Drunken Poet Cafe

I went here for lunch a few weeks ago. Drunken Poet offers Thai food which wasn’t initially what I pictured. The interior is fun and inviting — I heard they recently renovated — and the staff friendly. The food though is far beyond what I expected. It is presented beautifully and tastes amazing. You almost need to see it to believe it. I tried sake (the cold was pretty good) and absolutely LOVED the ginger chicken stir-​fry (fresh ginger with onion, scallions and mushrooms) and the Pad Thai was the best I’ve ever had. I even had some leftovers and it was just as delicious the next day. For those who don’t eat things too spicy, make sure you let them know when you order. They rate their spice/​heat from 1 – 5 and I could only handle a 2! For the sushi lover, definitely flip the menu over and try some — you’ll be glad you did. I hear they will be starting $ 9 lunch specials soon.

Whenever I come back into town this is my first stop. Every single mean I’ve had here is excellent! Tons of delicious vegan/​vegetarian options (and great meat options as well – I’m told). What really makes this place special is the service. Every server we’ve ever had has just been outstanding. Accommodating, friendly, attentive and warm. Oh, and the fried ice cream. A m a z i n g

Went here for lunch, it was great! I had delicious sautéed chicken in ginger and it was super! Husband had lunch special two sushi rolls for $ 10.95, tuna and Mexican. He would get a regular roll next visit. He thought the Mexican was tasty, but both had small «eyes». The seaweed surrounding the tuna was tough. Great service and lovely newer décor.
Saw celebrity Chef Judy from local TV news at noon dining there with other ladies! Favorite of locals.

Ehhh…
I want to like this place but I can’t. I’ve been a handful of times and have never been impressed. The location, atmosphere, and décor are good but the food is mediocre and overpriced.

Looking at old photos it seems that they just remodeled the place. I don’t know what it looked like before but its super cute inside now. Great atmosphere for a date night. We stopped in for lunch and have the spicy tuna roll, rainbow roll and pork drunken noodles gluten free! I thought the food was great and I there was no cross contamination with gluten. I have celiac disease and am pretty sensitive so I was so pleased to still leave feeling great. We will definitely return to try out the rest of their menu!

It was better before they closed. Nicely presented chicken fried rice, nice friendly service.
I tried it again after they reopened.
No greeting so I sat myself. After 10 minutes of waiters walking by me with no acknowledgement I got up and left.
There are plenty of other places for lunch.

I’ve heard good things about this place but had a very frustrating experience. I came in to make a reservation for later that evening and literally stood there for 5 minutes with absolutely no one acknowledging me. I left because I had somewhere to be.
I then came back for dinner a few hours later, the people behind me in line were seated before me and I had to ask for a table. The hostess seated me with one menu even though we were two people and we waited 10 minutes before I had to tell someone we needed service. She said ok someone will be right there. 10 minutes later no one had even come to talk to us or greet us. It even says in the menu that if you’re in a hurry that it’s not the right place to go. The place was not even that busy. I am almost definitely not going to return here.

I expected slow service, it’s mentioned on the menu.
What I didn’t expect was terrible service. Our waitress forgot our wine, forgot my soup, and worst of all, left our finished appetizer dishes on the table for the dinner course. She spent most of our dinner glued to her cellphone behind the bar and when she wiped down the next table, she swept leftover food onto the floor.
The food:
Som Tum (papaya salad). Flavor was good and it was probably excellent when it was made. But ours had been sitting in a vat all day and was more of a soup.
The grilled yellowtail app was actually pretty good.
Soft Shell crab stir fry over vegetables with chile/​garlic sauce. It comes out like fajitas and they pour the chili/​garlic sauce over it. Nice presentation. That’s where the good ended. The soft shell crabs (3 babies) had so much breading on them, they were like a soft shell fish stick. The «vegetables» were mostly soggy and cabbage. A couple of small pieces of broccoli and sliced carrots. Now the sauce, cloyingly sweet. More than any sweet n sour sauce I’ve ever had. A complete disappointment.
My wife had the green curry. It was fair.

Pad Thai is different but really good. Their version of spicy is mild. Sushi was great. Service was gracious

The sushi was ok. I ordered a roll with sea urchin and didn’t see any sea urchin instead i saw cream cheese. At least they could have color it orange. I hate felling cheated on cheap ingredients for the price they charge.

