Years ago, I’d taken a long, meandering drive to the rural outskirts between Augusta and Aiken to dine at Sawasdee, a colorful Thai restaurant hidden in a plain white building.
Sawasdee has since moved to West Town Shopping Center. The drive isn’t nearly as long, but the restaurant is now as colorful inside as out, with its flowering “trees,” virtual aquariums and bright colors of red and yellow. Now I wanted to see if the food was the same.
My friend Tricia first introduced me to Sawasdee, so she came this time, too. We were the first to dine when we arrived at 5:45 p.m., but other customers—both dine in and takeout—soon started to walk in.
The menu is huge, with lots of helpful photos of what I assume are popular dishes. Appetizers include the restaurant’s signature fried spring rolls, with their crisp layers; a riff on the usual wings, with chicken flats stuffed with ground pork and glass noodles; steamed buns with roast pork; and a huge variety of fried or steamed dumplings.
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There are also Thai salads, flavored with cilantro, heat and acid, often lemon or lime juice; soups, with a coconut milk or gingery galangal base; six different curries; meats stir fried with vegetables; noodle dishes featuring rice or glass noodles; chicken dishes and an amazing-sounding roast duck with chili sauce; specialty fish dishes; fried rice dishes featuring jasmine rice; and more soups, this time loaded with noodles.
There’s also a kids’ menu that I wouldn’t mind ordering from, with chicken teriyaki, chicken nuggets or chicken wings as the entrees, served with rice or fries. Desserts include familiar cake or cheesecake, along with more traditional sweet rice dishes, fried bananas or cream cheese wontons, and Thai donuts.
Entree items are marked as mild, medium or Thai hot, and can be adjusted according to how brave you’re feeling.
I prefer flavor to heat. I also love curry, but don’t often make it at home since it’s not a kid-friendly dish, at least in my household. The photo of the gaeng kheow waan sold me, a green curry loaded with broccoli, green peas, bell peppers and basil, along with my choice of protein, which was chicken. (Other options are beef, pork or fried tofu, with shrimp, squid, duck or fish available for an added cost.) It comes with white rice, but I could have also swapped it for brown or sticky rice for an added cost.
Tricia also went for a photo option: pad kha prow, a stir fry of basil leaves, onion, garlic, bell peppers and chili peppers, with her choice of chicken. Hers was marked medium spice, as was mine, but I made sure to tone it down to mild.
It was the right move. The mild still had a good amount of heat, but it wasn’t overwhelming, just a tantalizing taste on my tongue. And the curry itself was sweet, creamy and light, with lovely flavors of rich coconut milk and lemongrass. And the veggies were crisp and the white chicken nicely cooked. There weren’t a ton of ingredients in the bowl, but who cared? The real star for me was being able to eat as much of the rice as I wanted with that amazing gravy.
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Final verdict? The food was just how I remembered it: delicious, creamy and light. But the most satisfying part, besides the meal, is the fact that Sawasdee—and that yummy curry—is no longer half a county away.
Make Your Reservation
Sawasdee Thai Restaurant
3836 Washington Rd., Suite 7
Open Monday to Saturday, 11 to 9 p.m.
Entrée cost: $12.95 to $17.95
