The Pig & The Lady: A Modern Twist On A Mother’s Classics
All The Way From Honolulu’s Downtown, Pho You!
Sometimes a bowl of hot delicious pho made with love is exactly what you need to lift your spirits, especially around the hectic holiday season.
The Pig & The Lady opened their second store and first overseas restaurant this November in Tokyo’s Ebisu district. Naturally, as lovers of all things related to food and drink in the capital we went to check it out!
A mother’s recipe with a touch of international stardom
The Honolulu-born, modern Vietnamese restaurant started off as a family pop-up store at the local farmers market in 2012 and has since blown up after opening its first restaurant in the island’s bustling Chinatown back in 2013.
Having won multiple awards including the “Best Oahu Restaurant at the Hale Aina Awards” (two years in a row no less) as well as “Restaurateur of the Year in 2017,” the restaurant is deservingly loved by locals in Hawaii as well as the many tourists who are fortunate enough to drop by.
After graduating from the Culinary School of America in New York, the second-generation Vietnamese head chef and executive owner, Andrew Le, served as a sous-chef at Hawaii’s famed Michelin-star French restaurant, Chef Marvo. His experience enabled him to combine French influences alongside his mother’s home-style Vietnamese cooking in order to cultivate a modern Vietnamese menu sprinkled with his own personal flair—and topped with an emphasis on local ingredients.
The Pig & The Lady is named after Le himself as the pig, and his mother, the lady! The restaurant believes firmly in family values with Le paying the ultimate respect to his mother’s recipes by incorporating them as the base of many of the menu items.
Taking in the new ingredients and flavors from Japan, Le wholeheartedly embraced the culinary culture here and was able to create special menu items with an international twist. The new Ebisu menu has been made unique to Japan whilst still featuring the favorites from the original store.
An unforgettable taste
If you have an opportunity to visit the new Tokyo store in Ebisu, here are some of the main dishes you cannot miss out on.
The Pho 75, is made with his mother’s original rich pho soup recipe and topped with a Vietnamese-style beef so tender and juicy you’ll be begging for seconds once you’ve downed it all.
The Le Fried Chicken is the specialty of the restaurant and is made with crispy and juicy fried chicken wings covered in a refreshingly tangy sauce.
A great item to share with friends is the Vietnamese Pizza made with a crispy baked rice paper base topped with cheese, Chinese sausage, and jalapenos. The multiple textures are full of flavor.
The French Dip Banh Mi is an amazing french bread roll packed full of juicy bbq beef, coriander and onions. The best part is it comes with a small proportion of Mother Le’s original pho soup on the side to use as a dipping sauce!
There are also a number of creative drink items to wash all of the delicious goodness down with. There’s the P&L sour cocktail made of bourbon, lime, apricot, and tamarind if you’re looking for something to give you a bit of a buzz, and a Hawaiian Delight mocktail made of coconut, pineapple juice, and a sweet strawberry puree for those wanting to let loose—without letting it all loose.
Perfect for any date
No matter if you’re taking your mother out for lunch, going out with your friends, wanting to reserve a romantic place for your S/O, or just looking for a peaceful place to have lunch alone, The Pig & The Lady is the perfect location for any situation. The interior of the restaurant is warm and friendly, radiating a laid-back aloha atmosphere.
Found on the second floor of the Ebisu Ginza Cross Building, the entryway is located atop of the stairs and welcomes all guests with a wall of words that reads “Only Good Vibes”—the same artwork found in the original Honolulu store.
Being one of the first things you see as you walk into the store you can’t help but take a deep breath in a sort of meditative way—one that’s infused with the delicious aromas wafting over from the kitchen (TBH, that sounds like our kind of meditation).
If you’re looking for a hearty place to satisfy the pig and the lady in you (admit it, we’ve all got a bit of both in us!) then head on over to Ebisu for a delicious lunch or dinner you’ll treasure pho-ever. Well, at least for the rest of the day, anyway!
The Deets
The Pig & The Lady
Address: Ebisu Ginza Cross Bldg. 2F, 1-4-15, Ebisu-Minami, Shibuya, Tokyo
Hours: Weekdays 11 a.m.-4 p.m., 5 p.m.-11 p.m., Weekends and Holidays 11 a.m.-11 p.m.
Tel: 050 1743 1650
Prices: Lunch from ¥600 to ¥1,500. Dinner from ¥600 to ¥2,800. Lunch course for ¥2,500. Dinner course for ¥4,000.
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