I've been coming here multiple times for the past couple of weeks and needless to say, the food does not disappoint. Not only is the chicken pad Thai delicious, but the Thai iced tea is perfection. The staff are all kind and welcoming, and the food is always speedy! That's just things I've eaten as takeout alone! I'm excited to dine-in soon and experience SAAO's dining room. read more

Had a long layover in Dulles and was able to meet the fam for dinner! The meat eaters raved about the satay and how moist the chicken was (usually it can get dry if not prepared well)- the peanut sauce wasn't the best I've had, and the vinaigrette was too sweet for me. The saoo sushi roll was good- the plating threw us off as it looks like 4 pieces, but it's 8. The green curry had such a good flavor, and the tofu just soaked up so much curry. The saoo noodles had a surprising spice kick to it (although compared to a pad Thai, I think I'd still pick that). The vegetable tempura was also surprising light and not greasy, which is hard to do. The server was super nice, refilled our waters, and packed up our leftovers. read more

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They do Thai food and sushi very well! The panang curry was very delicious. I got this curry hot and it was very manageable for my spice tolerance. The curry puff are also a must try here. Perfectly seasoned with a touch of sweetness! I did not try the sushi but the people who did try it said it was very good! read more

A fantastic find! This place is tucked away in the Plaza America shopping center area, and I can't believe how many times we drove right by without knowing it was there. We've dined here multiple times and never had a bad experience. The staff is super kind and we're always greeted as soon as we come in the door. They have some of the best Chicken Fried Rice in the area, and the sushi menu offers many choices. The spring rolls are very good as well. This is a great place for either lunch or dinner, but if you go for lunch, be sure to checkout their lunch specials. read more

I didn't try Thai menu,so this review is about Japanese menu. Ambiance is nothing special,not inviting,chairs are not for cozy night, more like basic breakfast furniture. Service was extremely indifferent,nothing wrong or insulting,just minimal attention to details. Food wasn't bad,but nothing to be excited about either. Rolls were nice,rice was not properly seasoned. Worst part of my experience was sounding luxurious torched salmon belly appetizer. It was delivered in flame,looked great and promising. But alcohol on the bottom didn't evaporate properly,cucumber slices looked out of place. Salmon belly was dried out,which never happened in my life,but salmon belly was tasteless.All in all,it's an okay place if you will be compelled to eat here. read more

SAAO Thai & Sushi - Torched salmon belly ( overcooked and underwhelming) - Thai Near Me - Reston, Virginia

Everything about this restaurant is great. Sushi was extremely fresh. Spring rolls where flavorful, and my pad thai was Hot HOT. The service was top notch. And the ambiance was delightful. read more

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Pad Thai was good and portions were filling - nothing out of this world but good enough Also got the Nigiri platter from the happy hour menu and that was okay as well -- does the job but the fish didn't taste as fresh. The price justifies this though. read more

We are really lucky in this area to have many great Thai restaurants. Saao is the latest that I tried and it was spacious, friendly, tasty and easy to park. That checks off just about everything I would be looking for. The space itself is quite large. We were seated at a table by the window which was very pleasant. The menu has a lot to choose from including lunch specials. I selected the drunken noodles with beef (you can choose your protein) which did not disappoint. The dish was tasty and a good-sized portion. The entrée also came with the choice of a side soup or salad. The salad I enjoyed was nice and crisp with a nice dressing. For dessert, I had the crispy bananas with toasted coconut ice cream. The bananas were warm and comforting and the coconut ice cream was super. Our lunch was enjoyable and we never felt rushed. Parking is easy in the Plaza America lot and then you just walk to the location which is right at the end. Saao will definitely be added to our list. read more

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Great sushi and thai spot! Plenty of indoor seating. The food was delicious. Service was quick and friendly.

