Sawasdee Thai Restaurant - My Favourite Thai Restaurant in Vancouver

I feel like I'm getting to a point in my life where birthdays are just birthdays, and sharing a nice meal or experience with a close group of friends is all I need to feel celebrated. :) Anyone else feel the same? Anyway, that's exactly what I did to celebrate my birthday. My friends and I went to Sawasdee Thai, a restaurant I've been dying to go to for years but never had a chance to.

I've read about this Cho Muang ($9.95) on other blogs and totally got influenced to get it. I mean.. look at that detail on these little flower dumplings! To our delight, the meat filling inside these beautiful dumplings were actually really delicious and incredibly flavourful.


The Pad See Ew ($12.95) very much reminds me of the Cantonese dish, "Gone Chao Ow Hao" which also consists of stir fried flat rice noodles, egg and beef. However, there was something different about this which made it distinguish-ably 'Thai'. I don't know what that flavour is, but it made the dish mighty delicious.


These kinds of stir fried noodle dishes are easy victims of being overly oily, but this definitely was not the case. Two thumbs up.


We needed one more meat dish so I chose the Pad Ped Gai ($12.95) with bell pepper, bamboo shoot, and basil leaves in a chili sauce. The dish wasn't actually very spicy which was great for me and my sensitive palate. :P I'm a huge fan of bamboo shoots too so I was excited to see huge pieces in there along with the peppers.


Meta Knight mega raved about the Pad Thai with Tamarind Sauce ($11.95) last time he came so I just absolutely had to try it. Honestly, I wasn't expecting much from it because I've NEVER once in my life, had good Pad Thai, so I almost thought I just didn't like the dish in general. Nope. This was dang good. The noodles were perfectly chewy, it wasn't too dry nor wet, and the prawns were large and plump. Needless to say, I've been converted. But I'm definitely only getting Pad Thai here from now on.


Something that's not pictured here is the Coconut Rice ($2.95). We ordered a bowl of that and it went beautifully with this Roasted Duck Curry ($13.95). This was a red coconut milk curry with fresh pineapple, bell pepper, tomato, basil leaves, and bamboo shoots. This is a MUST ORDER CURRY!! So friggin good.


Last but not least is the Pad Spinach ($8.95) which looks to be only sauteed spinach in a garlic sauce. Bleh right? Nope. This was amazing too... And we inhaled this as fast as any of the other meat dishes.

I rarely give restaurants a full 5/5 rating because it has to mean everything was PERFECT. Sawasdee Thai definitely deserve a 5/5 in my book because my experience WAS actually perfect. From the attentive service and the constant filling of water, to the bang-on dishes that made our entire table laugh and smile with joy, this is the place to be if you want excellent yet affordable Thai food in Vancouver.

Service Rating: 5/5
Food Rating: 5/5
Price: $$

Overall Rating: 5/5

Happy Eating!


                  When a restaurant is THAT good :D

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The Bellagio Buffet (Las Vegas) - Caviar and King Crab?!

Soo.... I went back to the Bellagio Buffet. Again. It was way too good the first time for me not to come back again. If you missed my first experience, click here. Otherwise read on... because this one is epic. 

So as you know, Bellagio Buffet is known as one of the classic, a bit boring, typical buffets in Vegas. Their decor is nothing special and it might even look pretty old and outdated at first glance. However, their food makes up for it in my opinion.

The day I treated my parents to this buffet, they had a 'special event' going on so the price got jacked up to about $50 CAD. Crazy, I know. My wallet was feeling a world of hurt so I was determined to stuff my face until I explode. Good thing that had Alaskan King Crab or else I would've been really sad. They replenish the stash quite often so you'll always be able to grab some good ones.

Their desserts were alright. Nothing to rave about.

 Strawberry and cheese tarts. Interesting.

 

I quite enjoyed their kale/butternut squash/lentil concoction, gnocchi (back), and pesto mash potatoes (right).

As I was walking around, I saw the coolest station ever. It was a caviar/tartare/poke station! On the very left is a beef tartare on toast which was quite good and didn't get me sick. For caviar, they had red tobiko (the fish eggs they use in sushi), salmon roe (also called Ikura in Japanese), and traditional English caviar (most likely sturgeon).

The caviar gets served on a pancake or waffle disc with some cream cheese. The pancake was merely a tool to get the caviar in your mouth so it was essentially tasteless. All in all it was okay and made me feel slightly better about paying $50/person because I've never gotten the opportunity to try sturgeon caviar before.

 Watermelon and feta salad.

