We ate at Hai Hai for the first time in 2019. Despite some service-related hiccups—beginning with an unconscionably long time to be seated—we quite enjoyed the meal and at the end of my write-up of that meal I said there would certainly be a second visit. Well, it’s taken more than five years for that second visit to happen. As you may remember, things went topsy-turvy for a few years in early 2020. And then when we got fully back into the eating out swing of things, Hai Hai somehow fell off our radar. It took a James Beard award nomination and then win this year for Chef Christina Nguyen to put it back on there. I’d grabbed a reservation earlier in the summer and this past weekend we descended on them for dinner with friends we eat out with often. Here’s how it went.

Our first visit to Hai Hai was in April of 2019. As it was still quite cold we’d sat inside. On this occasion I’d reserved a table on their covered patio. This partly because we wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to sit outside (winter is coming) and partly because we’d found the inside a bit too loud and hectic last time. Well, it was very nice outside—and I have to say it hadn’t quite registered back in 2019 just how large their outdoor seating space is. All in all, it’s a rather large restaurant. And it was completely full on Saturday evening as you would expect. Thankfully, we did not have to wait for our table this time. We sat down, perused the menu and got down to business.

That menu has more or less turned over completely from 2019. This starts with the drinks. The cocktails seem completely different and now there’s barely any wine on the menu. The latter wasn’t an issue for us as cocktails were what we were interested in. The missus got the Sundown in Saigon (vodka, passion fruit, lime etc.); one of our friends got the Long Island Thai Tea (gin, vodka, rum, herbs and lemongrass); I got the Postcards from Palawan (tequila, mezcal, pineapple, tamarind, Thai chilli); our other friend, a teetotaler, got a lemonade (perhaps with guava). We all enjoyed our cocktails—though we did not enjoy more than one (more on this later).

How about food? We got a bunch of things to share. From the Snacks & Starters section we got the Coconut Shrimp Toast and two orders of the Pork Ribs Tocino (having been warned by our server that one order would not be easily shareable among four people). Both were tasty enough but in both cases I liked the accompaniments/toppings more than the main event itself—it didn’t help that both of the ribs I ate were overcooked; I really liked the pickled veg they came with though. Next from the Salads & Vegetables section we ordered the Banana Blossom Salad and the Crispy Rice Salad. It wasn’t until we got home that we realized that only the Crispy Rice Salad was actually brought out. A good thing as it turned out, as we were quite full by the end of the meal anyway. The crispy rice salad—we added on the optional pork belly—was quite good again (it was one of the few holdovers from the 2019 menu) even as the missus and I both felt again that there are better versions to be had in less hip surroundings on University Ave. in St. Paul.

From the Bowls & Plates section we got three selections: the Balinese Chicken Thigh (quite good); the Beef Rendang (very good and with some palpable heat); and the Laksa Shrimp and Grits (quite good). Serving laksa over grits is an interesting choice and we all thought it worked. The chicken, the beef and the shrimp were all cooked perfectly (I note this having cribbed about the ribs).

And so to dessert. We were full and so shared two of the four selections among us. I will remind you here that in 2019 we’d thought the desserts were the weak link on the menu. There seems to have been improvement on that front. We quite enjoyed the Warm Bread Pudding, even though we were not enamoured of either the overly-sweet pandan cream (I think that’s what the green stuff was) or the gratuitous sprinkle of Maldon salt; the Passion Fruit Posset we had no quibbles with.

For a closer look at the space, the menu and everything we ate and drank, launch the slideshow below. Scroll down for more thoughts on service, to see how much it all cost and to see what’s coming next.

I’m not sure what happened with the Banana Blossom Salad, but, again, it would have been too much food. And no, it wasn’t on the bill either. There was also some confusion with the delivery of our dessert . Someone other than our main server emerged from the restaurant with both in his hands and circumnavigated the patio a couple of times before going to look for our server. She then arrived with both, seemingly under the impression that we had told him we had not ordered them when in fact he had never brought them to our table. Ah well. Other than this, service was generally very good.

One other thing has to do with the speed of the meal—though this is not on our server. I’d noted in 2019 as well that everything happened very fast once we had sat down. It was a similar story on this occasion as well. Our reservation was at 7 pm. The cocktails arrived at 7.10. By 7.32 pm (I checked the time stamps on my photos), the large plates had begun to arrive and by 7.39 pm the last of the savoury dishes was already on our table. We hadn’t yet all finished our cocktails and dinner seemed like it might be over by 8 pm and so we did not order seconds. This seems like it can’t really be part of their business model but then again what do I know? In 2019 I’d said that on our next visit we’d try to order the food in waves rather than all at once to avoid this issue. Maybe on our third visit we’ll actually remember to do so.

Price? In 2019 we were a group of six and ended up paying $44/head all-in. This time we were a group of four and ended up paying almost exactly $60/head all-in. Prices have definitely gone up sharply. The Crispy Rice Salad was $10.5 in 2019 and is $17 now, for example (that’s before the $3 for the pork belly add-on). Still $60/head still seemed to us to be very good value for what we ate and drank. People who eat South East Asian food on the regular in St. Paul aren’t going to find the food at Hai Hai to be particularly revelatory but it’s all done well enough; and the cocktails are good and the ambience is fun. There’s no reason not to go and eat this kind of food in this kind of setting. You could certainly pay a lot more in the cities for less.

Alright, I’m not sure what my next Twin Cities report will be on. Possibly Thai, possibly Chinese hotpot. Let’s see how it goes. Before that, however, I’ll have at least one report from San Francisco in June.