Wednesday 16 May 2007

Sawadee Thai

1 Tung Shing Lei Rd, Yuen Long, NT
Visited 15th May


A day without pollution is a special day in Hong Kong and a pollution free day often signals a visit to Sawadee Thai. The restaurant is a pleasant kilometre walk from Yuen Long KCR Station, just past Pok Oi Hospital on Castle Peak Rd. Easily Sawadee Thai's best asset is it's well landscaped, outdoor seating, though those relying on cars will love it's carpark. Potted plants, chunky wood benches and plenty of mosquito coils create the perfect place to drink beer while trying and pick out faint stars on clear evenings.

Sawadee Thai offers several menu options; there is a range of tasty Thai dishes, a smaller Indian menu and a large outdoor BBQ area grilling seafood, steaks and vegetables fresh to order. We started our meal with a serve of spring rolls and vegetarian samosas, both were pretty good. The four of us then indulged in a mass of food; Indonesian chicken curry, lamb with mango, fried water spinach, chicken with cashews and a massive bowl of Singapore style curry prawns. The prawns were fantastic; big juicy fellows halved and swimming in a huge bucket of mild sauce. Also superb was the Indonesian curry; the creamy coconut base was a great accompaniment to large chunks of tender chicken and potato. Both the chicken with cashews and water spinach were good. The lamb with mango was perhaps a bit of a weak link - a shame because previously I've thoroughly enjoyed this dish - this time however the meat was tough and the dish lacked adequate chunks of juicy mango that Naomi loves so much. It is hard to resist sucking on bottles of Chang, but Sawadee Thai's winelist looks good and includes a couple of classic Australian producers like Brown Brothers and Taltarni, though not at overly cheap prices.

Sawadee Thai is a good. The service is reasonable - though at times gets a little lost amongst the potted plants. The food is fresh, tasty and abundant; offering some interesting takes on authentic Thai cooking. Our bill came to $700 for four and considering the masses of leftovers I'm having for lunch today this doesn't seem terrible value, though it's certainly not the best bargain in Yuen Long. What Sawadee Thai does offer in is an out of this world location, or at least a location were you feel like your out of Hong Kong. Do yourself a favour one evening and head along to Sawadee Thai for a relaxed meal in an awesome setting.

5 comments:

Edward said...

Andrew,

Thanks for the link!
Planning on visiting HK again later this year - so will be reading your food recommendations with great interest.

Cheers

Edward said...

Andrew,

Not sure if my first comment made it through - the delights of blogger.

Well done on the blog, look forward to reading more, especially as I plan to visit HK later in the year.

Andrew said...

Thanks Edward,

Hong Kong really is an interesting (though at times very expensive) place to be eating and drinking.

When you visit try a squeeze in a trip to Macau. It's one of my favourite destinations and a great place to escape to for a egg tarts and coffee, followed by a fine meal with Portuguese wine.

Anonymous said...

the main problem is they have ashtrays on all the tables including those which are 50% covered hence deemed no smoking areas. Many people smoke. They also allow dogs which is a strict no-no in Hong Kong food business rules.

Anonymous said...

I just had a meal at that place!! I would never go again! It's the equivalent of a cheap cafe in food quality!! We told them the beef in our curry was very tough and they just did not care!! We had to argue with to get it removed from our bill even when one of the waiters tried it and agreed wit us!! The Biryani was also very oily with little flavour!! Not worth a trip!!