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

Located in Chinatown, Zaffron is a decent place to get Indian food with mediocre service. Ray and I came here to get lunch. When we walked in there were two other tables already eating and no wait staff to be found. We decided it would be appropriate to go ahead and seat ourselves. I would of grabbed menus, but they were no where to be found. It took a while for the waiter to come out and when he did it took a while for him to notice us, as he was a one man team. Finally I got up to ask for some menus and to let our presence to known. He said there were no menus, just buffet for lunch. Well that fucking blows. I’m not a fan of buffets for many reasons. Buffets tend to keep food warm. That’s not good enough for me. Temperature is a huge issue for me. I prefer my food piping hot and made just for me because I love to share food, but with those I know. Anyway, needless to say, I wanted to leave but Ray, I know he wanted to stay.

Here’s a picture of the buffet. It’s small, yet very charming and does the job.

Here’s a closer picture from the opposite angle. There were two rice dishes and two meat dishes, other than that everything else was vegetable. I liked the trio of sauces that were offered. I love variety of sauces and condiments.

Naan was extra, which I hate paying extra for bread at a buffet. If anything it should be given for free, especially at a buffet, it’s bread for peaks sake, flour, water, and not a lot of money to make. But I do want to say that it was hot and delicious. If you haven’t had a chance to taste Indian bread your really missing out. This place does it right, there’s a few places that fuck it up, like Indian Bazaar Madras Curry and Indian Food Curry and BBQ. In my opinion, Indian bread should always be hot, that’s what I’m use to and that’s what I expect, especially if you have to pay for it. I think the bread cost around $4.00.

Here’s my trio of sauces. I could eat them as is, they were that good. Ray hated it.

Ray’s plate. He loves chicken and got plenty of it.

And here’s my plate. That little meat ball in the middle tasted just like an Italian meat ball. It was still really good, just not what I expected from an Indian place.

Overall, I was content with this place. I know I would of been happier if I had been able to order off the menu. I don’t think I would come back for lunch, but most definitely for dinner. Off the top of my head, I think the buffet cost $8.95, include the bread, Rays drink, tax and tip, this place isn’t so cheap anymore. If I’m paying $30.00 for just lunch I want to be fulfilled.

Ready for another quick story? Before we leave I get up to take pictures of the buffet. The Indian guy comes out of the kitchen wondering why the hell I’m taking a picture of his buffet. I tell him that it’s my first time to eat Indian food, which is a total lie, and seemed to be a good reason for taking pictures. He runs behind the counter comes back with this laminated paper, tells me they won a few awards, I don’t know if this was meant to be the award or not and shows me the laminated paper. I go, “wow, that’s great, may I take this.” He goes, “no.” “Then I will take a picture,” I say, held it up and snapped my camera. Before we left I asked him to hold up the paper and pose for me.

There you have it folks. Curry will keep your mind sharp.

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Zaffron
69 North King Street
Honolulu, HI 96817
(808) 533-6635

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