I had to do it. I had to go to the restaurant called Pho King. Yes, I am childish. Do you know why I am being immature? Say the restaurant name outloud fast kine and you will understand. I am sure they totally know what they did in naming this restaurant and fully embrace it.
All jokes aside, I actually wanted to try this restaurant because people rave about their food! They are closed on Saturdays which is a boo from me, that’s one of the only days I can make it out there! Well, I took a weekday off for vacation and made the trek out there. Small hole in the wall shop, how was it?
Nice assortment of greens for our pho! Yum! They give a lot of lemon, lol.
Pretty generous with the rare beef! This is the serving of beef you get when you order the pho with just meatballs and rare beef. Nice!
Beef and Meatball Pho | $12.95
Delicious! Great broth with depth in flavor. Looks at all those onions and green onions, can’t go wrong there. Each bowl was licked clean.
Oxtail Pho | $17.50 contains peanuts and carrots
This is my pho! Yes! Oxtail pho! I enjoyed it. Well, not sure what I was expected. Honestly, if you’re expecting it to taste like the oxtail soup you get from Asahi Grill, you will be disappointed. I actually found that the broth and oxtail was much milder in seasoning. I don’t mind that because I love using their hot sauces. They were pretty generous with the cuts of meat, I would definitely order this again!
Lemongrass Chicken Sandwich | $8.75 served on french bread and contains mayonnaise, cucumber, chinese parsley, pickled daikon and carrots
I had to try their banh mi since I don’t know when I would be out here again! I ate this sandwich way later in the day and it held up okay. The bread was a bit chewy but I knew that going in. My biggest complaint was the veggies. Do you see how big the carrots and daikon are? My god, it was like eating my sandwich with carrot sticks inside. They were not seasoned enough or preserved enough, they need to slice their carrots and daikon thinner! The chicken was marinated perfect and tasted great.
I don’t get to visit Windward too often but when I do, I do enjoy trying the different eateries out there! I tried Pho My Vi for the first time the other week and really enjoyed it! The service was good (well it was a young man and he definitely did not want to be at work but he was still a good server), I enjoyed the food! Prices for the appetizers were a bit higher but I think the pho was an incredible value. The medium size was huge!
Spring Rolls (2pcs) | $7.95
Spring rolls tasted good, do I think two spring rolls for $8.00 is a good deal? No.
Beef Salad | $15.95 Citrus infused sliced rib eye served with romaine lettuce, onions, cucumbers, tomatoes, onion flakes, crushed peanuts, chinese parsley, tossed in Chef’s lime and pineapple specialty dressing.
Anytime I see beef salad on the menu, I just gotta try it! Pho 777 still has the best on the island, hands down. I don’t love visiting Pho 777 because it’s a bit run down and I question the cleanliness but you can’t beat their beef salad. The beef salad here was good, not great.
Combination Pho (Medium) | $12.75
I enjoyed my bowl of pho! I think they are generous with the meats and noodles, I felt quite satisfied after dining here! They have the hot chili sauce I like too (the one with the chili oil). Give them a try if you are feeling like pho and in Kaneohe!
I don’t think I need to tell you about The Pig and the Lady nor do I need to share about Piggy Smalls? Right? Well, I honestly haven’t been to The Pig and the Lady just yet but absolutely have been to Piggy Smalls a few times and loved it for both lunch and dinner. My previous post was dinner, this post will focus on lunch. Both meal times have their perks but I think I might favor lunch a bit more…let me share why…
Seasonal Slushy (Strawberry!) | $4.50
Finally! A seasonal flavor I can get behind! Strawberry! Nice refreshing drink, perfect for a hot day.
