Panya Bistro

The new panyas near ward center is amazing! The service there was great and we ordered a lot of food but they all came super fast and the waiters would always be checking up on us and refilling our drinks! Plus the food was excellent and the dessert we had was a strawberry shortcake it was amazing it was soft and fluffy and I would definitely recommend eating there! They also have a happy hour that you can look up I know it is sometime from 4 to 6 but honestly it was good I will definitely go there again!!!

I’m ashamed to say it. I live in downtown and yet I only eat at 3 main places… I’m making it a goal for me to venture out every month and try something new.
So my friend led me to this place. She knows more places than I do.
We went during lunch time and of course… Busy! I’m a sucker for a good panini! The chicken with pesto and spinach panini caught my eye! I’m looking all over the menu to see if they had a combo with this. I don’t know about you but I sandwich does not fill me up for lunch. They had regular sandwich combos but nothing for their panini.
Boo!
Guess what happened next… I bought an order of mixed salad. The total cost of my meal. $ 15! I seriously was going to passed out. The panini was about $ 9 and the salad was about $ 6. Man, my wallet still crying from that moment.
The panini was a good size and the side salad was not worth it. I make that myself when I’m at home.
By far the chicken with pesto and spinach is one of the BEST PANINI I ever had! So that’s where my 4 stars go to. They have lunch special combos which caught my eye for next time

I love Panya. Everytime I have a visitor for lunch, we usually end up at Panya.
My favorite dishes on the menu would have to be the turkey avocado melt on crasiont with spinach salad.
The service at Panya downtown is amazing. They are so polite always taking care of you. It is a take-​out place but you can also eat in. they’re are only 8 seats inside. And a few tables outside to share with other vendors.
I like Panya and will definitely eat here again!

Panya Bakery
The one in downtown, I go to Panya every so often to get my Taiwanese Beef Noodle fix. I usually order takeout being that this place is small on the inside. There’s shared seating outside. Place is located aright across work so its convenient. At first glance «Panya» meaning bread shop in Japanese, I didn’t know it was Taiwanese owned! It was cool cause it had sort of a mixture of items that are Taiwanese and Japanese mixed into the menu. Well since I haven’t dined in Panya this review is mainly based on the Beef Noodle.
What can I say about Beef Noodle… Hmm… well its freaking Awesome! Its so Delicious I could kick someone! Panya makes a pretty good beef noodle, it captures the Taiwanese flavors kind of on the spicy side so be careful! If you don’t like spicy stay away from this. ill make you poop fire! (Excuse my French)
In comparison to the actual beef noodle from Taiwan id rate Panya’s beef noodle at a 6. Fortunately I travel to Taiwan every so often for business trips and some R&R, I have had the authentic beef noodle and… omg its to die for. If you think Panya makes a good beef noodle you need to try the authentic dish. First, the authentic beef noodle from Taiwan is less spicy and way more flavorful, the beef is different as well, its leaner than Panya’s and it seem as though it melts in your mouth. Yumm… This review is making crave for some beef noodle! Ok off to Panya bye!

They have good food and pastries but it’s very pricey. My favorite item is the black pepper pork chop with rice. It’s about $ 10 and I know a lot of people who work in downtown won’t pay that much for lunch. The chicken salad is also very good, they use Chinese cabbage instead of iceberg or romaine lettuce.
Just like the Panya in Ala Moana, they also sell cake by the slice. The selection is limited and they only have 2 – 3 pieces of each. If you want pastries to go with your morning coffee this is a good place to get them. The pastries here definitely beat what they have at Starbucks and Honolulu Coffee Co.

