After being informed by a gloating Kailua resident that a certain popular restaurant was opening in Kailua, my response was, "Good for you; just rub it in."

Kailua and Kaimuki are top in mind when it comes to being home to some of the most approachable and trendiest restaurants on the island, while I live in Liliha, simply home to a spate of old-school, fast-food eateries. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but a little more variety and contemporary fare would be appreciated.

Looking at Google Earth, the densely packed Liliha/Nuuanu/Alewa area would appear to have at least three times the population of Kailua. That represents a lot of hungry people who can’t stay home and eat all the time. I’ve mentioned this often and what do you know? Liliha Street is now home to two new restaurants, one Thai, one Vietnamese. 

Not exactly what I had in mind, given that just a few blocks away, in Chinatown, you could throw a rock and hit a Thai or Vietnamese restaurant, but it’s a start.

This space has been home, in five years, to a succession of Vietnamese, Chinese and Vietnamese-Chinese combo restaurants. It got to the point when I didn’t even bother to check it out when I saw the sign change. I wasn’t about to this time, either, except the signs kept getting larger and larger, screaming for attention.

I was pleasantly surprised to taste what Kaew Smith has been cooking up in this humble space, which appears cleaner than before, with an attempt at decor, dressed in rosy linens.

Flavors are clean and clear, with a slow-cooked, homemade intensity. Clarity in presentation also outstrips many of its counterparts.

This is most evident in a beautiful fillet of grilled salmon ($12.50) in a light red panang curry made with nonsweet coconut milk. Most Thai dishes are intended to be shared, but this appears more like Western-style entree presentation, and once you taste it, you’ll probably wish you didn’t have to share.

All other curries — red, green, yellow — are represented as well, at $8 with vegetables and tofu to $13.50 for seafood. Also made with nonsweet coconut milk, these are thinner than elsewhere. Potatoes in a pineapple Massaman curry could have been cooked longer.

A more typical stir-fry features eggplant that’s sliced thin but doesn’t get soggy or mushy in a mixture of oyster and black bean sauce, garlic and basil, with chicken. It’s the chicken that, when sliced as thin as it is, gets dry to the point where you’d swear it’s pork. Not a bad thing if you like pork.

Pad Thai is rather tame, at $13.50 with seafood, although you may also opt for beef, chicken or tofu. I prefer the Evil Jungle Noodles ($9), a Chinese-influenced stir-fry of wide rice noodles with vegetables and chili pepper. Though billed as “hot,” it has a little kick but is not as fiery a dish as the menu implies.

You can also order a whole deep-fried snapper, at $25 to $30, but if that’s too steep, start with the spicy ginger fish fillet ($10.50). The deep-fried fish is drenched in a soy-based gravy with matchstick slices of ginger, accompanied by long beans and basil.

Finish with a dessert of slices of deep-fried banana with ice cream and chocolate syrup ($5.50). I’ll definitely be back to try more.

For as long as I can remember, this space at the corner of Liliha and Vineyard streets had been home to Liliha Seafood Restaurant. Once that closed, a handful of restaurants appeared in its place, disappearing in a matter of months and, in one case, days.

Saigon Cuisine might be the one to break the disappearing streak, as a serviceable, no-frills family operation that covers all the basics of Vietnamese cuisine, with a handful of dishes not seen frequently on other menus.

For starters, it offers rolls for all seasons, not just the usual spring and summer rolls. Oddly enough, at this time of year, any of the rolls would be suitable, though I tried the winter roll. A variation of the summer roll, it has the vermicelli noodles and lettuce wrapped in rice paper, but with a centerpiece of juicy Vietnamese grilled pork sausage instead of shrimp. Although the dipping sauce looks the same as that of spring and summer, it’s a lot spicier.

Naturally, there’s phó, with the usual beefsteak, brisket, flank steak and tendon options. The broth is more watery than flavorful, but that could be a good thing for those watching their sodium intake. Only Sriracha sauce is offered at the table, but if you ask, they’ll pull garlic-chili sauce out of the refrigerator for those who need more intense flavor.

For a almost local variation, there’s an oxtail soup phó, with your choice of noodles or rice, with plenty of green onions and bitter gai choy, or Chinese mustard cabbage, accompanied by a vinegar-ginger sauce.

Rice and vermicelli plates come topped with your choice of lemongrass chicken, barbecue pork chop, barbecue chicken, shredded pork and more, at $7.50 to $7.99. Grilled shrimp was the highlight of a vermicelli bowl of sliced pork and shrimp ($7.99).

They also make great ice coffees which work fine as dessert.

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Nadine Kam’s restaurant reviews are conducted anonymously and paid for by the Star-Advertiser. Reach her at nkam@staradvertiser.com.