Sanae Thai Eatery, Thai restaurant in Portland, OR — Restaurant in Portland

My dinner companions and I ordered a family style meal at Sanae. While the appetizers were good, we all felt underwhelmed by our main dishes. I appreciate that all chefs have their own palate and vision for a restaurant, but I can't help but feel that food we ordered was intended to be bland for American tastes.

Tom Kha: There didn't seem to be any of the signature aromatics (lemongrass, lime leaves, or galangal). It was an OK coconut-vegetable soup, but it didn't taste like tom kha.

Pumpkin Stir Fry: Both the description and the picture indicate that this is the simple and classic pumpkin-egg-basil dish, which should have little more than those ingredients. What we received was a mixed vegetable stir-fry (carrots, bell pepper, onion) with a few cubes of pumpkin.

Pla Lui Suan: This was the biggest disappointment of the night. The fried fish had zero seasoning, which would have been less of an issue if the toppings had been the expected salad of herbs and chilies. Instead, it was mixed with some cashews, chunks of ginger, and a mild sweet sauce on the side. No lemongrass or dried chilies in sight. it just really lacked the flavors promised by the description.

I implore the restaurant to please be true to your menu descriptions. Please don't alter dishes and assume that either customers won't notice or that they would be turned off by...

Excellent red curry! I came here during the week for a late lunch, and there were only a few busy tables so the service was excellent, the food was hot and fresh, and it’s a really friendly neighborhood place. I wanted to mention the time of day because I’m not sure what service is normally like. I had red curry chicken, and my son had Thai fried rice and it was excellent. There’s only a couple of Thai eateries that make the coconut milk seasoned perfect enough with red curry paste. There was a lot of chicken and I was definitely full by the time we left. We both had to get to-go boxes. If you’re going to head down, just keep in mind that they are on a somewhat busy street and parking is a bit limited. We parked on the side street right next to it and it was great. Highly recommend this restaurant! We will definitely be back. Almost forgot to mention that because it was so quiet in there at the time and this place is just really good at customer service, they brought us a very small...

Came here after seeing all the 5 stars review and was disappointed with their food & services. To start off, the food felt like it was just thrown into a pot together to be warmed up. The quality of the food is just very comparable to an American-Thai spot? There are so many other options in this area with more authentic and homemade taste.

Service was also terrible on a Sunday night. Yes, it was busy with two servers. But the lack of communication from our waiter telling us something is out of stock was…shocking. There was no reporting back and we were just left without the option, and no chances to pick something else. Then when the food arrives, the waiter just expect us to take the dish from her although we made plenty of room on the table for her to just set it down. Seems like a very minor thing, but the oddness of it was the icing on top the non-existent service.

There are just much better...