The Pig & The Lady is soft opening today in its new Kaimukī restaurant space.
The Pig & The Lady’s new restaurant space is located at Civil Beat Plaza on Waiʻalae Avenue. The new space features comparable square footage to its previous Chinatown location, and includes an open bar and outdoor seating.
“We’re really excited to be here,” says chef/owner Andrew Le. “It’s quite the glow-up from Chinatown.”
The restaurant will have a limited menu during its soft opening (Oct. 15 to 19) and will celebrate its grand opening on Oct. 21. Soft opening hours will be 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Wednesdays-Sundays for lunch and 5-9:30 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays for dinner. Brunch service will be coming at a later date.
The restaurant’s interior features a collaborative mural by Jeff Gress and Kaimukī-based tattoo artist Steven Lam. The mural depicts a bowl of noodles and a tiger, which represents Le’s mom.
“I’m the Year of the Pig (Chinese zodiac); every zodiac has an ally and an enemy,” he explains. “My ally is the tiger, which is my mom’s Chinese zodiac. In that sense, it’s meant to be.”
At last night’s media preview, we had a sneak peek of dishes featured on the fall lunch and dinner menus. The menu features seasonal ingredients, but, as Le says, “What you expected in Chinatown is what you’re going to expect from us now in Kaimukī.”
“We’re focused on modern Vietnamese food with local touches,” he says. “Aesthetically, the menu isn’t different; I still cook the way I cook.”
Banh it ram chay ($5 each, minimum three per order) is a mochi-like dumpling with a taro and mung bean filling. This is a vegetarian-friendly version, comprising shiitake mushrooms, caramelized onions, black pepper and vegan nuoc cham.
“On the bottom is a disc of crispy sticky rice, and you have a ball that’s been stuffed with mung beans,” Le explains. “It’s steamed, so it’s crispy and chewy at the same time. The traditional version is with pork and shrimp, but we wanted to do a vegetarian version.”
The P&L-style skewers are inspired by savory Spanish pintxos. The tapas usually feature grilled or roasted pieces of meat served on a skewer.
“In Vietnam, there are so many types of pickles and fermented items; we put everything on a skewer to enjoy that way,” Le says.
This version comprises various Viet pickles, shrimp, leeks, semi-dried daikon, mustard cabbage, firecracker eggplant and nem chua (pork).
The chestnut and mushroom pate ($20) is finished with sea salt, shiitake “bacon” and pickled shallots, and is served with a baguette. The pate was creamy, savory and easily spreadable; it was one of our favorite dishes of the evening.
This dish features a combination of dynamic flavors. Beets are served atop smoked eggplant emulsion and topped with scallion oil, cacao nib dukkah, pickled cranberries, dark chocolate and mint.
“It’s yin and yang — something sweet, something sour; something salty, something spicy,” Le says. “When we build this dish, that’s what we are trying to do — something bitter, something sweet; something acidic, something smooth. I’m very excited about this dish.”
Thinly sliced scallops are served with coconut cauliflower leche de tigre, squid ink, burnt grapefruit, wasabi peas and shiso.
“The white sauce is made with cauliflower and coconut, but we decided to infuse squid ink into it,” Le explains. “That’s where we hide a lot of flavor. We blend lots of chilies and make this marbled look. We serve it with burnt grapefruit and add texture with wasabi peas.”
This crispy coconut rice crepe is meant to be shared. It’s filled with grated pa'i'ai, lap xuong and dried shrimp, and it’s served with herby lettuce wraps and lomi tomato nuoc cham.
This cake noodle-style dish features squid sauteed in garlic sauce, Thai basil and cherry tomatoes, then it’s covered with crispy vermicelli, according to Le.
“It’s dusted with mac khen pepper togarashi,” he says. “It’s like the Vietnamese version of Szechuan pepper.”
The dish is meant to be mixed and eaten. It’s time-sensitive, as the crispy noodles will get soggy if the dish is sitting for too long.
Many of the meat dishes on the eatery’s menu are designed to share family-style, so groups can also order side dishes.
The “super prime" beef flank ($56) comes with lemongrass anchovy chile sate, garlic two ways, braised lettuce and a savory beef jus.
“Washugyu flank is American wagyu; it’s very tender and flavorful,” Le says. “We put garlic two ways — confit and garlic chips.”
He explains that the sauce is beef jus with Chinese black olives, resulting in an ultra-savory, umami flavor.
J. Ludovico Farm chicken is known for its tender texture and juicy flavor, and this version doesn’t disappoint. It’s served with banh mi baguette croutons, offal ragout, cioppolini, chanh muoi kosho and mustard frisee.
Le explains that the sauce is made from the giblets, which are roasted in a pan with the chicken stock, chilies and cinnamon.
This dish is essentially a double stuffed ravioli, according to Le, who explains the epaulette pasta shape resembles the shoulder pads of a French soldier’s uniform.
“On one side, we have black truffle pork sausage,” he says. “We fill the other side with roasted kabocha that’s been cooked with brown butter.”
The pasta is garnished with wood ear mushrooms and roasted kabocha.
The braised, charred cabbage (bap cai luoc) is one of the eatery’s featured side dishes.
“It’s inspired by a homestyle Vietnamese dish my mom would make for us all the time,” Le says. “This is our version of it; we boiled eggs and separate the whites and the yolks, and blend that into this nice, creamy sauce.”
The cabbage is topped with fried shallots and scallion oil.
No visit to The Pig & The Lady is complete without the eatery’s signature soft serve. The current soft serve swirl features avocado matcha custard with strawberry guava sorbet topped with crushed feuilletine wafers and salted condensed milk. It's an unexpected combination, but the flavors and textures complement each other nicely.
If you’re looking for something a bit more indulgent, go for the dark chocolate cremeaux ($15), which features variations of orange, kakimochi sable and marigold.
Other dessert options include spiced pineapple shave ice ($15), warm sticky toffee banh bo nuong ($15) and Hanoi egg espresso ($10).
Reservations via OpenTable and the restaurant’s website are highly recommended.
Validated parking is available at Civil Beat Plaza (entrance is on Wilhemina Rise).
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CONTACT
The Pig & The Lady
Civil Beat Plaza
3650 Waiʻalae Ave., Honolulu
Thepigandthelady.com
Instagram: @pigandthelady
Soft opening hours:11 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Wednesdays-Sundays for lunch; 5-9:30 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays for dinner
Kelli Shiroma Braiotta can be reached at kelli@alohastatedaily.com.
