A new addition to the Hawaii Thai food scene is Ploi Thai, a restaurant that resides on Keawe Street across from the old CompUSA location in Kaka’ako. The restaurant is located in the building that used to house Bliss and Velvet’s. Unlike the location’s predecessors, Ploi Thai offers a truly promising culinary establishment, exploring traditional and modern Thai cuisine.

When you walk into Ploi Thai, you are greeted warmly by the hostess. As she leads you to your table, the staff behind the kitchen counter greets you as well. This warm welcome is just a sampling of the great and friendly service you will enjoy throughout the meal.

Ploi Thai is modestly decorated, with a few pieces of artwork throughout the main dining area. The restaurant is dimly lit, creating a more private and intimate atmosphere than most Thai restaurants. The use of tablecloth would perhaps be the only aesthetic change I would make to the restaurant.

In addition to the main dining area, Ploi Thai does offer a full private seating area upstairs which can accommodate quite a few guests.

The menu at Ploi Thai offers a variety of Thai favorites, as well as some unique dishes. As with many Thai restaurants Ploi Thai does offer a vegetarian selection on their menu.

After browsing the menu for a few minutes, we placed our orders. Soon after putting in the order with our server, a basket of shrimp chips arrived.

Shrimp Chips

These shrimp chips were quite good, packed with flavor and the right amount of saltiness, but devoid of that terrible excessive oiliness you get from store bought shrimp chips. Certainly not your usual beginning to a meal, but in the end we enjoyed these chips very much.

Hiding Princess

Hiding Princess Dipping Sauce

The first menu item we ordered was an appetizer marked as a house specialty. The unusual name is what caught my attention, as this dish is called “Hiding Princess.” This appetizer features leaf wrapped triangles of lemon grass chicken. The presentation of the dish was quite nice, as well as the flavor.

The Hiding Princess comes with a soy-like dipping sauce that goes well with the lemon grass chicken. Each triangular serving was kept warm inside of the leaf wrapping. The lemon grass chicken itself was full of flavor, making for a pleasant start to our meal.

Drunken Noodles

We ordered two main dishes to share, the first being Drunken Noodles. These noodles were prepared spicy, and can be ordered with either beef, pork, or chicken. Our chicken variation packed a great spicy kick provided by the red chili. Although marked as a spicy dish, the spiciness of the noodles did not overpower the other flavors as it sometimes does in other restaurants.

If you like spicy food, and are in the mood for some good noodles, I would recommend this dish.

Tamarind Shrimp

The Tamarind Shrimp features fried shrimp and vegetables in a tangy tamarind sauce with chili and sweet basil. This dish offers a generous helping of shrimp! The tamarind sauce’s tangy flavors meld well with the spicy chili and the taste of sweet basil. The vegetables in this dish give additional flavor to the palate. A very well rounded and flavorful dish!

Sticky Rice

Of course no visit to a Thai restaurant would be complete for me without sampling the sticky rice. Ploi Thai’s rice compares favorably to other establishments, with the rice retaining its sticky texture without being rock solid or dry.

Final thoughts: Ploi Thai has been opened for some time now, and has undergone a few changes in its short lifetime. Since it’s official Grand Opening, Ploi Thai seems to have reached the point where it contends with local Thai restaurants like Phuket Thai and Chiang Mai. Offering a menu of good dishes, along with its excellent service, Ploi Thai is certainly one Thai restaurant we’ll keep our eyes on as it grows.

Service:		Above Average
Food:		Above Average
Atmosphere:		Average +
Overall Value:		Above Average

*Star ratings are based in comparison to similar establishments by food type and price range.

