Thai Herb Kitchen

really sad this place is closed. even more sad that there’s no real explanation as to why beyond the posted sign that says «closed due to mechanical difficulties»
i feel like there’s more to the story.
also sad because this place has pretty much ruined me for thai food on the island. there’s no other establishment that has been able to do my panang curry like this place. i used to order from here at least once a week, sometimes twice.
while my clothes fit better, i am not has happy as i could be with a bowl full of delicious food.
whatever happens, i hope that they succeed in further ventures.

Ate here again last night — TomYum Kung, PadGaPow, SomTum, and Thai fried rice. My wife and I decided that what we liked most about this place is that it just FEELS like we’re in Thailand. No loud music. No television. No alcohol being served. Just great food, that comes out fast, and is DELICIOUS!
Our only complaint last night is that they have a «new» dude helping to seat and serve people. He was a little loud and totally spoiled the mood of the place. He would have been better suited for TGIFridays or CPK. Not for a totally Thai local place.

Really good Thai food over here. We had both the Red and Green Curry. They were both delicious. Yum. The Green Curry was my favorite. My son had the «Ka-​Pow» and he loved it. My daughter enjoyed the omelette.
Over here is cash only so be prepared. I had to go across the street at BOH to get some cash and it was worth it as this place is really good. We are definitely coming back for more.
For drinkers, this place is BYOB.
You also can park your car across the street in the BOH parking lot during after hours for a $ 6 fee. It’s expensive but well worth it as this restaurant serves outstanding Thai food.
If you also prefer, parking maybe found on the street in the surrounding neighborhood on Winam Ave.

Came here for the first time yesterday and it was pretty empty. The pictures on the outside were appealing so I walked in and wanted to try their green curry. A lot of reviewers here say that the curry is really spicy but I told them that I wanted it a little spicier than the default level and it wasn’t as spicy as I hoped. It made me sweat just a little but not enough to make me satisfied. I’ll just have to go up another level next time. A lot of Thai restaurants like Phuket make you order the rice on the side but these guys have a little more common sense and include rice with your curry because almost everybody is going to want rice with it.
My single order of green curry was enough to fill me up and my total came out to 10 and some change. I’ll have to bring a friend next time and bring beer to go with my spicy thai food. There is a sign that says No Drinks on the window but it just means that they don’t serve alcohol but you can bring your own. They will serve soda, Thai iced tea, and water.
Since it wasn’t busy at all, I got excellent service and I can’t wait to try my next dish.

Food is always made fresh and tastes great.
Pay attention to spice factor, when it says «Hot» it means «HOT»!

The ownership changed about a month ago and it seems the kitchen is still trying to find its flow.
The food was average at best and probably doesn’t measure up to other Thai in the local vicinity.
Service was friendly and prices seemed reasonable.
Some of our other favorites are Sala Thai and Phuket.

Although I’ve driven down Kapahulu Ave tons of times, I never noticed the BRIGHT GREEN façade of this place until I had to actually find it, thanks to my PlayHawaii coupon. My newest favorite Thai place:
LOCATION: on Kapahulu Avenue on the Ewa (west) side, right across Bank of Hawaii.
PARKING: street metered parking if you are lucky, or if you drive into residential Kapahulu, there are free spaces that line people’s houses… or apparently you can park in BofH lot for $ 1.
Don’t expect any fancy schmancy Thai bronze silverware here. This is a comfortable home-​style eatery that has menus made from picture albums so you can order by pointing at what you want instead of trying to pronounce the dish you want to order. Get your own silverware in baskets, and self serve your own water at times, this place has charm. It’s like you travel straight to Bangkok when you walk in the door.
LUNCH: With our lunch special, we got tom YUM soup, and 2 bites of summer rolls, which come complimentary with every lunch special for $ 7.99 (YAY!). The summer rolls were way too good and I was really hungry, so I asked for a full order after our complimentary ones disappeared.
GREEN CURRY with CHICKEN: Make sure you have lots of refills of water while you eat this. There is some serious heat in this pretty spectacular «mild» dish. The green curry here, while sort of watery, has really great flavor and just converted me – yellow curry, I will miss you but I will never look back. Everyone has their one dish they always order at Thai restaurants – Green curry will be that dish for me (from here anyway). What sets this green curry apart from others is this one may be a bit «sweeter» to satisfy us Americans & Japanese tourists who don’t know what curry in Thailand tastes like, and they put bamboo shoots in it (most other places have eggplant). **bonus points for serving complimentary rice with the curry**.
GAPOW! (#60) My iphone autocorrect just tried to change «gapow» to «vapor», which is pretty much what happened after the server put the dish down-​it was there one minute and vanished into thin air (aka our tummies) because this dish rocked too! Ka-​Chow! Ground chicken with a spicy basil sauce was topped off with a fried egg!!! My eating friends really know how to choose good stuff, and I’m grateful that they make me try things that I wouldn’t normally order, because this one was a winner too.
PAD KEE MOW — they use the thin noodles (like Pad Thai) and it was very good! If you like Pad Thai, order this dish instead, it will have a little kick, much more exciting than Pad Thai, which I think is sort of boring after eating it for years and years and years.
I’m coming back to this place even though it’s tricky to access… parking wasn’t the biggest problem – crossing Kapahulu Avenue (despite a marked crosswalk, nobody stopped to let me cross) without a traffic light was a trip.
This has got to be one of the best Thai lunch specials ($ 7.99) around. Next time I’m parking on Date Street, and you should too.

On my semi-​consistent runs along Kapahulu I notice a steady stream of food establishments opening and closing, it’s made me a bit skeptical to try them because I get attached… I don’t want to fall in love only to find out a few months later my lover has shut down shop!
So I guess Thai Herb has been around long enough for me to give them a chance at my heart — thank you Lori I. for introducing me to my new favorite Thai place!
The restaurant is eclectic — the walls are covered in colorful murals, quotes and pictures — the menu is a hand-​made scrapbook-​photo album. I’m easily distracted and love variety so it was difficult to make a decision. Finally we decided on green curry with chicken and GAPOW! (okay, i’m sure it’s not exactly expressed this way but it should :) this was a little spicy ground chicken with basil stir fry served with a scoop of jasmine rice and topped with a fried egg.
When Lori asked to order summer rolls the waiter kindly suggested it may be too much because our lunch special came complimentary with tom yum and summer rolls…
little did he know we can put down some food cause we ended up ordering another side of rolls anyway! These were different from any other i’ve tried elsewhere, they actually had a thin slice of meat rolled in (pork?) but it added a nice flavor to what I’d normally consider a bland dish at other places i’ve tried.
There were so many dishes on the menu i’d never seen or heard of before so i’m excited to return and try more — unfortunately parking does suck but luckily i’m near enough to walk it — now I don’t have to stare in the window and wonder anymore while running past!
#06/​365

Probably the tastiest, most authentic Thai restaurant on the island. CLOSED (1÷23÷14) for «mechanical difficulties” — with no sign of it opening soon. Hoping someone sees this before making the trek and trying to find parking on kapahulu!