First time visiting this new restaurant. Clean and wonderful ambiance, as well as very friendly service. We got Happy Hour items and regular price items. Calamari was super hot and fresh with yummy orange sauce. Takoyaki was different, fresh and nicely presented. Happy hour great price for the Nigiri which was 7 pieces as well as Atlantic Roll which was the happy hour specialty roll on Wednesday. We also got King Dragon roll and Daytona roll at regular pricing, but super yummy! They leave the tails on for the eel which we love. Daytona roll was nice and crunchy. Overall, we are excited to return and order more!!! Thanks for making our experience wonderful. read more

For years, we've driven by this place but never thought to try it. I checked the Yelp reviews recently and saw they were good, so we decided to give it a try. We were here on a Sunday just before 5 p.m. which is the time they open on that day. There was no parking directly outside the place so, we needed to figure out where to park. Around the corner of the building was an entrance to a garage. We went inside and noticed that there were some handicapped spots which are a big help since my husband had a knee replacement. We walked back outside to the restaurant entrance. What we didn't know at the time was there was an entrance to a corridor next to the restaurant that connects to the garage so there's no need to walk in the rain as the outside part is covered. Once in the restaurant, we were immediately greeted and seated. The place is spacious with good spacing of the tables so no one feels cramped. Our server came to take our drink orders. I had a Thai iced tea which was well made and tasty. My husband had a Singha beer. We had looked at the menu at home. They have a Thai menu and a Japanese one, too. For starters, my husband had miso soup while I had seaweed soup (which is usually called wakame soup). My husband thought his miso while tasty was a bit too salty. I liked my soup. It had a generous amount of seaweed and good sized pieces of tofu in it. The broth was tasty and properly salted. For my main course, I chose "Pad Garlic" which consists of: "steamed mixed vegetables sauteed with garlic sauce". Jasmine rice is given with this meal. I chose chicken as my protein. The veggies were fresh ones and many could have been steamed a bit longer as they were tough to chew. Others were better prepared. The assortment was nice as it included a good selection of items. The biggest disappointment was that there wasn't even a hint of garlic in it. Had it been there, this dish would have been much better. The dish had white meat chicken, and while properly cooked, it lacked any flavor. My husband had better luck with his dish. He chose "SAAO cashew". For his protein, he chose fried shrimp. He really liked his dish. The sauce was a generous portion while the fried shrimp were jumbo ones. They didn't skimp on the cashews. This dish also comes with Jasmine rice. Service was good without being overbearing. As we ate, more customers arrived. We would go back again but I will order something different. Maybe we will try a Japanese entree or two. read more

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The food and service were off the charts! Thai and sushi together?! Yes please! And definitely order the crispy banana and coconut ice cream for desert! 10 out of 10! read more

I can't thank the SAAO team enough for making my event in January a huge success! I had a gathering of 20+ people at my home and decided to cater. SAAO was so accommodating on my menu; Don and the team were very responsive both on the menu and the pricing. And day of, they helped carry everything out to my car! And most importantly, the food was delicious!!! Spring Rolls, Shrimp Pad Thai, Papaya Salad, Chicken Cashew, a beautiful sushi platter, and more! Thank you SAAO team! read more

Excellent Sushi and reasonable price, Thai food is excellent as well, which makes it a tough decision for what to order. Service is excellent read more

Best Thai food in the NOVA area. Been coming here for over a year now. Staff is super friendly, ambiance is great for groups, dates, And casual eating, and every dish I've had is incredibly delicious The artwork on walls are authentic Thailand pieces and lunch specials come with miso soup and vegetable spring rolls. Everyone I bring here raves about it afterwards. Come experience it for yourself! read more

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My colleagues and I came here for lunch. I ordered their drunken noodle from the lunch menu. The interior decor is beautiful and our server was nice. Since we ordered from the lunch menu, the portions came a bit smaller. Some of the noodles were still stuck in chunks which was unfortunate but overall, I enjoyed the food. However, there are other Thai restaurants that were a stand outs so this is more of a 3.5 star. read more

