Payao Thai Restaurant

Worst Thai experience ever! Although the spring rolls were okay. Food cooked inconsistently. Shrimp pad Thai was salty and over cooked (burnt spots), thus it was very dry, while the chicken and mushrooms were under cooked! Bad enough it took awhile for our order to come out and the servers hardly checked up on us!

The lunch special comes with an appetizer and an entrée with choice of rice (steamed, sticky, brown). My first time, I got the Payao Evil red curry with sticky rice and papaya salad. The city was super flavorful and rich, and the papaya salad was tasty and refreshing. Service was quick, cordial, and efficient; bathroom was clean; décor was suitable. What else could you want? I left a good tip and I’ll be back for more.

I’m not sure about the 3 star average either. Ok, so only open for lunch, but great lunch special, from $ 10.50−13. You get an appetizer choice, entrée choice, with rice and quick service; what’s the problem!!!
I had the panang fish curry with spring rolls and brown rice. I asked for extra mint and basil, I got it. I asked for prik nam pla, I got it… We brought a bottle of wine, with no corkage fee. What’s the problem!!! I love this place, with free 2 and ½ hour validation.

Good solid Thai lunch. Had the evil curry with chicken and it was quite good. Will come back.

I stumbled upon this place when I tried to have lunch at Kissaten (but they were closed), and I guess Kissaten at Restaurant Row is now closed for good. Anyways, we settled for thai food an didn’t realize what a great lunch special they had. They have some entrees to choose from that come with an appetizer of your choice for only $ 10.50. I ordered the pad thai and the spring rolls. The spring rolls were pretty good and the pad thai was a little too flavorful. It might not have been the best pad thai I’ve had but the special is a pretty good deal.
Next time, i am going to try the curry with the spring rolls.

Had the chicken pad thai. Have had this at over a hundred restaurants and this was one of the worst. Little flavor and the flavor that was there was not typical for pad thai. Soup was OK. Skippable

Had lunch here just to validate parking ticket. Good food at an affordable price. Validates your parking for up to 2.5 hours.

They have a great lunch special. $ 10,50 for an appetizer and main dish and rice.
I had the egg rolls (crispy and not greasy at all) and friends had the salads — green papaya and lettuce. Raves for each of the salads.
I had lemongrass beef, the panang curry looked amazing (I had entrée envy when this dish arrived for my friend).
Overall, a great place to go with a group for lunch.

Delicious and authentic Thsi Cuisine and service! Had spring rolls, Panang Curry with Shrimp, jasmine rice with a side of peanut sauce and a Thai iced tea! Just like Thailand!

Definitely not a first pick for Thai, but when you’re in the area this is a good deal for lunch. I have ordered the Lunch Special on a regular basis. I believe this includes a soup, salad, or appetizer and an entrée. I get the green papaya salad and whatever they call their red curry.
Most people are walking to restaurant row for lunch. But if you want to drive, there is the attached paid lot. Seating is indoors or you can take your order to-​go and meet your friends outdoors (in which they can order what they want).
Again not a must have choice but its yummy enough for the price. Check it out if you’re in the area for lunch. I hear the Pad Thai is pretty good too.

I normally reserve one star ratings to places where the service was horrible and I get food poisoning. This place is 1.5 stars. The good news is I haven’t gotten sick… yet. The lunch special prices looked great on the menu until you saw the small portion sizes.
Here’s the story. Five co-​workers go to lunch and most of us order the lunch special. I ordered the papaya salad and the lemongrass chicken special. One person ordered the pad thai and a few got the panang curry (one with spring rolls and one with soup). One person got the eggplant chicken a la carte with broccoli added and a side of broccoli. She likes broccoli.
The papaya salad was okay but lacked spice and flavor.
The spring rolls were greasy and again, okay.
The soup looked good but I didn’t try it.
My co-​workers all got their food, and my lemongrass chicken didn’t show up until after they had finished all of their food. When it came, the sauce was red and looked like the evil curry sauce. I called the waitress over and asked if it was lemongrass and she pointed to little white pieces of something saying that that was lemongrass. On a whim, I picked up some of the small white pieces and mmm tasted just like garlic. Absolutely NO lemongrass flavor. For that matter, very little flavor at all. The only thing that was good about the entrée was the brown rice. It was cooked well and had a nice nutty flavor.
I understand the waitress is busy since she was the ONLY person serving food at a busy lunch spot, but if your customer says that something doesn’t taste or look like lemongrass don’t tell them it is and brush them off rudely, especially if you forgot their food order and the person had to eat after everyone else was done. I’ve been to Thailand multiple times, I’ve cooked with lemongrass, and I’ve been to dozens of Thai restaurants. I know what lemongrass tastes like and it doesn’t look like or taste like garlic.
Then the bill came. My friend’s eggplant chicken with broccoli added and a side of broccoli came to $ 10 extra. $ 5 per broccoli. Normally if you get a protein added to a meal it costs about $ 2 extra. Broccoli is not as expensive as chicken so to have it cost $ 5 to add a tiny bit of broccoli to a dish is ridiculous. The side of broccoli had about 6 florets on it and also cost $ 5. Quite a markup!
This place needs to hire some wait staff, figure out what lemongrass is, in fact figure out what any spices/​flavors are, and stop buying broccoli from a supplier that charges insane rates for their produce that requires such a steep mark up. Alternatively, just tell your customer how much that extra broccoli or side of broccoli costs.

lunch meals are a great deal. Food is alright. Portions aren’t the biggest. In restaurant row and the surrounding area, there isn’t much options. This place is close and okay.
If you want great Thai food look elsewhere. If you want Thai food near the office (assuming it’s close) then this will do.

