Sang Dao

*** Sang Dao has moved, and updated post can be found here.

I've been keeping my ears and eyes open for a good Thai/Laotian Restaurant here in San Diego, and have been given a few leads. Sang Dao had been recommended to me by a friend. So here we are at the dusty East end of National Avenue in Logan Heights:

Sang Dao is located next to Muang Laos Market #1, across the street from a 99 cent Chinese Food restaurant. The bars on all the doors and windows tell you what kind of neighborhood you're in, but this is where you sometimes find the best food. Enter the restaurant and you immediately know it's a real "Family" business; at a table in the back people are chatting, teenagers are watching television, and the youngsters are playing catch in the middle of the restaurant.

As we sat, I noticed the comprehensive condiment tray with everything from the standard Sriracha to shrimp paste; so far so good. A very serious, stoic, Young Lady took our order, and soon we could smell the garlic in the air, and the sound of a spatula stirring a wok!

The first dish served was the Drunken Noodles with Shrimp ($5.95):

The shrimp were fresh and tasty, the heat was very nice, and the noodles were cooked well. We also enjoyed the Chinese Broccoli in the dish. To us the dish was much too "wet", and lacked flavor beyond the heat. There seemed to be a good amount of garlic, but we really couldn't taste it, a bit more sweetness would have made this dish much more enjoyable. As we were eating the noodles the Spicy Catfish was delivered ($6.95):

The Missus had ordered this and thought it was pretty good. I however thought that it was too oily and muddy tasting. The dish featured slices of catfish that were fried, than stir fried with a sauce, I could make out the taste of galangal, but not enough to cancel out the muddy  taste. Overall we thought this dish was the weakest.

Our Beef Salad (Yum Nua- $5.95) was served next:

This dish was delici-yoso, and easily the best dish of the evening. The dish had a nice, sweet, spicy, salty, and sour flavor. The beef was cooked to perfection, and was not so hot as to start cooking/wilting the vegetables. A very balanced, very nice plate. One thing is that the "appetizer/salad sin" was committed here. That is, the salad was served after some of the main courses. Didn't matter much with us, we polished this one off.

The Spicy Fried Rice with Chicken ($6.95) was served next, as you can tell, we were on our "reverse-Adkins" tonight:

Now I ate almost the whole plate, the Missus only had a few spoonfuls, she thought the taste of shrimp paste over-powered everything, she's also not a fan of dark meat chicken, which was present here. I thought it was good, not great, but good. Yes, there was alot of shrimp paste, but I enjoyed the spiciness, saltiness, and thought the green onions added nice flavor. I think a bit of lime might have balanced out the dish a bit more.

Overall, I thought that this was really a good "home-cooked" meal. The food had that "homey" feel, and if thought of in that way, it was not bad at all. Also, the prices are really good by San Diego standards. The other thing I totally forgot was to order Larb, which is probably the best known of Laotian dishes. During the whole meal we were the only customers in the Restaurant. Service was efficient and fast, food is simple and very "home-style".

Sang Dao
4212 National Avenue
San Diego, CA 92113

Open Tues-Sun 10AM-8PM