Sai Varee

7485 Rush River Dr Ste 770

Sacramento, CA 95831

Rating:  

While driving around the area, we noticed a Thai restaurant in the shopping plaza that we normally come to for Regent Seafood Restaurant for Chinese food.  Sai Varee sits at the corner of the plaza near CVS in Pocket near Rush River and Windbridge. The restaurant is fairly new to the area since I remembered there being a Mexican restaurant there before. Sal Varee has modern, yet authentic design inside the restaurant. As our party entered, staff quickly greeted us and brought us to a booth. After we sat down and were provided with the menus, staff listed the various drink options on the drink menu and took our drink order. After reviewing the numerous menu options, we decided to order.

Today, we ordered the Yellow Curry with Chicken with a 3/5 spice level, Chicken Larb at 4/5, Papaya Salad at 4/5, Drunken Noodle at 4/5, Pad Thai with Pork, and Pad Broccoli with Chicken. The Yellow Curry with a level 3 spice level was not that spicy at all. The potato chunks tasted a bit dry and was not mushy enough, but the sliced carrots were cooked soft enough. There was an ample amount of quality chicken, but not enough curry. The curry itself was creamy sweet with hits of spice and went well smothered over my rice. The chicken larb had the perfect amount of spice at level 4 and had a warm temperature, but there did not seem to be a lot of meat compared to other Thai restaurants. There seemed to be more vegetables than normal. Although I did not try the papaya salad, I was told by the members of the table that the papaya itself did not taste fresh and crispy, but had a good spice level. Compared to other Thai restaurants, the papaya salad tastes better than Erawan’s but not as good as Siam’s or Thai Orchid’s.

Although the drunken noodle was also ordered at a spice level of 4, it was a whole lot spicier. There were plenty of noodles and a respectable amount of meat. I liked how the drunken noodle was not oily like at other restaurants and how you can taste the savory flavor. The Pad Thai used a different noddle than other restaurants because it is actually thinner instead of wider. The flavor of the Pad Thai sauce tasted better than all of the Thai restaurants in the Sacramento area so far. Each bite tasted fresh and went well with all of component ingredients. The Pad broccoli tasted like a basic chicken stir fry, but did taste fresh and had an ample amount of chicken.

Overall, Sai Varee serves up surprisingly good Thai food in the Pocket area of Sacramento with amazing service. I did not mention this earlier, but the Thai Tea here is delicious and tasted sweet but not too sweet so you can actually still taste the tea. What’s even more amazing is that the Thai Tea has free refills! With great food and free Thai Iced tea refills, Sai Varee makes itself a viable option for Thai food in the area. If I do not feel like going to Siam, I would probably drive over to Sai Varee and skip Erawan. Also, I was able to score a coupon in the neighborhood coupon book to save five dollars. You won’t be disappointed here.