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| - Better for take-out than for eat-in.
Suwanasak doesn't offer much in the way of ambience (formica tables, metal chairs that scrape across the tile floor in spine-tingling manner, fluorescent lights that imbue your dining companions with a sickly green tinge).
We came on a Friday night and placed our order at the counter. We were helped promptly by a friendly and cheerful young man who told us it would be 30 minutes before we got our food. Fine, that's not outside the realm of normal for a restaurant. Problem is, an hour went by before our entrees were in front of us. They also ran out of green curry paste for my chicken green curry, so they replaced it with red curry paste without asking me first, and ran out of shrimp for my friend's dish so replaced it with tofu (in this case they did consult her -- after we had already been waiting 45 minutes for our food).
By now, you're probably thinking this sounds like a nightmare dining experience. Actually, the deliciousness of the food largely made up for it. (The man working the counter was extremely apologetic and nice, and we could see the staff in the kitchen absolutely working their butts off, but, well, it just seems like they need more capacity.) For appetizers we had spring rolls (standard) and a Thai green papaya salad (off-the-charts spicy... beware serious injury of your mucous membranes). For entrees, my hubby and friend had the Pha Thai (same as Pad Thai?) with tofu (originally with shrimp) and the Pha Thaley (mixed seafood in a savory sauce with ginger, lime, lemongrass, and basil). I had the chicken red curry (supposed to be green curry). I asked for it spicy and it tasted rather mild, but this might have been in comparison to the firebomb green papaya salad. In any case, after that salad I wasn't in the mood for any more heat so it worked out fine. Lots of vegetables, and the sauce was full of yummy coconut milk and not greasy.
Short version: great food, but call in your order ahead of time and assume it will take longer than they tell you.
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