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. Continue reading →