Lemongrass Vietnamese and Thai Cuisine

We did not have the same food experience as the other reviews. Both the Pad Thai and Pho were simply noodles with boiled water not broth. Both dishes seemed as if they threw left over meat and vegetables in a bowl with boiled water. We arrived 30 minutes before closing. If they did not have items on the menu due to late seating they should have told us those items were not available.

Probably one of the best phos I’ve ever had. Aromatic broth, high quality AND quantity meat! Excellent spring rolls. The place is no frills - either takeout or sit down without table service. Would highly recommend.

went in for lunch on a saturday. the pad thai was solid. the panang curry was kind of watery and not really good. the lady behind the counter was friendly.

An amazing spot for good noodles & curries. Highlighting recommend if you’re looking for vegetarian/vegan dishes, they had a great range of curries & an amazing vegan pad Thai. Overall very friendly & helpful staff. Definitely worth a try.

I went in for lunch, their hours are till like 135pm or something. This is the first time I've been able to make it in time. Hoped to dine in, but I don't think they do that yet? There were tables but didn't look open. It was more so like a counter set up. Anyways, I ended up ordering shrimp summer rolls. They we r e ok.

Omg, their pumpkin crunch is the best. I would have taken a picture, but I really wanted to know if it tasted better than aiea bowl.

Quiet, out of the way spot. Everything my group ordered was tasty and hot. Order at the counter and didn't take long.

Great takeout. Comes in easy to reuse containers and the sauce for the papaya salad came on the side for maximum flavor, crunch, and freshness. The Bahn mi was toasted but soft on the inside. Meat and veggies were moist and flavorful. They should have been wrapped in paper instead of in their own plastic container; kinda wasteful. The summer rolls were huge. Tom kha soup was good too.

Nice mom & pop store. We ordered our food to go and the service was prompt. The food was ready as they quoted us over the phone. I got the steamed fish fillet a with rice. That was delicious, not oily like other places. Their tom ka chicken was also good, not too coconuty or limey. Portions were pretty good with left overs. Def a place to check out when craving Thai food in the island.

I've driven past here plenty of times but never stopped here because the parking lot is so small and usually crowded. There's currently no dine-in service, but our takeout was great. I had the vegan red curry and sticky rice -- EXCELLENT! The service was fast and they had everything ready to go when I came to pick it up. It's slightly pricey, but given the overall state of ingredients and costs I'm not surprised. I hope they find more staffing because the inside of the restaurant looks like it used to be a charming family style environment. There's plenty of other stuff on their vegan/vegetarian menu that I'd like to try so I'll be back!

Menu has a nice variety of Vietnamese and Thai dishes. We enjoyed all that we ordered, and appreciate that they offer all levels of spiciness and heat.

Our Small Business favorite restaurant, Lemongrass , continues to shine bright as a Kailua anchor eatery! Dinner was great again. I finally tried a popular dish, a change up, Pad C U , chicken thighs and was very satisfied . The fresh noodles and broccoli rounded out this dish overflowing with flavor. Spring Rolls were so tasty and fresh. Order was ready when promised and was finished off with the divine Godiva chocolate brownies! Come and enjoy one of Kailua's best!

My favorite!! We no longer live on island.. this is our must go to!! I love the food & one of the owners is always working! She remembers us & she is awesome!! You must try!!

We always do take out and they have it ready when they promise. The Penang can be specified with white or dark chicken which I is awesome and the chili level is always right on. The Bahn Mi are great with crispy outside and soft inside bread. We get Tofu and chicken and they are stuffed with meat. The green papaya salad is one of the best I've had!!Yummy!!

Absolutely love this place! Family owned and family run. We just wanted an appetizer so we ordered 2 regular spring rolls and one vegetarian spring roll. Everyone loved their order. It was fast and delicious. You can eat inside but no table service which was fine with us we were taking it home! Delicious!!!!

This is my first time at this restaurant, sorry I didn't take pictures I was so hungry, I ordered the shrimp the green curry, it wasn't overly spicy, and or overly garlicky. It was just perfect. And then he comes with sticky rice and I think they put a little bit of coconut milk in it. Which made it really scrumptious. And then I tried something new the eggplant Summer roll, it was so good. And a unique spin on the regular summer roll. It came with a dipping sauce, I don't know what was in it, but it was tangy and tasty and a little different than the normal sauces that come with us Summer Roll. My friend ordered the stuffed chicken,. And everybody Else ordered a different version of the green curry. I will be coming back to eat here, when I am on that side of the island.

