Maile's Thai Bistro - Niu

Good food but very expensive. We paid $80 with tip and got a small amount of food unfortunately.

Not sure what happened but last food I ordered from there was not even close with what it used to be.

Not really sure why this place is so popular. They have 3 teenage boys running the service for the whole restaurant on a Friday night, but only one of them is a server. We waited a good 20 minutes for a server to even acknowledge us while the other two boys looked bored. There were empty tables so it wasn 't exactly super busy.When the server finally came, he seemed rushed. We order drinks, an appetizer, and dinner. At no time did the server ask us about spice levels or anything, which has been pretty common at EVERY other Thai restaurant I have ever been to. Well, 30 minutes late, our DRINKS, appetizer, AND dinner all came out at once. Again, it wasn 't exactly busy and the three boys were seen standing around and talking.The food tasted okay, but it was SUPER mild and bland for Thai food. Panda Express is spicier than their curry and Pad Thai. This tastes like old haole lady Thai food.Well the check comes and this place uses every chance they can to add surcharges to everything. They add 3% kitchen surcharge which they call a tax on the bill... Which I don 't believe is legal. They then add 3% if you pay with a credit card. They say you can avoid 3% if you pay with your debit , but I don 't know who is stupid enough to trust teenage boys with their pin number. It 's not like they have a portable POS system to pay.The bar seemed full and the server seemed to spend extra time with the boomer regulars. Like every other place is Hawaii Kai, the food is a let down, the service is inexperienced, and the place seems to cater to the boomer regulars rather than attracting new customers.Avoid unless you like non-spicy retirement home Thai food.

We used to love Maile's Thai Bistro, but things changed when they started adding extra fees. As soon as we saw the sign about a 3% kitchen fee and a 3% credit card fee, we decided to leave. I don't mind paying with my card, but I draw the line at paying extra just for using the kitchen. It's the same kind of thing that caused Scratch Kitchen to go under, and I won't stand for it.

These jokers literally told me we 're just putting in your order now, it will be ready in 20 minutes thirty minutes after I placed it. Now after 20 passed, they said 5-10 more and after that ten minutes told me it 's in the fryer now, 10 more minutes . Better you didn 't lie to your customers if you ever want them to come back.