The Pig & the Lady 2.0 Opens in Kaimukī This Week

Full house at friends and family night on Monday. Photo: Melissa Chang

Seven weeks after closing its doors in Chinatown, The Pig & the Lady is back—this time in a shiny new space in Kaimukī. Pig 2.0 soft-opens this Wednesday, Oct. 15, with limited menus at lunch and dinner, then grand opens Oct. 21. Yes, there will be new dishes. Yes, the same cooks, bartenders and servers have migrated over. And yes, weekend brunch is coming—but not just yet.

And the space? A huge glow-up from the restaurant the Le family pieced together for $75,000 in 2013. It’s long and narrow, with banquette seating and tables repurposed from the old dining room. The physical similarities end there.

Chef-owner Andrew Le was 29 when original Pig opened; now, with three restaurant openings in the last 12 years, six James Beard Award nominations and status as one of Hawai‘i’s most sought-out restaurants, the grownup Pig has the looks to match: It’s sparkly, sunny and decked out in retro and modern bling, in a ground-floor corner space in Civil Beat Plaza.

Photo: Mari Taketa

The open kitchen, created from scratch with repurposed and new equipment, now has a separate section for pastry and a two-seat chef’s counter (coming later; for now, it’s the designated homework spot for Le’s two kids). Next to it is a full and proper bar, its upholstered pig-pink stools donated by the widow of a regular who liked to sit at Pig’s old bar.

After two years of fits, starts and make-or-break snags, final approvals came in last Friday. “I’m surprised I didn’t have a heart attack. It’s been two years of shopping for things and trying to think of scenarios that could make or break us, tapping into our connections of who can help us,” Le says. “This is the fun part now. I’m back in the kitchen, tasting food, talking with the chefs. It makes me feel good to have my hands smell like onions and garlic.”

Photo: Courtesy of The Pig & the Lady

The food is signature Le: a cacophany of global influences rooted in a Vietnamese flavor compass and French technique. With plenty of nods to Kaimukī, where Le’s parents, Raymond and Loan, raised their four children and opened Toys N’ Joys, the game and hobby shop they ran on Wai‘alae Avenue until Pig & the Lady’s opening in Chinatown.

‘There’ll be a lot of if you know, you know, if you’re from Kaimukī,” Le says. Like the new saimin on the lunch menu, an homage to Wai‘alae Saimin that used to be down the street: “The dish we made has dry hu tieu and also it’s inspired by Sam Sato’s saimin. Those two memories are sitting together, and they collaborated in our saimin.”

SEE ALSO: After 12 Years in Chinatown, The Pig & the Lady Is Closing to Move to Kaimukī

If you loved the food at the old Pig, recurring stalwarts like the Le fried chicken wings, ‘ahi tataki toast, pho and vegan pho will be there. The new saimin ($20) will have pork three ways—jowl char siu, braised and ground, and a new concoction called “pork fat crunch”—and 10-hour simmered pork-shrimp broth on the side. Shaking beef is back, this time as a bo luc lac saltado ($26 and yes, with fries). And there’ll be pork collar katsu, or Thit Kho-tsu ($22) with a clear, brothy sauce of caramelized fish sauce inspired by the Vietnamese New Year dish.

Dinner will see a new pa‘i‘ai banh xeo turmeric crepe ($24) and aged country ham with poached pears, mustard seeds and Laughing Cow cheese ($19). Bo kho Vietnamese stew returns, this time as a Bolognese on Onda Pasta rigatoni ($25). There’s a new mochi-two-ways appetizer, a Viet version of gilda pintxos, what Le calls an improved green curry escargots (this time en croute in a pastry envelope) and an uncanny vegetarian pâté made with chestnuts, mushrooms and pickled shallots.

SEE ALSO: The origins: Pig and the Lady: Not Just a Personal Addiction

Location-wise, Pig & the Lady 2.0 takes up residence on a food-rich stretch of food-rich Kaimukī. Kitty-corner across Wai‘alae are Tight Tacos, the Crack Seed Store, Jewel or Juice and Broken Rice. On the other side of Koko Head Avenue are Pipeline Bakeshop, Saigon’s Restaurant and Okata Bento, where Le and his brother Alex, who runs front of house and Pig’s farmers market booths, grew up eating.

Find Pig & the Lady on Wai‘alae between Koko Head Avenue and Wilhelmina Rise. There’s validated parking in the building; enter from Wilhelmina Rise.

Lunch Wednesday to Sunday 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., dinner Tuesday to Saturday 5 to 9:30 p.m., 3650 Wai‘alae Ave., Kaimukī, (808) 585-8255, thepigandthelady.com, @pigandthelady

Mari Taketa is editor of Frolic Hawai‘i and dining editor of HONOLULU Magazine.