Honestly the worst pad thai i've ever paid for, and it was also the most expensive. All the reviews looked good but that was the most deceiving thing ever. Tasted like noodles with no sauce, and the little sauce it had on it was BAD. Don't go here unless you want to pay $60 for dinner and be disgusted.

Driving back from Kanehoe Bay, we were craving Thai. We ordered the fresh summer rolls with shrimp which were huge and very fresh and delicious. The chicken pad see ew was also excellent as well as the spring rolls, which came with fresh lettuce, mint and cucumber to wrap the fried roll in. This is a ma and pa type place, everything made fresh to order and does not offer table service. This was a perfect place to order some take out after a long day. Would definitely visit again

7 pepper yellow shrimp curry with sticky rice is the bizzomb! These guys do it right!

This is one of my friends's favorite places in Kailua! I've never tried it before, but I was so stoked to see they had both Vietnamese and Thai food. It's his favorite Phad Thai on this side of the island, and I loved the vermicelli bowl. The portions were large so we had plenty of food between the two of us. I wish the Thai noodles had more sauce and flavor, but overall not bad.

Now folks, I know great Thai food and the 4 dishes we tried, going by Yelp reviews, were pretty disappointing on the taste side, a couple low on portion size. I really had hoped it was as "to die for" as others noted. If anyone used to go to Mekong (Keo's restaurant) you would know excellent Thai food, every time. Unfortunately, they all retired. Heartbreaking. Have still to find one that comes close. We tried the Fish fillet, Spicy Thai Garlic Shrimp, Massaman curry and Green curry. 2 sticky rice, 2 brown rice. Didn't understand why every dish came with its own rice, way too much rice. Very mainland style. The fish and shrimp dishes were minimal at best. Fish tasted heavy on the soy sauce, pretty sad on size and taste. The shrimp were small in size and portion. I'm amazed that even with all that garlic (not fresh) it wasn't as flavorful as we hoped. Ok, but nothing to write home about. The Massaman curry everyone raved about was barely ok, not something we would order again. Portion size was good for both curries, but the sauces were quite watered down, depleting the flavors to "eh". Each should have had their rich creamy bursting with flavor sauce with every bite. So bummed. Green curry was similar, needed more punch in the curry department. It was just ok. Usually our favorite but big NO here. I wanted Pad Thai but the pictures looked very bland. Barely anything there but bean sprouts so thank goodness we passed. Total was $78. Bit outrageous for barely ok food. I've had better at some Thai fast food places and they aren't that good either. Sorry, but very disappointing overall. Will not be returning. Still have to drive over to town.

I love these guys food! I have not been there since the beginning of the pandemic and am kicking myself. I forgot how absolutely divine their Massaman curry is. Husband and I have given up trying other restaurants version as we ALWAYS walk away disappointed. Lemongrasses is BOMB. Its perfectly balanced spicy, sweet, salty, sour, umami with maybe a eensie weensie bitter. We like it heavy on heat so we opt for the "hot" version. Sooooooo good! Talked to the gal that many people describe as rude. She really is nice person. I concluded years ago she just doesn't handle stress that well, oh well, no ones perfect. She does the critical part of taking orders and the delivery of ONOLISH food in a timely manner every single time....very efficiently. I asked her when they will start dining in service. Wont be any tine soon. They don't have staff and I got the feeling payroll was too expensive. Its so expensive to rent space in Kailua, not sure how any of these small family run businesses get by let alone succeed with a healthy profit. We don't eat out nearly as much as we used to pre pandemic but from now on when we do, I'll def be ordering from lemongrass more often!! Oh BTW if you're a garlic nut & a shrimp fan, their spicy garlic shrimp is to die for! Super spicy LOADS of chopped garlic. YUM!

We won't be returning. We picked up our food a half hour before they closed (plenty of people in the dining room) and it's half full. By time we got home it of course was a few minutes before they closed and they weren't answering their phone.. We ordered the red curry. Incredibly disappointed at the service. Check your food before you leave. Better off going to a different Thai place in town who won't try to rip you off.

We ordered takeout and very satisfied with our meals! Order was correct, and ready on time. The staff was polite. We ordered- Lemongrass chicken with rice-Flavor was great, seasoning superb, good portion, tastes fresh, not too oily. Would order again. Grilled chicken shrimp and spring roll over noodles- tasted very fresh! Seasoned very well. Would order again. Tom yum soup- overall a flavorful soup with a good amount of shrimp and perfect amount of spiciness. A bit too oily for my liking but still tasty. I recommend this restaurant and would definitely come back!