They are known for their LF Chicken Wings, and yes, many tables were ordering them! But somehow, I felt more veggie that day (word?). Well, I had no regrets getting the cauliflower, absolutely none. And honestly, you only get like 4 chicken wings. Look at this platter of cauliflower goodness. I am salivating just looking at it, and it was lightly breaded and deep fried so the cauliflower totally soaked up the money sauce. I could eat this as an entree with rice, well almost…but not when the next dish exists…
Pho-strami Banh Mi | $16.00 +$4 add noodles all day smoked beef brisket, pickled mustard seeds, sriracha-lime onions, awesome sauce, on la tour baguette with a side of our signature pho broth & farm salad
I was being pretty good during this meal. I actually shared this entree, could I finish it in one sitting? Probably not, but I sure as heck could hoard the other half of the sandwich for a really luscious snack later. This beef brisket is fatty/juicy and tender…I mean…this is my perfect sandwich. The baguette is a little hard (that’s what she said) but you gotta have the crusty french bread right? And the bowl of pho noodles on the side? THERE IS NO WRONG WITH THIS DISH. I wish this sandwich was available during dinner, nope…it’s only during lunch. Anyone want to take me out to lunch?
One of my favorite cuisines is Vietnamese Food. If I am ever feeling under the weather, Pho is the dish I crave most. Color me surprised that we only tried two Vietnamese Restaurants during this trip, although the trip wasn’t all that long. I’ll cover both restaurants in this post.
Mango Tango | $3.95 black tea with mango, passion fruit coconut jelly
Garlic Noodles with Grilled Jumbo Shrimp | $15.00
Okay, I just realized that I went to two Vietnamese restaurants and didn’t eat pho in either one. What was I thinking? Well if you think I have any regrets, I have none. These garlic noodles with shrimp were so delicious. Mmm…what a send-off of a meal. The drink? Perfect! I really wish I had found this restaurant earlier in the trip because I am sure we would have given it a second visit.
Broken Rice is a fairly new Vietnamese restaurant in Kaimuki. I’ve read some good reviews for this restaurant and was excited to try it! At first I thought we had to make reservations because I expected it to be busy. Honestly, we got there on a Saturday at about 6pm and it was fairly empty. Luckily, they got a few more diners as we were finishing up, whew.
Spring Rolls | $9.00
shrimp, pork, carrots, mushroom, long rice, onions.
Typical spring rolls you find at every Vietnamese restaurant, nothing special but it is delicious!
Crab Fried Rice | $18.00
king crab, pork sausage, egg and green onion
Hmm, starting to realize this is the second fried rice post this week. Haha, but I promise these restaurant visits were spread apart a few weeks. It was good! $18 good? Well not really now that I’ve had the Chengdu Style Fried Rice.
Shaking Beef | $19.00
cubed rib-eye steak, garlic, soy sauce, with house slaw.
Beef Rib Pho | $18.00
beef brisket and beef rib, flat rice noodle.
Okay, I can only comment on the Beef Rib Pho because this was my dish. One caveat, I was sick when I ate here so my taste buds were a bit compromised. I think I would have really enjoyed this pho had I not been sick. They give you two big chunks of beef ribs so it was nice and beefy…a bit too rich and fatty for my tastes since I wasn’t feeling great. You can see the oily soup so that’s my only complaint – if it was a less fatty, this would be fabulous!
Piggy Smalls is the sister restaurant of The Pig and the Lady. They are located in Ward Center, I don’t have much of a summary to give here, let’s get to the pictures and full review!
Snap Pea Limeade | $5.00
I love when restaurants offer great non-alcoholic drinks. I enjoy alcoholic drinks from time to time but generally don’t handle it as well as others. This was a really light and refreshing drink and not too sweet. I enjoyed it!
Oh. My. God. Drool…this dish was AMAZING. I enjoyed all three dips immensely. The eggplant dip was great, you could taste the miso, the yuzu and the amazing smokiness. There was a sweetness to this dip and you can’t even tell that this is eggplant!
The roasted beets were great too, I love the taste of fresh beets and the horseradish notes came through but not so strong that my sinuses got cleared, lol.
The favorite of course was the TRUFFLE SHUFFLE. I’m a fool for truffle so this dip was heavenly. The porcini bits mixed with black truffle? If I could have licked the serving dish clean, I would have. I actually I would have but didn’t think of it at the restaurant. Definitely recommend this dish, but if I were to return, I would probably just get the truffle shuffle dip because I loved it so much.
