[Honolulu - Chinatown] The Pig and the Lady - Modern Vietnamese

The Pig and the Lady was one of the restaurants I was looking forward to eating at the most during my trip.

The Pig and the Lady is located in Chinatown and serves Vietnamese fare with a slightly modern flair.

We went during the middle of the lunch hours with no reservation. They do accept reservations and we were definitely playing with fire, but luckily there was exactly one table available when we arrived, so we had no wait, which was beyond lucky, seriously. There as a pretty long wait the entire time we dined. This is a restaurant that, although there's a lunch menu, people don't eat quickly and rush out like they'd do in NYC. We took a leisurely lunch and, even in doing that, there were definitely business people who were there before us and who remained there after we left.

TL;DR - Make a reservation if you don't want to wait.

This is a look at the interior. I tried to capture it without getting any people's faces in it. I failed and should have probably just done a real picture at a normal angle.

I got the Weekend at Burmese Salad, which is typically vegan, but I decided to add the Fried Kauai Shrimp. This was a super delicious salad and I 100% recommend you check it out if you see it on the menu. The texture of everything was super duper fresh and crisp and the flavors were so, so, so complex! I love it and I hope to someday either eat it again or somehow figure out how to recreate it at home. It was semi-moderately spicy, but the spice was balanced well with the other flavors like the citrus/acidic flavor and the mellow fermented flavor of the dressing.

My dad got the Pho French Dip Banh Mi. The bread was so fresh and the meat was so well seasoned and extremely tender. He typically orders a banh mi when we go to Vietnamese food in Minnesota, so he's had a fair share of banh mis in his day and said that this was a pretty unique combination for him.

Although he didn't choose to do so, you can add noodles for the pho broth. That could round out your meal a little bit more if you wanted a fuller meal.

My mom decided to go for something pretty unique. This is the Cold Noodles with the Lemongrass pork and betel leaf, served Northern style. Cold noodles with lemongrass pork isn't the unique part...the betel leaf was.

This noodle dish was great. Flavorful with a wide variety of flavors. It should be noted that it is a lot of food for lunch. She decided to go for this because it sounded refreshing on a hot Hawaiian day.

My mom typically orders pho at Vietnamese restaurants, but it was too hot outside, so she decided to try the cold noodles. This was full of flavor, a different flavor combination in every bite. The textures were so different, too, which added a lot of interest to each bite.

Dessert-wise, I had wanted to try the Lilikoi Malasadas, but I was so full and we had so many other things planned for the day, so I couldn't overstuff myself before going to the museum. I know my dad was also eyeing everyone's soft serve around us, but he was also quite full. If you know my dad, you know that this is extremely surprising that he turned down the option of ice cream!

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