It was like Faulty Towers. Very rude sourpuss to us party of three girls telling us twice within five mins from behind the counter in a loud voice to order now or leave as closing in one hour. So we said okay we're ready. Got told no table service only counter, you come up here. We started getting up - Then they suggested we go somewhere else. We took the suggestion totally fed up with by now & upon leaving were told take your car or it get towed. Nice kick in the ass as my disappointed birthday girl carried out her orchid. We went to Paia Fish Market. Great ambiance & felt welcomed.

My visiting co-worker was craving Vietnamese food for lunch, so we decided to order from Lemongrass. He got the panang and I got pho. As soon as he ate it, he said it was the best Vietnamese he'd had since a friend used to home cook it for him. My pho was flavorful and fresh. The soup had a clean taste without being overly salty. For dessert, I got lychee tapioca. It was tasty and not too sweet and had lots of little lychee bits in there. So ono! The nice woman at Lemongrass explained to us that they had to raise their prices because the landlord raised the rent 20%. Sheesh! If you can, please go support the little local shops like Lemongrass.

The food was absolutely amazing. We got the eggplant summer rolls with peanut sauce as an appetizers. They definitely live up to the hype! We also got curry and combination pho that was absolutely divine. Compliments to the chef. The broth was so mouth watering that I wish I could have gotten the recipe The staff were super friendly and made our evening into a night we will never forget. The restaurant itself is clean with a really well put together look to it from the wall paint to the furniture. I strongly recommend this establishment!

Placed a takeout order and was so happy with how everything turned out. First off, the portions are HUGE. Second, everything tasted great, super fresh and strong flavors. We ordered the lemongrass chicken over vermicelli, the shrimp and chicken over vermicelli, and spring rolls. There was lots of food left over, but it was perfect warmed up the next day :) Would definitely recommend this place if you're ever in Kailua!

This place is awesome I order the green and red brown chicken curry usually with the summer roles. Definitely my type of place. You can eat in, but there is no service. Dish washers in Hawaii are asking $18+ and I can't imagine what rent and electricity is for this place in the heart of Kailua. With that being said I feel for the owners. gotta keep supporting local small businesses. The Thai tea. Is also a must.

Quick service to go! 4 meals ready in 15 minutes. Great bang for your buck with these large portions. Would recommend, tastey and staff is very friendly!

Excellent - comfort food,delicious and kind people! Have tried multiple dishes all so yummy - coconut soup, pad Thai, rolls ... will keep coming back for take out

Every time I get takeout they give less and less. The ingredients and amount that they give gets cheaper and cheaper. Very sad. I ordered the Tom Yum (which I always get) and they didn't even fill the soup up the whole way like they used to. There was about an inch empty from the top. THEN they only had 1/3 the amount of mushrooms as usual. (It's canned so I don't know why they're cutting so much). Second I ordered pad thai. Half the amount of egg that they put in and only 2 small pieces of green onion. There's no ingredients in the noodle! Sad. It bums me out that this place is going downhill....NOT WORTH THE AMOUT YOU'LL END UP PAYING for the ingredients and lack of QUALITY. Expensive!!!!

WOW JUST SUPER ONO GRINDS!! Ordered our Fathers Day lunch from them and EVERYTHING WAS SO GOOD... from the two different curries, & the Tom Kha (Thai Coconut Soup) w/ shrimp, spring rolls & grilled Eggplant Summer Rolls - which were DELICIOUS & you know that the eggplant was grilled with a nice smoked flavor!! And price was not too bad. We'll continue to support this SMALL local business!!!

Love this place and so happy they are surviving through the pandemic. My usual from this place the masaman curry with sticky rice, spring rolls, or the combination pho. Service is quick and they have the best rotating dessert selection to take home. Most recently I've had their pumpkin crunch and lilikoi cheese cake Owners and workers are friendly and welcoming. Next time i order from them I will remember to take pictures.

Great food and folks. Prices have gone up and it prevent us from enjoying as much as we'd like.

We moved here in Kailua way before the pandemic & the ambiance was just beautiful,& the food & the service along with it!!!... now from other posted reviews, during the pandemic & post pandemic, it seems that the ambiance had been lost. What these reviewers seem to understand, is that these food establishment had to adjust to all of what the pandemic had done. Businesses needed to focus on their revenue, & service & this one still continues to provide that!! I & my family continue to support this fine establishment... with their "Ono" food & superb service!!...& their desserts by the way are also excellent- which I've learned they make themselves. A complete meal all in one. When you find yourself in Kailua, please stop by & check it out. When I patronage a food establishment I don't review prices, or ambiance, I come for the Great Food & Service!

