Lam's Garden — Restaurant in Hawaii

The interior is pretty ragged, nothing special at all. The food was well below par. The Vietnamese iced coffees were not made correctly at all--not using a drip espresso so it was like weak coffee with cream and sugar (not sure if they actually used sweetened condensed milk). The Kung Pao chicken was bland and the sauce was pretty gross. The peppers used were fresh and crunchy though. The soups don't appear to be made in house--not made from bones or anything, made from some pre made powder or paste. Their steamed dumplings weren't pork based but maybe seafood? Like a fish ball? Not tasty at all. How in the world are there dumplings leftover? Bleck. The fish sauce was bottled sweet chili sauce and not nuoc Cham. Non asians would probably be ok with this. Would never return. The service was decent and they were very nice though. Should have known better when the entire menu...

Let’s start with the positives: I’m thrilled that there’s Vietnamese food on the big island, the place is clean, and the service was good.

But then there’s the food: we ordered spring rolls which looked good but had no herbs!! Just plain lettuce. When the pho came out they did bring herbs (so we know they have them) but the broth had absolutely no beefy flavor and was as clear as the water we were drinking. I decided to try the banh mi which was more like a Vietnamese inspired sandwich. The bread was not banh mi baguette, but some kind of sandwich roll with a totally different texture and it was also odd that they add tomato. So this place could be the best Vietnamese food on the island but next time I’ll wait until I get back to...

To start, the plates they brought us had roaches. Most I can say bout the food was it satisfied my hunger. Had beef and flank pho, noodles were basically mush, wasn't exactly a satisfying texture. Brother was ok, not exactly an authentic Vietnamese pho broth. Chili oil isn't spicy at all but definitely sweet which kinda ruined the pho even more. This is at least the jar on our table. Also ordered summer rolls, peanut butter sauce was good. Rolls were quite bitter which im assuming was the lettuce. All around I dont recommend it nor will I be coming back ever again.

If you are craving pho, I do highly recommend Pho 99 which isn't too far from this place. Pho 99 has been the best pho I've had on this...