Bill Hongmanee has opened Sawasdee By the Sea, a second location of his successful Soquel Thai spot.
Nearly a decade ago, Bill Hongmanee and his wife Dee opened Sawasdee in Soquel, offering authentic Thai cuisine to the people of Santa Cruz County in a fine dining setting. Just five months ago, they opened a second location, Sawasdee by the Sea, which is located in Santa Cruz on West Cliff, near Pacific Ave. We caught up with Bill to ask him about the new restaurant.
SCW: Your newest ‘by the sea’ location has a nice ocean view. What else is different there?
It has a slightly different menu, but mainly, we have full bar. Only a few items that we have there that we don’t have over here [in Soquel]. I can’t remember which ones, to be honest.
Speaking of which, you have a big menu. What do you recommend for first-timers?
Usually we like to see what they like to eat. Then we will tell them what’s popular. The fresh spring rolls, that’s our number one appetizer. That’s served with peanut dressing. Then the papaya salad. That is a traditional Thai salad, very popular in Thailand. That dressing goes well with the fresh spring roll dressing. Then the next one that I would tell them is the hot and sour soup with coconut milk, which is Tom Kha. It is very popular. After the soup, I tell my customers that we do very good curry. The curry dishes are excellent. We don’t exactly recommend or push anything, we just tell them what’s popular. And we like to know what they like.
People seem to be raving about your Pad Thai. Why is that?
Our Pad Thai is very authentic. We sell lots and lots of Pad Thai.
What makes it authentic?
First of all, the noodles must not be too soft. The sauce must not have a lot of it on the dish. Some people like a lot of sauce, which I do not recommend. Being authentic on the Pad Thai is that the sauce is a little bit sweet and a little bit sour. And the sour is from the lemon juice.
What’s your favorite dish off the menu?
For myself, I like fish with the curry. I eat all the curries here. The fish in the curries are great. The thing that I like is Sawasdee Fish, which is trout. The fish is deep-fried, and the sauce is on the side. I love eating fish.
Sawasdee By the Sea is at 101 Main St. in Santa Cruz. The original Sawasdee is at 5050 Soquel Dr., Soquel.