I believe I had this dish during a previous visit months ago but it was somewhat of a different preparation. First, I’m excited to know that even though they make changes to their menu from time to time, they kept this dish on. Perfectly cooked pork belly with a perfect ring of crisp skin. Mmm…so good. The raisin and caper sauce on top complemented it nicely! The grains and herbs were just okay in my opinion.
Crunchy, Sour, Salty, Sweet | $13.00 Add Chopped Steak | $9.00 various raw vegetables, pickled raisins, ricotta salata, green olive & medjool date vinaigrette
Chopped Steak
Here is a instance of where we saw this salad from our neighboring diners and got hooked in by how pretty it looked. They both gave their thumbs up to it so we ordered it…and hefted it up with some chopped steak.
Okay first of all, this salad is chock full of vegetables (well, duh). But…it was full of a variety of radishes and while I enjoy radishes, this was just far too much. There were barely any leafy greens/young herbs so I felt like I just kept chewing on radish after radish after radish after radish, you get the idea. My suggestion would be to add some sliced fresh beets, more greens and some fresh goat cheese…the salad would be far more balanced and more yum!
The chopped steak, I didn’t expect this, was DELICIOUS. I think the waiter said the steak is marinated in some kind of balsamic sauce…I feel like I tasted a type of Worcestershire sauce. Doesn’t matter, the steak was cooked perfectly and was super tender. The savory taste of the steak was great, $9 for this as a side to the salad was a deal. Should ask if they could sell me the steak for $9…lol
Frozen S’mores | $9.00 chocolate sorbet, house made graham crackers, bruleed marshmallow fluff
Jelly Donut Softserve | $8.00 powdered sugar donut custard topped with our seasonal homemade jam (lemon cranberry)
I can only comment on this Jelly Donut Softserve because this was my dessert. Get ready because I was not happy but it was not entirely their fault. I guess I got too excited and didn’t really read this title or description but I expected a jelly donut with the lemon cranberry flavor of the month as the jelly.
Oh boy, I did not expect it to be a donut softserve with the lemon cranberry sauce on top. One thing I didn’t know also is that they add sprinkles. I hate sprinkles. I know, I know. What kind of monster hates sprinkles? Well, that’s me. Never been into it and correct me if I’m wrong, aren’t they not supposed to be chalky? These sprinkles were SO chalky, I couldn’t enjoy it. So it was hard to enjoy this dessert when I had in mind a donut coming my way (my fault) and then getting this. I’m not a huge fan of vanilla type softserve (which I couple this one into) so I gotta give a thumbs down. But…there is a lemon cake on their menu that I do want to try next time so there is always hope!
This may be a controversial statement, but I feel like the pho I have had in Vietnamese restaurants have been generally the same. Of course there are going to be nicer restaurants that offer better broths, but I am not locked down to a specific restaurant because I know I can get a good bowl of pho in most restaurants. Pho Que Huong is the newest Vietnamese Restaurant in Chinatown and after viewing pictures on Yelp, I had to try it. For the pho? Sure, gotta have that…but mainly for the Prawns dish! I’m a sucker for prawns. Pics time!
Medium Pho • $9.00
Great bowl of pho, tasted delicious. I liked that they served up the raw meat with raw onions. Doesn’t the meat look nice and red? It was a good bowl of pho, was it something that knocked my socks off? No, but it was good.
Tom Kho Tau (Prawns in Roe Sauce) • $15.00
At first look, $15 for two prawns doesn’t seem like a great value. However, if you go to Romy’s in the North Shore and order a Prawn plate, you get three big prawns for over $25 so maybe it’s not a terrible deal. Although, I should probably just go to a seafood market and buy my own prawns to make a dish. Sorry, I got sidetracked.
This was a great dish, it is savory in a salty, fishy (in a good way), and caramelized sauce. Very flavorful. It was so awesome to put some of the sauce onto the rice…and the heads of prawns have the best “miso” to eat! I was very happy to eat this, would I order it again? It’s a bit pricey so it’s not going to be a mainstay but a once-in-a-while treat is nice! This is a great restaurant because they serve a variety of dishes – I consider it a very full menu with some dishes you can’t find elsewhere. Parking, this is in Chinatown so you should already guess how that goes. We parked in a private lot across the street and paid $2 for an hour, we were able to dine in the restaurant and leave within the hour.
