Kalamansi! (No pancit)

Today I enjoyed lunch at Pacific Gateway Center's new Lemon Grass Cafe at 83 N. King Street (on the mauka side of King between Maunakea and Smith streets). They opened last week, on March 25, for lunch service 11a-2p. The Cafe offers a variety of Southeast Asian dishes, but not all at the same time. Confused? Each day features different ethnic fare from places like Singapore, Laos, Indonesia and Burma. Today we ate Lao food. It tasted very much like Thai food. And Vietnamese. With a whisper of Filipino. My aunty, who is from Thailand, has my favorite line: all look same. Haha, she means that the places are close together and the foods are similar, especially in border towns. I can handle that.

Dining at Lemon Grass Cafe is a fun experience, like getting your hair done at the Paul Brown beauty school or visiting a massage school. It is obvious that people are learning to run their business, from cooking and serving large quantities of food to how one should give change. The food was simple. Flavorful and simply homemade, which I don't mind at all. Lemongrass chicken, fish curry, green papaya salad, tofu salad and sticky rice. Kind of like and international potluck. For dessert they had gelato, which is more like a sorbet or granita, and the Kalamansi flavor was the way to go. The Ruby Red Tapioca was cold and sweet with crunchy water chestnuts in soft tapioca, wading in a syrup of palm sugar and coconut milk. A perfect ending to the spice and salt.

The space is large, but not cavernous. Modern with historic undertones. It's hard for me to explain, but I think it's an excellent part of the experience. Since this is not a review by any measure of standards, I'll stop here. You should check it out if you have the time and the dime. Today's food was inexpensive at $6 per plate, $2 for dessert and I left with a full belly and satisfied. Maybe you can even call in the morning to see which cuisine is on the menu for the day. Yeah, I think I might do that. Good idea.

Lemon Grass Cafe
11am - 2pm, M-F
83 North King Street
Pacific Gateway Center
851-7010