The LUBUDS group continues to add to their portfolio of restaurants this month with the opening of Sawadee Chef, a modern Thai restaurant with a unique Sichuan twist. That Sichuan twist came courtesy of chef Ronald Shao, a Sichuan native currently helming the kitchen of fine-dining Chinese restaurant MIÁN at The Murray which we had the pleasure of visiting a few months ago. With his latest venture, Chef Shao has incorporated elements of Sichuan cuisine into the Thai food menu bringing the two cuisines together in harmony.
I've had my moments with service provided by the LUBUD team in the past (with different restaurants) and it happened again here at Sawadee Chef. I just think they should seriously engage a training consultant to have their service team work on their manners on how to greet customers. It makes a world of difference!
Thai iced milk tea (泰式凍奶茶) ($48) – My favorite drink on earth to start the meal with, Thai iced milk tea. This was as good as it gets when it comes to Thai iced milk tea. Very rich tea flavors with tons of condensed milk. Excellent start.
Deep-fried prawn cake (泰式炸蝦餅) ($88) – This came with its usual companion of plum sauce. Pretty decent but one we could probably do without this afternoon.
Hainanese chicken (海南雞) ($188) – I was curious of what the portion would be like. Considering the heavy price tag, I was hoping it won't be a miniature sized one like what we had at Sing La, but from my experience with LUBUD restaurants, they were known for small portions.
Chef Shao uses yellow-hair chicken for his Hainanese chicken and it was indeed soft and juicy. And to my pleasant surprise, the portion was pretty generous.
There were three homemade sauces served with the chicken – a traditional black dark soy-based sauce, a Singaporean-style red chili sauce and a Thai green chili sauce, all served on a boat-shaped soy plate. I thought that was pretty thoughtful.
Bangkok Pork Knuckle rice (曼谷豬手飯) ($138) – The Thai-style pork knuckle came with a Cantonese twist thanks to the bed of preserved vegetables underneath.
I thought the sauce would be full of heat but to my surprise, there wasn't a bit of spiciness there.
Sawadee noodle in soup (Sawadee 湯河) ($128) – Little nugget had the noodle soup with sliced ribs, beef balls and bean sprouts. I have asked our server not to put chili in it so not surprisingly, it was a little bland plain.
The overall damage was a bit on the high side for a Thai-style lunch but we were just grateful to have the opportunity to dine out together as a family. Let's hope the next wave (COVID-19) would never come like the experts warned.
Food Rating: 5.5/10
Price: $$$$
Address: Shop G21-G23, G25-G27, G/F, Olympian City 2, 18 Hoi Ting Road, Tai Kok Tsui, Hong Kong
Tel: +852 2881-8803
Closest Metro Station: Olympic
Opening Hours: 12:00pm - 10:30pm daily
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