Sawatdee Saint Paul — Restaurant in Saint Paul

There are other options for SE asian cuisine in the area. We went in around 2:30 and bummed when we found out we missed the buffet, but after reading the reviews, we thought we would give it a go anyway. If the buffet was good ,how bad could the food be? We were the only couple there. After getting our waters and menu, the waiter didn't come back for about 20 mins. After actually ordering food, it all came put one after the other, sowly but surely. Unfortunately, it was subpar, to say the least. We ordered Fresh Spring Rolls, Basil Chicken, laab, Fried Rice, and Pad Thai.

The chicken and shrimp fresh spring rolls looked like it was wrapped by a 5 year old. There was 1 shrimp in each roll cut in half. The noodles were chopped up; pair that with the ground chicken and shredded lettuce, making it a nightmare to take a bite. Everything was everywhere. There is no flavor in the roll itself. Sweet sauce that came with it was some kind of watered-down sugar. 0/5

The basil chicken was not a basil stir fry, more like a pepper chicken. It had a total of 6 basil leaves mixed in with an overabundance of red and green bell peppers and mushrooms. Chicken was barely present as well. Basil isn't a garnish in a basil stir fry. It's the star of the dish. What little basil and chicken that was there was great tasting. 2/5

The fried rice was fried rice. It's hard to get that wrong. 4/5

The pad thai noodles were chopped up with a giant puddle of soup at the bottom of the plate. Felt like we were eating a tamarind flavor pho after a while. 2/5

The worst offender of our lunch was the Laab. It was sliced beef that was cooked and thrown in a bowl with grounded rice powder and green onions mixed in on a bed of lettuce. No other seasonings were used. No salt. No fish sauce. Nothing. 0/5

Wouldn't recommend it, and I don't know if the recently highly praised lunch buffet would be anything different. The place was great. People were nice when we were tended to but the food should be just as good and unfortunately it completely missed...

I don't think I've ever thrown away take out food or written a negative food review before, but here we go. Maybe it's an off night for them... I travel constantly and I've had my favorite dish pad see ew at well over 50 restaurants. This was exceptionally different, and worse. The noodles they are using are awful and thin, not wide, tender, and stretchy. (Not even sure they are rice noodles... they look and feel more like a dehydrated fettucine.) The noodles were also undercooked, stained (not coated), and looked like they never saw a wok or a flame, no charring. Ordered 5/5 spicy and it's just not hot. I can't taste or see any Thai chillies, the only flavor here is black pepper. The sauce was super thin and flavorless, was only mildly sweet, and did not taste like any kind of soy sauce. The fried tofu was flavorless and overcooked. The broccoli also never saw a flame or hot surface, looks and tastes like it was boiled or steamed. The small amount of egg present was cooked fine, but soggy from the large amount of black pepper water. I'm certainly not an expert in making Thai food, but I think the restaurant could source better rice noodles, use Thai chillies instead of black pepper, marinate their tofu, fry their tofu for less time, thicken and adjust their sauce recipe, and use a hot hot hot wok to cook and char the noodles, broccoli, tofu, and egg. I'm going to try to finish the broccoli and toss the rest. Disappointing for such a simple dish. $16.50 after tax.

Edit: On first glance the reviews for this restaurant seemed pretty positive so I thought my experience was isolated, but scrolling through them I see now that they are overwhelmingly negative and have been for some time. Something suspicious is going on with their total star rating which is not consistent with the actual reviews. And, this restaurant is doing nothing in response to the feedback provided. Their food is bad and...

After Church on Sunday evening November 26, my girlfriend and I stopped by to eat dinner at this restaurant. The waiter found us a table and attended to us. The food was okay. The appetizers (spicy Noodles) were great. My girlfriend did not like the Thai Roast Duck because it had more bones and fat than meat with grayish sauce. The main reason for the low rating was on safety especially with the recent national emphasis it. My girlfriend and I felt very unsafe throughout the evening. It was very easy for non-seated guests to within seconds open the front door and enter the dinning area (where everyone is eating) without being approached by a staff person. There was an unhoused person who entered the restaurant 3 times in 5 minutes apart and came to the dinning area asking people for money. From prior experiences, if he was very angry at our decline to give money, he would have spit in our face or food. From what's happening in society today, he would have pulled a gun and asked for our money. We informed the waiter about the unhoused person frequently coming into the dinning area asking everyone for money. The waiter said he had spoken to him about it but he keeps coming back. I took the waiter to report it to the police and to redesign the ease of access between the front door to the dinning area and people required to see a staff person before entering the dinning area. Also, it looks like there is only the front door to exit if there was an emergency. This lack of safety in the restaurant is the reason for my lowest ratings. With this knowledge, my girlfriend and I do not plan on stopping by ever until changes are...