Midtown Lunch

Sawatdee, the lime green new Thai restaurant, opened on South St last Friday and both Meal Ticket and Yelp Philly hinted that I needed to check out their lunch menu.

Like Erawan, the lunch menu has you pick 3 courses. Here they do them for $9.95.

First the soup; I tried 2 out of the 3 and the Tom Yum Gai was much better than the Tom Khai Gai, since the later tasted mostly just like coconut milk.

Next you can choose from either the salads or an appetizer. The salads seemed pretty plain. Chicken and shrimp dumplings came with two and were  way better than expected. Using chicken, rather than typical pork filling, worked out well. Crispy tofu came with 3 pieces and was similar to those at Erawan, more of a texture than a flavor thing. I say, stick with the dumplings.

The coconut milk shrimp curry did not suffer from the same problem as the soup; it was far from one note. And the most pleasant surprise was that when we requested the curry medium spicy, it was actually spicy. I would almost be worried to find out what their “hot” would feel like.

I thought I could be taking a risk by ordering the tilapia, but it was beautiful. There are 2 preparations of pan fried tilapia, I went with the Choo Chee Pla, more coconut milk plus 3 little pieces of baby bok choy. My piece of fish was crispy and tender. The sauce was delicate and totally different from the curry. To include this in the $10 prix fix is a total steal.

THE + (What somebody who likes this place would say)

• Can I get some decent Thai food in Center City?
• $10 for 3 courses, including a classy entree is amazing
• Fish, meat, chicken, veggies? Something for everyone

THE – (What somebody who doesn’t like this place would say)

• I love a rich Thai coconut soup

Sawatdee, 1501 South St (@ 15th St), 215-790-1299