sawadee

Good Thai food nice and spicy full of flavour.
I like the décor of this place a fusion between Thai and old English. The service was excellent, extremely polite and attentive.
For starters we shared fish cakes, which were an eggy consistency, and delicately flavoured but came with a spectacular dipping sauce. I can highly recommend these.
For main I had the duck cooked fried in a mix of herbs and spices, I also tried a green curry. Both of these dishes were delicious but slightly on the spicy side. If I didn’t skimp on the rice and beer this would have been fine, but as it were my mouth was left yearning for an ice cream.
Overall an excellent restaurant. It’s refreshing to get Thai food that has some kick and is not overly sweet!!

We came out really disappointed. The worse thai food ever. Food came cold and tasteless.
Would not recommend. Waste of time and money. Sorry

This little restaurant is an absolute gem. I regularly attend a group for transgender people which organises monthly meals in various restaurants in and around Kemptown which offer a safe and friendly environment. Sawadee is definitely the best I have been to so far. The food surpassed my expectations, especially as it was very reasonably priced - a complete Thai platter with King Prawn Curry, coconut rice, crispy seaweed and fried squid with a chilli dip for less than ten pounds.

The staff are as friendly as they come, and all of us felt very welcome. I will definitely be coming back for more!

We were hungry, and left disappointed. Unrecognizable chicken bits, greasy noodles in stale oil, rubbery fish patty resembling an eraser... The woman was kind enough to take the plate away and apologized. I would not recommend this place for its food.

Excellent food!
Excellent service!

I had been put off this place by the tacky looking signage and orange paintjob.

But in fact it is far better than it's exterior.

The seafood is so good you would think you were right by the sea... well, I guess you are but what I mean is by a real, functional sea where crabs and prawns leap happily into fishermen’s' baskets.

I am always a bit worried when I order prawn dishes in the UK, but I was particularly impressed by the size and quantity of the prawns in my curry at Sawadee.

This is definitely a good place to go in Kemptown if you want hearty food, but nothing too Brightony.

Looking for an authentic taste of Thailand? Here's your place!

Quite often you can be left a little cheated from Thai restaruants as you feel like you have just had a near imitation of the real thing but not here.

The food is fresh, tasty and served very quickly, the service is excellent and you always feel well taken care of!

I have never met a person with a bad word to say about it, highly recommended.

I was living on the road right next to Sawadee when it was refurbished a couple of years ago. I'd always had a look inside and vaguely fancied it when all of a sudden it shut down and magically turned from dull red to bright orange overnight (well, over a few days). The inside was also spruced up, becoming all cream walls and golden gilt and immediately looking far more pleasant.

I went here for a meal with my mum - whenever she makes the journey to Brighton I like to take her somewhere nice and local. After a long afternoon at the beach in the sunshine we didn't fancy venturing very far, so we toddled off up the road to Sawadee. A word of advice - it does get incredibly busy in here, so you'll need to book. We were sent away for an hour or so to come back when a table would be ready. In fact, that's the only downside of this place – it's too busy for its size with the tables rather squished together so that if you're sat on a table for two (like we were), you're practically on top of the people next to you.

Despite that, our table (right in the window – a prime people-watching location) was well worth the wait. The staff are all immaculately dressed, extremely friendly and very welcoming. We went for the six dish set menu option (menu 'b') which was just under £30 for the two of us and included prawn and vegetable tempura, a gorgeous spicy chicken soup, thai green chicken curry, a pork dish, jasmine rice and stir-fried mixed vegetables. The tempura was crisp and cooked perfectly and all the other dishes were incredibly tasty – personally I thought it was exceptional value for money and would definitely head back for more.

One of many Thai restaurants on Kemp Town’s bustling St James’ Street, Sawadee is the bright orange one, so it’s a bit hard to miss.

Offering a choice of wallet-friendly 3 course set menus with a cracking green curry and stir fried pork, and a guilty sugar-coated Thai dessert selection to satisfy your sweet cravings afterwards.

Sawadee’s not a shy place, it’s bright, lively and proudly shows off it’s clientele to beady-eyed passers’ by with its wall-to-wall windows. For those of you who don’t like the idea of being gawped at while you suck on your chicken satay, there’s an oasis of calm in the back room, with white walls adorned in Thai artwork.

It gets quite busy and isn’t the biggest place in the world, so if it’s a romantic meal you’re after, with candles, flattering light, and enough space between you and the next table, give this one a miss.

If you want a meal that is going to offer you beautiful food, good value and presented nicely then you must come here. I have three favorite Thai restaurants in the UK. They are Patara and Pin Petch in London and in Brighton it’s this joint.

Whenever I come to Brighton for a weekend I always come here for a meal, because of the atmosphere and for the food.

You will never have a bad dinner here, and you are also surrounded by lots of quirky little bars and pubs to go onto afterwards, can’t get better than that really!

Lovely food always, the satff very welcoming….. always no. 1 for my choice of thai food.

This is our place of choice and where we send our Thai-seeking guests from the Avalon. I think all of them have said how much they enjoyed the food and experience.

We’ve followed this restaurant since it opened in 2002 and must have eaten here at least 150 times. My partner loves the Thai selection starter and I love the Queen of Thai soup - quite hot and spicy and gets you well warmed up. finely sliced beef with a devilishly hot dip is gorgeous - I want some as I type!

I must have tried every main there is going but the Sea Bass is phenominal and Izzet (the owner) will bone it for you if you wish. There is so much choice and it is all reasonably priced and - according to some guests we had staying at the Avalon who had just returned from Thailand - as close to the real thing they have ever found outside of the country itself.

Along with one (maybe two) other places on St James’s Street this one bucks the credit crunch trend and seems constantly busy. That’s because people are more selective where they choose to spend their money and only do so in places that offer authentic, high quality, well presented and good value fare. It’s a vast shop-front restaurant for people watching but also has a lovely private back room or even a downstairs area for large parties.

I’ve just talked myself into going there soon for the 151st time…

Many people find this a great place to take friends and family. It serves great Thai food using authentic ingredients. The fish soup comes in a great bowl with lid and ample scoop of a spoon to eat it with. It is also possible to get a sliced beef salad or even Bass!
Take-away is also possible.