Sawadee Thai Cuisine

I aquired my taste for Thai food while in Asia for a long term job assignment. I am a certified Tom Kha Gai fanatic. I don't care that you have to dig all those inedible Bak Choy pieces out of the stuff. As far as I'm concerned, it's the soup of the Gods. OK so that means I go to yet another new Thai restaurant opening in Salt Lake with a super high...almost snobbish...expectation of the Tom Kha Gai. We were not disappointed here. It was superb. As good as the fresh spring rolls were, I almost wish I hadn't ordered them so we could have had another bowl. The guy who brought us our water wasn't very friendly, but our waitress was a real sweetheart. We sat outside in front, on a beatiful late summer evening, not minding the trafffic on South Temple because everything else was just perfect. Salt Lake city is seeing an explosion of new Thai restaurants, so I realize this place is going to be in a tough fight - especially in these tightening economic times. But I for one hope they stick it out, because they are the real deal. - The Proud Liberal Pros: Food, wait service Cons: Pre-waiter guy....smile please! more

I aquired my taste for Thai food while in Asia for a long term job assignment. I am a certified Tom Kha Gai fanatic. I don't care that you have to dig all those inedible Bak Choy pieces out of the stuff. As far as I'm concerned, it's the soup of the Gods.\r \r OK so that means I go to yet another new Thai restaurant opening in Salt Lake with a super high...almost snobbish...expectation of the Tom Kha Gai. We were not disappointed here. It was superb. As good as the fresh spring rolls were, I almost wish I hadn't ordered them so we could have had another bowl. The guy who brought us our water wasn't very friendly, but our waitress was a real sweetheart. We sat outside in front, on a beatiful late summer evening, not minding the trafffic on South Temple because everything else was just perfect.\r \r Salt Lake city is seeing an explosion of new Thai restaurants, so I realize this place is going to be in a tough fight - especially in these tightening economic times. But I for one hope they stick it out, because they are the real deal.\r \r - The Proud Liberal Pros: Food, wait service Cons: Pre-waiter guy....smile please! more

A really nice little restaurant with indoor and outdoor seating and friendly service. The curries are not the best available in the valley, but overall the food is good. more

A really nice little restaurant with indoor and outdoor seating and friendly service. The curries are not the best available in the valley, but overall the food is good. more

I am a big fan of all thai food and have visited several thai restaurants around the valley. This one has the best food, the fastest service, a beautiful location and interior and the best customer service. Highly recommended! more

I am a big fan of all thai food and have visited several thai restaurants around the valley. This one has the best food, the fastest service, a beautiful location and interior and the best customer service. Highly recommended! more

Unlike the gentleman before me I very much love the Massaman Curry. It is my favorite dish. The Pad Thai is delicious too. I love their salad with peanut sauce. I highly recommend this to anyone looking for delicious Thai food! Will go there again and again. more

Unlike the gentleman before me I very much love the Massaman Curry. It is my favorite dish. The Pad Thai is delicious too. I love their salad with peanut sauce. I highly recommend this to anyone looking for delicious Thai food! Will go there again and again. more

Best Thai Food in Utah! One of the cleanest restaurants in Utah! Great decor, too. You can taste the varied flavors and freshness in each bite! All 5 cats of my cats love Sawadee food, too. The employees are the sweetest in Utah! FAST SERVICE! 15 minutes for a take-out order for 10 on a Friday night! All delicious and served HOT. It would take longer than 15 minutes on a Friday night to get served at McDonald's! I lived in Thailand for 6 years and this is as close to authentic Thai as it gets. If anyone thinks it is not authentic Thai ... stay off the jello before you go! Or, go to the WORST place in the Western USA to eat ... Tony Caputo's Deli! Pros: Best Thai Food! Cons: whining yuppies who badmouth this restaurant, they need to stay home & slurp jello more

Best Thai Food in Utah! One of the cleanest restaurants in Utah! Great decor, too. You can taste the varied flavors and freshness in each bite! All 5 cats of my cats love Sawadee food, too. The employees are the sweetest in Utah! FAST SERVICE! 15 minutes for a take-out order for 10 on a Friday night! All delicious and served HOT. It would take longer than 15 minutes on a Friday night to get served at McDonald's! I lived in Thailand for 6 years and this is as close to authentic Thai as it gets. If anyone thinks it is not authentic Thai ... stay off the jello before you go! Or, go to the WORST place in the Western USA to eat ... Tony Caputo's Deli! Pros: Best Thai Food! Cons: whining yuppies who badmouth this restaurant, they need to stay home & slurp jello more

