Sovereign Modern Thai Cuisine — Restaurant in San Diego

Dined here on a Friday evening after making a reservation just a few hours before. We were seated immediately upon arrival, which was great because we were hungry.

Heads up—the menu on their website isn't the full menu. To see all the options, check the photos section on their Google listing.

Food: To start, we ordered the stir-fry mussels special (chili jam and basil), and they were super yummy! They give you about a pound of mussels, which is nice, but $26 felt a bit steep.

For entrees, I got the spicy Thai basil beef, which was flavorful ground beef served over jasmine rice with a sunny-side-up egg. The egg was severely undercooked to the point the whites still had a snot-like consistency (sorry, lol), so if that isn't your thing and you order this dish, maybe ask for your egg over-medium to ensure it's properly cooked. Aside from that, it was delicious and I totally cleared my plate.

My brother got the shrimp pad Thai, and he wasn’t crazy about it. The shrimp were plump and perfectly cooked, but the dish itself was way too sweet and tangy—more one-note. I don't typically like pad Thai and never order it, so I do not have baseline to judge it on, but I gave it a taste and can agree that it was quite sweet. My brother also felt the noodles were a bit too al dente for his liking and would have preferred them cooked a touch more, but I thought they were fine, so YMMV.

Service: Service was really good—prompt and friendly. I think our server's name was Jess, and he knew the menu well, sharing some of his favorites. This isn’t on him, but the kitchen did get busy halfway through our meal, and they forgot to bring out the vegetable medley side we ordered. We had quite enough food between our entrees and the mussels, so we didn’t even realize it until we reviewed the check at the end of our meal. They had no issue removing it from our check and were quite apologetic.

Overall: I'm still thinking about the food several days later and will definitely be returning to try other things on the menu, including the cocktails. I enjoyed my dining experience, and I would recommend...

This place used to be great with kind servers and solid food — I’m not sure what happened, but the last two visits were each worse than the one before.

First, let’s be clear: they do not have a Michelin star. They are merely recognized, which is a very different thing.

Atmosphere: The outdoor seating is right next to homeless encampments, the ambiance is nonexistent, most of the string patio lights are burned out, heaters don’t work, bugs all over and the tables are dirty. It feels like the owners stopped caring — there’s zero attention to detail.

Food: The quality has completely gone downhill. What used to be clean chicken breast was instead fatty, gristly dark meat that was barely edible. Dishes can’t be customized for vegetarians, and when I asked for spice (like every other Thai restaurant offers), they refused and instead brought me three small plastic takeout containers of chili — like it was a fast food joint. If I wanted to fix my own plate, I’d cook at home, and honestly, I can cook better than what we were served.

Service: The male server in particular was unbelievably rude. My German family politely asked him to repeat something, and he threw up his hands and yelled “Oh my God” before walking away. Completely unprofessional. The female servers were slightly better, but still dismissive. When I explained the food wasn’t good and declined boxes, the uneaten vegetarian entrée wasn’t even removed from the bill — on my mother’s birthday, no less. She left hungry. Their “compensation” was a single scoop of coconut ice cream, which was ironically the only thing edible all night.

Bottom line: From the declining food and rude service to the roaches, dirty surroundings, and broken facilities, this place is a shadow of what it once was. Even if it were free, I would never go back. Save yourself the disappointment and go to a real 5-star...

First of all this place is amazing, the waiter was very attentive he asked us everything we need it before we even started to order food or drinks so just starting there alone is a win in San Diego. The food was amazing to say the least the fact that this place is only been open for a month and a half and it isn’t slam to the gills is beyond me. So starting with the drinks had the simple Sauvignon Blanc which was very refreshing light and bubbly and somewhat dry as well.

Spring Rolls: Solid starter dish, amazing appetizer it was really refreshing the food was crunchy in a good way the white rice wrap was like just fresh everything tasted fresh like they just went to the store picked it up and then made it, It comes with a nice peanut sauce and a light somewhat oily vinaigrette which I liked more than the peanut sauce personally.

Grilled Sirloin w/ Fried Rice: Once again another amazing dish couldn’t have gone wrong with this one you will not be disappointed if you test this out and at the price point it makes it even that much better. When a restaurant over exceed expectations and has an amazing price point that’s when I really have to do is applaud the business model. The sirloin is 8 ounces, extremely tender and juicy and when plopped on top of that tallow fried rice it’s just melting in your mouth at that point you’re just in a happy happy place your taste buds aren’t worthy.

Hat Yai Fried Chicken: last but not least, you can’t go wrong with fried chicken but with the sauce that this comes with it’s like a combination of a sweet and tangy but also like spicy kind of I’m not even sure but it was amazing. It was a Mamma Mia amazing, I will be definitely coming back I hope no one reads this review so that they don’t go out and then there’s a large absurd line outside. If I could give this place seven...