I really wanted to love Saku Thai, because Thai food is one of my great food loves. If I'm choosing a cuisine, it's almost always Indian or Thai. I travel, I try new Thai spots constantly, and I care deeply about execution and flavor, not just heat. You do not need to melt my face, but the flavors have to be there.
Let's start with the positives, because there are real ones.
The ambiance is genuinely great. The space is beautiful, well lit, nicely plated dishes, cool table lamps, overall a very polished vibe. Aesthetically, this place is absolutely above average.
Service was friendly but a little odd. We were seated and then sort of... left there. No warm welcome, no drink offer, just someone eventually walking up with a tablet asking what we wanted. Everyone was nice, it just felt a little disconnected and transactional on the front end.
Now the food.
The Tom Kha soup was fine, not bad, but very lime forward and missing depth. It lacked that layered balance you want from galangal, coconut, and aromatics. Perfectly edible, just not memorable.
The Pad Thai, however, deserves real credit. It was excellent. Easily a 9 out of 10. Balanced, flavorful, and well executed. If you are coming here specifically for Pad Thai, you will be happy. No complaints there at all.
The Pad See Ew was the opposite. Strikingly below average. It was missing that deep, savory, umami soy richness that makes the dish work. I would not order it again.
We also ordered the Thai Basil. One of the pillars of Thai cuisine! When you order it, you want that amazing Thai basil flavor with the brown savory sauce that makes people just go "Yesss!l when they try it. This again, was just flat. The intense flavor just wasn't there. Super dissapointing.
The Panang curry was okay. Familiar. Nothing offensive, nothing exciting. As we kept eating, it just felt like something was... off. Not bad, just flat. Like the flavors never quite opened up.
I judge Thai restaurants by one simple question, would I come back. For the Pad Thai, yes. For everything else, probably not.
Here's the moment where everything clicked. Toward the end of the meal I went to the restroom and passed a storage area stacked high with canned curry paste. And suddenly the whole meal made sense. I've cooked with those pastes before. They're fine for home cooking. But when you're a polished, sit down Thai restaurant, that's not what you want to be serving. At that point it became clear why everything tasted familiar and slightly muted. It wasn't elevated, it was assembled.
This isn't bad Thai food. You won't hate your meal. Most people will say it was great. But if you're someone who really knows Thai flavors and is looking for a place you'll crave and bring friends back to again and again, this probably isn't that spot.
Come for the ambiance and the Pad Thai. Just set expectations for the rest. read more