The Original Sab-E-Lee

Still my favorite Thai in San Diego. One tip: their medium spice level is a 3, so be very cautious with level 5 and up as it’s realllly spicy!

THE BEST THAI i’ve ever had. The flavor levels are out of this world. They surely do not skimp out on their spices. Love the Boat noodles as well as the pad see ew. The Pad Thai is always a usual favorite. Can say with confidence that this is my favorite Thai restaurant and that I would always make the trip whenever i am here in San Diego. I always rave about this place to friends.
But be careful when ordering your spicy levels. I find their 0 – 1 spiciness to be pretty intense. I’d say try at a level 0 on your first visit to gauge the next time. It surely won’t be your last!

Best thai food in the area, the spicy is real spicy.

Best Thai in town. So glad I mentioned to don the owner hey open a second location in pq. Now I can just walk to the best Thai outside of thailand. Everything here is good. Some of my faves are crab noodles. Pad prik king. Beef salad. Pad Thai. Tom kha, and U have to try the curry puffs.

I got the boat noodles and fried pork ribs.
flavor was great in both and not over whelming to the point it covers up the flavors of the dishes.
the variety of meats and veggies in the boat noodles provided great contrast in textures. just be careful on how spicy you want. if you have trouble with a little sriracha, then dont even go beyond mild or you will choke =).
i liked the crispy and fattiness of the pork ribs. its kinda of fried chicken style but with pork spare ribs. very good with the sweet dipping sauce
prompt service and pricing was very reasonable.

Came here on a Sunday night to grab food to go. Thai food sounded good and Unilocal lead us here.
I decided to go with the pineapple chicken fried rice and my friend ordered chicken pad thai and Thai tea with boba. Usually with Thai food they ask how spicy you want the dish, but here they didnt. Once we placed our order there really wasn’t anywhere to sit and wait. Since it was chilly outside we stood near the entrance.
The food surprisingly didn’t take long. It was probably ready within 5 – 7 minutes of ordering. The fried rice had cashews, green onions, chicken, pineapple, bell peppers, and raisins. The raisins were odd, so I took all of them out. There was a subtle hint of spice to the rice, but overall lacked flavor for me. The chicken was dry. It wasn’t bad, but I was expecting more spice and flavor. The serving is a decent size and ended up being 2 small meals for me. Wasn’t the greatest leftover as it was a bit on the dry side.
I would come back though and try other dishes.

Food is average. There are so many better Thai places around. There is nothing good about it.
For me the quality of food matters a lot which wasn’t up to the mark.
Last and the most important thing the guy (the 2 ladies were fine) working there was the rudest server I have ever seen.
I am for sure not going to visit this place again.

Food was pretty good.
Casual ambience, clean and well lit.
Only thing not that great was the waiters and the service.
But if you don’t care about that, the food is worth it.

The food here is decent but not great and the place is relatively clean such the two stars.
What drove me crazy about this place and most Asian eateries is that they never seem to understand the meaning of the word ‘APPETIZER’.
Well if you people are too lazy to look it up, here is the definition according to Wikipedia
[An hors-d’oeuvre (/​r drv, drvr/​; French: hors-d’œuvre [ dœv] (listen), literally «apart from the [main] work») — also known as an appetizer or starter — is a food item served before the main courses of a meal. Typically smaller than a main dish, it is often designed to be eaten by hand (with minimal use of cutlery).]
I was here last Friday, ordered bunch of stuff along with soup and an appetizer, fried chicken wings. Soup showed up first, awesome. Next came the avalanche of all the main dishes, half hours passed by no chicken wings, reminded the server that we did have our wings yet, it’s coming we were told. Another 20 to 30 minutes passed, finished al our dishes and ready to ask for check here came the F***King chicken wings. Asked the server why it took so long his answer was it took a long time to fry the chicken. Really? I would be ok with just a simple sorry we give your order to another table ’cause I saw two plate of wings raced by me to tables that came after us.
Guess I will cross this one off my Thai go to list unless I want my wings to go for my dog.

