Violet H.
Yelp
I came here years ago when it was under different management, so I wanted to try it again. It was also one of the few places open in Lahaina on a Monday night during a pandemic.
However, if you are impatient or in a hurry, this is not your place. It was a one-woman show the night we were there: The person I assume was the proprietress was also the hostess, server, chef, and busser. Even though the place is small, that's an awful lot for one person. And it showed in the service. Items were routinely forgotten. If there were more than two persons in a party, people would get their entrees at quite different times. Parties usually had to request their checks after waiting for quite some time. Things like that. But people seemed to be forgiving as they understood she was the only one working.
Now for the food. We shared the chicken potstickers that came with sweet chili sauce. Both of us were surprised to find they had been deep-fried. But they were good, albeit blazing hot since they had just come out of hot oil.
My friend got the Evil Prince entree. She asked for it to be mild, and it was. When it arrived, she said it didn't look at all like what she expected. It also didn't taste the same - but she liked it. She was expecting a very different sauce than what came. She also liked that there were a lot of different kinds of veggies than usual.
I got hooked on Penang curry while in Sydney in 2019, and my taste buds were primed for that particular flavor. I've had Penang curry from several different restaurants since then, and while some had different ingredients, some were hotter than others, and so on, they all had that same basic taste I crave. This one did not. It looked and tasted very different. It did not have that same taste I love. Please don't get me wrong; there was nothing amiss to it. It was just not what I expected and wanted, and while it was fine, it just didn't have the same impact on me. I would not order it again.
I know there are often regional differences in cooking within countries, so that could explain why what we ordered was so different from what we expected.
There was a portable machine that was used for paying by card. It was just left at the table with no instructions. I figured out that the card had to be inserted at the bottom of the machine (although it didn't look as though there was a slot there). It was really difficult to figure out how to add a tip and it took about three tries before I got it, and even then I wasn't sure until I checked my bank statement a day or two later. I couldn't ask the proprietress as she had gone back to the kitchen to cook.
When we got there, it was fairly empty. However, as time went by, it became crowded, with every table occupied. My friend and I grew uncomfortable because it was a small space with not much room between tables. I also noticed that people had a habit (and not just at this restaurant) of pulling off their masks as soon as they were seated. They kept them off even when they weren't eating or drinking for long periods of time. If I go back, I would only get takeout from here.
Parking can sometimes be an issues during non-pandemic times, since this is in a shopping center with a major grocery store and other business, but right now during the pandemic there should be no problem finding parking.