Sawasdee Thai Restaurant

**Wrote this review a while ago, but S hadn't given me photos from the evening until now... I really enjoyed this place, it's been voted the best Thai place in Indy's Best of the Triangle, and it has awesome reviews on Yelp, so if you're nearby, give it a try!

Also, sorry for the blurry images. 1- They're taken with a phone camera because I forgot my camera, and 2- It was really dark inside...

A while ago, S and I went to Crabtree Valley Mall, and on the way back, we decided to go to Sawasdee for dinner. I have heard about this place for a while now and have wanted to try it, so we went to their new location on Glenwood. It's a pretty well-hidden, dimly-lit place, but don't be deceived by appearances...

We didn't know what to order, so we asked our waitress for suggestions. Upon hearing that we liked spicy food, she immediately pointed out two items: Pad Prik Kra Paw, which is a stir fry with bell peppers, basil, chili, garlic, and onions, served with rice, and Drunken Noodles Chicken (Pad Kee Maw), which is spicy rice noodles, stir-fried in chili sauce with egg and basil leaves. We ordered one of each, as well as a calamari appetizer (too hungry...)

The calamari appetizer was decent (although small), reminded us of Twisted Noodle's fried tofu actually - I think it was the batter.

Calamari with sweet-sour sauce

The Pad Prik Kra Paw (with pork) was super spicy! We ordered both of our dishes to be two stars (out of three) on the spicyness scale, and I consider myself to be quite spicy tolerant, but wow, that was some dish. Other than that, the pork was cooked pretty well, and there was a lot of other flavors.

Pad Prik Kra Paw with pork

The drunken noodles were really, really good. It was also a very spicy dish, and you could tell that the spicyness was blended in beautifully with all the other flavors to create a really nice aroma. Unfortunately, towards the end it got a little too oily for me, but I still finished everything (yes, the entire entire plate!) because it tasted so good. Yup, that's how great it was.

Drunken Noodles Chicken (Pad Kee Maw)

Aaaaand because we loved everything so much, we decided to order dessert! (Funny how when you've eaten a lot of good food, you want to eat more...) We were instantly attracted to one thing on the menu: kanom tuay (sweet coconut pudding). It was served warm in four small cups on a long tray - an elegant presentation. The pudding's consistency was not as soft as custard or jelly, but not as sticky as sticky rice. The coconut flavor was strong but not overwhelming. Overall, it was a great combination of texture and taste. Both of us enjoyed it very much, and we left the restaurant very satisfied.

Sweet coconut pudding (Kanom tuay)

If you can't tell already, I absolutely adored this place. No wonder it's voted one of the best Thai restaurants around here and has such good restaurant reviews. I really want to go to the Capital Blvd location now and see if the food is consistent... or you can try it and let me know how was your visit. I hope it was as enjoyable as mine!

Restaurant: Sawasdee
Price Range: (dinner): $15-25

A note about BOGO sushi

So I don't know if you guys feel the same way, but IMHO, the quality of BOGO sushi in Durham has gone down the past month or so. Sushi Love has hired some new sushi chefs who are not doing so well with the proportions and sauces. S and I have gotten a plate back that was flooded with a mix of eel sauce and spicy mayo. Very disruptive of the flavors of the rolls - we felt like we were eating sweet & sour sushi.

Mt. Fuji, on the other hand, is just a lack of taste and freshness, which I have mentioned already. I tried a couple of rolls the other day, and they have not been memorable or impressive.

I have not been to Shiki Sushi recently, but hopefully they have retained their creative and consistent flavors...

What has happened to the sushi in Durham? The economy, probably. Or maybe just the wrong season for fish?

Korean Grill Buffet

So it was my birthday a couple of weekends ago, and my friends and I went to a Korean barbecue in Raleigh, Korean Grill Buffet, to celebrate! My roomie has heard some pretty good things about this place. It's an all-you-can-eat grill, which of course gets all the guys really excited. The pricing is decent, so I was looking forward to it.

If you don't know how Korean bbq works, basically you have a grill at your table and cook the meat at your own table. Some of the meat has been marinated already, and there is sauce available for the others. I usually make a lettuce wrap with a couple of pieces of grilled beef or pork, a small amount of rice, and tiny bit of Korean chili paste, and I eat the entire wrap in one bite.

