SukhoThai — Restaurant in New Orleans

How is this place getting good reviews? I love Thai food and wanted to love Sukho, but this was some of the worst cooked and most overpriced Thai I've experienced in any city. In fact, this was the worst meal I've had in New Orleans since I've lived here (2 years). Today we tried the veggie rolls, green curry (chicken), and "Indian puff bread." Every single item was bland and overpriced. The veggie rolls are $7.95, and for that price you get TWO rolls. They're cut in half, so you get four pieces, but these are two small rolls cut into two pieces each. Total is about four bites. The predominate flavor of the rolls was grease, and the plum sauce was good but couldn't save them. The bread was also mostly grease, and while it should be soft and doughy, this was served as dough rather than doughy bread. It was $5 for two palm-sized pieces of greasy dough. The curry portion was fair for the price, but it was bland. We ordered the medium level of spice, but this would've been boring even for mild. Beyond the spice level, however, the curry lacked flavor. The coconut milk tasted like water. The vegetables were nearly raw and strangely bitter. There was no evidence of Thai basil or chiles or any of the other delights that make Thai food so complex and interesting. You'd get more flavor from a jar of "taste of thai" curry paste from Walmart. Overall, the meal was gross and a total waste of money. I will never return and will actively warn people away from Sukho.

Edit to add: The response from the owner below further convinces me to stay away. They rambled about MSG as if it’s a bad thing and they should be praised for avoiding it, but MSG occurs naturally (including in ingredients SukhoThai uses, such as tomatoes) and is not unhealthy despite xenophobic and pseudoscientific headlines. They rambled about elements of the food I did not critique. They notably did not comment on several of the main aspects I did critique. They suggested if I want flavor, I should choose something with a bigger list of ingredients. To that I say this: If you can’t make a green curry interesting, you can’t cook Thai. Even mild, even with “no MSG” (eyeroll), there should be basil, chile, ginger, galangal, etc. Poor management goes on the list of things wrong...

Today for lunch,I ordered the red curry with shrimp and jasmine rice which I really had anticipated on eating this afternoon... When my order was presented at the table, I just knew I would enjoy my lunch,but not even half way into eating the red curry with shrimp and jasmine rice,I was highly disappointed with a physical piece of an one & half inch long of short black thin human or animal hair in my red curry with shrimp..I could not finish eating after that point... The issue with the hair being present in their red curry with shrimp was made aware to the waitress, and then to the passive/aggressive front house manager in which I had requested to both the waitress and manager that I wanted to bring this matter to the attention to the kitchen manager or the chef on duty...The front house manager defensively stood and argued unintelligently that no one in the kitchen has hair ... There was not a recourse of corrective action to satisfy me as a paying customer... I paid for my order, and they tried to give me something that I didn't order...The staff is not friendly...Front house/bar manager is extremely rude, very uninviting, & unknowledgeable on giving good proper food service, especially when a customer has an issue or an discrepancy with the food that is being served... I will tell you If you're the kind of person that likes hair in your food,this is the place that doesn't have a problem with serving hair into your food order... In any restaurant business an entire restaurant staff should know when to accommodate, remove the unwanted particular,specified items that was served to a customer from their table in which & whenever a customer has an issue or discrepancy with those said items .. Just don't ignore the issue or problem for the customer to have more of dissatisfied...

The food here is good although it often didn't seem as good as the original Marigny location BUT they do have booze here so that makes it more convenient in some ways than the old original location which has moved to a new location and since also added booze. For the price I think I much prefer the food at Secret Thai or Lime Leaf but this place in some ways is probably a bit more "authentic" if you want to be a purist. The atmosphere at the original Uptown location kept getting better and better and the interior had lots of space I always found it a bit too "modern" for my taste. Since they have recently moved to a new location even closer to where I live it is certainly very convenient to visit but so far the new space seems smaller, the service is less attentive and the food isn't yet quite as good as it was at the prior location. I expect they will certainly have some re-start issues with getting back to being fully staffed and going at full steam again but I expect they will get their eventually. So far I've tried their brand new spot three times and it does seem to get a bit better each time but it is still not quite back to where it was yet. Overall this is a good addition to the area and if you want a bit of a change it can be a nice spot for a quick Thai experience.

My video review of Uptown Sukho Thai is...