Sylvia Y.
Yelp
Happy to be back in the food crawling (dine out) scene as Vancouver reopens phase by phase. Strong cravings for a killer pad Thai brought me out to Sawasdee. I typically go to the OG place across from Scotia theaters in downtown when my Thai food craving hits, we were a larger party today so the venture out was not ideal at this time, so Main Street it is!
Sawasdee is located in the heart of buzz worthy Main Street, since it's the summer season / covid season, restaurants' patios have taken up a good portion of the already limited street parking available. Note: 80% of side street parking is reserved for residents only with permit. Be prepared to park further away & be ready for a light walk to your destination!
Obviously my go to here was pad Thai - cause I'm basic. We did order this with the added cost option for tamarind sauce for authenticity & it was also recommended. The dish tasted good in terms of freshness, it also had a bit of the street-food flare (taste) to it, which we appreciated. The tamarind sauce was too overwhelming for our liking, the tangy-ness made the dish less ooomph. In short, this was good, it just didn't hit the spot.
Other dishes ordered were:
The papaya salad - lack a wee bit of umami-ness to it, but still super refreshing pre-meal.
Red curry with shrimp (extra dollar I believe) - flavourful & rich, but does not come with rice. Highly recommend ordering the coconut rice on the side as this is a heavier dish alone.
Tiger beef - recommended by our server, solid 3 piece of steak, cooked medium-well, served with a lime-y / peppery(?) sauce on the side. The meat was well seasoned and enjoyable alone without a light drizzle of the sauce. Personally thought the sauce didn't fuse well with the meat.
Stuffed chicken wings - to our surprise, boneless! This is supposed to be veggie stuffed, though deep fried, it just tasted like guilt-free fried chicken. Would order this one again!
Pad Thai woon sen - the underdog of the night. We ordered with the intent of ordering one more dish just in case there's not enough food. The description noted glass noodles, which someone thought it's the thicker potato noodle sheets used in some drunken noodle dishes. We were a little disappointed that it's just a fried vermicelli type plate. Surprisingly, the vermicelli was so flavourful, it took in all the aromatics of the wok, this was a fan fav.
We had a wonderful dinner at Sawasdee, the staff was incredibly attentive + friendly. Pricing also on the friendlier / economical side. All dishes ordered tasted good, not all hit the spot to satisfy my cravings, nonetheless this is a place I'd come back to on occasion. The place at 7:30pm on a Friday night was packed, highly recommend making reservations ahead of time.