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We weren't sure of how good the sushi would be. Splitting the specialties of the restaurant equally between Thai cuisine and Japanese-style sushi is a yellow flag to me, that says the food of either might not be top tier. Our fears were allayed when we had our roll, it was delicious. My wife is vegetarian, and we wanted to split a sushi roll, so we ordered the cream cheese + cucumber + avocado roll. So this is most definitely not the typical sushi experience. However, I will say that in the small niche of vegetarian sushi, this roll was the best I had ever had. For the main dish, we both ordered the special Saao Noodle. This is essentially a drunken noodle dish, with extra vegetables added, and everything is covered in a special chili garlic sauce (instead of the normal drunken noodle sauce that you would find in other Thai restaurants). This dish was spectacular! Definitely the best drunken noodle dish I've had at any Thai restaurant in the area, and on top of that I can confidently say it's one of the best Thai dishes of any kind I've ever had. My wife is a drunken noodle fanatic and got the same dish, but vegan-style (tofu + no fish/oyster sauce). She also agrees that it's the best drunken noodle dish she's ever had as well. This place would have easily gotten 5-stars from me, but for one exception: Our food took far too long to come out. We waited over 25 minutes before our food came out, and this is simply too long to wait for food after you've ordered. However, this could be a one-time issue: it was a Friday night and the place was pretty busy. But the restaurant is small and even when busy there's probably not more than 15-20 tables to serve. read more

This was my first time visiting here and I honestly can't wait to go back. The food, the drinks, and the dessert were so good. The service was exceptional. The waitress made sure we had everything we needed. The restaurant was very clean too. read more

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Love the quaint atmosphere, great sunlight with spacious tables and mild, somewhat outdated music but in a groovy kind of way. It's relaxing and zen especially overlooking the bubbly zen lotus fountain. It's in an office building setting with thoughtful interior design. Great family dining venue but also great for a date night. Love the huge bar area where you can sit by the bar and make acquaintance with the bartender or sushi chef. Attentive and friendly service, smiles on everyone's faces. I was scooping out ice from my water and the lady noticed and brought me a glass of water with no ice We ordered both Thai and Japanese sushi dishes. Frankly the Thai dishes has been tamed down a bit on the spicyness but delicious for a meal. Sashimi is fresh (which is most important for sushi) and perfectly cut. Poke Nachos is a new concept for me, delicious and goes well with the hot sake. Highly recommend this new Sushi Thai restaurant! read more

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Lunch on a wkday--great sushi specials. Fast friendly service. Very nice clean ambience with live plants and water and Thai decor. Excellent sushi. read more

It's our favorite restaurant! We LOVE it! Food is amazing, very fresh and tasty. Since you get in, you get awesome customer service! And the ambiance is very peaceful and comfortable! Totally recommend! read more

Food: 3/5 Ambiance: 4/5 Service: 0/5 - Definitely racist towards black people and that reflected in the extreme lack of service - Was ignored the whole time and they had the audacity to recommend a 20% tip lol - Never coming back :) read more

Ambiance, food everything was amazing!!! Love that spicy actually means something. Found my new local Thai spot !

I absolutely love this place! I work in one of the offices above so we often use this restaurant for client lunches or departments meetings etc. I have never once been disappointed and love their food and drinks. The staff is always friendly, have extensive menus, and always willing to give recommendations for you. There is no words besides out of this world for their sushi rollers. Very fresh and authentic and often cutting slides from the whole fish so you can see its not packaged products. I often get the garlic chicken (pictured) or sushi deluxe. I promise no matter the choice you will not be disappointed read more

SAAO Thai & Sushi - Garlic chicken (comes with choice of rice) - Thai Near Me - Reston, Virginia

Discovered this hidden gem recently and will definitely be returning. Sushi was delicious and the fried tilapia was excellent as well. Spring rolls were crispy and not greasy at all and very tasty. read more

Wow, clean presentation and tasty sushi. I first ordered hot sake with a Yellowtail Lover's roll and a Deep sea roll. The yellowtail was my "safe" order but the Deep sea roll was a new combination for me. I loved them both. I was unusually hungry so I also ordered a Daytona roll, another new combination for me. It was pretty good but a little busy for my taste. The service was prompt and friendly. It looks like I have found a third choice in my sushi adventures. I would recommend this location (and I didn't even try any of the Thai selections) read more

