Diem Cafe

I finally made my way to the café it was a just almost like a journey to the quest and for the search of deep sea treasure I was so happy with the result of my order.
It was a tofu vegetarian curry surprisingly the sauce was a bit on the sweet side and I thought I would not have recognized it… but I still feel very happy with the order it was like a thing to do of the day and a challenge that is set out on the list so glad that I finally got to check it off.

Owner is super friendly and food is fantastic!
Had the lemongrass shrimp. Very delicious!

Thanks Unilocalers! Diem Café is a true hidden gem. It is a food court style so either take-​out or you can eat outside on the tables they have. I wish they had indoor because it can get pretty hot and there are bugs flying around. The workers are nice and delicious Vietnamese at a reasonable price.

This phở is fantastic! Sticky rice is superb! We got spring rolls or something like that too, and they were not disappointing. I recommend finding this place, eating there, and then go back and eat there again. Then perhaps get some for the plane ride to the mainland.

Despite my best intentions to pack lunch on a regular basis, I often find myself either not wanting my leftovers or simply not having anything to eat with me at work. Although the new addition of Makers & Tasters to the area has increased the selection in the area, Diem Café still remains a favorite of mine when I have the extra time to walk a bit further and wait for my food to be prepared.
From the outside, this unassuming spot does not appear to be a place that most people would give a second glance to. There’s no fancy lighting or advertising and no one beckoning you to the counter for a sample like at the Chinese restaurant located next to Subway and yet people still come. Positive Unilocal reviews from people I know and trust certainly played a role in getting me to take a chance on this place.
Orders can be placed at the counter and you’ll be pleased to find a menu that is pretty expansive for a takeout joint. They offer several varieties of phở, vermicelli plates, rice dishes and salads. Portion sizes are good and meals come with a free banana tapioca which is the perfect way to end a meal.
I’ve enjoyed their lemongrass chicken vermicelli, combination beef phở and most recently their stuffed eggplant and have never had a bad meal here. The service is friendly and you feel like a valued patron during your limited interaction with the counter staff/​owners, etc.
If you’re in the area for work or shopping and are looking for a change from the same old same old lunch fare this is definitely a good place to give a try. There’s plenty of seating in the courtyard area or you can take the food with you.

Best deal in the ward warehouse garlic bbq chicken with sticky rice is bomb. The Vietnamese iced coffee is good too! And the phở, and the spring rolls, everything is good and cheap, GO HERE!

Take out place, with tables shared in an outdoor food court.
I had the roll combo (OK) and BF had the BBQ chicken (also OK). they gave us free banana tapioca with the plate lunches. Good stuff.
Overall — easy, simple, reasonably priced.

When I think of phở, I think of having a nice bowl of soup in a restaurant. Having it in a food court type environment usually doesn’t come to mind. A Unilocal Elite highly recommended to try Diem Café before they tear down Ward Warehouse. She had many positive things to say about the phở and since they will be closing down soon, I made it a point to try them out. I messaged a few phở buddies to see if they have been to Diem Café before and they said they haven’t so we made plans to have lunch there.
First thing I thought of when I heard it was in Ward Warehouse was phở being served in a styrofoam container. I was wrong! The phở is served in a nice big bowl with veggies in a bag on the side. Sauces were near the pick up window and the meal came with a free tapioca dessert. This place was a nice surprise and exceeded my expectations. Portions were good for both the meat and noodles. The broth had flavor but I wouldn’t say that this is the best phở around town. It’s decent but it’s great value for $ 8.50.

Yes! Finally a simple and yet reasonable priced phở. I’ve only tried their phở and it’s pretty tasty especially after a long deserving day or if your hung over. Not to salty and just the right amount of noodles and meat.
Seating: good amount of tables.
Parking: A+

Diem café used to be a place I ate at regularly when they were located at queen’s plaza, but because the building owners sold it to become a thai temple, all the restaurants were forced to leave, and they relocated to ward warehouse:
stuffed tofu with spring roll — 4 stars — for $ 9 I gota a plate of 4 tofu stuffed with pork filling, salad and a spring roll over rice noodles which is a pretty big serving. I love their stuffed tofu since it takes too long to make on my own, plus they add their own sauce.
the 5 stars overall because the lady is really nice and remembered all of us from a while back at qp days. The lunch came with a small bowl of sweet banana tapioca which hits the spot after a decent sized meal.
Lots of parking since it’s at ward warehouse, and if you’re still craving for dessert, waiola shave ice is right next to it.

