Sang Deuan

Sang Deuan is a new Thai and Lao restaurant that recently opened on Convoy street. It is also the sister restaurant of Sang Dao.

My cousins were in the mood for Thai, so we decided to check it out. Before arriving, I made sure to re-read Kirk’s post to have a better idea of what to order. The menu consisted mainly of the standard Thai dishes with a few Lao specialties sprinkled in. We decided to each choose a dish and share them family-style.

Papaya Salad (Lao style)

We started with this salad, which you could choose between a Thai preparation or Lao preparation. Shredded fresh papaya is tossed in a mixture of chili, garlic, lime juice, shrimp paste, and fish sauce. We originally requested a medium level of spicy but our server recommended we dial it down to a heat level of 3.

I ended up wishing it had a little more heat, but I did enjoy this.

Beef Pad See Ew

This stir fried flat rice noodle dish is usually one of my favorites. I thought the noodles here were a little overcooked as they were soft with no bounce.

Spicy Fried Rice

Despite its name, we didn’t really detect any heat. It tasted fine, but lacked the spicy factor.

Nam Khao (off the menu)

When reading through Kirk’s post, he discussed this dish as his favorite. It’s not on the menu and they don’t always have it, but luckily they did on our visit.

This Lao specialty crispy rice salad consists of broken up deep fried rice balls mixed with chunks of Lao-style fermented pork sausage. It’s served with lettuce and fresh herbs, and meant to be eaten like a wrap.

When I first asked for this dish, our server was quite taken aback. He was so surprised I knew of this dish and started asking me how I knew of it, did I know what it was, had I eaten it before, etc. After much discussion, he finally added the dish to our order. The whole exchange was quite amusing. I think they just wanted to make sure that this special dish was being eaten by people who would appreciate it.

Once the dish arrived, the server and the owner hovered near our table, making sure we wrapped the filling in the lettuce leaves.

After all that fuss, we ended up really enjoying this dish. I loved the crispy bits of rice and the pork sausage had a mild sour fermented flavor.

Panang Curry

Our final dish was the Panang curry. This tasted fine, though again, the heat was pretty much absent.

Overall, we had a pretty good meal here. The staff was also really nice and attentive. I found the Lao dishes to be the standouts and would come back for more Lao specialties. If I’m just craving Thai food, I think there are a few other spots in San Diego I’d go to instead.

You can read Kirk’s visit here.

Menu:

Sang Deuan
3904 Convoy St #112, San Diego, CA 92111