The restaurant is medium-sized with a buffet in the middle and grill tables on the sides. We had a rather large party so we took up an entire 8-person table with two grills, but if your group is smaller you'll be pretty close to your neighboring party. The interior was overall a little too dimly lit for my liking, but the individual tables had more lighting from the overhead exhaust fan set-up.

The buffet had the meat assortment at the start: chicken thighs (both marinated and unmarinated), marinated pork belly, marinated pork/ bulgolgi, and unmarinated beef. Moving on there was lettuce, different sauces and kimchi dishes, cold noodles, seaweed salad, etc. Finally, at the end of the buffet were some soups and typical Asian-style dishes like kung pao chicken and mapo tofu.

None of us really went for any other of the side dishes and of course all stacked up on the meat (9 Asians, 6 of them guys.. what did you expect?), and began grilling. Our server was helpful and attentive - changed the grilling surface regularly, replaced the shears when we accidentally took them apart, gave us another set of tongs...overall, pretty good service.

As for the grill itself? It was not bad. The marinated meats had way too much flavor, which was expected - the meats were basically sitting in sauce, so they are soaking up the flavor the entire time. The bulgogi is particularly salty - the thin slices are very easily overseasoned. The unseasoned beef slices were much better, and we enjoyed those a lot. The flavoring of the pork belly was good, although it did not hold up well to the grilling because the texture became rubbery very quickly. Finally, the chicken thighs were very tender, especially the unmarinated ones, but they do take a while to cook completely on the grill, so you should be advised to cut them into small pieces for faster cooking time.

Table-center grill, filled with assorted meat, mushrooms, etc. I am attempting to cut the meat pieces smaller & easier to handle.

After I was satiated with meat, I decided to try some of their other offerings. Nothing in particular impressed me, although I was really horrified by their red bean soup, which was salty... I'm beginning to think that this restaurant really has a salt problem. Actually, most of my fellow diners and I believe that they've made a mistake and used salt instead of sugar in the soup. Whatever the case, it was quite bad.

Overall, it was a decent experience. Lunch price is pretty reasonable at just $12.95 per person on weekends. (You can check out their full menu pricing on their website.) I'm not sure I'll be coming back anytime soon, though, partly because of the drive, and partly because I just don't want to smell like grill for the rest of my day.

Restaurant: Korean Grill Buffet
Pricing: (for lunch) $12-15; (for dinner) $17-20

Merlion

A few weeks ago, we went out to Chapel Hill for dinner. We went to Merlion, a Southeast Asian restaurant, which was recommended by a friend.

Two of my dining companions had a Tom Yum soup for a starter. I tried the broth, and it was very rich and full of flavor. I didn't have any of the seafood, but they said it was nicely cooked.

Moving on to entrees...

Singapore Hainanese Chicken Rice:

This dish was done very authentically because the rice itself was cooked with the chicken broth. The accompanying sauces were garlic sauce, some sort of soy sauce, and sweet & sour sauce. Overall a pretty great dish.

Hokkien Noodles:

It doesn't look very impressive (actually, looks like just a messy pile of noodles and seafood), but the flavor was actually quite neat. Add some of the accompanying chili and lemon, and you have a lot of layers of flavor. If you want a lighter dish, this would be a pretty good choice.

Roti Prata with Chicken Curry:

I really enjoyed this one. The roti was fried to perfection, and the curry was really tasty. My only complaint is that the chicken is pretty dry, but then again, it's chicken breast... so I guess that's to be expected. Other than that, I liked this dish a lot. I recommend ordering some extra roti to go with all the curry sauce that you'll have.

Char Kway Teow:

This was the entree that I actually ordered. It featured both broad and soft noodles and had shrimp, bean sprouts, chives, and eggs, and was seasoned with soy sauce. I liked it a lot, but I must say, it reminded me a lot of 1) ho fun, and 2) pad see ew...

Overall, we had a really nice time here. Price for dinner was a bit high, but we've found that CH restaurants are typically more expensive than Durham. Their lunch special pricing looks pretty good, but unfortunately, it's a bit too far out for us to make it a restaurant to be frequented. If you're in the area, though, you should definitely check it out. It's worth it!