Top rate for cheap eats. My wife and I like to split the shrimp papaya salad with summer rolls and one of the plate lunches (both the bbq chicken and bbq pork are favorites). My daughter is partial to the phở. It’s all good, very reasonably priced, and served in big portions. They even include a free banana tapioca for dessert.
Service is good, and you can eat in the enclosed (shared) dining area. Not fancy, but tasty and inexpensive. A winner!

This is one of my favorite place to eat at ward.
Price is very good, especially for their Roll combo $ 6.
We usually go there for Saturday lunch, and we would receive a complimentary desert, banana tapioca. But when we went there early evening yesterday, banana tapioca didn’t come with food :(
I had shrimp phở for the first time. It came with a bag of fresh garnishment of Thai basil and bean sprouts. It was $ 7.99 and had good amount of shrimp in it. Soup tasted very good.
My hubby had Roll combo that is my «usual» and
It was good as usual.

Would highly recommend if you’re in the area and need a quick bite to eat! I really enjoyed the combo roll plate so I could try a bit of each! Comes with summer rolls, spring rolls, and Vietnamese crêpe rolls stuffed with chicken and bean sprouts.
Quick and friendly service!

Where has this place been when I’ve needed good Vietnamese take-​out?! My search can temporarily stop as I think I’ve found the best one on the island thus far. This is by no means a nice sit down place where you are served. It’s in the Ward Warehouse complex, near Waiolas and Dairy Queen in the small food court area. Ya the ambiance might be lacking but the food is GOOD.
Got three take-​out plates, all for $ 23!
–Stuffed tofu: Amazing. So tasty. Basically fried tofu stuffed with a pork/​mushroom/​glass noodle mixture and then steamed and topped with a flavorful tomato sauce. Comes with a small salad and a summer roll (they cut it in half for you), I asked for tofu but their photo menu shows it with shrimp. The peanut sauce that comes with the summer rolls was quite runny and lacked thick, peanut-​ty flavor that the good thick ones have, but that was minor.
–Fried rice: also very good! My husband didn’t care for it because it tastes slightly sweet (try it and you’ll see what I mean), but I enjoyed it!
–And I also got a Lemongrass tofu noodle plate to take for my lunch the next day. Fresh, healthy, and yummy.
All plates come with a tiny container of banana tapioca, which is a nice little bonus.
Glad that I finally found a great place to go for cheap, delicious take-​out!

[Location & Parking]
Diem Café is located right in the middle of ward warehouse in the mini food court with DQ and sumo ramen and curry.
Parking is free in the parking strcture or around the shops.
[Interior & Ambience]
This is a take-​out place so there are tables located around the area.
[Service]
It was average. I ordered my food and within 10 minutes I got my order.
[Food]
I ordered the roll combo (~$ 7). It came with 3 summer rolls, 3 egg rolls, and 2 spring rolls. They also give you complimentary banana tapioca. Everything was really delicious and fresh. You can’t go wrong for all this for only $ 7!
I also noticed that their plates were also reasonably priced at $ 6 – 7 and you could add on 2 rolls for ~$ 2 more
[Overall]
Great place if you really want to eat Vietnamese rolls. You definitely get your bang for the buck!

My friend really wanted to come here. This was our restaurant hopping stop #2. It is hidden in ward warehouse, right next to waiola shave ice and the ramen curry shop.
Their roll combo plate is what we wanted. My friend and I shared a roll combo and my other friend ordered her own. So all plates come with a banana tapioca. It took quite a while making the roll combo. They probably making it fresh. Awesome. They gave us 2 types of sauce, one was like a sweet peanut sauce and the other one was a spicy sweet chili sauce. There were 3 types of combo rolls: 3 piece of the shrimp summer roll, 3 piece of the chicken egg roll pan fried, and 2 piece of a pork lumpia roll. I really love the summer roll and the lumpia roll. Not really a fan of the egg roll. It also came with a side of vermicelli with pickled carrots. The rolls were fresh, crsipy, and delicious. The banana tapioca was toooo sweet. There were chunky banana in it. It felt like they dumped a whole bottle of sugar. blehhhh…
I like this place. Decent pricing and decent portion. Taste it pretty good. Will be back when I feel like it.