I want to love this restaurant because 1) it is a block from where I live; 2) it has an outdoor patio where I can bring my dog; 3) the inside is very nice; and 4) the servers are polite, nonobtrusive and competent. However, as I sit here in my apartment TRYING to enjoy my leftover Massala curry, it's very difficult. Normally, a curry is complex. The Sawadee Massala curry (it's spelled differently at different places) has only one flavor note: sugar. It is merely a sweet sauce. I have thrown a large pinch of salt onto my plate as well as a half teaspoon of garlic-chili sauce and it is now reasonably edible. Last night in the restaurant, my husband ordered a red curry and I ordered the Massala curry and we were both served bowls of large vegetables with a thin sauce. The vegetables were so large we wondered if they had lost their kitchen help and could not take the time to cut up a potato into more than 4 pieces. Okay, the point of a potato is to deliver the sauce, and a quarter of a large potato does not do the trick. Both dishes were ho-hum and we only ate because we were hungry. The main topic of our conversation was ""When is Dennis Hummell going to re-open Bangkok Thai?"" The restaurant was busy, so it appears that this restaurant appeals to some, but for those of us used to the kind of Thai food that Bangkok Thai served - curries that were complex in flavor, Pad Thais that have more flavor than just sweet, Sawadee will be disappointing. Dennis, where are you?? Pros: Nice location, outdoor patio Cons: Ho-hum Thai food with little complexity or flavor more

I want to love this restaurant because 1) it is a block from where I live; 2) it has an outdoor patio where I can bring my dog; 3) the inside is very nice; and 4) the servers are polite, nonobtrusive and competent. However, as I sit here in my apartment TRYING to enjoy my leftover Massala curry, it's very difficult. Normally, a curry is complex. The Sawadee Massala curry (it's spelled differently at different places) has only one flavor note: sugar. It is merely a sweet sauce. I have thrown a large pinch of salt onto my plate as well as a half teaspoon of garlic-chili sauce and it is now reasonably edible. Last night in the restaurant, my husband ordered a red curry and I ordered the Massala curry and we were both served bowls of large vegetables with a thin sauce. The vegetables were so large we wondered if they had lost their kitchen help and could not take the time to cut up a potato into more than 4 pieces. Okay, the point of a potato is to deliver the sauce, and a quarter of a large potato does not do the trick. Both dishes were ho-hum and we only ate because we were hungry. The main topic of our conversation was "When is Dennis Hummell going to re-open Bangkok Thai?" The restaurant was busy, so it appears that this restaurant appeals to some, but for those of us used to the kind of Thai food that Bangkok Thai served - curries that were complex in flavor, Pad Thais that have more flavor than just sweet, Sawadee will be disappointing. Dennis, where are you?? Pros: Nice location, outdoor patio Cons: Ho-hum Thai food with little complexity or flavor more

I love thai food and has always been a fan of the owners back when they used to own Thai Siam. I have been to Sawadee for about 4 times now and the food has been so-so everytime. The first time, the thai soup that I got was way too salty, the second time, the pad thai was too sweet (it almost seemed that they used ketchup), the third time, we got the salmon stir fry which was too oily, the last time the curry massaman was sour! ew. But seeing how crowded they always are, it seems like it just might be my taste. Probably will not try again. Cons: food more

I love thai food and has always been a fan of the owners back when they used to own Thai Siam. I have been to Sawadee for about 4 times now and the food has been so-so everytime. The first time, the thai soup that I got was way too salty, the second time, the pad thai was too sweet (it almost seemed that they used ketchup), the third time, we got the salmon stir fry which was too oily, the last time the curry massaman was sour! ew. But seeing how crowded they always are, it seems like it just might be my taste. \r Probably will not try again. Cons: food more

We are all really so impressed with all of you who have been to Thailand and tasted real Thai food. Truly impressed!!!\r The fact is, we're not in Thailand. We're in Salt Lake City and this restaurant has good food, good service and the decor is goreous. \r The beef salad was exceptional. \r The shrimp in the Pad Thai was fresh and delicious.\r Sitting on the patio was lovely and they catered to my 3 year old. more

