Sawadee Ponsonby Restaurant Review

Last week I was invited by the team at Zomato to attend a blogger meet up at Sawadee Restaurant in Ponsonby.

I have been wanting to attend a bloggers meetup for a long time, however there was never any when I lived back in Wanganui and they have always seemed to fall on days I already had something booked since I’ve been living in Auckland.

We were treated to a large selection of Thai dishes!

That above, is carved out of a watermelon! Actually! I Couldn’t believe it, I thought it was a plastic decoration. I wish I had of gotten a clearer photo of it.

Entree’s
SATAY – Skewers of grilled chicken with peanut sauce.  Satay chicken skewers were my entree of choice when I went to Thailand a few years back – While we didn’t end up having the chicken on skewers I thought these were great and the Peanut Sauce was AMAZING. 

GARI PUFF – Minced chicken with onion and Kumara in puff pastry. I thought these were pretty tasty as well, I don’t like onion but I didn’t notice it in these and  I am loving anything Kumara (Sweet Potato) at the moment. 
TOONG THONG – Money bags with a mix of prawns, chicken and Thai herbs. I thought these were interesting, I’m not huge on deep fried things like these and I don’t like prawns either but they were all minced up so you wouldn’t really notice. 
SAM CHOY – Brie deep fried in wonton pastry with Thai Herbs. I thought these were pretty tasty although quite large for me as I’m not a huge fan of cheese. The herbs in them were tasty too. If you love cheese you’ll love these. 

Mains
GOONG PRIEW WAN
Sweet and Sour Prawns
A mouthwatering stir-fry with fresh cucumber, pineapple, onion and tomato. I don’t really eat seafood so gave this one a miss, although I did try some of the sauce with pineapple and the sauce was really tasty and sweet. Everyone else was raving about the prawns! 

GAI YANG PHU TORN
Thai Grilled Chicken
De-boned whole chicken leg with garlic, black pepper, coriander root and spicy tamarind sauce on the side. I thought this was really tasty, I love chicken and chicken with spices is even better. The spicy tamarind sauce was spicy but tasty. 
LARB PHED LERS ROS
Thai Spicy Duck Salad
Chopped roast duck mixed with rice powder, red onion and chillies in a lime based dressing served with iceberg lettuce. I’ve never tried duck before, and never thought I would however I gave it a go and didn’t mind this dish, I don’t think I would go and order a full plate in a restaurant but mostly because the thought of eating duck grosses me out more than the taste. 
GOONG PAD PHED
Marinated king prawns, stir fried in a hot wok with a red curry sauce. – Once again I didn’t try these due to the non-seafood issue as mentioned above. I heard they were…
GAI SAM ROS
Stir fried chicken with a sweet chilli paste and cashew nuts. I love anything with chicken and cashew nuts and thought this was pretty damn good. 
CALIFORNIA BEEF
Stir fried beef with capsicum, onion and cream cheese. I’m not sure that I’ve ever really had a beef dish when I’ve had Thai cuisine before, I really enjoyed this though. Make sure you try it with the cream cheese. It’s a little bit spicy but the cream cheese cools it down and really makes the dish. 

Dessert
FRESH FRUITS – Pineapple, Apple & Grapes – I LOVE LOVE LOVE fresh pineapple so loved this, although I was really full by this point!

I also had a non-alcoholic cocktail, which Tamara from Zomato would discover could also be called a mocktail 😉 I had the Bangkok punch which was very nice and not something I would usually opt for as I tend not to drink my calories as much as possible.

Overall I really enjoyed Sawadee and would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a restaurant in Ponsonby.  I really liked that the owner had dinner with us and shared her stories of her life and travels. We also got to meet the chef and ask questions about the meals at the end which was really cool. All the staff are Thai as well which makes the restaurant that little bit more authentic. 

I really liked that the dessert was fresh fruit as we didn’t need anything too heavy after all the dishes we sampled. Fresh fruits are a staple in Thailand for dessert and are very refreshing given the heat over there.

Thank you very much to the team at Sawadee for having us and Zomato for organising the meetup.

If you would like to give Sawadee a try you can find them here:
42A Ponsonby Road
Auckland
www.sawadee.co.nz