Price:

$10-$20 per person

Ploi Thai
327 Keawe St Honolulu, Hawaii 96814
Phone: 808.566.6999

Now with three locations across Oahu, Phuket Thai is a name that many islanders have come to recognize. The restaurant caters to customers looking for authentic Thai cuisine, including all the spicy deliciousness we’ve come to expect from Thai cooking. (more…)

Drum roll please. The winner for the Soup Nazi Award goes to . . . . . . . . . . . . The Green Door Cafe. The first time I got to experience her service was last year when her business was located in China Town. After the Chinese New Year parade we walked into the Green Door, because every other business around was jam packed. She was standing outside, not ready to greet us but ready to send us away, “are you guys sure you want to eat here? You didn’t see all the food stands out there?” We tell her we’re sure so she reluctantly seats us. When we finally decide what we want to eat, I politely say, “o.k. were ready to order,” as she walks by. She walks right past me like she didn’t even hear me. I’m thinking, maybe she didn’t hear me. Her tiny restaurantz is packed. At the time there were maybe 6 tables; it was a small place. I look around and realize that every table, but one or two, is in need of something, ready to order, water, napkins, wanting to pay, etc. and she is at the door in what looks like pajama pants, nonchalantly talking to someone at the door. When she’s done conversing she walks past me again, by this time we’re totally ready to order so I say a bit louder this time, “we’re ready to order.” She looks at me, and keeps on walking. Ray and Shane just laugh at me. Wow, she really was just ignoring me. So, when we finally get around to ordering, she tells us, “no, that’s not what you want, I’ll give you the fish instead.” Doesn’t ask, but tells us we don’t want what we just ordered and we’re getting the fish instead. Okay, I guess we’re getting the fish. This lady is my hero. I’m telling you the lady that owns this restaurant is famous for her brusque manorism. Another table comes in and there’s no place to seat so she takes them to our table and seat them there without asking either party if it was alright. Luckily they we’re good company. Anyhow, the food was just as incredible this time as it was back then. We actually wanted to eat at the Olive Tree this night but it was packed so we walked next door to the Green Door Cafe instead.

The new location is a lot bigger.

After skimming the menu, I was ready to order but notice the sign at the counter, “self service please order your food here,”

And right next to that sign was the infamous Soup Nazi. It was like she was too good to get up and walk to the tables and serve people. I got up to give her my order and she was seriously eating her food as she took my order, didn’t even hesitate to stop. She just kept on shoveling food in her mouth and chewing, my hero in action. I was mesmerized. While waiting for our food, we couldn’t take our eyes off of her. She took everyone’s order the same way, didn’t skip a beat, kept right on chewing.

Ordering the flat bread here is a MUST, $1.50 each. It ties in the meal perfectly and goes with everything. I comes out fresh and hot. I haven’t been able to find bread like it anywhere else on the island.

This is the Organic Mushroom Chicken and Black Pepper with Garlic Wine Sauce, $13.75. I know it looks a bit overloaded with black pepper but it didn’t taste that way at all. The mushrooms were delectable and the dish as a whole was just superb. I loved, loved it.

Who’s not a curry fan? Everybody who loves curry right? The Malaysian Chicken Curry here is complete with flavor; a truly exceptional dish. The only thing that could of made it better was the flat bread. I filled my flat bread up with curry and folded it over like a taco, orgasmic, like a love explosion in my mouth.

The Green Door Cafe is the kind of place where dealing with the service is worth the food because no matter what you order it’s guaranteed to be phenomenal. If your not a fan of Eastern Food come for the service. I’m not gonna guarantee you’ll see Soup Nazi in action but it’s possible. After my first experience at The Green Door I shared my story with a few friends and they had a story to shoot right back at me. I also mentioned her once before in one of my recent post on Cafe VIII 1/2 and I got this comment back from Ken,

“Regarding Green Door in China Town, well, the same owner opened up shop in Kahala Mall. That lady is on another level! Were to start with my dining experiment there…
(1) Some places don’t have a liquor license, right? That’s usually cool, I actually prefer it so I can bring my own. Green Door hits you with a $3/head corkage fee, yet they don’t have a liquor license…WTF
(2) God forbid it is a busy night cause that owner refuses to hire any extra help. The whole time she was running the show and boy did she seem pissed off. A smile now and then goes a long way.
Lastley,
(3) I get a hardcore elbow to the back of the head as she is rushing in between tables, NO APOLOGIES!!!

However, the food was good… go figure.”

She’s infamous I tell ya. Fuck the food, come for the service.

After our first experience with the soup nazi we were so flabbergasted that our friend Shane had to take a photo with her.