We are all really so impressed with all of you who have been to Thailand and tasted real Thai food. Truly impressed!!! The fact is, we're not in Thailand. We're in Salt Lake City and this restaurant has good food, good service and the decor is goreous. The beef salad was exceptional. The shrimp in the Pad Thai was fresh and delicious. Sitting on the patio was lovely and they catered to my 3 year old. more

This restaurant is great! I love Thai food and other restaurants that I love to eat at are Thaifoon and La Cai (both in Salt Lake) but this one is where I go for lunch. The lunch menu can't be beat ($6.95 for your choice of two entrees a springroll and a salad). I always order the Tom Kha Gai and the Panang Curry. On one occasion it wasn't quite as spicy as I like so the next time I went I requested a little extra spice. They kicked it up a notch and it was absolutely delicious! What I'm impressed with most besides the excellent food and prices, is the cleanliness. They bring out ice water in glass goblets that are absolutely spot free and the silverware is always shining. The decor on the walls is all great, too. Pros: Excellent Service, Great Food, Clean more

This restaurant is great! I love Thai food and other restaurants that I love to eat at are Thaifoon and La Cai (both in Salt Lake) but this one is where I go for lunch. The lunch menu can't be beat ($6.95 for your choice of two entrees a springroll and a salad). I always order the Tom Kha Gai and the Panang Curry. On one occasion it wasn't quite as spicy as I like so the next time I went I requested a little extra spice. They kicked it up a notch and it was absolutely delicious!\r \r What I'm impressed with most besides the excellent food and prices, is the cleanliness. They bring out ice water in glass goblets that are absolutely spot free and the silverware is always shining. The decor on the walls is all great, too. Pros: Excellent Service, Great Food, Clean more

I am a big fan of Thai food so I was excited when Sawadee opened - but I must say, both experiences have been extremely disappointing. The first time I dined at Sawadee my party was seated promptly, but it took the server 10 minutes to come over and take our drink orders (which were never refilled). The restaurant had just opened and it was pretty busy so I gave them a break. Last weekend by boyfriend and I decided to give it another shot. There were several open tables for two, but we were seated in the front of the restaurant adjacent to a bench where patrons who were waiting to be seated were naturally going to sit. This in and of itself was ridiculous and my appetite was fading as patron after patron sat down - the back of their head only mere inches from me. But the ultimate downfall was when I realized that a table of 6 that had been seated 20 minutes after us had already received their food. We had received one beverage each with no one in sight to offer us a refill. An hour passed and our food never came - so we grabbed another server (ours was no where to be found) and asked for our order to be cancelled so we could pay for our drinks and go somewhere else. Of course, immediately after that request our food came but neither of us were in any mood to eat, what with four women crammed on a bench right next to us, flipping their hair around. The manager never offered an apology and nothing was done to try and rectify our situation. We will never dine at Sawadee again. The food is nothing special (if you even get it) and the service is horrendous. I would not recommend this restaurant to anyone. Cons: Service, Food more

I am a big fan of Thai food so I was excited when Sawadee opened - but I must say, both experiences have been extremely disappointing. The first time I dined at Sawadee my party was seated promptly, but it took the server 10 minutes to come over and take our drink orders (which were never refilled). The restaurant had just opened and it was pretty busy so I gave them a break. Last weekend by boyfriend and I decided to give it another shot. There were several open tables for two, but we were seated in the front of the restaurant adjacent to a bench where patrons who were waiting to be seated were naturally going to sit. This in and of itself was ridiculous and my appetite was fading as patron after patron sat down - the back of their head only mere inches from me. But the ultimate downfall was when I realized that a table of 6 that had been seated 20 minutes after us had already received their food. We had received one beverage each with no one in sight to offer us a refill. An hour passed and our food never came - so we grabbed another server (ours was no where to be found) and asked for our order to be cancelled so we could pay for our drinks and go somewhere else. Of course, immediately after that request our food came but neither of us were in any mood to eat, what with four women crammed on a bench right next to us, flipping their hair around. The manager never offered an apology and nothing was done to try and rectify our situation. We will never dine at Sawadee again. The food is nothing special (if you even get it) and the service is horrendous. I would not recommend this restaurant to anyone. Cons: Service, Food more