This place opening so close to my home has been a surprise to me. I had to research and made sure that it was the same place as the famous one in Linda vista. Glad to see that it is! The menu is basically identical!
Crab Noodles — my go to dish. These are served with thin rice noodle and a generous portion of egg and lump crab! I recommend asking from a wedge of lime to squeeze onto it! This is the only Thai place in San Diego that has this dish as far as I know!
Beef Larb — definitely one of the better larb that I have tried. There is definitely more of a crunch but really delicious. They serve all larb with cut of cabbage and cucumber. Personally I don’t think that there is enough cabbage so I tend to ask for extra lettuce.
Roast Duck Larb — Delicious! This plate is served with small cuts of roast duck instead of grounded meat like the other ones. While roast duck is naturally flavorful by itself, the chilis and lime complimented it pretty well!
Spicy Basil with Pork Leg — really flavorful dish. You are not served a giant pork leg or anything like that. You get some awesome grounded pork on top of a variety of vegetables. There is definitely a nice basil flavor to it so it is a definite must for basil lovers!
I haven’t found anything here that isn’t just as good as the one in Linda Vista. If anything the new location is more open. There are more tables here of course and they take credit card! Best of all is that the food here is almost always under $ 10 a dish so everything is great value for excellent food.

Sab-​E-​Lee is hands down one of the best places for thai food in San Diego. While I have never had their curries, their Pad Thai and Pad See Ew are always good. My only gripe is that service is a hit or a miss.
Being a student at UC San Diego, this particular is a little far but it is good enough that I don’t mind making the trip every so often. Clean restaurant and not particularly expensive.
Overall, a solid ⁴⁄₅

Place rocks! Never had a thing I didn’t love here. Crab fried rice, their salads, soups, spring rolls, it’s all good. My favorite dishes are beef noodles, crab fried rice, pad Thai, drunken noodles, all of their salads, and you must try their mango sticky rice dessert… SO GOOD.
Ok, so after my rave reviews on their food let me tell you this place is nice & clean, staff is friendly but it is a smaller restaurant so it gets full fast especially during prime dinner hours. I mean we are talking about PQ where there isn’t many dining choices so if you have one that is consistently good it is bound to be busy.

Overall 3.5. Oh SEL, you’re killing me, man! I have a love/​frustration relationship with SEL, as evidenced by my multiple review updates lol.
Located in the Von’s shopping center off the 56/​Black Mt. Rd. (next to Postal Annex), the first thing you should know is that they are closed in between lunch and dinner ’til 5pm instead of 3:30 — 4:30 Tu-​Sun (and closed on Mondays), despite what their take out menu says (they haven’t updated it since they changed the times in May 2015). Don’t park right in front. Your car will get dinged.
Wish they’d be open 7 days/​week without being closed for the post-​lunch/​pre-​dinner time gap. This is one of the reasons we don’t go more frequently. lol they’re always closed when we want to go.
Also, the same ongoing issue of their inconsistent spiciness still exists (has from day one) and is my biggest beef with SEL. Today we went (they messed up my order AGAIN– I ordered 2 larb, he only wrote down 1. At least I didn’t get charged extra, like last time. I’d say it happens every other time I go there, even though I make them repeat the order back to me on the phone, he still got it wrong. SMH.
I’ll preface by saying that hubby and I like spicy food (can’t stand bland food) and we LOVE LOVE LOVE thai food. We’ve eaten thai food all over town. We know good thai food. Up until this visit (and discovering Pattaya in RB) I would’ve said SEL is best in SD. However, I’ve had to modify and order spicy level 1 (compared to other thai places I order 3 – 4. I like mild-​medium) because it’s so dang spicy and our entire order today tasted like a 10! Dude, I said 1, not 10. Because of this, it was very unbalanced and we couldn’t even taste the thai flavors of our food. Nope, all we can taste is heat. There goes my $ 40. I love drunken noodles and there’s no flavor but spicy heat. I have downed an entire glass of coconut water and regular water and MY MOUTH IS STILL ON FIRE. And this is spicy level 1! And I like spicy!
Oh and I love eggplant and I had to stop ordering it there cuz it’s way too greasy. And their curry sauces are too watery. So those are two dishes we stopped ordering a while back.
I think I’m gonna have to take a break from SEL. I’ve already modified as much as I can (order lower spicy, hubby adding a ton of veggies to dilute the spice) and there’s nothing more frustrating for a thai food lover to not be able to enjoy their meal.
When we go back, we only order curry puff (which is out of stock half the time), chicken larb and drunken noodles. The problem is that I always order the drunken noodles «authentic thai style» (smoky flavor) and I would say they only prep it that way 25% of the time. I asked about that and they said «if the chef have time». WHAT? I am ordering it this way. Please make it this way. The last time I was at Pattaya, they said they’ll make it for me (they even offered to remake my drunken noodles even though I was the one who forgot to order it that way). Hubby and I are going next week and if they get it right, they’ll become my new thai place because I can’t deal with this spicy inconsistency, messing up my order and not getting my drunken noodles the way I want them.
I will say this, they have the best larb chicken (their chicken is finely ground, which is how I like it) in town– but only when they get the spicy levels right, which as you can tell, is hit or miss. Mostly miss.
When SEL gets it right though– I’m talking correct spice levels, getting my order right, not overcharging me on my bill (I calculate it every time now), and getting that smoky flavor in the drunken noodles– DAMN, it’s like a 10++++ stars. And that’s when they’re the hawt diggity bomb! I like the workers at SEL, they know us. Wish they’d do something about these problems. Cuz you know how women blow money on shoes? Well, I blow money on thai food. A lot of money. Especially after a workout, when I’m famished. I’m talking double/​triple orders of everything! lol
So because of all this, plus discovering Pattaya, I’m changing them back to a rounded up 3.5 stars. I do not like Pattaya’s chicken larb though (see my review for deets).
I’m not ready to give up on SEL though. It’s not like I’ll never go there, but my visits will become even less frequent now.
PS– I’m at the end of writing my review and a) my mouth is still on fire and b) hubby is in the bathroom! LMAO I know, TMI. But that’s how spicy it was. Again, this was a level 1!

