FUUD: Wild Ginger Asian Cuisine in Kaimuki
By Cat
It was my fault.
The Old Guys I surf with had wanted to check out 220 Grille at Kapi'olani Community College after my blog write-up a couple of weeks ago.
But on the day they all made it to the campus — after reading the menu online and finalizing their lunch orders in their minds — the restaurant was closed.
So bummed.
Instead, one of them suggested an alternative: Wild Ginger Asian Cuisine on Wai'alae Avenue.
Outside the restaurant on Wai'alae Avenue.
Inside on a Friday during lunch. Not crowded, but there was a steady flow of customers.
Though I had eaten at nearly every restaurant around it — town is just across the street — I had never even thought about walking into this eatery.
But the cuisine — contemporary Thai, Malaysian, Chinese and Japanese — sounded interesting. And we were hungry!
There was a lot to absorb just reading the menu. It's like the restaurant took dishes from several different Asian restaurants and threw them all on one menu. You can order Peking duck, Thai curry seafood, Szechuan peppercorn shrimp and chicken, egg flower soup, crispy red snapper with Malaysian sweet-and-sour sauce, Singapore mai funn and pan-fried udon made Shanghai style.
It's all over the place!
So we decided to order separate dishes, then wound up sharing them because there was just too much food!
Sharing is caring.
Here's what we ate:
To start, we ordered the crispy spring roll ($5.95), which was pretty standard.
One of the wives ordered the calamari salad ($7.95), which came with a healthy serving of crispy calamari with mixed greens and a lime-miso dressing.
Another ordered the oyster sauce chicken on cake noodles ($9.95), which had a nice flavor to it.
I was surprised that the sauce wasn't as heavy as it looked. (The restaurant also serves minute chicken over cake noodles for the same price.)
One of the Old Guys ordered the roasted duck ($13 for half, $25 for whole), which came nicely prepared and juicy.
I ordered the pad Thai with chicken ($7.95). You can get this dish with pork, tofu, beef, calamari or shrimp.
While it looked like pad Thai, the dish didn't have the same robust flavors as you get in a Thai restaurant. It was a little lacking for me, but still enjoyable.
This was one of the house specialties: steamed fish in a spicy curry sauce. The Old Guys said they'd come back to eat this, for sure.
Another chef selection, the Thai curry seafood ($15.95) comes with shrimp, scallops, calamari and veggies swimming in spicy curry.
It was definitely one of the prettier, more colorful dishes we had.
It was a lot of food, even for our crew.
I liked the casual atmosphere and friendly staff. But I think the food would be better if the restaurant just stuck to one or two cuisines. It's hard to do four well. Still, the food was decent, the prices pretty good, and we could talk for two hours without getting kicked out. No complaints!
Wild Ginger Asian Cuisine, 3441 Wai'alae Ave. Free parking in the back. Hours: 10:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. daily. Phone: 738-1169.
The Daily Dish
April 24th, 2009 at 5:32 am
Fuud pix! It's Friday.
Man, those photos make the fuud look so ono! I'm hungry just looking at the screen. Thanks Cat once again for our Friday treat!
April 24th, 2009 at 5:40 am
Cool! Instant trip to my old neighborhood, Kaimuki! It's really turned into a cool, laid back area with plenty good food spots. Mahalo Cat
April 24th, 2009 at 6:11 am
CAT,
This place has morphed a number of times....Aaaiiiyyyaaahhh! FUUD Pixs! Tenks!
April 24th, 2009 at 6:35 am
Good Morning Cat!
Fuud pixs Friday! This place is in my neighorhood and I never been there. Heard a lot of good things about though. One of these days I'll check it out just like all the other places you posted about.
April 24th, 2009 at 7:07 am
We've been there a couple of times. It's okay. A nice place for a gathering, the food is decent and reasonable. But if you like good Thai food...across the street is Champa Thai.
April 24th, 2009 at 7:10 am
$10 for cake noodle? Yikers! You can get it for $5-6 at Hung Won or Kaimuki Chopy Suey, both down the street.
April 24th, 2009 at 7:11 am
Yet another place I have passed and have noted but have not hit yet. After your Wall-Mart day and reporting on IGA, I picked up the last 'surprise' pork 'cutret' on my way north. I asked if they ever had Okonomiyaki. He got very excited but I couldn't tell if that meant yes or he just liked it too. The lady counting up the days receipts mentioned Koi Koi, but I said "gone".
I'm going to get to WG in time. One thing about me and Asian food: The farther south the cuisine, the more I like it. And you can't get much south than Malaysia.
April 24th, 2009 at 7:45 am
Once again incredible pictures. You made me want to eat chicken with cake noodles. The duck and the steamed fish with curry sauce also looked good. By the time I got to the last pic, I would have happily gone after the leftovers. One of the many reasons I like your Fuud Fridays is that you really give us sense of how the food tasted. Thanks Cat.
April 24th, 2009 at 8:00 am
The one thing that Wild Ginger boasts, is that, they don't use MSG.
I hope they still don't.
April 24th, 2009 at 9:54 am
Yes, that place is good. It's in my neighborhood as well. Wife and I went there once last year. I ordered the Royal Aloha, it was a mixture of seafood items. She had beef broccoli. It was very good, but they do have tough competition across the street.
April 24th, 2009 at 10:06 am
Congrats. again on your tv show! And to think ,your TV career started with a toilet seat and some toilet paper! Great story for the grandkids one day. Todays menu and pix are just awesome. All my favorites. I woulda liked to try the snapper as well..From what i see, i'd definately give it a try...or two. Do they serve beer or wine?
April 24th, 2009 at 10:31 am
thanks for the fuud pix cat! looks pretty good... especially the duck! lots of times we're in that neighborhood and some of the other restaurants are way more crowded so it's good to know that this place is decent, in case we don't want to wait.
have a great weekend, everyone!
April 24th, 2009 at 3:10 pm
ahh yes.....Cat Fuud! thanx!
too bad you and the "old guys" didn't get to eat at 220 grill. but no problem finding a replacement on wai'alae ave. yeah.
the mixture of asian cuisines DOES sound interesting. and by looking at the pix.....looks ono too.
April 24th, 2009 at 8:21 pm
nice pixs and prices....will try there when i get to that side of island...live in Mililani....tired of being retired..
Ten Que