I've eaten the food from Lemongrass Vietnamese & Thai today and the experience was good. The first thing that I did was call for menu options and the staff was pretty helpful. I do have a severe food allergy and consulted with the employees beforehand. They were helpful in a sense that they did use seafood bases for select dishes. The only issue is that they could not guarantee the safety of the food. Customers shouldn't have to worry if they will have a reaction or not because the chef should be able to assure that the food will not be cross contaminated and that the food will be prepared safely. Instead the response I did get was "No guarantee". Before eating, I did take the correct precautions to prevent a reaction. However, I did order the yellow curry which did not have a seafood base by instead included chicken. This dish was enough but I did question the pricing. For the dish, the total price came up to a little over $18. But with this dish containing chicken, I saw myself looking for the chicken in a forest of vegetables. The amount of rice given compared to the amount of yellow curry was simply not enough. I found myself portioning my rice when it comes to the food. Overall, the restaurant is good and the portions would be okay. I would not recommend those with allergies to rely on a 100% complete safe meal. Instead, go over the options before ordering and still take those precautions.

Tasty food at good prices. Parking is in the back and a little hard to find. I recommend. Great service. It feels like a nice Ma and Pa place to eat.

Immediately upon entering, this restaurant smelled funny. The odor deterred me but my father was very hungry so we stayed. I looked around and noticed many fish tanks that probably weren't cleaned, hence the odor. Then, we noticed a young little boy and girl seat us, presumably the children of the owner. We ordered our food and were very excited to try out the highly reviewed food but the mother started scolding her children less than 3 feet away from us. She was asking them why there was spilled water on a table where customers didn't sit at, and I personally felt very uncomfortable during my stay. The food itself was expensive for what it is, and apparently the "small size" is a children's size. The thai iced tea was fine and the service from the kids were okay as well. Overall though, not a pleasant experience and would not return.

After a workout in Kailua, I came here for lunch since I wanted pho. They serve pho in 3 sizes and the small is like a "kids" size bowl. oh my.... kinda pricy. The small pho is good if you never had pho before. Flavor was ok. I also ordered the papaya salad with tofu which was kinda bland even with the sauce. I think I got spoiled with rice paper in chinatown (a diff review) They serve thai curry here so it's like a viet/thai place.

I've only ordered pad Thai to go each time I go to Kailua. I highly recommend this place at least for their pad Thai. Such large portion too. I miss it already.!

This place is always consistent Always good never disappointed ,Penang curry is one of the best I've ever had. Also, the deserts are awesome.

I hate to say this but this place is pretty mediocre. 3 stars would be ideal but the food seams a little over priced and the food comes out completely bland sometimes. It's a massive hit or miss. The service is normally pretty good I've never had any issues but I've also never really seen anyone smile. Besides all of this they are pretty fast and the atmosphere in the restaurant is pretty relaxing.

For last minute take out this place was good. I would definitely order again. I love pad Thai. But I recently had drunken noodles at another Thai place that was so good. Wish this place had drunken noodles. But the vegan pad Thai I had was a second great option.

Great food and nice service. Summer rolls were delicious! Pick up only and very Covid cautious.

3.5 stars. Extra stars for chill attitude and friendly service (albeit Hawaiian time). We just needed an in between snack and the folks here were incredibly nice. We just had the egg roll appetizer and popcorn shrimp. Cabbage egg roll really and coconut shrimp. The food tended to be more Thai Esque than Vietnamese but it was good.

Love this restaurant! We go quite often because the food here is so good and fast! Everything here is so yummy and I feel like the prices are pretty reasonable too. Only thing is they are closed on Mondays.

Basic no frills restaurant with many choices, I ordered some lemongrass chicken. The restaurant was not busy and had one table that was almost done. I waited to be sat down for a few minutes. I ordered my food spicy and with regular white rice and it was piping hot and full of flavor, but spicy it was not. It was pretty expensive at $15 considering that it was lunch hour and the portions were not large. The decor, menus, and service were very basic. The interaction with the staff was just to order food, have it brought out, and pay.

Husband and I were at Bellows and decided to try Lemongrass. We arrived shortly after they opened for dinner so the place was empty and there was plenty of parking in the lot. It's located near Marine Pets and Afros the street from KFC. This is a mixed restaurant of Thai and Vietnamese cuisines. We orders chicken massaman curry, small meatball pho and a pork banh mi. I liked that you could choose chicken breast or thigh for the curry. Curry had an excellent taste and right level of spice. Banh mi was just ok but could have been because my husband doesn't like mayo/sauce. I added the jalepenos and some sriracha and it was good. Pho bordered between average and pretty tasty. I think we would come back if we were in this area again - prices weren't too bad, service was excellent and food was a notch above average. Oh! And I almost forgot - rice comes with curry. I loved that it wasn't a side dish!

