Sawadee Thai Restaurant

My boyfriend and I came here for a special occasion. Unfortunately, we were very disappointed. While the restaurant itself is nicely set up and decorated and the staff are smart, polite and professional, the food left much to be desired. Our starters were average at best and tasteless at worst. I had to send back my main dish of steamed seabass due to major overcooking. It was tough, chewy and very bland. After waiting 20 minutes for a different main dish, by which time my boyfriend had already finished his, I was very disappointed with a chicken pad tai. Average and bland yet again, which is unacceptable for the price ranges in this restaurant.
Comment on this reader review

Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 1
Thursday, October 13, 2011

10/10... fantastic... EVERYTHING ... THANKYOU EVERY MUCH :D XXX
Comment on this reader review

susan - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Monday, October 10, 2011

We came across this restaurant when walking through Kemp Town on a visit to Brighton. The weather was foul, but the restaurant was warm and inviting. The service was excellent and the staff were friendly and welcoming. The choice on the menu was varied and our starters and main courses were flavoursome and served quickly, so no waiting around. However, we did not feel rushed and even though we were the last clients in the restaurant, we were not hurried out.

I eat Thai food quite regularly in London and was impressed with the quality of the dishes and the friendliness of the staff.

I would return to this restaurant again and will certainly recommend it to friends who live in and visit Brighton.
Comment on this reader review

Karen - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Saturday, July 23, 2011

Sawadee thai, absolutely one of the best in brighton! Splendid and superb meal you will ever try here. Had one of the specialities that is the seabass fish wrapped in banana leaves, tom yum seafood and also the king prawns panang...really full of flavours and taste.Simply my top recommendations for a spicy seafood lover! Not only the food was brilliant, the ambience of the restaurant was stylish and cozy .The warmth and friendly gestures from the attentive staffs makes you even want to go back there again.Thoroughly enjoyed the evening there with my friends.Thumbs-up!
Comment on this reader review

Su, Catherine
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Tuesday, December 07, 2010

I have eaten here on many occasions and have always received great service and lovely food (even accommodating us coming in late or needing to rush off early).

I always recommend this place to friends looking for Thai food in Brighton.
Comment on this reader review

Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Thursday, July 22, 2010

My wife and I went here very recently and had an absolute shocker of a meal with terrible service. We had to ask for menus, our starters arrived before our drinks (and even our plates!). The food was not great to say the least. The tempura had the consistency of chip shop batter (heavy and very greasy) and the mains were greasy and not a patch on a Thai meal we had eaten in Manchester the previous week. Sorry guys, won't be going back.
Comment on this reader review

ES
Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 2
Tuesday, April 20, 2010

We have visited this restaurant with our parents and couldn't fault the service or the food. My other is disabled and when we found it difficult to park the Manager told us we should phone and let him know and he would park his car in a space and reserve it for us!

We preferred the starters and picked several. The coconut prawns were lovely and the cashew nuts with the seaweed was a nice touch rather than it being drowned in salt which is what we have received in other chinese/thai restaurants. The mussels were excellent and the soup that they came in was divine and we had to drink it!

We had a duck dish for main and it was excellent and rich with lots of sauce. We also had a sweet and sour chicken dish which was lovely. The Thai Green curry was very hot and spicy. We also had some friend special rice with beef and there were large chunks of beef in it.

The wine was very good and not overly expensive and very quaffable.

A thorough good night and we will definitely be going back again!
Comment on this reader review

Kazza
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 9
Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Tried Sawadee out for the first time on Saturday night - I wasn't expecting much as my experiences of Thai food in Brighton have been terrible to date. The Red Snapper at Seven Dials is popular for one reason only (it's bring your own bottle). Sukothai on Middle Street is really bad too, awful service, bad food, very disappointing.

So Sawadee was beyond a pleasant surprise. Very friendly staff welcomed us in on a freezing night and we snagged a table straightaway. We started with Thai fishcakes, Khanom jeeb (steamed pork dumplings) and a terrific Green papaya and chilli salad. The dumplings came without a dipping sauce which was a shame, but the zingy dressing on the salad which we ate alongside more than made up for that.

For mains I had a Sweet and sour prawn dish with coconut rice, my friend a Duck curry with sticky rice. The curry had bags of flavour and the duck was succulent and gamey - plus they'd cut all the blubbery fat off which actually pleased me a lot. Some fat-lovers may consider the removal of duck fat downright sacrilege!

House red at £9.95 a bottle was perfectly drinkable - we left drunk, stuffed and happy. I'll definitely go back.
Comment on this reader review

BrightonSuz
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Monday, February 01, 2010

During a stay in Brighton for my boyfriend's birthday, we thought we would give this restaurant a try after having a look around for somewhere to eat. We were extremely impressed with the service Sawadee gave us. The food was delicious and the friendly service we received was 5 star! We spent a good 2 hours there, finishing our drinks and chatting, we felt welcome and comfortable the whole time and they even brought out a compliementry drink and pudding to celebrate my boyfriends birthday.

Will definitley recommend this restaurant to anyone going to the area.
Comment on this reader review

Sam
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Wednesday, January 06, 2010

This is definitely up there on our favourites list for eating out and for recommending to our hotel guests.

We've eaten here since it opened in 2002 and the service and quality has rarely dropped below excellent (OK one or two off nights in 8 years is to be expected).

Izzet, the owner, is friendly and totally customer focused. He's a whirlwind and the restaurant will probably look different every time you go because he cannot sit still.

The mixed starters are our favourite but for an alternative we often go for the grilled slices of beef (with a fierce sauce) or Queen of Thai soup. For mains the steamed fish is excellent, our George loves the stewed ribs and I have something different every time! Tofu is fantastic and I'm not veggie. I even love the sticky rice because it is quite plain and goes really well with some of the spicier mains - such as the chicken with garlic and ginger.

Altogether a friendly and good value for money place. My partner and I celebrated our 25th anniversary here.
Comment on this reader review

avalonbrian - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Friday, January 01, 2010