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Confused on all these stellar reviews- the food is just ok. Visiting on a work trip so glad it wasn't horrible but definitely medicore thai. Would only order again if nothing else was open. I had the chicken stir fry, drunken noodles, miso soup and cucumber salad. read more

Very delicious!! Very fresh!! I had crispy shrimp grao pao and my bf had the chicken pad Thai. It was actually the best pad Thai I ever had and the crispy shrimp was absolutely delicious. read more

SAAO Thai & Sushi - Crispy Shrimp Gra Prao - Thai Near Me - Reston, Virginia

Great food. Great service. And very clean and tidy. Every one would like in a restaurant. The panang curry was delicious and the ipa was the perfect beer to go with it. Oh the chicken tom yum soup was also spicy good. I have no complaints at all. Even the parking was easy! read more

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This review is long overdue. I've been coming to Saao for the better part of 2 years; the food and atmosphere is what drew me in initially, but the service is a large part of the reason it stands out for me. This is my favorite restaurant in the area (plus as of this writing they are open until 10 pm 7 days a week, who doesn't love some late-night Thai or sushi?). TL;DR: great food, great service, spacious seating in a relaxing atmosphere. Food: Where do I begin. I have never had food here that I disliked. My favorites are the crispy shrimp gra prao or gra prao ped (basically breaded and fried shrimp or duck with rice and veggies in a spicy Thai chili basil sauce that's to die for). Honestly though I've had everything from their pad Thai to their curries to their sushi and quite enjoyed all of it. As far as I remember it's always come out at a good temperature too. They rotate specials/new menu items fairly regularly as well - I definitely recommend the new poke nachos, I really liked them. Nice mix of crunchy and soft, and a nice marinade on the poke. Atmosphere: The atmosphere is great for a few reasons. 1.) It's spacious. They have a large restaurant and the tables are spaced out enough to avoid feeling crammed in like you might at other area restaurants like Umai or Yu Noodles (both of which have food I love but spaces that make me prefer take out). 2.) The restaurant is filled with art. The two side walls have multiple carved wooden reliefs that stretch halfway from floor to ceiling, filled with floral patterns. There are multiple wooden statues of the Buddha in various positions around the floor, and there's a table that appears to have been carved out of a single stump, with elephants worked into the sides in a clever manner that makes it look like there are layers of them continuing deeper into the middle of it. There is a small multi-tiered water feature near the bay windows with (fake) flowers floating in it. The music is usually something of the easy-listening variety or slow covers of American pop songs - not my favorite, but it's played at a nice volume, not too loud like a lot of places. There are two TVs over the bar, and they normally have sports on one and the news or a cooking show on the other, both muted with captions enabled. All in all, it's just a nice, relaxing vibe. Service: For the first year or so that I was coming here, I'd always get a table and just put my earbuds in (because I was dining late, I was usually dining alone and it was never crowded enough for me to feel guilty about taking up a table by myself). I enjoy listening to music a lot, so it was nice to come to a spacious restaurant and enjoy good food while listening to music and "introverting" a bit to recharge after work. But one day I came in during a busier time and felt that I should sit at the bar to avoid taking one of their last tables. Next thing you know one of the waitresses starts making conversation with me, we find out we both like watching kdramas and are both computer programmers, and boom. Fast forward a year and I have like 25 new kdramas I need to watch, and I haven't sat anywhere other than the bar since then (shout out to Tiffany and Mint! I'll catch up with the shows eventually I promise ). I haven't had the pleasure of getting to know any of the other waitstaff, but everyone is very nice and service is prompt no matter who you talk to. read more

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Good new Thai restaurant! Great vibe of the restaurant, slightly smaller tables but the dishes were good! The chicken satay was the winner, it was juicy, well cooked and slightly different than all the other restaurants 6/5! Panang Tofu: 5/5, slightly crispy tofu but still soft, great curry not too sweet Tofu/chicken Drunken Noodle: if you don't say mild, it'll be spicy! 5/5 Rice Portion sizes are small, which is slightly disappointing Hospitality: 5/5 Food Quality: 5/5 Food Quantity: 4/5 Ambiance: 5/5 read more