I didn’t even know there was a Panya in downtown but my coworkers were going up that way and offered to pick me up something from Bishop Street and they suggested Panya. Nice surprise!
So I did a quick flip through Unilocal and saw Chris O.‘s review for the yellow coconut curry chicken and went with that and gave them $ 10 for my order. How wrong could he be?
Well I was floored when I later found out it broke the bank at $ 11.47 for the lunch, and I felt terrible that I didn’t give them enough money to cover it up front. I had to knock off 1 star because at those prices, that’s like NYC levels… so yes that means the curry and rice was a solid 4 – 4.5 star meal if you didn’t include the impact at the cash register.
So I have to agree with his review that it really was excellent! Great flavor, huge portion, big hunks of chicken thigh (bone-​in), potatoes, tomatoes and onions. Huge container of steamed rice. Enough food to be full.
Overall, really great curry and some other interesting sounding dishes on the menu but unless I feel like a big splurge and feel like a fat wallet, I don’t think I’ll be going back too often.

Fairly good choice for lunch downtown. I got the tonkatsu sandwich with french bread and it was really tasty. The tonkatsu was well seasoned and french bread was toasted just right. At about $ 7 – 8, the sandwich was a little steep given the cheaper options in the surrounding restaurants.
I had to minus a star because of the price and the wait time, I think I had to wait around 10 – 15 minutes for the sandwich when people who ordered after me already got their orders before me. That was a bummer.

This convenient downtown bistro is tucked away in a quiet spot off of bustling BIshop Street. Panya Downtown boasts lovely outdoor seating — perfect for a midday belly recharge with friends or colleagues.
Inside, Panya is impeccably clean and cheerful — there’s only one long table in there, which could accommodate probably 10 people comfortably… but your best bet is to snag a table outside. One wall is lined with yummy, help-​yourself Hong Kong style pastries. And the dessert case? Looks amazing… one day soon I’ll have to return for a sweet treat!
Though today was the first time I’ve tried Panya Downtown, I’ve been to their other restaurant at Ala Moana shopping center and the food was PHENOMENAL. So I have to say, I was a teensy bit disappointed with my lunch today.
I ordered the combo special which consisted of Dan Dan noodles, 3 gyoza and an iced tea. The gyoza were very tasty — crunchy on the outside, steaming hot mixture of veggies, ground pork and shrimp inside.
The Dan Dan noodles were the real letdown. They were covered with a small amount of peanut flavored sauce and ground meat of some sort — possibly pork, but I’m honestly not sure what it was. I do know that the noodle/​mystery meat combo completely lacked flavor — I ended up pouring the sauce that accompanied the gyoza on the noodles, along with a serious helping of Siracha. Then they were edible. Bummer. Double bummer that the meal set me back 11 bucks. Grrr…
Because I’ve had such great food at Panya in the past… and because everything else I saw looked so scrumdiddlyumptious, I’m not writing Panya off my list just yet. Besides, the crème brûlée in the dessert case is still calling my name…

OK, so I’ve eaten here twice now. One of my friends and I frequent the Ala Moana location, but mostly for martini’s. Anyway, this is close to my office, and an decent option for a change in my normal scenery and food.
On this visit, I got the portabello mushroom panini. The sammie itself was super good, but you could tell it was a big, unhealthy sammie. The foccacia bread was super buttery, there was a fair amount of pesto on the bread, and the mushroom was covered in provolone. 3 stars purely because it was so good, not for any other reason.
What gets to me is that I had to wait a good 12 minutes to get my sammie. Literally everyone who was in line before AND after me got their food well before I did. I’m not sure what the issue was, but I know it doesn’t take that long to make a panini. Also, at $ 9.95, I thought that I would at least get a salad, chips, or something on the side. The menu did not state that anything else was included, but again, at that price, one would think that they would throw you a bone and give you something to go with it. My suggestion to Panya is that they offer a small salad, soup, or chips with their panini’s. People like me, who have to wait forever, and pay quite a bit, might be slightly happier. Lastly, it’s really hot in there, and having to wait for that long, I though I was going to melt.
I don’t think that I will be coming back here. I’m just disappointed that the service is so slow, and that the prices are pretty high for what you get. There are many other places downtown where you can get a good sammie at a much more reasonable price.