Up for a challenge? Walk out of this sweet southern Vietnamese restaurant on Wai‘alae Avenue without a massive smile on your face.
I won’t lie, the name is what brought me here initially. I was fully prepared for bad food with a side of creepy service. But when I discovered that Ripple of Smiles is simply a Vietnamese restaurant with an interesting name, I volunteered myself as tribute to try the spot opening that very day. Having visited a number Vietnam’s cities and countryside towns, shared many meals and cheap beers with the locals and had the blessing of a one-on-one cooking lesson with a retired chef in her family home, I knew I was in for a treat with probably the nicest service to match delicious dishes. Plus, I need pho in my life on a weekly basis.
Pulling up to a small corner strip mall on Wai‘alae Avenue, we were greeted by a sweet teal-green restaurant with a dainty white-trimmed fence that separates the spacious outdoor dining area from the busy sidewalk. Along with round garden tables and chairs is an icy cold display fridge filled with nonalcoholic drinks—a common feature at street side eateries in Vietnam. And on that note, I’m not new to pulling up a wobbly four-legged stool (or flipping a crate for glass bottles upside down) to a collapsible round table outside of a busy Vietnamese diner—so safe to say that I know which handful of dishes would be best to test the authenticity of any pho spot.
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Katie Kenny 