2026 Hale ‘Aina Awards: Best New Restaurant Chao Hawai‘i Is Playfully Viet-Inspired
Chao’s roots are traditional, though its approach is a different story. Get the scoop on some of the restaurant’s popular dishes.
Readers’ Pick
BEST NEW RESTAURANT
(GOLD)
Readers’ Pick
BEST VIETNAMESE
(GOLD)
The menu at Chao wraps in dishes that lean conventionally Vietnamese and playfully Viet-inspired—like crispy batter-fried chunks of moi, reminiscent of fish and chips, that you DIY into lettuce wraps with silken rice vermicelli. Or Pork Ribs and Dragon Eggs, a take on a Vietnamese New Year’s dish, with the house chicken fat fried rice. Or, as a woman at the next table orders, “Bone marrow and the carpaccio, and the pasta. That sounds like fun.”
Like Faria, MW and The Pig & The Lady—Honolulu’s pioneering modern Vietnamese fusion eatery—Chao is an intensely personal restaurant. Its food tells stories of family and culture, broadened liberally for a modern palate. If you hew to tradition, like blood cakes in your bun bo hue, go elsewhere. If you like new forays that still feel familiar, you may be among the HONOLULU readers who voted Chao the Hale ‘Ainas’ Best New Restaurant.
That HONOLULU’s editors named Chao Restaurant Group the Restaurateurs of the Year was coincidence. We started watching Chao before it opened—because it was the peak of a steep learning curve for industry outsiders who started with a poke shop and ramped up to a handroll sushi counter. Chao represents a different direction for the seafood-focused group. We asked its chef, Honolulu-born Binh Ngo, for the stories behind some of our favorite dishes.
Seafood ceviche: scallop, shrimp and calamari in a lime-chile-coconut sauce
“Growing up, we didn’t have a lot of money, so dishes like this were a treat,” Ngo says. “Whenever we had the money to buy seafood, my mom would put raw tilapia or pompano and shrimp in there, mix it up with lime juice. She experimented with coconut and thought it was so good. I was drawing similarities between that and poisson cru, so this is rooted in Polynesia and my childhood.”
Beef carpaccio: thinly sliced raw beef with lime juice, chiles and other toppings
“That’s my favorite, actually. Whenever my dad ate pho, my mom would leave the raw beef slices on the side, and he would dress it up with lime juice, black pepper and onions. I thought it was weird. But as I grew up, I thought, what if I put it all together and give it the herbs and garnishes of pho? This dish is savory and sweet and salty and acidic, it has crunches from fried onion and shallots and Maldon sea salt, and fresh Thai basil, cilantro, Vietnamese coriander and culantro.”
Soft-shell crab pasta
“People in Hawai‘i tend to like indulgent things, so I started with a beurre monté butter sauce with lemongrass and garlic. We decided to add two whole fried soft-shell crabs—one wasn’t enough, and two was more than enough. The mochi noodles are from Sun Noodle. Vietnamese people don’t like dishes that are one-dimensional in flavor or texture—they’re ngan. I felt like a rich sauce coating a chewy noodle with crispy crab pretty much is a formula for an addicting dish.”
Pork Ribs and Dragon Eggs: a twist on thit kho nuoc dua—pork belly and boiled whole eggs simmered in coconut juice and fish sauce
“This dish is truly my mom’s. I use spareribs over pork belly because I like the textures of sinew and cartilage. But before my mom, I’d never seen anybody fry the eggs in a thit kho. I soft-boil them first, then peel and deep fry so they get the skin all around. The wrinkles soak up the sauce better, give the eggs that caramelized taste. It’s a staple for every Vietnamese family at New Year, so it had to have a place on the menu.”
1613 Nu‘uanu Ave., Nu‘uanu, (808) 888-0166, chaohawaii.com, @chaohawaii