I grew up in Thailand before coming to America when I was 16 for school. I know authentic Thai food, and Sab e Lee is one of the best Thai restaurants in SD. Sab e Lee focuses on Thai northeastern (isan) food.
My recommendations: Pad Thai — one of the best in SD other than Koon’s and turmeric’s, papaya salad (som Tum), pork neck Nam tok, Thai omelet (Kai jiew)
I’m not a big fan of their other noodles dishes (pad see ew — too sweet, kua Kai, drunken noodle) despite their Pad Thai being on point every single time.
Thai Tea is good but u can’t ask for less sweet since it’s premixed.

Why has it taken us so long to find this place. Small and very busy for lunch!
Garlic Chicken appetizer was hot, tasty, crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside.
A new dish for us was Duck Larb! Fantastic. Spice level 2!
The Seafood Drunken Noodle was more mainstream but delicious and substantial. Spice level 5 was good and shareable with my more sensitive spouse!
The Yellow Chicken Curry reminded us of the Massama Curry we enjoy at Thai Spice in Indianapolis ! Mild spice level since the waitress warned my wife the Spice Traditional!
A large Chang Beer for me and Boba Thai Tea completed our lunch!
Oh yes, we have leftovers for later.
The waitress was very friendly and helpful. We need to return to try the Puffed Curry appetizer, which they were out of today!

I’ve been to the Original in Linda Vista, and glad they opened up a little closer to home. We came for a quick dinner during a weeknight and surprisingly this place was packed. There were only a few open tables left and we snagged a nice corner table in the corner.
I ordered my staple Thai cuisine of Tom Kha soup and pad see ew. Unfortunately, the soup comes in 1 size and the portion is enough for 3 – 4 people. The veggies are big chunks (which I’m not a fan of), but the soup had good flavor.
The pad see ew was good, although not the best I’ve had in SD. I’m biased with my fave Thai place off Convoy.
Warning — the spice levels are legit. I ordered a level 3 (out of 10) on both portions and the food was still burning my tongue! Yikes!!! The following day my leftovers were hotter than the night before.
The service was friendly, although we needed to flag down our server a couple times to place our order or to even get water. Overall, good Thai if you’re in the mood and in the area.

