This was my third visit to Sappeisan. I had very good experiences the previous two times, but unfortunately on this visit there were several misses.
Laab Ped Udon $25.00
Udon Thani's legendary duck Laab, rich and crispy, tossed in duck fat, chili, and roasted rice powder, and served with fresh veggies.
"Udon" is not Udon Noodles
I was trying to decide between crab fried rice and what I thought was "duck udon", assuming I was choosing between a rice and an udon noodle dish. I asked the waitress for her recommendation, and she showed me the photo of the Laab Ped Udon as an explanation. It looked appealing at the time.
When the dish arrived, I was shocked. Where were the udon noodles? The dish looked rather sad and nothing like what I had expected.
The waitress came over and explained that she had told me it was a salad, not an udon noodle dish. She may well have mentioned that with her broken English, but I clearly did not register it. Only after I went home, did I realized that "Udon" refers to Udon Thani, not udon noodles.
At that point I initially wanted to reject the dish, and in retrospect, I wish I had insisted.
Meat did not taste like Duck
The dish consisted mostly of tiny fried meat bits mixed with a few other small pieces of vegetables that looked brown, dry, and spicy. It also came with a separate plate of lettuce, cucumbers, and raw green beans, apparently meant to be used as wraps for the meat.
The presentation was not appealing. The lettuce was dripping with water and did not appear to have been properly drained. I was also uncomfortable eating the green beans raw. Raw green beans are mildly toxic because they contain a natural protein called lectin (specifically phytohaemagglutinin or phasin).
More importantly, the meat bits mixture was extremely salty and dry. I tried one lettuce wrap and decided I simply could not continue eating it.
The meat does not taste like duck to me at all. The pieces were chopped so finely that they were almost unrecognizable, which was quite different from the menu photo, where the dish appeared to contain more substantial chunks of meat.
For $25, I expected better ingredients, preparation, and presentation. The portion was also quite small. Normally that would bother me, but in this case the dish was so salty that I had no desire to finish it anyway.
Difficult Digital Menu
The digital menu was another frustration. Reading it on a cell phone was unnecessarily difficult. The font was small, and the photos were hard to interpret. The "House Special" image, for example, showed roughly ten different dishes together, each image small, making it difficult to tell which dish was which.
The neon pink background may be intended to create a fun atmosphere, but on a small phone screen it interferes with readability rather than helping it.
Overall, this visit was disappointing compared with my previous two experiences at Sappeisan. read more