THE PIG & THE LADY — Restaurant in Tokyo

My son and I originally had planned to dine elsewhere in Shibuya but we weren't able to get a table, so we headed to Google to find a new option, and we ended up at The Pig & The Lady. What sold me was the Banh Mi Pho french dip - I thought it was a casual place. When we got inside, we realized it was much fancier - and the dinner menu was different. But we went with it and we are glad we did!

We started with shrimp toast and Vietnamese pickles; my son had the coconut sparerib and I had the Pho 75 for the main course. The food was all superb, in addition to being plated and presented beautifully. My son tried the Chanh Muoi Squash (salty lime) handmade soda, and he enjoyed it, but it was a little bitter and he didn't end up finishing it. Other than that, we devoured everything and it was all delicious.

The server was friendly and overall service was great. The only minor thing I noted was after we had finished, we sat for quite a while and no one came to ask us if we were ready for the bill - I had to flag down a server and gesture for the check. We did not really have room for dessert or coffee but we weren't asked. But that may be a cultural thing of not wanting to interrupt our after dinner conversation. The server was happy to take a photo of us after dinner and a gentleman who seemed to be the manager thanked us for coming.

Ambience for dinner was great. Low lighting, nice decor but also fun in a funky way. The entrance to the bathroom is behind a shoji-style sliding door and when you slide it open, the walls inside are filled with golden pigs that sparkle as the light catches them. The bathroom itself is wallpapered with "Karate Kid" imagery which was a fun element.

The only negative about the environment was it was a bit warm inside - the A/C was not as good as some other restaurants we'd dined in, and there's an odd sort of negative pressure in the place where you could feel your ears pop periodically during dinner.

We couldn't figure out what it was until we were walking out, and pressed the button on the front door slider to exit. It is so airtight that when the door opens, the pressure differential inside sucked in all the outside air, and the artwork in the downstairs vestibule almost fell off the wall.

All in all, a great meal and although some seem to feel it's pricey, I felt the food quality was outstanding and well worth it. Would...

This is not Vietnamese food.

I had high hopes for this place since I’ve been to the location in Honolulu and really enjoyed the food there. Do not come to the Tokyo location expecting the same flavors if you are a Vietnamese person like myself.

At best, this is japanized Vietnamese food. At worst, I would be reluctant to call it Vietnamese food at all.

I visited as a solo diner and was admittedly a bit underdressed (athleisure-wear with a backwards SnapBack) for the vibes here during dinner. Lots of business people having their after work dinner and some couples on dates. Maybe the waiter was flustered, maybe he just had low expectations from someone in such casual clothing but I definitely felt like I was a burden to be there.

For drinks, I ordered a Chanh Muoi Squash which was supposed to be Soda Chanh Muoi which is made from pickled limes but when I got my drink, it was basically a Soda Chanh (fresh lime soda) with some sea salt thrown into it. It is supposed to be sweet and sour and somehow ended up being neither.

For food I ordered the Le Fried Chicken and the Pho 75. Both were pretty tasty but were lacking in different ways. The fried chicken was just sour - there was no balance to the dish. The pho lacked depth, and the aroma of star anise, cloves, cinnamon and coriander were completely missing. It was essentially a light shio broth. I even found a piece of pork fat in my bowl toward the end. Why? There should not be any pork in a beef pho broth.

Also, I’m guessing they do this with every customer but having the waiter explain to me what sriracha is was a fascinating experience. A touch condescending. The staff do get credit for accommodating my brain fart of forgetting my physical credit card, and allowing me to do touch payment.

Hopefully these...

The newest addition to the Le family!

Love the new clean and simple decor of the restaurant. It's very Japanese forward, but still nods to the original flagship with the heavy use of wooden elements for their lighting!

Started the meal off with some of their cocktails, we tried the P&L sour. They still need to finalize the recipe down admit tasted quite a bit watered down as compared to the version back home. The ginger and lemongrass highball was a nice redemption to follow.

Coming from Hawai'i we had to see if their LFC- Le's Fried Chicken was up to par. Honestly this location does it better. Obviously with access to much better quality ingredients that are locally sourced, the chicken had a much cleaner taste, the batter was super crispy, not greasy, and the crispiness was in between Karaage and Tempura! They nailed it out of the park with that one.

The melon carpaccio was a very pleasant addition, the saltiness from the fish sauce and crunch from the fried shallots blended really nicely together.

The star of the night for me was their pork chops on the dinner menu! Perfectly cooked medium rare with the marinade that reminds me of Chinese char siu.

We had the soft serve (coconut pineapple at the time of writing), not overly sweet but very smooth and velvety in texture. The lilikoi malasada was fried very well leaving a fluffy pillowy interior combined with the fresh lilikoi pastry cream. The black sesame ice cream accompaniment added a nice savory touch to the tartness of the passion fruit, but I like black sesame ice cream anyways.

Since it's still in its infancy, there are still some service issues to work out, but overall a great job well done! Would definitely be back again next time...