Achilles' Grill

Achilles' Grill is a Thai food lunchwagon located on Ward Ave. in Honolulu, Hawaii, just across from the Neal Blaisdell Arena.

I learned Achilles' Grill was also at December's "Eat the Street" event a couple weeks ago (12/16). The number of food trucks/vendors continues to grow for such an occasion!

Menu and "heat scale" (December 2011)

One of the first things I noticed at this white lunchwagon was their spice meter depicting how hot they can make their food (or their sauces, as I found out later). While Achilles serves the usual Pad Thai (like about 90 percent of other Thai food trucks), I asked what was the chef's favorite. he mentioned the Lemongrass Short Ribs ($8.50), a healthy portion of about five or six marinated ribs fried up in oil for that crispy exterior (prepared like pipkaula, but with a Thai-flavored twist). It came with some warm potato salad and Jasmine rice.

And of course, I asked for their hottest (10+) sauce. This was basically a mix of sweet chile sauce with freshly minced red Thai chiles and habanero peppers. An excellent sauce here, perfect for me. A great blend of sweet and heat!

Lemongrass Short Ribs
(Achilles' Grill)

The 10+ sauce with red Thai chiles and habaneros!
(Sorry for the blurry picture...I blame my camera)

The crispy exterior of the meat is just heavenly. While I got a nice portion of ribs, there was a lot of fat on here, which I did not like -- and more of a disappointment than anything else. The potato salad contained some sliced sweet onions...delicious and nicely seasoned.

Reviewers on Yelp apparently have had mixed feelings on the Pad Thai. I usually avoid the noodles when I can, so I'll defer to other people on this one. On the other hand, the curries are tempting.

Extremely friendly chefs/owners here. Kudos for a nice portion size, but they'd get such a considerably higher score with meatier ribs. 7/10