It was Pho-nominal! I had the Noodles and pork and Pho of course. I recommend. Also get the stuffed chicken wings!

I Rate 4/5 inky because I feel like they give more food sitting in than dining out lol Other than that, I love the food. I usually get pad thai, the rare steak and briscuit pho, chicken bahn mi, or a curry that I can quite remember the name of. The spring roos are also very good, although I feel they are too tiny, and you dont get very much for the price. Seating arrangements are pretty good. We usually get there around 5 when they open for dinner, and there is sometimes a table or two. Food gets brought our pretty quickly, and the staff is also so very nice everytime we come. They are attentive as well! Overall I would recommend this place! Dont forget to buy their pumpkin crunch and brownie crackle cookies that they make fresh. Its delicious!

It was our last night in Kailua and I wanted Thai food. We were looking for somewhere with inside seating space and the reviews for Lemongrass were pretty good. There were quite a few people eating in, and they do a brisk carryout business also, including some of the delivery services. The tables and the interior are pretty basic. There was one server and the woman who was answering the phone, handling payments, etc, so they were both very busy. They still managed to check in with us to be sure things were good. We shared the summer rolls appetizer, which for $7.50, was a large portion. (Extra points for the fresh mint in the summer rolls). I ordered Shrimp Pad Thai, medium spicy, and it came out perfect. My husband had a combo bowl entree, which was chicken, shrimp, and spring rolls, also quite good. So the quality of the food definitely tops the ambience, but we would definitely recommend this place and would go again.

This place is still the best! They use fresh whole ingredients. Sadly, you can't dine in anymore but Lin & Ray are awesome. The green curry with chicken breast was perfectly spiced, the papaya salad with shrimp has the best sweet and spicy sauce as well. They also have great lychee tapioca which is absolutely delicious. Love love this place still after 8 years.

This is our "go to" for curry or fried rice. Great food and friendly staff. Try the Lychee Tapioca, it's delicious.

I always exhale in relief when I move to a new city and finally find my Thai food home. I was feeling a little desparate when I tried place after place in my new area of Hawaii, and coming up empty on the taste of Thai that I was looking for. Finally after the suggestion of a friend from the mainland, we made our way to Lemongrass. The restaurant is tucked in a little shopping nook with a liquor store, pet supplies store and chocolate maker, and the parking can be rough if you're hitting it at a peak time. The menu is diverse with Thai and Vietnamese options, so there's something for pretty much everyone, including vegetarian and vegan options. We chose the Chicken Panang curry and the Tofu Pad Thai, and they were both very excellent. The flavors were precise and vibrant, and the veggies were crisp, fresh, and perfectly prepared. Prices are decent, service is friendly and fast, and the location is easily accessible, just off the main drag in downtown Kailua. I will absolutely be back to try the other options on their menu such as banana lumpia or their Banh Mi, and I'm excited to see what else they have that is as good or better than the things we've already tried.

Not exactly what I was thinking we would get. Pretty pricey for just OK Thai. No Thai spring rolls available so i settled for the "regular" Spring rolls. Unimpressive to say the leased. Stuffed chicken wings were also unimpressive. Pad Thai didn't left any eyebrows with the daughter.

Ordered via GrubHub and had a rather horrible experience. Tried to order the Massaman curry without fish sauce / shrimp paste but was not possible. I asked them to just use the vegan yellow curry and they refused. Asked them to add carrots and broccoli (for my kids) and got the answer subbing veggies was not allowed. Asked for the noodles without fish sauce and was told no. Finally, I ordered the vegan Pad Thai and ordered no bean sprouts. I was told there would be an additional fee of $3.00 to remove the bean sprouts because they had to use extra ingredients to replace the volume of the bean sprouts (we never asked for this) Ordered the yellow curry and asked for mild (again for kids) and the curry was a solid medium+ so kids couldn't eat it. BTW, was willing to pay for any/all requests...but the restaurant's rigidity was disappointing and means is not a good restaurant for those of us who don't do fish sauce. Food was ok...rice was disappointing...Pad Thai was average, and the curry was ok. Unfortunately will be our only time giving this restaurant business. Would be good of them to remember that the one thing they sell in a restaurant is customer service. If customers want to customize, charge away but there should always be the ability.