Thai Issan Cuisine — Restaurant in Honolulu

My rating is for the food. But the lady who appears to be the owner is quite nasty, especially when she's "redirecting" her employees. It's important to note that the employees are very nice, and the table service is solid. My issue is with the fact that I did not order dinner AND a show. I wanted to redirect the lady: It is altogether easier to train someone on protocol or the POS system than it is to teach someone how to be a kind and polite person...obviously. Be professional, be supportive and do this in the back of the house. And this is not the first restaurant I've visited with an inappropriate environment.

What these owners fail to accept, maybe until they're in the red, is that no matter how rare their product or how delicious their food, if someone is rude or inappropriate, eventually customers are disgusted, eventually, and the cons will outweigh the pros.

I look at it like this: I'm 48 years old and it took me that long to eat here. I survived just fine for 48 years. Is the food amazing? YES. But I ain't gonna die if I don't eat here. And it wasn't like it was sooo much better than EVERY OTHER Thai restaurant. The curry was delicious and it was worth the money,...so far.

Especially, in this time of Covid, businesses should be very careful. Consumers are scarce. Money is scarce. And even if you don't feel it now, karma will bite back. I'm not saying consumers can take advantage, but we are more frugal than before. I wanted so much to tell my server to hang in there. Good employees are difficult to find. Good people seem to be critically endangered.

Ooops... So, all this apparently took the spotlight away from the food! The curries are amazing. Yes they are better than many. I've tried the green with shrimp, yellow with scallops and red with chicken. The spring rolls are unique as the outer wrapping is not as crumbly or messy and yet just as crispy and crunchy. The vegetables are fresh and service never takes very long. You know that this is good food as their take out orders are relentless. I am looking forward to tasting their other dishes...

Once again it’s hard to trust reviews! You just have to go and try it for yourself. Overall we were very pleased with the food & service. I give them a 4.5 rating. We ordered the Thai stuffed chicken wings, shrimp pad Thai noodles and Thai ice coffee. The wings were delicious and nice size. Definitely will order it again. As most of us Thai food fans know, every region has its own style of cooking. I would have give a 5 star rating on the noodles but it didn’t come with a wedge of lime or crushed peanuts. The taste is spot on and it had the right amount of sauce in my opinion. I have had pad Thai at other restaurants and it was on the dry side. I ordered mine spicy and husbands one regular. The spice was perfect! Just enough to make me sniffle lol. The Thai ice coffee was rich and flavorful. We went at about 1245p for lunch and it was busy. Lucky for us we got the last available table. Service was quick and friendly. Definitely going back to try other dishes. Kudos to the chef! Nice mom & pop operation, not a fancy place but clean...

Went to Thai Issan several times a while back. I remember that sometimes the food was excellent, but other times only average (depending who was cooking). Just ordered via Door Dash. Delivery was fast (since it was around 1:30 pm), however, the food was below par. Ordered chicken fried rice (since shrimp was not available), garlic shrimp, stuffed chicken wings, and larb moo (w/chicken and beef). The Larb moo was good. Just like the larb moo in Thailand. The garlic shrimp was disappointing (and bland- we ordered med spicy)- no garlci taste or nice flavor. The stuffed chicken wings were only ok (needed more sauce). The most disappointing was the chicken fried rice. I've never had any bad fried rice from any Thai restaurant before- but the one that was delivered today - WAS BAD! No flavor, and some parts were mushy (had small balls of rice stuck together). Don't know if I can trust a restaurant when the food comes out different all the time. 2 1/2 stars for the food...