Olay's Thai Lao Cuisine — Restaurant in Honolulu

Olay Thai Lao Cuisine is truly a diamond in the rough. While it’s located in a rougher part of town—where you’ll notice some homelessness, a nearby police station, and a generally gritty vibe—don’t let the location fool you. This place is a must for Thai and Lao food lovers. The food here is phenomenal—some of the best I’ve ever had.

Parking can be tricky, especially on weekends—plan to circle around for a few minutes. After 6 PM, street parking is free, but allow time to walk from your spot. I recommend making reservations if you plan on dining in as it gets busy.

The restaurant itself is in an older building, but they’ve done a great job decorating the space and creating a warm, welcoming vibe inside. The layout is a bit quirky, and the bathrooms could use a refresh- it felt cramped- it had two urinals and a toilet. I would not recommend going number two here during busy hours.

Customer service was friendly, a little flamboyant in personality—which added some character to the experience—but everyone was kind, helpful, and made us feel right at home.

For two people, I ordered the Pad Thai, Pad Ki Mao (Drunken Noodles), and the Chicken Satay, along with a Coke. Every dish was packed with flavor, and the portions were perfect—not too small, not overly huge, just right. The Chicken Satay was especially memorable: tender, grilled just right, and absolutely smothered in rich, creamy peanut sauce. They also serve free water, which is always appreciated when you’re tackling those spicy levels!

If you like spicy food, this is your place. I went for “Thai Spicy” and it was spot-on. There’s even a “Lao Hot” option for anyone that likes it even more spicy. Total cost for everything was around $70, which I felt was fair for the amount and quality of food we received.

If you’re a fan of bold, spicy, and authentic Southeast Asian cuisine, this spot should be at the top of your list. Highly...

I was extremely disappointed in this place, especially considering the great reviews here. I will not be back and wouldn't recommend this place to anyone looking for good Thai food. We ordered the spring (egg) rolls, satay, pad thai (chicken), massaman curry (beef) and a mango sticky rice. They were for the most part extremely bland and nothing really stood out as great, except maybe the mango sticky rice which was mostly great just because of how fresh the mango was.

The beef was so overcooked it was almost like jerky texture and completely inedible. The Massaman lacked that rich decadent flavor I expected and had a strange acidity to it which I didn't enjoy.

The pad thai was also pretty bland (I personally never find it to be a very exciting dish but still this was especially boring). The chicken was again a bit overcooked and full of gristly bits. The noodles were a bit too mushy for me and overall lacked those sharp fresh flavors to pair with the sweet sticky noodles that I would expect from a pad thai.

Egg rolls were not bad but also nothing very special compared to any other egg roll I have had. The satay was ok, I found the chicken a bit too crispy on the outside which I don't think matched because of how big the pieces were (this is of course a personal preference thing so that I can forgive). The sauce was quite nice.

The service was also very slow but there was just one person serving all tables so I don't really blame my server, but she did forget to add the satay to our order until the end.

The only thing I enjoyed about the place is the setting and the outdoor patio which is a really nice...

I understand that they are short staffed but I don’t think that means we should be completely ignored. It was almost as if they didn’t even see us as we watched the staff attend to all the tables around us but ours. Our waitress took our order shortly after we arrived and that was pretty much it. My daughter got her order first, shortly after I got mine but don’t think it was my order because the spice was incorrect. I waited for my bf to get his order to eat and that took about another 30 minutes and my daughter had already finished eating within 15 minutes. So she was sitting and waiting for us to finish and my bf hadn’t even gotten our order. We had asked our waitress about the food (had to wave her down of course) then she left and didn’t even communicate with us what was going on and continued attending to other tables and completely ignoring us. About another ten minutes went by and we had to wave down another employee to bring our food. So the other waitress brought out both dishes but seeing as I already had mine it was obvious I had the wrong order. When we were done we waited again for a while to just get the check and had to ask our waitress as she was walking by our table from tending to the table right next to us. Again, she had been walking right past us several times completely ignoring us. The entire time, no one checked on us, our drinks weren’t refreshed and none of the dishes were cleared from our table until we were leaving. This is some of the worst service I’ve ever experienced. Kinda ruined our Sunday night dinner. Never going to this...