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Green Door Cafe
1145 Maunakea St
Honolulu, HI96817

Get Directions(808) 533-0606

Driving through the Haleiwa you’ll find a strip of famous shops and eateries. It’s a tourist haven and I don’t mean that in a bad way. There’s a ton of famous eateries here, like Cholos, Matsumoto Shaved Ice, Haleiwa’s Joes, Rosie’s Cantina, Spagettini, and Haleiwa Eats. Everytime we drive by I’m like, let’s eat there, but I usually get overruled and we end up getting Mexican. It’s not so bad because tacos after a day at the beach is pretty fucking phenomenal. Anyhow, today I got my way and I finally got to check out Haleiwa Eats for myself.

I walked in and was super excited, this place is totally adorable.

On the wall behind me was a decorative display of Mac Computers. Since I’m Mac 4 life I could totally appreciate the art here. My younger sisters actually had one of these, the blue one. What a great innovative, and creative way to recycle Macs.

Here, we have the Thai Summer Rolls, $5.00, fresh rice paper wrapped with veggies and served with peanut sauce. This was a vegetarian’s dream summer roll. I’m use to summer rolls with some kind of meat like, shrimp or shredded pork, but these babies were meatless. Veggies like green beans and cucumbers that I love, but am not use to seeing in a summer roll was used. The peanut sauce made me nut myself, if you know what I mean. It was different than any other peanut sauce I’ve had, like a creamy, curry, peanut your mouth kind of sauce. Fan.

I believe this is the Thai Spicy Basil, $9.00, chili basil sauce, with string beans, zuchinni and onions. The portion was kinda skimpy, but it was no doubt delicious.

After eating the summer rolls and ordering some steam rice, I had just enough to eat to satisfy my hunger and curiosity. I left with a very happy belly.

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Haleiwa Eats
66-079 Kamehameha Hwy
Haleiwa, HI96712

Get Directions(808) 637-4247

Oh the joys of another great find. It’s like finding a $20. in the pocket of an old pair of jeans. I’m a sucker for Thai food. It’s right up there with Indian and Vietnamese, so you can imagine my delight when I land upon a small Thai restaurant that is nice to my wallet and best buds with my taste buds.

So we walk into this place and it’s really long and narrow. Most of the seating is for two, as you can see, so don’t plan on having company parties here or anything. This place was quaint, charming, clean and fresh.

We started our meal off with these Summer Roll, $3.50. No that is not a miss print, they were really $3.50. So far, that’s the cheapest I’ve found on this island. As for taste, they were amazing. Just staring at the pictures now bring back fond memories of me eating them.

Next we have Spring Rolls, $5.95 for five rolls. Spring rolls are always a good choice. These crispy rice paper wrapped around ground pork and mixed vegetables. Plus, it came with a dipping sauce and garnish that you could actually eat. So after we were done I shredded greens and made a very tasty salad.

Up next we have Laab Beef Salad, $7.95 mixed with lime juice, rice flour, mint, parsley and onions served with cucumbers and cabbage. If your one of those people that love meat and not a lot of veggies, this is the salad Mother Nature intended for you. It had more meat than greens. For me it was slightly too salty, but I think for most it would be perfect. Besides that it was perfect in flavor, color, presentation, portion and price.

Another dish that is always a good choice is Curry Chicken, $6.95. I suggest the yellow curry like the one you see in the picture. This was chicken, sauteed with chili, coconut mild, potato and carrots. If you wanted shrimp it was only $1.00 more. One dollar more, for shrimp, I love it. I don’t recall if the rice came with it or not, but if it didn’t, I don’t reckon it would of cost more than $1.00. And yes I did say “reckon,” and no I’m not a hick or from Texas. Back to the curry, it was out of this world good. In my opinion you can always judge a good Thai Restaurant by it’s curry. If the curry is good, then chances are everything else will be good.

Pineapple Fried Rice with Chicken, $6.95, stir-fried with rice, egg, peas, carrots, pineapple and cashew nuts. I was really surprised at how good this fried rice was. The cashews was a nice surprised and the pineapple was fresh, not the can stuff. Everything just worked well together. One of the tastiest fried rice I’ve had in a while.

