Hana Cafe

I have no idea how long this Vietnamese place has been around, but I just noticed it so it was worth a try. It’s sort of set up weird in that you enter the building entrance and the restaurant is sort of just there. There’s no divider between the tables and the other stores along the side. There is a little counter that looks more like a coffee shop than a restaurant. I did notice that the food comes from somewhere behind the wall.
LIMITED MENU: don’t expect an extensive list of food. It includes the basic phở (4 types, including 1 chicken), beef stew (on egg noodles or phở noodles), Vietnamese crepes and a few other things. It looked like the specials written on the whiteboard included bun bo hue, chicken lemongrass and a few other things.
What I ate:
CHICKEN PHO: it was ok. the soup wasn’t light and refreshing so I think it might have been a beef stock. it was ok. The noodles were soft but not too soft. The veggies were ok. The chicken pieces still had skin on and were really fatty. Not my thing. And it came with two white egg things. I was too chicken. Bad pun intended. So I just put them off to the side. Comes with a big plate of veggies (basil, mint, jalapeño, bean sprouts, lime). The beef phở loked like it came with rare beef at least, so maybe it’s a little bit authentic. The hot sauce is out of a bottle and has chilis in it (not just sriracha) and the brown one comes out of a bottle with a «hoisin» label on it. No homemade looking oily sauce.
ICED COFFEE: This was actually really enjoyable. She forgot I ordered it, but when I reminded her she got it to me and it was good.
Lunch for 2 people was $ 20 + tip.
I think it’s located by the new Fun Factory looking place on the makai side of King Street. I have no idea if there is parking since it’s in a bad downtown/​Chinatown location.
to be fair there were something like 12 tables or something and maybe ²⁄₃ were full when we sat down. So people were eating there. A few looked like friends or family by the way they were laughing it up with the servers. Most people looked like they were eating phở.
It’s clean enough but not super clean feeling.
CASH ONLY: or so I think. Our server didn’t really understand English, or at least didn’t want to take credit cards, so we paid cash. That’s a good trick to get people to pay cash. When someone asks if you take credit cards just stare blankly and ask for cash. It worked. Now I need to go to the ATM.
Given how many other choices there are, I think I’ll probably be walking down the street a few more blocks to 99 Coffee, but I’m glad I tried somewhere new. If they can spice up the menu with some more interesting things, maybe do something to create a décor, get some friendly service, I’d consider going back. But at $ 10/​person, it’s not even cheap. I want a reason to like it but just don’t have it. We’ll see if it gets another shot or not. Try it out for yourself. Or meet me at 99 Coffee…