I don’t understand the 3-​star average… I ordered the off-​the-​menu seafood noodle lunch special, which my server recommended. It was spectacular and the portion was large. The décor is nothing to note, but for a quick lunch, the food was great! I’ll be back.

Lunch Value for your Dollar
$ 9 to $ 13 for their lunch special which offers you a choice of soup or salad or appetizer and an entrée. However, if your lunch group is 3 or more you’re better off ordering «family» style which will give you 1) appetizer, 2) salad, 3) 2 entrees (more than likely) and rice for almost the same price and if its more= its marginal.
The taste? Consistent! If you like Thai food, you will definitely like Payao for its consitent taste and pricing.
Parking is validated (I think). My office is close by so I consider it my daily exercise; strolling over to Restaurant Row (where Payao is located). In fact, they are one of the last remaining restaurants who braved and survived the constant turn over in restaurants and bars at the Restaurant Row location.
Service= speedy so… if you have a limited or set amount of time for lunch, this is the place to go.

Only Lunch review: Lunch time 1100 – 1400.
I’ve been enjoying their lunch for quite a long time — do not come here very frequently but whenever I come here, I am content. Lunch special is a great deal. You get salad or soup, main dish with $ 10, and taste good!

I’ve eaten here quite a few times, since I was working at my previous job at the Circuit Court House, across the street back in 2005 — 2006. Payao Thai restaurant is located at Restaurant Row, where a collection of restaurants are assembled here for those who work and play here in downtown Honolulu. I was craving Thai on my most recent trip, so I walked over here instead of getting Subway around the corner. I guess you could say that it was a good choice, since my craving was pretty ravenous, it kind of borderline on carnal in nature. I haven’t had Thai for quite a while and sticky rice is almost always phenomenal. Payao Thai restaurant is famous for its sticky rice and it does not disappoint. While I did have to order take out, I feel that this place is worth the money.
While I have never did dined in this restaurant and only had take out, I have been meaning to come back here sometime. Maybe I should have chose the lunch specials, but somehow being influenced by Bangkok Chef has gotten me to love eggplant a bit too much for my own good. The service was good and they do accept credit cards, which is always a plus. The restaurant itself is of decent size and one of the servers helped me out when I wanted to get some take out, where the other one was just at the bar, cleaning dishes. Sometimes, the lack of friendliness is a turn off, but sometimes, it’s probably the way it is. I ordered the eggplant and tofu mixture, which was $ 8.50, but I went for the sticky rice, and the total price ballooned to just over $ 10 with tax.
Restaurant Row itself has free parking, so you can park either on the street fronting the complex, or actually park inside the underground parking they have on Halekawila Street. Doesn’t matter though, parking is parking! I acutally got it spicy, which was good and flavorful. I actually needed to take down some ice water, since I am not too familiar with what kind of spicy Payao uses, but all in all, it was a fun lunch to have. If you are in the mood for Thai and are in the area, please check them out. The prices are competitive.
Panag curry!
B+

I love this place, I think the lunch special is a great deal. It used to be $ 8.50 for an appetizer, salad or soup and an entrée, but they raised it to $ 9.50, which I think still a reasonable price. If you love hot food, you can order the curry «Laotian» hot. It’s hotter than most Thai restaurant «hot» version.
I ordered spring roll for my appetizer (you get 3 pieces with some veggies), panang curry and sticky rice. I like all of them.

Pros:
My boss and I had plenty of room for our laptops at our table during our working lunch.
Waters were refilled timely.
We were in and out in about an hour.
He enjoyed his green curry and rice.
My beef salad had pretty good cuts of meat and was decently filling.
Pretty good prices, about $ 20 for lunch for two.
PARKING VALIDATION!!!
This restaurant has actually been around for some years now in Restaurant Row… that must give some credibility to its staying power!!!
Cons:
Waitress was attentive yet not exactly friendly.
My salad was very salty.
I wouldn’t go out of my way to eat here… although it is probably a more satisfying choice than most of the other take out places at Restaurant Row.
I’ll likely return, but only if I already had a compelling reason to be at Restaurant Row.

When I’m craving for Thai, and there’s no other Thai restaurant walking distance from work, I eat at Payao, at Restaurant Row. It’s a small restaurant, and the food is basic, especially the lunch special, but the flavors are pretty good. However, they don’t give much in their lunch special, $ 8.95 for a choice of starter soup, salad or spring rolls with beef & chicken curry or pad thai; $ 10.95 for shrimp. Their stuffed chicken wings were really good, but they did away with that since last year.
Spicy chicken soup 4 star — this soup is flavorful with lots of chicken in it.
Beef Jungle Curry — 3 star — the curry flavor is good, but it’s only beef with a little of basil in thai curry, and sticky rice. The portion is about a handful.
Pad thai — 4 star — very flavorful, but I’ve had better. The tofu tasted sour, and they give you more noodles if you don’t order it with rice. However, the portion is small.

Great food, especially for the price: The lunch special, which comes with a generous appetizer, entrée and rice, is ~$ 9 (price depends which meat you get with your entrée).
The pad thai at Payao is flavorful — and maybe that’s ajinomoto/​MSG talking, but it’s a big improvement in taste over Blue Ocean Thai and even Bangkok Chef. The noodles are of a favorable texture, as well.
Service is pretty casual: No one is waiting on you every second, but the servers are adequately attentive and friendly.
Overall, a great deal for lunch, and a really nice meal for Restaurant Row.