I have never been to Hawaii before so it was my first time trying 'poke'. For those of you who are not familiar with poke, click here.

 It was absolutely delicious! I already love the individual flavours of soy, sesame, chili, garlic, and seaweed so when this was combined, WITH raw fish, it was heaven.

Some other items include Southern crawfish boil, meat and cheese platter, individual cups of mac and cheese, and creamed spinach.

 The Alaskan King Crab.

Mushroom gnoochi, homemade ravioli, prime rib, and shrimp cocktail.

The chocolate raspberry mouse in waffle cup (right) was to-die for. It's a must get item!!

The creme brulee was solid but nothing compared to the one at Wynn.

Even though this buffet is not a fancy one and is pricey considering how old it is, it's always reliable and the flavours blow me away each time. Also, if you really want all-you-can-eat Alaskan King Crab, you can be sure you'll get it here.

Service Rating: 3/5
Food Rating: 4/5
Price: $$$$+

Overall Rating: 4/5

Happy Eating!


    Anyone else have to roll out of the buffet like me?

Click here to check out my other Vegas post:
 - The Buffet at TI (Treasure Island)
- BurGR (by Chef Ramsey)
- The Cheesecake Factory (Caesar's Palace)

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Maenam (Dine Out Vancouver) - So. Impressed.

Throughout the years I've always passed by Maenam and heard great things about their Thai food. However, for whatever reason, I never made the conscious effort to really give it a try.

This year during Dine Out Vancouver, I finally got to try it and I'm SOOO glad I did.

Their menu is $28 and is truly a tasting menu for people who love variety. It's a little complicated because for every pair, you choose one starter, one salad, one curry, and one stir fry to share. For dessert, each person gets their own. This process made it difficult for our table of 7 to order so the hostess recommended that we just trust the chef to give us a variety of dishes fit for 7 people. We were apprehensive about our decision at first, but it was actually the best decision EVER.

 Green Papaya Salad had a bit of a spicy kick but overall quite refreshing.

This one was probably the least favourite dish of the bunch. The Hot and Sour soup of Halibut and Thai Basil was too sour for our palate but the abundance of mushrooms and fish made up for it.

OH OH OH. I can drink a gallon of this stuff. If you go to Maenam, make sure you get the Creamy Hot and Sour Soup of Chicken Thighs. The creamy, slightly spicy broth is incredibly flavourful and boosts the right amount of coconut, chicken, and mushroom.

The Lemongrass and Thai Basil Mussels were also a hit with the crowd. Plump, fresh, juicy. Yum.

I forgot the name of the drink but it's essentially a Passionfruit Ginger Beer concoction. The left one is alcoholic and the right is non-alcoholic. I really enjoyed the non-alcoholic version way more and definitely recommend it.

Thai Iced Tea with Rum was also surprisingly good. Who can already see a great night with a couple of these eh? ;)

3 Flavour Pork Ribs is a vague name so I don't know exactly what it is. But I think these pork ribs are flash fried, coated in an indulgent sticky coating, and tossed with thai basil, fresh baby corn (I've only ever had the canned ones so this was a treat!), parsley, and deep fried onion.

A few of my friends thought this Aromatic Curry of Braised Duck Leg was the best dish of the night. I don't like it when curries are just 'sauce'. I like it hearty, meaty, and bountiful. This curry was exactly that so it was a big thumbs up for me.

The Southern Style Tumeric Curry of Seafood had black cod, clams, and mussels. Highly recommended.

I also loved the Grilled Tuna Salad with Green Mango. This was so refreshing to eat in between bites of curry and the mint/tuna combo was just fab.

Unlimited rice!

Oh that Caramelized Pork Belly doe. Think of the most indulgent thing you can think of, and times it by two. This will beat that in one bite. It took the sweet and savoury combo to a whole nother level.

This is essentially a Deconstructed Passion Fruit Tart. With some torched meringue on the side, fresh raspberries, passionfruit sorbet, and tart shell crumbles on the bottom, this was an amazing finish to the dinner. Nothing was too sour, too sweet, or too cold. Everything was where it needed to be.

Rice Doughnut with Pandan Custard was freshly fried and delightfully light despite it being a fried item.

Maenam completely surprised and impressed us from beginning to end. From the aromatic curries to the well balanced broths, everything was spot on and I can't wait to come back again. What we thought would be an underwhelming DOV experience ended up being one of the best DOV experiences we've ever had!

Service Rating: 4/5
Food Rating: 4.5/5
Price: $$$

Overall Rating: 4.5/5

Happy Eating!


    my reaction when I accidentally eat a hot pepper X.X

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