Restaurant: Merlion

Price Range: (dinner) $15-25

Pho 9N9

Finally had a chance to go to Pho 9N9 after I started this blog! I've heard from Vietnamese acquaintances that this is one of the best places to get pho and such, so I'm pretty excited to give it a review.

It was quite a warm day, however, so I actually decided against ordering the pho and went with the grilled pork over vermicelli instead - shown below.

Grilled pork vermicelli, served with fish sauce

Grilled pork on top, vermicelli, and hidden below the vermicelli noodles is a layer of bean sprouts, sliced cucumbers, pickled radishes, etc. Add the fish sauce, and you can imagine that there is plenty of flavor in this simple bowl. However, I will say that Saigon Grill beats Pho 9N9 in the grilled pork department...

Seeing as it's getting colder outside, I will most likely be reviewing 9N9's pho sometime soon.

Pho 9N9
Price Range: $8-10

Sushi Love's non-sushi

Being Asian, we don't think most of the things on Sushi Love's menu are authentic enough for our taste (Asian fusion doesn't really float our boats). Being cheap college students, we always go for the House Fried Rice, which is $8 for dinner.

We decided to share a Salt & Pepper Calamari appetizer ($6) and a Beef Fried Rice...

Salt & Pepper Calamari

House Fried Rice with Beef

The calamari was served over crispy straws with a "yum yum sauce" that tasted like soy sauce, a bit of vinegar, sugar, and water. But it went well with the calamari, so I have nothing against it. I also love the calamari. It didn't have a strong squid-y taste, and just the right amount of chewiness.

The fried rice is your typical fried rice: an assortment of vegetables (carrots, sprouts, scallions), eggs, beef. Some of my friends have complained that it's not salty enough, but I don't like things with too strong of a flavor, so for me, it's just right. Also, if you're not a big eater (like me), the fried rice is probably enough for you to share with another non-big eater if you order an appetizer.

In the past, I've tried a few different things off of Sushi Love's menu, but in the end, I felt like the fried rice was still the best deal (keep in the mind the "cheap college student" part!). If you want to spend a few extra bucks, the pineapple fried rice is indeed very good (get it with shrimp). Just my two cents - let me know what's your favorite at this restaurant...

Restaurant: Sushi Love
Price Range: $10-15

Sushi Love's sushi

I had a sushi craving, so we went out to the popular Sushi Love, across the street from Duke Hospital. Their sushi is "buy 1 get 1 free," so it's a pretty good deal if you get two orders of about the same price.

Sid and I decided to share four rolls: Caterpillar Roll, TNT Roll, Maguro Tartar, and one of their daily specials, the Momo Roll.

From back to front: TNT Roll, Catepillar Roll, Momo Roll (right side), Maguro Tartar

[So a word about the BOGO free sushi around here: Mt. Fuji's sushi used to be half-price on Thursday nights only, and it was the freshest around here. However, now that it's BOGO free everyday, the freshness has decreased significantly, and their rolls are pretty small. Kanki, the Japanese steakhouse, also has BOGO free sushi now, but I feel like their rolls are just too Americanized. There is one more place, Shiki Sushi, which is near NC-54 and I-40 (close to Southpoint), which has very creative rolls and pretty big portions. So depending on where you are, Shiki Sushi or Sushi Love are probably your best bets for BOGO free sushi.]

Our rolls arrived pretty quickly. The Caterpillar (eel roll topped with avocado) and Maguro Tartar (spicy scallops and seared tuna) are rolls almost always get because I love eel and tuna, so I never really have anything bad to say about it.

The TNT Roll has salmon, scallops, and eel, and the outside is wrapped with a layer of seaweed. I thought it was not bad, but that there was almost too many things in one roll. Salmon, scallops, and eel all taste very different, and when you had them all wrapped together, the uniqueness of each taste was sort of lost.

The Momo Roll was, however, the surprise of the day. It was a scallops and spicy mayo roll topped with salmon. I'm not usually a big fan of salmon, but this was the fattiest salmon I've ever had in my life. They also gave us pretty generous cuts of this fatty salmon, which was nice

All in all, a pretty good experience. As I've said before, if you want BOGO free sushi, Sushi Love is a decent choice.

Restaurant: Sushi Love

Buy 1 Get 1 Free sushi

Price: $15-20