Good food but overpriced! The special rolls are too expensive. Nice staff and open late. They have good green tea, although once it came out very bitter and they refused to comp it.

The food is ok, but I found it extremely annoying that they charge for water here. Come on, people.
Very cool name. I like the décor. The name is a real grabber, and there will be no shortage of folks stopping in during touristy times. Nifty sounding names help!
Decent enough, service was fine. I’m still irritated over the water.
Get a filtration system, softeners, or whatever the heck you need to do to make the water palatable, and stop charging for it. Ask monks to burn some sage, and chant ohm. Make it happen. Bottled water is just magical tap water combined with clever packaging. I don’t want to support idiocy.
I’d like to sample some of their rolls, but if we do decide to go back I’ll bring my own mason jar full of tap water, thank you very much.

My friend took me here for a Birthday lunch the food was excellent. Expensive !! Not enough Shashi on the menu (raw fish, no rice, no sauces, Wasabi & Soya to mix to the individual taste)
Ambiance the usual for these Asian places too bad they couldn’t take some hints from American type restaurants. We respect your traditions but class it up a little please !!! does everything have to be black gold & red

Atmosphere was nice. Service a little slow and food was ok, which is not what i was expecting with the high prices they charge. Would not eat here again.

Recent visit: the quality is down; what had been good is now hit and miss. The pad Thai is too sweet, the miso soup like it was from a store-​bought packet … Only the crispy duck was good.
At this point, this is really only 2.5 stars — a really disappointing decline in what had been a good place.
— — — - Original review below — — –
A fusion of Thai food, sushi and other Asian specialties, this quirky little bistro does OK. We had lobster, tempura, sushi by the piece (nigiri) and sushi rolls (maki), and all were good.
This is a small place, and the atmosphere is almost college-​town-​like … but what it lacks in atmosphere, it makes up for in adventurous attempts to provide interesting food. Some things are great, some don’t quite hit the mark, but it is good food prepared with care. The staff is friendly.
Compared to many nearby soul-​less establishments, this one is far preferable.

Average sushi, average curry. They had a hard time accommodating to our requests and the waitress seemed a little agitated when we wanted to add vegetables and then charged an extra $ 3 for a few pieces of broccoli. They forgot to add onions to the meal too. My sushi was drenched in soy and was definitely not as good as what I’ve had in MKE. Beef teriyaki was dried although we requested medium rare. Will not be back here.

My new favorite restaurant downtown!
Yummy sushi lunch for $ 11.
I had a spicy tuna roll & the alaskan that had deliciously smokey crispy salmon skin.
Lunch comes with a toasted garlic shrimp congee soup & mini egg roll. Kyle had the caterpillar roll with eel cucumber & avocado. Plus we shared the pinkies… no not baby mice. Shrimp wrapped in eggroll wrapper & deep fried to a golden brown. Everything was incredibly good, with fresh ingredients.

Came here because of the all of the positive reviews. Had sushi and thai drunken noodles. The sushi was just bad and the drunken noodles was okay, but too heavy on the sauce and too light on the ingredients. This is just overpriced crap, but what can you do when there’s no competition. Definitely won’t be going back.

I am obsessed with this place. I visited 3 times during a week I was in Sarasota for work. Service is attentive and on point with recommendations if you ask. The well-​known Sexy Man roll is excellent. I also tried two of the monthly specials (#4 and #7) and loved both. The cucumber wrapped roll with salmon and crab was especially delicious. Can’t wait to come back the next time I’m in town.

I came during lunch on a weekday
Décor: ⁴⁄₅
–unique café décor that is casual enough to catch up with friends or a lunch date
–seating for about 8 at the sushi bar
–table or sofa seating, very chill and mellow ambiance
Service: ⁴⁄₅
–overall great service though when my friend said he was vegetarian, it might have slipped her mind when she came back and served him a chicken rice soup
Food: 3.5÷5
–I ordered the Sexy Man roll ($ 14.95) which came with a chicken & rice soup and a vegetarian spring roll.
–Pricing is average for specialty rolls but I was impressed with the portion size. There was about 12 pieces. The roll was alright. The rice was a bit on the hard side and taste was there but nowhere near flavorbomb. I was content afterwards though.
–They do offer a $ 9.95 Any 2-​roll lunch special on generic rolls as well.