I stopped in at Sab-​E-​Lee on the weekend for lunch recently. I’ve been on a quest to find a good Thai place closer to home. Although it’s still a bit of a drive, I have a new go to.
I was in the mood for comfort food and was curious how they would do with a classic so I ordered Pad Thai. What came to the table was the best version of the dish I’ve had in years. The noodles were perfection. The right amount of chewy with a hint of sweetness. The chicken and veggies were done just right. The interplay of all the ingredients made for one delicious bite after another. Paired with a Thai iced tea. I walked away feeling bliss.
The interior of the restaurant is comfortable and pleasing. Likewise, the service matched. Throughout the meal they took good care.
I’m looking forward to a future trip to try some curry.

The last couple times I’ve been, the flavor has been lacking. Not sure if this is due to coming in around busy times or if the cook is new or something but the consistency that was once great has mysteriously vanished, so one star vanishes as well.
Will still go once every week or two and if the food returns to their stellar state than I’ll reinstate the fifth star.

We were craving Thai food before our drive home, I love spicy so my brother brought us here. Apparently this place is known for their spice. This nice little mom and pops authentic Issan resturant is located in a large shopping center right Next to Vons. Parking is ok, not to bad. We both got to park up front on a Sunday afternoon.
As we walked in we were greeted, seated and given the menu promptly. He took our drink order while we browsed through the menu. There were 7 of us including my babies so we decided to do family style so we can taste more things. When’s ordering our server also told us his place was known for their spice level so Naturally I needed to order a separate dish I can get at level 10 since my friends and brother only wanted to keep it between mild and moderate. We ordered:
–Pad see ew– delicious! You can never go wrong with a basic dish (^_​^)
–Crispy pork with Chinese broccoli, sautéed in oyster sauce at SPICE LEVEL 7. It was yummy but sadly not spicy.
–Curry Puff-​Ground chicken with curry powder, sweet potato & onion wrapped in puff pastry sheets. I thought it was ok, it had tasted like the powdery curry as opposed to normal thai curry. My cousin and I weren’t to fond of it but the guys loved it!
–Steamed Mussels served with a delicious spicy lime sauce! One of my favorite dish. I would have ordered another had we had more room in our pork bellies =p
–Thai jerky– nice and chewy, a bit salty but is paired well with the sauce it’s served with
–Pork Spare Rib Soup– Baby back ribs in Thai herbs & spicy broth. A little oily, we added black pepper and it was YUMMMY!
–Duck Larb– Duck Grilled in a Spicy Chili and Lime Sauce. SPICY LEVEL 10. This dish was Yyuummmy! One of my favorites! The only downside is I still didn’t taste the spice so I was disappointed about that.
–Crab fried rice — yummy!
Overall each dish was loaded with flavor and able to satisfy all the yummiest in our tummies. Well part of the yummies, I was quite disappointed with the spice but it was burning for the others in my party. We didn’t get dessert this time around because we saw Rita’s Italian Ice in this same center and had planned on getting some! Oink oinky piggy wigglies!
I would definitely recommend this place and will definitely be back on our next visit. Hopefully they’ll be able to spice things up for me (^_​^)

Date of visit: 5÷24÷2015
I came here with Cam and my parents before going shopping for a quick lunch (2:30pm). As expected during an off lunch hour, there weren’t many people in the store, so we were seated immediately. This restaurant is located in a large shopping center so there is plenty of parking, but it can get pretty busy since there are quite a few stores (Vons, Rite Aid, etc.).
Garlic Chicken Wings. I know my picture only shows 2 wings, but it actually comes with 6. These wings are definitely deep fried and definitely garlicky. Although they were a bit too greasy for me, the wings came out quickly and it was a nice start to a late meal.
Drunken Noodles with Chicken. My mom requested medium spicy and the spice level was perfect. The basil balance was also perfect and the noodles were not too soggy.
Pad Thai with Chicken. I like my pad thai spicy, so I was disappointed when the waitress did not ask for a spicy level. I wrongfully assumed that it would come out with some spice, but it was very sweet (no spice present). Although I was the one that ordered this dish, my dad ate the most of it. Definitely enjoyed the drunken noodles more.
Pa-​nang Curry with Chicken. In Cam’s words, «it’s like curry with some sort of crack in it.» I only got a spoonful of this curry because Cam ate it so fast. I’ve never seen him this ecstatic about curry. I also really liked this curry and will definitely need to get it when I come back.
Overall, the food here is great. Although I was disappointed about my pad thai, I’ll definitely come back.