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Good sushi, terrible pick-up delayed 25mins Sushi was fresh and flavorful. The salmon avocado role was packed with thick slices of salmon. The scallop nigiri was like butter. So smooth, I've never had raw scallops before. Eel avocado was predictably good. Despite the good sushi, I will not be visiting again bc they made me wait 25 minutes past my scheduled pickup time. This was a Monday during lunch time so it didn't seem that busy. I don't think they even started my order until I came the restaurant. The soy sauce containers were also not wrapped properly and spilled all over the inside of the bag. read more

Saao is right by our apartment complex and opened up recently. I am hoping it will gain more recognition as more things start opening up because it's a super solid Thai place and the sushi is great too! I've only been once, but my boyfriend got Thai (the soft shell crab) and he said it was even better than our usual Thai spot. I had the Atlantic roll (salmon and avocado) and the crunchy spicy tuna roll, both of which were fantastic. I have to mention the sticky rice and mango as well, I don't think I've *ever* had mango that was as ripe and perfect as this mango. It came with ice cream too and just hit the spot in every way. The food overall is vibrant and delicious: everything you would expect from a good Thai place. The atmosphere is great too. It's pretty quiet right now, but the interior is modern and plays a good selection of music. Our food came really fast as well. I can definitely see this place becoming much more popular with a younger crowd as people become more comfortable going out. Overall, this is a really great addition to Reston and holds its own even despite the presence of other Thai restaurants. It brings to the table solid Thai food while also representing the sushi genre as well. I would highly recommend Saao. **Note: staff followed COVID-19 protocol and wore masks for entirety of our dining experience** read more

SAAO Thai & Sushi - Sticky Rice with Mango - Thai Near Me - Reston, Virginia

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I really wanted to gate-keep this gem of a find but I would be doing Yelp a disservice and the restaurant. This place has the flavors that I first fell in love with when I was introduced to Thai food, many moons ago, and I've been chasing the flavors ever since. Well, I found them again. I can't believe I'm not in NY! This place is the closest to NY style Thai food and I can easily see myself eating here thrice a week! read more

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Ambiance, Service, Foods Ambience: The lighting of the restaurant is bright and gives a very welcoming ambiance. The wood crafts and displays are very* detailed and it gives the vibes of South East Asia. AND IT'S VERY CLEAN! Service The server is well knowledge of the menu. She is there but always gave us a privacy, but always there to helps us. Food The food is amazing and 100% read more

SAAO Thai & Sushi - Fried Calamari, Angel Roll (salmon on top) and the eel roll. - Thai Near Me - Reston, Virginia

When they aren't busy they're great but when they are they cut corners like put cream cheese or Jalapeños on the sushi as opposed to in the roll. The wait time was 1 hour when their timer said it would be 45 min. read more

I only tried the sushi and it was ok. The rolls had too much rice. The service was quite good. read more

Visited this place on a weekday for a lunch take out, I ordered a Thai green curry with chicken and some spring rolls. All the food came piping hot and had great flavor. There were a few business lunches taking place when I visited, but the decor was nice and staff were friendly. Would definitely like to come and try out other food on their menu soon. read more

Love the food here, and the restaurant is clean and well-decorated. Service always great (have been here multiple times). Sushi is very well-done. Other dishes also tasty and generous. This is a go-to place when we are in Reston. read more

Came here for a quick happy hour with my dad, we really enjoyed the ambiance and food. Everything on the HH menu was reasonably priced and the portions were the same as on the dinner menu. As far as drinks go, we didn't have any cocktails but the beers at $4 included Singha and Chang (traditional Thai beers) and we had a sake carafe ($7). Will definitely return for dinner and it's worth noting that happy hour can be had anywhere in the restaurant! read more

SAAO Thai & Sushi - Happy hour Mon-Fri 5-7pm - Thai Near Me - Reston, Virginia