SAAO THAI & SUSHI — Restaurant in Virginia

This review is long overdue. I've been coming to Saao for the better part of 2 years; the food and atmosphere is what drew me in initially, but the service is a large part of the reason it stands out for me. This is my favorite restaurant in the area (plus as of this writing they are open until 10 pm 7 days a week, who doesn't love some late-night Thai or sushi?). TL;DR: great food, great service, spacious seating in a relaxing atmosphere.

Food: Where do I begin. I have never had food here that I disliked. My favorites are the crispy shrimp gra prao or gra prao ped (basically breaded and fried shrimp or duck with rice and veggies in a spicy Thai chili basil sauce that's to die for). Honestly though I've had everything from their pad Thai to their curries to their sushi and quite enjoyed all of it. As far as I remember it's always come out at a good temperature too. They rotate specials/new menu items fairly regularly as well - I definitely recommend the new poke nachos, I really liked them. Nice mix of crunchy and soft, and a nice marinade on the poke.

Atmosphere: The atmosphere is great for a few reasons. 1.) It's spacious. They have a large restaurant and the tables are spaced out enough to avoid feeling crammed in like you might at other area restaurants like Umai or Yu Noodles (both of which have food I love but spaces that make me prefer take out). 2.) The restaurant is filled with art. The two side walls have multiple carved wooden reliefs that stretch halfway from floor to ceiling, filled with floral patterns. There are multiple wooden statues of the Buddha in various positions around the floor, and there's a table that appears to have been carved out of a single stump, with elephants worked into the sides in a clever manner that makes it look like there are layers of them continuing deeper into the middle of it. There is a small multi-tiered water feature near the bay windows with (fake) flowers floating in it. The music is usually something of the easy-listening variety or slow covers of pop songs - not my favorite, but it's played at a nice volume, not too loud like a lot of places. There are two TVs over the bar, and they normally have sports on one and the news or a cooking show on the other, both muted with captions enabled. All in all, it's just a nice, relaxing vibe.

Service: For the first year or so that I was coming here, I'd always get a table and just put my earbuds in (because I was dining late, I was usually dining alone and it was never crowded enough for me to feel guilty about taking up a table by myself). I enjoy listening to music a lot, so it was nice to come to a spacious restaurant and enjoy good food while listening to music and "introverting" a bit to recharge after work. But one day I came in during a busier time and felt that I should sit at the bar to avoid taking one of their last tables. Next thing you know one of the waitresses starts making conversation with me, we find out we both like watching kdramas and are both computer programmers, and boom. Fast forward a year and I have like 25 new kdramas I need to watch, and I haven't sat anywhere other than the bar since then (shout out to Tiffany and Mint! I'll catch up with the shows eventually I promise 😅). I haven't had the pleasure of getting to know any of the other waitstaff, but everyone is very nice and service is prompt no matter who...

Tldr; both the sushi and Thai food are delicious.

My bf and I decided last minute on sushi. This restaurant is located conveniently in the plaza America complex, so plenty of parking. It was surprisingly dead for a Friday evening. There were only one or two other groups when we got there.

Luckily for us it was happy hour! We started with the happy hour gyoza and calamari. The dipping sauce with the gyoza was shockingly good. I would buy a bottle of that sauce if they sold it!! The calamari was pretty mid and needed more flavor. We also got the happy hour margarita and Sapporo beer. The marg mostly tasted like sour mix. It wasn’t bad, I just like my margs to have at least a hint of tequila.

Next we got the shrimp tempura roll, crunchy spicy salmon roll, and happy hour 7 piece nigiri sushi platter. I’m generally not a fan of avocado (and they put it in pretty much every specialty roll), but I didn’t hate it in the tempura roll. It probably helped me that I (blasphemously) dipped it in the leftover gyoza sauce. So good! The nigiri tasted fresh and was beautifully plated. The salmon roll was also pretty good.

As my main, I got the Pad Gra Prao (sp¿). It had two out of three peppers for the spicy level and that was a gamble for me. I like spicy but I’m not great at handling it. My first couple bites were just a little bit of spice and absolutely devine. Little did I know, the real spice was hiding in the brown sauce. I got about halfway through before I was both sniffling and full. Again, I’m not great at spicy and there’s a solid chance this really isn’t that spicy, I’m just weak. Overall super tasty dish and I brought home the leftovers!

We were both surprised at how good the food and service was with how empty the restaurant was. Don’t sleep on this place. The staff is incredibly nice and the food is totally worth venturing outside of Reston...

We dined here for lunch today and loved everything about this Thai restaurant! It's spacious, displaying plants, flowers, Thai sculptures, and wood carvings. It is a well-maintained and clean place, and the server was amiable and even came by multiple times if we needed her assistance; honestly, the service was top-notch. All the dishes we ordered were tasty. We started with soft shell crab with SAAO curry sauce, the best in Northern Virginia we had ever tried. Salmon Flambé Rolls were fresh and flavorful, and the cucumber under each roll added crunchiness; Drunken Udon Noodles with Seafood was delicious, and Pad Thai with Shrimp was divine, and all seafood that came with our dishes was freshest ever. All the portions were so generous that we couldn't finish them. We will return to try other dishes on the menu soon, as some we tried today were already excellent. We highly recommend this Thai restaurant for any occasion and guarantee delicious Thai food with outstanding service!

UPDATE: We had such a great dining experience last time that we returned today to try other dishes. We ordered tuna nachos for an appetizer, Drunken Noodles with shrimp, a Sushi and sashimi Combo, and a Chirashi bowl. Everything was equally delicious. The California Roll with the Sushi and Sashimi Combo was the best I've had in the DMV. It was well-made with fresh ingredients, and masago inside the roll added a pleasant popping texture. Once again, the service was excellent, and we left the restaurant...