There you have it, another great find. I love this place and will most definitely be back. As for the dessert, they do have it and by the time we had finished our lunch we had no room for dessert. This is yet another reason to order dessert as an appetizer, that way there will always be room.

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Thai Cuisine
(Across the street from walmart) 700 Keeaumoku Street
Honolulu, HI 96814

Is it just me or does food from a food court located inside a mall never sound enticing? It seems like it’s just fuel to keep the shopping energy flowing. Anyway, it seems like I go through the same routine everytime I end up eating at the mall, I take a full walk through just to end up getting Thai. I’ve had their papaya salad twice so far and I’m a fan. Though, both times I’ve forgotten my camera, but trust me it’s good. They ask you if you want it spicy, medium or mild. Their spicy is really really spicy, so I suggest to go medium, which I did and was still slightly too spicy. It’s made fresh right in front of you.

Now, not every thing is good there. They have this crushed ice dessert that sucks donkey dick.

Looks good right. When I saw this I thought it was shaved ice with coconut milk and a variety of toppings to choose from to top it off. Finally, more toppings to choose from, I was so excited. Not that I don’t love shaved ice, but it seems like all they have for toppings is the usual azuki beans. Don’t get me wrong, I love azuki beans, especially on my shaved ice, but I also love my variety. Well, I should of took this ad literal. It wasn’t shaved ice, but crushed ice. It seriously was chunks of ice, like they put it in a bag and hammered the hell out of it, then dumped it into a bowl. The toppings were delicious, but who the hell likes to bite on chunks of ice as a dessert? Whatever, it was only $2.75 and the toppings were good.

I just wish more shaved ice places would offer these toppings.

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Little Cafe Siam
1450 Ala Moana Boulevard
Honolulu, HI
(808) 943-8424

I’ve been wanting to try this place out for some time now. Back in February when we were here on vacation we went to China Town for Chinese New Year. For dinner we went to this crowded restaurant where they sat you with strangers in order to accommodate everyone. The people that sat with us were totally friendly and suggested we try The Green Papaya if we get a chance. Well we didn’t get the chance to then but I made it a point to remember the name just in case we came back. One month later, we’re back and I finally got around to experiencing it for myself.

We ordered the seafood spring rolls to start, $9.95. It came with vermicelli noodles, lettuce cucumbers and mint leaves. They were really tasty and a perfect dish to start out with. It came with 7 so each of us were able to have a few. I suggest putting some of the rooster hot sauce in with the sauce that it comes with. It gives it a nice kick. After the egg rolls I mixed the rest of the stuff together and made a tasty salad with it.

For my entree I had a shrimp papaya salad, $8.95. I’m a sucker for papaya salads. They’re just really filling, light and scrumptious. Also, it’s the only salad that’s worth taking home for left overs because it doesn’t get soggy from all the dressing. I love that it came with plenty of basil. Basil is the best herb ever and not used enough. I added some rooster hot sauce to this plate as well. I love that stuff.

Shane got the Curry with Chicken, $8.95. Shane’s a curry whore. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him order anything else when we eat Vietnamese or Thai. It’s just too good to pass up. He was very pleased with his decision.

Ray ordered Chow Fun with Chicken, $8.95. This dish I saved for last because it was the reject dish. This would probably rank up there as one of the worst chow fun dishes that we have come across. First off, this isn’t chow fun. I don’t know who they think they’re fooling, maybe they ran out of chow fun noodles and tried to play it off with some other type of noodle. Perhaps they’re having a shortage on noodles all together because there was way more bean sprouts than noodles. The noodles that were there were over cooked and mushy. It was so disappointing. Now, when it comes to credentials, Ray and I are covered. Chow Fun is like Shane’s curry to Ray, he hardly orders anything else. As for me, I’m Chinese, not knowing what chow fun is is like not knowing what rice is. If you want good chow fun go to The Golden Eagle.

If your driving here there’s parking in the back, you could also enter the restaurant from there.

Overall, since the chow fun dish was not my order I’m quite pleased with this place. The prices aren’t super cheap, but still in the affordable range. I most definitely will come back, just not anytime soon. There’s just so much of Oahu I still need to see.

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Green Papaya
629 Keeaumoku St.
Honolulu, HI 96814
(808) 953-2340