I went here based on all the wonderful reviews. However, I don’t know if I went on a bad day, because most everything I ate fell short in flavor.
I ordered the assortment of rolls and requested no bean sprouts in the summer rolls. Those summer rolls lacked taste and was pretty much filled with a whole bunch of noodles and some shrimp. Even the sauce couldn’t save it. The spring rolls were better when paired with the fish sauce. There was a egg crêpe stuffed roll and had I known it came with bean sprouts, I would have asked them to make it without it. These rolls were bland, limp and came up short in flavor. So disappointed when I was so looking forward to eating stellar rolls.
I did order the lemongrass chicken and even that came up short. There was no flavor of lemongrass in the dish at all. I just couldn’t bring myself to eat it.
Even though the food wasn’t great, the customer service was excellent. The young lady greeted me and promptly took my order. The wait was about 10 minutes, which in my book is so reasonable. Before she packed up my food, she explained what sauces got paired with the rolls. She was kind to give me 2 sample size servings of dessert. I didn’t write a review on it, because I didn’t eat it. I guess I just didn’t want to be disappointed and let down again.
Who knows, maybe the taste buds of the chef was off that day? Don’t know if I’ll be back, but never say never.

Diem café is my FAVOURITE place for food in the Ward Warehouse food court. Here, you can find excellent Vietnamese dishes and great customer service.
Food: ⁵⁄₅
Their portions will fill you up, and each dish comes with coconut and banana tapioca. Their seafood noodle is SO yummy, and while their phở may be pricey, their summer rolls are very reasonably priced!
Service: ⁵⁄₅
The lady who is the cashier is one of the nicest in the Ward food court. You won’t find that at dairy queen. On top of that, your food is hot and ready in no time! In the time that I ordered a simple side dish of gyoza at sumo ramen (adjacent to diem), four customers who ordered at diem were seated and eating already.
Atmosphere/​Parking: ⁴⁄₅
Ward Warehouse isnt as popular as the other malls in the first place, so it isnt too comfortable eating outdoors but thats Ward for you! It’s normally where small boutiques are and parking isnt too bad unless it’s a Saturday, because parking is near to impossible with Farmer’s Market going on.
Overall, this is the only place in the food court that I go to. I love Vietnamese food and I love their service. This is where you’ll find authentic Vietnamese food and there’s nothing to complain about :)

For a Vietnamese restaurant in a food court, this place deserves 6 stars.
The seafood phở was really really good. Lots of flavor in the broth, generous portions of shrimp, calamari, fish balls, and veggies. I’m trying to behave with what I eat so I asked for less noodles and the cashier offered to add extra choi sum for me instead, AND gave me an extra packet of basil and veggies on the side. Super cool!
I got the free tapioca that others mentioned and I believe it’s like Krispy Kreme– first time gets you hooked. I definitely want the full size of it when I go back! It was the best tapioca I think I’ve ever had.
They have 3 kinds of chili’s to add to your dishes, hoisin AND crushed peanuts. I love me some add ons. It’s like a Vietnamese salsa bar!
The service was fast and friendly. This is what winning feels like. I used to go to their downtown location all the time and was sad they were gone, but we’ve been reunited and it tastes so good!

I used to be a HUGE fan of Diem Café’s Alakea Street location in Downtown Honolulu. Whenever I was craving phở, Diem Café was THE place to go. It seemed like everyone in Downtown Honolulu agreed because that location was packed on a daily basis. Thus, I was so sad to hear that it was closing due to the building being sold. Even though the owner told me shortly before they closed to visit them at their Ward Warehouse location, I never did because I would need to drive there rather than walk. However, I still missed Diem Café.
The other day, I was absolutely craving phở. After Diem Café closed, no other place in Downtown could really take its place. River Street in Chinatown was too far to walk for phở. I decided to bite the bullet and drive over to Diem Café and get myself some Chicken Phở!
It was sooo worth it! The flavor of the broth was just how I remembered it. Packed with flavor and color. My coworker ordered the Tofu Phở, which she absolutely enjoyed. The tofu was seasoned and came with choi sum. One of our secretaries ordered the Beef Stew with Rice Noodle. She said the broth was savory and the meat was tender.
I would give Diem Café five stars if it weren’t for the fact that it wasn’t walking distance from work. I guess having the Downtown branch spoiled me.