Peter Y.
Yelp
Back Alley Cafe has a mix of Thai and local food. The chef, Philip, uses fresh noodles only on Tuesdays for some reason, so my friend Alice told me I should go try the food on a Tuesday. She even went so far as to call me in early December to say she was pre-ordering dishes for pickup, and would call in a separate order for me to pick up.
Then late Tuesday my Chinese handyman friend called to ask me for a ride to Kaneohe. He was renovating an apartment and had forgotten his wallet in the apartment so didn't want to drive back out there without his license.
I somewhat reluctantly agreed to take him on that 30-mile round trip to retrieve his wallet. The last time I made that round trip was decades earlier to retrieve a young woman who was staying with friends a block away from the apartment being renovated. I had to pick her up and drove back into town, and then drop her off later. The things I used to do to get laid! Sorry, children. Anyway, this time I was also suitably rewarded in a different way.
It seemed that the owners of the apartment wanted to change out all the appliances for new stainless steel ones, so there was a newer refrigerator that the handyman needed to dump. Now that very same Tuesday morning I had been looking for a replacement refrigerator for my home. It's difficult to find appliances for older homes because most of the refrigerators being sold now exceed the 30.5-inch width of the existing space of my 87-year old home. This refrigerator which was going to be discarded was in excellent condition and fit the existing space. Not only did I score a refrigerator without having to go through the laborious buying process, but my handyman friend delivered the refrigerator to my home and hauled away the old one for free. A great deal for giving a friend a ride to get his forgotten wallet!!
While the replacement refrigerator fit into the space of the old refrigerator, I discovered that the replacement was much smaller on the inside than the discarded refrigerator, although the exterior dimensions were pretty much identical. It's like Dr. Who's TARDIS in reverse!!
But I digress.
After retrieving my friend's wallet, we went to pick up my pad see ew and pad grapow at Back Alley Cafe.
We ran into Alice's minion who was there to pick up, pay, and drop off the food to her apartment. I don't know how women get guys to do these things.
The menu has a lot of local dishes and Thai specialties. There is also a sushi menu but I think the woman who runs the sushi bar wasn't around that night. I asked Philip how he learned to cook Thai food and he replied that he is Thai and grew up with the food of his ethnicity.
We decided to dine in, and it was a little underwhelming. While the food was good, the ambiance was divey, we were served on paper plates, and our individual dishes were those rectangular okazuya-type little serving receptacles.
I prefer the food, ambiance, and civility of Thai restaurants, but if you're out with the boys and want decent food and liquor, this place will do.