Pho Thinh is my absolute favorite Vietnamese restaurant in Hawaii. When my friend first told me about this restaurant, all she could boast about was their cleanliness. Is that a factor for me in dining…eh…not necessarily. We all know Chinese restaurants aren’t the cleanest restaurants but they serve up some good grub. Well this restaurant is not only insanely clean (NO REALLY), check the sauce containers on your table. Not a single crumb or crust on their condiments. Vegetables? Meticulously cleaned vegetables…you can just tell they take pride not only in their food but in the full restaurant experience. They usually close for about a month every year to visit home but they took that trip this year already! So go and try them out! They are located in the same place as Wagaya Ramen. Parking can be a bit difficult but it’s worth it.
Large Combination Pho • $11.50
Do you see that clear broth? Don’t let the light clear broth fool you, it is seasoned just right. No overwhelming spices, just delicious food. Ahh…I’ve been on such a pho kick lately that I just want to come back already!
Bun Rieu • $11.50 Vietnamese Crab & Tomato Noodle Soup
This is a specialty dish they serve only on Fridays and Saturdays. I love it and they make it awesome, the best I’ve had from a restaurant here. There is also curly vegetables that accompany this broth. I don’t know the vegetable, I want to say it’s the stalky part of ong choi that they slice and curl up. Anyone can confirm? Shucks, wish I got a pic of it for you folks.
Pork Banh Mi • $8.50
No shame in my game, I got this sandwich too. Yup. I ate my pho and got this too. To be fair to myself, I only ate half and took the rest home, is that okay? Haha…so this was the second time I got it and I liked it both times even if it was different both times. The pork this time had a char siu red look to the edges…I don’t remember that the first time. I want to say the first time, this sandwich came with cilantro but the second time it didn’t. I really really enjoy cilantro which is why I didn’t enjoy the sandwich as much the second time. They also spread a bit of pate on the sandwich but the taste is quite mild so I enjoyed it. You gotta try it!
Aloha Vietnamese Foods (aka Aloha Pho on Yelp) is located in the same lot as Sweet Home Cafe so if you plan to come during dinner, expect a struggle in finding parking. I’ve seen some great reviews for this place so I wanted to give it a try. My experience was a bit lackluster. I thought the food was okay but they were super short-staffed so service was very slow. I somehow wish that since they have such a small staff that they would lessen the tables they have in the restaurant – there’s no sense in seating so many people if you can’t keep up with their orders.
Oxtail Curry with Rice
I was really looking forward to trying this dish. I love coconut milk based curry and oxtail is always winners. How was the dish? It was good, not great. I feel like there is something missing from it. It was a bit sweet for my taste – I feel like it was missing some kind of spice. I can’t pinpoint it – but I do wish more Vietnamese restaurants had this dish so I can try different variations!
Pho – nothing special but not bad. I think the portion is a bit small. This place is all right but I’m not sure I would add it to my dining rotation…
I’ve mentioned on my blog before that I enjoy Pho Bistro 2 and also mentioned that I enjoy Pho Thinh. I am now here to some pictures at a recent meal! They serve this dish called Bun Rieu which is a Crab Noodle Soup. It is so delicious! I took my three brothers one Saturday afternoon and it was a great meal. Kids love pho, did you know? Anyhow, the staff is great there and everything is so CLEAN. You gotta check it out, everything is obsessively clean and everything tastes great. Here are my pictures.
Doesn’t that look great? Shrimp and Crab…awesome!
Here are the veggies that come with it. It comes with raw bean sprouts and the greens are sliced ong choi stems. It also comes with lemon and sliced peppers. I throw the ong choi right into the soup right away so it can cook a bit – it’s great because it maintains its crunch!
Everything goes so well together. Tomatoes, fried tofu, noodles, green onions, shrimp and crab. It looks spicy but it really isn’t!
