Drunken Poet Cafe Thai Bistro & Sushi Bar — Restaurant in Sarasota

Dad and I wound. Up at Drunken Poet for lunch, by accident. We’d been aiming to go to the French place across the street, but it just looked like too much and we were parked on the opposite side and I LOVE Thai food and sushi and Dad thought Drunken Poet was the place he usually gets his fried rice from, only with outdoor seating. (Mom and Dad ONLY do outdoor dining…)

By the time Dad realized we were not at the restaurant he thought we were at it was too late and we got to eat at Drunken Poet! (I don’t think his preferred fried rice spot has outdoor seating.)

First, the service. Really, excellent. SUCH A GOOD VIBE. I basically just stuck my head inside to ask if we could eat outside and was met with exactly the kind of energy that I look for when I eat out. POSITIVE, WELCOMING. Dad was annoyed I didn’t grab us menus, but I wasn’t sure which things were menus because, turns out, the menus are tablets.

I had never seen that before.

Look, I live in Vermont. I run my Diner’s POS on an iPad and have been doing that for 10 years. When I started there was only one bank in the entire state that worked with tablets. People still write checks in Vermont. So when they gave us the tablets I was basically amazed! Took me a few minutes to figure out how to navigate through to find what I wanted to order. And I have to assume there is a print type option for those who are not tablet proficient.”

Or, honestly, I’m sure our waitress could easily steer diners through the menu without even a print version. She was GOOD.

We ordered Edamame and Veggie Spring Rolls to start. Both were very good. This might sound strange, but the Edamame were really LARGE and steamed perfectly. I appreciated that. The Spring Rolls were long, thin and crispy. Served HOT. Very tasty.

I decided to try two sushi rolls but kind of failed by ordering two spicy rolls. Which were, in effect, identical except for their “main ingredient.” The reason that happened was because there was spicy Conch and I was super excited to see a local ingredient like that. But there was also spicy crawfish! And I couldn’t make myself pick something else. Drunken Poet’s spicy sushi roll game is strong. I was tempted to also order the spicy mussel, but we were only on lunch so I held back!

Both rolls were inside out, rolled very well, cut perfectly. Each piece was bite sized. Which is what a piece of sushi should be: one good bite.

Then I had Pad Thai with Tofu. Which, thankfully, was more “lunch portion size” than full on dinner. Because I was clearly attempting to eat myself to death. Pad Thai was very good, very tasty, triangles of tofu were fried just right and everything was piping hot when it made it to our table. Delicious. GREAT service! My...

We came for a birthday and had made reservations for our party ahead of time to let them know we were coming. We were promptly seated in the back and the ambiance was great. The interior is very well done and we liked the vibe but that was about all we liked.

We ordered 4 different rolls of sushi and some Thai dishes to share for the table. We asked our waitress/waiter (we had two of them because our waiter didn't help us at the beginning and honestly, not much throughout our meal) if we could get the rolls first then the main dishes and she told us that wouldn't be a problem. The rolls took 1.5 hrs to come out. We kept asking if the food would take long and kept getting the generic answer that it was being made. Finally, they came out and we devoured them because we were starving.

Then the waiting game began again. We waited another 30-45 mins for our main dishes. When it came, the dishes were so small. We ordered 3 different plates thinking the food sizes would be like any typical Thai restaurant but we were sorely mistaken. Small quantity for a ridiculous price. There was no spice to it even though we had asked for a little spiciness. When we asked for chili oil our waiter said they don't have it, only chili flakes. After we finished, it took another 20-30 mins just to ask for the bill. There was a service fee added automatically so be aware of this when leaving tip. We wasted so much time waiting that we had to cancel our plans after dinner because we couldn't make it. We will not be back.

Some takeaways: -Terrible service. The only time our waiter came by was to give us food and when we had to flag him down. Did not even come by to refill our waters -Long wait times. I get they were busy but it didn't make sense the people that sat down next to us at the same time ordered, ate, AND paid before we even got our sushi -Expensive!! Be ready to pay $20+ for a dish that could feed only 1-2 people (and that's being generous). And they charge extra for spicy mayo!! -Subpar taste. The sushi was their saving grace but the entrees are nothing special...

The last time I ate at this establishment was subpar at best but, it has been a few years since so I decided to give this restaurant another chance to change my opinion. When my party and I entered we were rushed to a table and left with no menus. After roughly five minutes our waitress appears, note pad in hand asking for our order. We all exchanged a shocked look explaining we had no menus and then she haphazardly starts giving them to us but not before going to separate sections to get them. We laugh it off and continue our night. After placing our orders she comes back with our appetizer with was incorrect (I get it, this happens to everyone) but once we ask her about it she becomes defensive, then explains that there were two rolls with the same Name but it didn’t occur to her to double check which one we wanted (we were unaware that there were multiples). We place our orders after the debacle and one member of our party receives another incorrect item but, we decided to brush it off because it was still a good choice and find no reason to complain further. After finishing our entrees myself and another member started having stomach pains and issues, it was too much of a coincidence to ignore. We tell our waitress we want the check and we see we were charged for the wrong appetizer (that we didn’t eat) and point it out to her. Myself and my partner pay and roughly ten minutes passes and she brings back an empty billfold missing our receipt and card. She makes no attempt to come over to us, we instead try to find her (which most of the staff just stands around looking lost) and explain to her the situation. She mumbles an attempted apology and leaves. I’m unimpressed with the service but most of all the small portions disguised with cheap romaine lettuce to hide the size and copious amounts of oil used as a seasoning. Do yourself a favor and visit one of the many other Thai restaurants located...