzing sense of pure euphoria and often find myself needing to take a break, exit the establishment, and take lap around the parking before continuing.

It’s true, the taste is among the finest in the Western Hemisphere, however, the spice has powers of its own. The magical spices are strong enough to cure a Bavarian man the morning after Oktoberfest. Now I know what some of you are thinking “Chris, the spiciest thing I’ve ever eaten is ketchup. Do you think I can handle the spices of sawatdee?” No worries my pale friends, you can order any of the menu items without spice. The place is truly a second home, the family that owns Sawatdee greets everyone with...