Sometimes, you need a break from the upscale restaurants for a simple, filling meal. Ba-Le Vietnamese Food in Kihei is just the place to go to when you crave simple dishes inspired by a variety of Asian cuisines in a no-frills environment.
Located inside the Piilani Shopping Center, Ba-Le Vietnamese Food has a counter-serve style. Most visitors choose this location for its fast service and filling food. You’ll find plenty of parking around the shopping center for when you want to get in and grab a quick meal. It also is less than five miles from Wailea Beach. This proximity to the coast makes it easy to pick up a banh mi sandwich for a picnic on the beach or stop by for a pho dinner after a day touring the area.
If you have multiple people in your group with different tastes, this is a great place to bring them. The extensive menu includes Hawaiian saimin, Vietnamese banh mi and pho, fried rice, and much more. Everyone will find the perfect food for their particular cravings. Plus, you will find a vegetarian menu that includes meatless options for those who don’t eat meat. Even kids love the simple flavors of many of the restaurant’s pho, rice, and noodle dishes that don’t use too much spice.
Make sure to try at least one of these visitor favorites from the Ba-Le menu:
Lemongrass Chicken Sandwich
The Lemongrass Chicken Sandwiches has tasty, crusty french bread as its base. Atop this, the restaurant adds homemade mayonnaise, parsley, and pickled carrots with daikon radish. They pile inside the bread spicy lemongrass-scented chicken for a hearty, spicy, flavorful meal that will satisfy your craving for a meaty sandwich.
Wonton Saimin
Saimin is a Hawaiian soup that has many similarities to ramen. Both are noodle soups in broth with thinly sliced meats and vegetables, but the noodles used in saimin are chewier. When you order Wonton Saimin at Ba-Le, you get wontons in place of the noodles in a homemade chicken broth accompanied by seasonal vegetables and green onions. This dish epitomizes comfort food with its simple and filling qualities.
Fried Rice with Shrimp and Spam
Fried rice met Spam in Hawaii, and the pairing has become a favorite in the area. Spam chunks and shrimp enrich the rice at Ba-Le for a hearty variation on the traditional use of pork. This rice has enough meat to make it a meal. If you’ve never experienced Fried Rice with Shrimp and Spam, make your visit to Ba-Le your chance to try this dish. Visitors describe it as worth trying and unique.
Beef Pho
While Ba-Le Sandwich Shop has a name that focuses on its sandwiches, you want to try the specialty of this restaurant, its Vietnamese pho. The Beef Pho features the restaurant’s 10-hour simmered beef brisket and bone marrow broth and your choice of rare steak or cooked flank and rare steak. The heat of the broth cooks the steak to the perfect level of doneness.
The slowly simmered broth has the perfect amount of salt, you can easily taste the beef flavor of the broth and the meat that comes with this soup. Use the garnishes that accompany the soup to enhance its flavor as you see fit. Ba-Le includes bean sprouts, basil, sliced chili peppers, and a fresh lemon wedge to garnish and flavor your soup.
When you want to have a large variety of Asian dishes, stop by the Piilani Shopping Center in Kihei at the Ba-Le Vietnamese Food shop. With so many choices, you’re sure to find a soup, rice dish, noodle dish, or sandwich to satisfy your craving.
Insider Tips:
-Ask for the restaurant’s vegetarian menu if you want to avoid meat.
-Stay in and request delivery to Central Kihei. The amount that you must order for free delivery has changed in the past, so ask for the current delivery minimum.