Pusadee's Garden — Restaurant in Pittsburgh

I must say the location is amazing, very classy and looks like an ad out of a magazine. I rated it 1 star because of our seating experience and being lied to right in our faces. At night the location is very well lit with a cozy vibe. I requested a reservation on 09/06/26 for 09/25/24 Upon arrival there was no one at the front desk I had to go search for someone. There was a lady who walked in and greeted us. Prior to being escorted to our seats, I had put we are celebrating our 4 year anniversary this one was special. I requested to have outside seating in the “garden” specifically. My brother recommended this place and we have been seeing post via social media of how good the food is. I received a text message the text said verbatim “ Hi, this is Jen from Pusadee's Garden - we look forward to seeing you this evening! Please message us here to communicate any questions about your reservation - we will get back to you as soon as possible throughout the evening. Are you looking for garden seating? Thanks!“ I replied yes. When we were being seated she took us to this undesirable table with no views it was a dull room in the front of the restaurant. I had advised her I specifically requested “Garden seating” she told me they were no longer seating outside because it was about to rain in a hour. They don’t seat outside if it’s going to rain. We looked up the weather and was surprised we were blatantly lied to. Now our reservation was at 9:15pm we arrived at 9:00pm. We asked for another table to which we had to sit at the bar. The spot we had was do-able and we were able to see the outside garden with customers eating their meals which we were confused because the servers as people were leaving was shutting down the outside area. and yes I started with a attitude because she lied to our faces. Our first time coming to this restaurant and we were lied to. If you stop seating outside after a time please just say that. When we arrived at the bar our server was nice, we ordered the appetizer “Roti yellow curry” it was most certainly a 10/10 the curry was like sweet and very melt in your mouth experience. It was sooooooo good definitely would recommend as a starter. We tore that up. We then got the 17 ingredient salad 10/10 it was so refreshing. I must add the lady who served it next time should wear gloves. We squeezed a lime on the salad bare handed and that was a bit concerning. The salad was superb I’m not a big salad girl but this is honestly one of the best salads I’ve had in my lifeeeeeeee! Get it! For the main course I ordered the. Kao Soi Beef cheek it was ok it was too much curry in my option I ate it today and just realized I did not like it and it’s a bit hard for me to eat. It’s most certainly a inquired taste. We also ordered a drink called (sexy to someone) OMG! To me it tasted abit like Lemon meringue pie lol maybe because of the foam but the drink was goooodddddd! The resling was good and it was slightly dry ( I like that) I had 2 glasses. Overall I believe if we were able to dine in the garden our experience would have been 20x better instead of being lied to and sat where we did not request for a special occasion. That left a really bad taste in my mouth but overall the food was good. Not sure if we will be returning but the...

I guess I'll start by saying I'm grateful a place like this exists in Pittsburgh. It's a high-end dining option that you'd expect more commonly in Chicago or NYC. It's pricy, sure, but I think well worth it for the overall taste of food and lush, serene atmosphere.

My wife and I took a big dice roll and just showed up in line at 4:45pm without a reservation. The walk-in line was decently long but we were seated right away. It looked like there was decent amount of space and a bar for folks waiting. We sat indoors. We saw the garden and agreed it would be a beautiful place to enjoy a meal, but it was a 90 degree August day and we were content with the AC.

We had never been to Pusadee's v1.0, but the space of the restaurant was gorgeous and maximized. The garden area somehow transformed the south bank of the allegheny river into a Thailand rainforest. Inside was just as elegant and romantic.

Service was excellent and attentive. The food is the star of the show, but the cocktail list is very underrated. I ordered a spaghetti western (whiskey cocktail) which was tremendous, and there were 3 or 4 others I wish I could try.

For apps we ordered the eggplant dip and roti. The eggplant dip was great, but the roti is probably in the upper half of top-ten appetizers I've had, anywhere, ever. a must get. Just a rich, warm hug of a yellow curry that I could eat in front of a firing squad and be content.

We cleansed our palate with a 17 ingredient salad. We are lightweights, so we ordered it level 1. It still brought enough heat for both of us so I'd tread carefully if you order it any spicier. Very flavorful though.

For mains, I ordered beef cheek khao soi and the beef cheek literally melted in my mouth. It was my first experience with beef cheek and made me a believer. Khao soi is usually my Thai go-to and this was the best I've ever had. My wife ordered the wild salmon/green curry and I had to hear about it's greatness for days (she wouldn't let me try a bite, which is rare for her - still not over it).

We were pretty full but still ordered jackfruit/sweet sticky rice/coconut ice cream for dessert and I'm glad we did. It's the perfect lite dessert after taking on a fair amount of Thai spice. The coconut ice cream especially was a highlight for me.

Frankly, we're excited to go back. It's more of a "big night out" spot than it's more casual cousin, Noodlehead (also great) but it was an extremely memorable meal and it already has us planning a return. We can see why this place books up months in advance.

I've seen a couple meh reviews regarding the portion size. It's not cheesecake factory portion sizes, but I will promise most folks will leave feeling full. We had 2 apps/salad/main/dessert and had plenty to take home. On taste alone, we've eaten at a few James Beard list places and Pusadee can easily...

After hearing great reviews about this place and reading great reviews, we decided to try it out but was disappointed in the food and part of the service.

Food - 2/5 For those who have had authentic Thai food and have grown up eating it, the place made dishes that were not at all authentic. It was more of a Thai fusion. We had the Tom Yum soup, Khao Yum salad (17 ingredients salad), beef tenderloin and coconut ice cream with peanuts, jackfruit and sticky rice to finish off. For the Tom Yum, it was decent but have a bit too much coconut milk making it a bit sweet and less savory. The soup also lacks heat for some. For the Khao Yum salad, it was a bit sweet for my liking. I saw that there was fish sauce to dress the salad but the fish sauce was overly sweet making the entire salad very sweet. The beef tenderloin was disappointing where we only received a small portion of rice for 2 people. The rice was not cooked properly and mushy although a rice cooker was spotted at the restaurant. For $36, it was not worth the price we paid for. The coconut ice cream was very small (for $7) and did not have any jackfruit in it as it was claimed. When we asked a waitress, we were told that jackfruit doesn't have a distinct flavor and the coconut flavor masked it. As a person who eats jackfruit every single year when they are in season, this doesn't seem right. The ice cream was also very icy and frozen and not creamy as expected.

Atmosphere and location - 3/5 The place was pretty nice with decent decor inside. Parking wasn't hard to find so location is not bad at all.

Service - 2 to 2.5/5 Service was kind of sloppy while removing the plates from the table, the food sauces just fall onto the table without being wiped. Not very displeased with service but also not entirely happy either.

Price - 1/5 For the food and service quality that you expect to receive, this price is not worthy. For $50 per pax (our total bill + tax + tip was almost $100 and we shared everything), I would recommend to try out other restaurants that have better food and better dining experience for a cheaper price point.

Overall - I think the place is overhyped with not very exciting Thai dishes. For a person who doesn't eat curry, this place doesn't seem to fit since half the menu has curry in them so I would recommend going to other Thai restaurants...