Baan Sawan Thai Bistro - Columbia

Uh, considering I'm reviewing Thai restaurants and all they show are pictures of the dishes with no adequate discretion, and no prices, I won't eat here!

You had me at Thai used book store. We were only in the area for a couple nights and I am always looking for unique things to try and this place kept popping up on my radar. It's tiny, only open 2 nights a week, and has a rotating menu that you can see online. What's on the menu is what they have so if you don't see it, it's probably not available. It was a little bit of a challenge to feed our sometimes picky kids but my husband and I enjoyed it immensely. The kids were entertained with the assortment of board games available and the bookshop. Perfect service.

It pains me to write a critical review of my once favorite Thai fine dining options in town. I loved this bistro when they were completely focused on the dining part, and had full table service, but perhaps this isn't what their vision is anymore. I am reviewing specifically the bistro component, less so the used books part. The service is fantastic, never any complaints, everything came out in reasonable time, and everyone was extremely cordial. The criticism comes to the food, where for the price point of the restaurant it's reasonable to expect the food to be elevated past another fast Thai food restaurant. But I think the food here fell short of that unfortunately. Each of the dishes were quite unfortunate in their flavor profiles while reasonable plated for my rib dish. The meat was braised, and the texture was not something to particularly envy. It was quite tender, I do give it that, however the flavor profile just felt flat. The salad was fine, yet was overly dressed with what I would determine to be fish sauce, making it too salty. The tofu vegetarian curry dish was also unfortunate because it had near no flavor except for a component of spice from some pepper. As another insult, the rice was not cooked well. I felt that the rice was overly dry. I would love to give you guys another chance. I recall fondly of a sous-vide duck curry and your other chicken curry you served 3-4 years prior, which were divine. I have been wanting to come ever since, and this time was quite disappointing.

I had high hopes for this place but unfortunately it didn't meet expectations. I had a tofu basil dish. It was very much 1 note and didn't pack flavor like other thai dishes. I did appreciate the amount of tofu and veggies. I finished it but wasn't satisfied. I should have driven to Mai Thai or Lotus Thai. I hate to say this but it kind of tasted like Dukes Pad Thai quality for a much higher price point. So sad to say this about a local family restaurant. The other dishes people had looked tasty though. I would give it another try if someone else was paying.

Amazing meal everything was great, best matzah ball soup in town!