The colleague was craving for Thai so we ended up at Sawadee Thai Cuisine at Bugis. The location is just opposite the downtown exit, which makes it a convenient and accessible one. I always walk past this place but never had the intention of going in so I’m glad I finally had the chance to try out their food. The restaurant wasn’t crowded and I spotted a few Thai customers in the restaurant so hopefully there is some standard here

Thai Ice Milk Tea $5

We made them re-do our drinks just cos the first one was so diluted we don’t really know what we were drinking. Even though the second one was better, the tea lacked fragrance which makes the overall taste very mild and forgettable

Pomelo Salad $15 (large)

A light refreshing salad with generous portion of pomelo, mixed with apple slices. Some may find this too sweet, but I think this dish would have scored more brownie points if they added more chilli to it

Sawadee Appetiser Platter $42

Thai rice crackers with chicken dip, Mango salad, Thai crystal noodle salad, Fish cakes and Crab springrolls

The mango salad was very shiok and spicy. The raw green mango with peanuts and enough spice was an awesome combination. I thought the fish cakes were pretty good too, and so were the glass noodle salad

Thai Spicy & Sour Soup with Sliced Fish $18

Well, it was sour and definitely not spicy

Chose sliced fish cos the colleague don’t take seafood

Thai Style Otah $15

The otah was decent. Fish paste blend with coconut milk, but I thought if there were just a little more spices blended to it, it would have enhanced the overall flavour of the dish

Thai Stuffed Chicken Wings $15 (5 pcs)

Deboned chicken wings with shitake mushrooms. The chicken wings were a favourite. Crispy, tender and stuffed with surprise. Though the chicken bits inside were a little too salty

Stringbeans with Prawns and Thai Chilli Paste $10

Duck Curry $15

Red curry with duck meat and lychee. Not one you will find often on the menu. Pretty decent in taste

Olive Rice $15

With chicken, dried shrimps, chilli and onions. The olive rice here is really good, and especially fragrant when you mixed it with the dried shrimps. The chicken however was too sweet

Phad Thai $10

Phad thai was disappointing. It didn’t quite taste like phad thai, more like just your usual fried kway teow perhaps

Mango Sticky Rice $6

Mao Shan Wang Sticky Rice $12

This was a special and we were attracted to it. The dessert was probably the best of the meal with thick and gooey durian paste and lovely glutinous rice

I think finding a Thai restaurant in Singapore that serves delicious Thai cuisine can be a challenge. Some restaurants have improvised their dishes to suit the local tastebuds’ so much I can’t tell whether I’m eating Thai or local food. Sawadee Thai, overall, serves okay food, if you picked the right ones. But I can’t seem find the selling point here. It’s like those meant to be fragrant not fragrant, spicy not spicy. It felt like there was a mis-match in flavours, and another of those Thai restaurants

Sawadee Thai Cuisine

9 Tan Quee Lan Street, S(188098)