SaBaiDee Cafe — Restaurant in Murfreesboro

Jan 21, 2024: Shame on me for allowing four years to pass since my last visit to SaBaiDee Café. Saw their post on FB of “It’s just me & my mom in the kitchen” and had to go visit. When I walked in the place was humming and the ladies were running a marathon taking care of a packed house. I was seated at the only table left and KK got me a water and Beer Lao while I looked over the menu. Decided on the Spring Roll with shrimp and peanut sauce and the dish Khao Mun Gai.

The Spring Rolls are huge, taste garden fresh, and the peanut sauce combined with the roll…perfect! I thought the dish was one roll…you get TWO for $6…darn near a meal all in themselves and I made both disappear! The Khao Mun Gai was a new dish to me and I’m glad I listened to suggestion and gave it a shot. The slices of poached chicken were so tender and when dipped in the ginger chili sauce…POW! Yes…the ginger chili sauce has some spicy, but you control how much so you can either taste the zing or sweat through each bite. The sauce reminds me of an Indian tomato sauce I’ve had before, interesting how cultures can merge or cross. The different parts of this dish all add to the flavors, but the jasmine sticky rice is so good and the cucumbers help cool the zing. The broth is unusual, chicken based, but the inclusion of the halved cherry tomato and onions changes the flavor into a very satisfying consommé. This meal was fantastic and the service from all four of the ladies was very appreciated. It won’t be four years till my next visit here!

1999: Visited last night with some friends who were "first timers" so Sabaidee. We sampled a number of appetizers from the fried cabbage rolls, Lao Sausage, Fresh Spring Rolls (declared the best ever had), Fried Egg Rolls, and Banh Cuon which none of us were very fond of...honestly it was a texture thing. The main dishes tried were Sukiyaki that was bountiful with noodles, vegetables, and meat. A dish of Kaeng Ga Lee (yellow curry) was delicious. I had the Pad Kra Pao with beef, chicken, and shrimp....a delicious dish but next time I would probably go with shrimp only. Of the meats in my dish, the shrimp and flavor was excellent.

This place is a gem and the food and service...

Sabaidee Cafe - one of the last Thai restaurants in Murfreesboro for my taste buds to try out.

The restaurant overall has a very fresh upbeat feel to it. Colors that make you feel good. As well as very clean. The bathrooms were very clean!

The restaurant does not have a direct access for handicapped because of the curb right at the door. There is a ramp up to the concrete down the other end of the strip mall. Inside it is easily handicapped accessible. Though they do have a kids menu, there are no highchairs available and no changing tables in the bathrooms.

We placed our order To Go upon entering the restaurant. We were told it would be a 40 minute wait. This was extremely surprising to us since there was only 2 tables occupied in the restaurant and it was 12:30 in the afternoon... Only 3 people came to pick up their to go orders in that time frame... but... we waited.... the whole 40 minutes...

Our order consisted of: Thai iced coffee Pad thai spice level of 4 Chicken fried rice spice level of 3 Some spring rolls

Starting with the iced coffee - wayyyyyyyy too SWEET! I would not recommend this, nor would I order this again. I, however, would like to come back and try some of the tea's on the menu.

Myself and my girl were not a fan of the spring rolls. They did not seem to be fresh. They were more soggy than crispy. They did not have a good flavor, all around just a bad experience on the spring rolls.

Now, on to the main entree's!

In comparison to other Thai spots in town. The price to portion ratio is by far the most pricey for the amount you receive. Not the place if you want a bang for your buck.

I had the pad thai, obviously of course! There is nothing extraordinary about the dish, sadly :( I did have high hope's since I have been told great things about Sabaidee but unfortunately the food did not come up to par with the expectations. The chicken fried rice was the only menu item that was actually enjoyable. It did consist of a nice flavor with perfect spice, and probably one of the better rice's we have had around town. However, an entree of fried rice priced at about $10 not so much...

In one word; mediocre. We had a to go order of combo pad se ew and combo pho. The pho was good, better than some but nothing to blow you away. Far from the best I’ve had in Murfreesboro or anywhere really. The pad se ew was fair to average. A little wet for my taste and very pad Thai like. Not really what I was looking for or expecting. There was no browning on the noodles and it really lacked that crispness that you expect from pad se ew. It had regular broccoli and carrot and no traditional veggies common to most recipes. Also, we ordered around 11:30am for lunch and was told it would be about 30-45 minutes for a to-go order. This seems like a very long wait for a to-go order as when I got to the restaurant there were only three tables with guests and that dwindled to none by the time I got my food. I would normally excuse that and write it off to a lunch rush but I heard the employee take another order and tell them the same thing. By that time there were no waiting tables... they could’ve been busier than it seemed but I’m not so sure. Overall, there are more and better options for pho and pad se ew in the area to frequent so I doubt a return trip is in our future.

Update: We gave them another shot on 9-20-23 and after rereading my previous review I have to say that it’s still spot on. I had the combo pad se ew again and egg rolls. It’s not terrible but definitely very average though they have improved the veggies in the dish with the addition of Chinese broccoli. Still no browning of the noodles; just mush… no chew at all. The seasoning is a bit much as well… not bad just a bit overdone. It’s like they’re trying to make it appealing to those who don’t enjoy this style of food and in the process almost ruin the dishes. Again, it’s definitely edible but not the authentic preparation foodies would be...