Ray’s been tired of hearing me bitch about not eating enough Vietnamese so today he took me to Pho Pearl so I could get my pho fix. The truth of the matter is, since I’ve moved away from my parents my pho consumption has reached an all time low. I’m ashamed to admit it and my mother says it’s because I have no honor. My mom, she blames everything on honor. I try to explain, “no mom, I have honor, it’s money, I have no money.”

Here’s what it looks like on the inside.

We started off with these Summer Rolls, $4.25. These tasted really fresh, like you knew for certain they were just made and brought right to the table to be consumed. I made a request to have one shrimp roll and one pork roll to switch it up a bit. It wasn’t a problem and ended up being a really good call. Both were equally as scrumptious. Oh, also, the peanut sauce here is up there as one of the best peanut sauces I’ve ever tasted, truly.

I came here for pho so I made it a point not to go over the menu too much. I didn’t want to be deterred. What I love about pho is that it always comes in this ginormous bowl. One bowl is always enough for two. I got the Pho @ Beef Meatball, $6.95. Pho is generally topped with finely chopped white and green onions for optimal flavor.

Also, no pho would ever be able to live up to it’s full potential if it was not accommodated with all the fixings. A dish of limes, in this case lemons, but limes make it so much better. It’s like having a corona with a lime or lemon? Lime just adds better flavor than lemon. Anyhow, like I was saying, a dish of lemons, bean sprouts, slices up raw jalapenos, basil, and mint made a suitable pho partner in crime.

Crispy Fried Egg Noodle with Seafood, $8.50. The flavor of this dish was a winner. I thought it was slightly too salty but I’m weird and sensitive to sodium, but like I said, it was extremely tasty. Ray goes, “the sauce on this is so good I actually want to eat my vegetables.” As for the noodles, they were under-fried. Crispy noodles were a specialty at my family restaurant so I know one key to making a good crispy noodle is the crisp part. The noodles were just fried but not enough, so it tasted a little stale or Styrofoamy. Just a couple more minutes in the deep fryer would have completely transformed this dish.

Anyhow, when we got here, the host/waitress/chef/busser; basically there was one lady there and she was a one woman army, since her husband had just stepped out for a few minutes. She was overly apologetic and would apologize for everything. She apologized for us waiting to be sat, she apologized for her husband being gone, for us waiting for food, for anything she could do to make it better, for her husband being gone again, for how the food turned out, for bringing us the bill. Also, when she did bring us the bill, she was so sorry that she gave us a 10% discount. The point is she apologized for everything that went right. Isn’t it the basic procedure to wait to be sat, order, wait, eat and pay when you go out to eat? The only thing that was out of the norm was her passive attitude. As a matter of fact, we waited less than a minute to be sat, and wait time for the food was about 10 minutes. Normal right? Whatever I wasn’t going to fight the discount. Sure, I’ll take 10% off. I’ll take it as payment of all the unnecessary times I had to say, “it’s o.k,” or “everything’s fine.” All I’m saying is, next time, I go there and I see her husband, I’m expecting the royal celebrity treatment. I want a red carpet, candles, fireworks, the whole shabang.

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Pho Pearl Vietnamese Bistro
804 Kapahulu Ave.
Honolulu, HI 96816

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

Don’t let the name fool you. If your in the mood for European food this isn’t the place for you. I think the only thing that can be considered French here is the croissant and the French bread or baguette that the sandwiches are made with. At lot of Vietnamese dinning establishments will refer to themselves as “French” this is because in 1900 Vietnam became a colony of France with the French in control of all the levels of government. That all for the fun facts lets get on with the food. I got a steamed pork sandwich. If you have never had a Vietnamese style sandwich and your totally open to trying new things, then you should definitely have one. I’ve been eating steamed pork sandwiches ever since I was a little girl. My mom use to take me to the Vietnamese sandwich shop in San Jose, California. I love them. However, they aren’t for everyone. My fiance absolutely loves sandwiches, but refuses to even try these sandwiches. He won’t even take a bite because he says he already knows he’s not gonna like it.

A very friendly China-men greeted me at the window. I don’t know if he was nice to me because I was of the same ethnic background and spoke to him in Cantonese or maybe he was physic and knew I wrote a food blog and he wanted me to give him a good review. I guess we’ll just never know.

A typical “French” (Vietnamese) sandwich will consist of cilantro, steam pork meat, sweet and sour (pickled) radishes and carrots, meat paste spread, mayonnaise, raw hot peppers and sometimes cucumber.

The sandwich cost me under $5.00. I asked for extra pickled radishes and carrots and it was given with no additional charge. Pickled radishes and carrots are used a lot in Vietnamese food. I brought my sandwich home and ate every last bite.

Among sandwiches they also have milkshakes, fresh coconut, fruit, and shaved ice. Yum. The French cafe is located in the heart of Waikiki on Kalakaua St inside the International Market Place. There’s a large food court there so if you don’t fancy yourself a “French” sandwich that’s cool, eat something eles.

Directions to French Cafe