Hana Sushi
(808) 395-4330
A tiny hole in the wall in Hawaii Kai (by the Safeway) that looks like it would have your standard, Kozo style takeout sushi turns out to have a creative menu of fun sushi rolls.
The lobster roll
Red Dragon roll (this was my favorite)
Minna (or something like that)
Salmon – nice touch with the radish sprouts
(808) 261-4155
Starving on the day before Christmas, tacos sounded like a delicious lunch choice. We stopped at Maui Tacos, in
The soft taco did not look so appetizing, but the chicken was actually good and very filling ($3.75)
The nachos were heavily loaded and very satisfying ($6.00)
*these were the highlight!*
Menchies
Ward Warehouse
808-592- 9292
http://menchies.com/
The latest fro-yo place in
(808) 524-6877
I haven’t had much dim sum in
There were 3 of us for brunch, the perfect number for dim sum, since everything comes in orders of 3. Won Kee has the cart ladies, who push around steaming carts of dim sum in bamboo steamers and lift the lids off each type of dim sum as they walk past. Since I can speak mandarin, I ordered most of our dim sum by name, but it was fun also to see what they had available (they kept pushing this one order of seafood in a tofu wrapper on us, it kind of felt like it was the one order they couldn’t get rid of!)
Everything (except for the cha shao su/char siu soo, similar to ma tai soo) was delicious. The cha shao su was mushy (instead of flaky) and had a very congealed (too much cornstarch?) filling.
Char Siu Look Fun
Char Siu Soo
Pineapple Buns
Xia Jiao (har gau?)
Char siu bao and spinach dumplings (bo cai jiao)
Dim sum cart
(808) 532-4265
www.hankshautedogs.com
Drove up to Hank’s Haute Dogs for lunch one weekday afternoon right around 12:30. did not have any trouble finding parking or waiting in line to place our order, despite arriving at prime lunch hours. Our order was a little slow to come up, but only because they forgot to add the onion rings. The menu seems to have changed a bit since they first opened (no more reindeer or seafood hot dogs) but still offers a gourmet range of dogs that I’ve never seen anywhere else in
We had the chicken dog with mustard and mango salsa. The dog was greasy but flavorful, and the fresh mango salsa was excellent. Onion rings were tasty, and the lilikoi lime soda was the perfect refreshing drink to go with the meal.
Cake Couture
(808) 373-9750
Yelp reviews: http://www.yelp.com/biz/cake-couture-honolulu
I was craving cupcakes, so I searched Yelp to see what recs Yelpers had for cupcakes in
Cake Couture is an adorable shoe box of a store at Aina Haina shopping center. You can tell once you walk in that the owners really care and want to create an amazing experience for their customers.
Daily cupcakes include chocolate and vanilla, and then there are 4 rotating flavors every day. Today I got to try a new one: the peanut butter and jelly, as well as a creamsicle flavored one, and a red velvet. The creamsicle was my favorite by far, with orange zest baked into the cupcake and a rich, buttery frosting.
Mitsuba
1218 N School St
Honolulu, HI 96817
(808) 841-3864
It was kalihi okazu-ya day for lunch the other day. We started out with a mini garlic chicken bento at Mitsu-ken (3 big pieces of garlic chicken, half a hot dog, omelette, and rice with furikake, $3.75) and then a plate across the street from Mitsuba (chow fun, hash, eggplant, and saba). Both were so delish that we couldn’t stop eating, and went into a food coma by the end. So if you are ever feeling really hungry, or really indecisive, go check these 2 plate lunch places out, since they're right across the street from each other! Mitsuba was getting more business that day, but they are also running a much bigger operation.
Garlic chicken mini bento
Mitsu-ken storefront
Mitsuba storefront
(808) 845-2855
http://www.yelp.com/biz/lox-of-bagels-honolulu
I was dying to try Lox of Bagels after reading about their guava flavored cream cheese spreads. Unfortunately the day we went, I was too full for an entire bagel with cream cheese, but I grabbed a cinnamon raisin bagel puff (with cream cheese baked in!) and 2 bagels to go (strawberry guava and plain). All were excellent. OK maybe not H&H bagel in
(808) 597-1525
I thought this would be a trendy sushi restaurant (like Sansei) but it was actually the opposite..more of a family style Japanese restaurant, like Natsunoya Tea House or Suehiro. So although Yanagi Sushi wasn’t what I was expecting at all, it was actually a great meal.
The menu is very extensive (pages and pages), so it took us awhile to decide what to eat. We started with the salmon sashimi with maui onions and ponzu sauce. It was the perfect pairing, between the sweet onions, the generous cuts of fish, and the citrus dressing.
Then we moved onto a spider roll (deep fried soft shell crab), which was also very generously portioned.
As main courses, we ordered 2 combination dinners for the 4 of us. The combination dinner ($18.95) includes miso soup, salad, 2 entrees, rice and ice cream. We shared the tempura (amazing!), chicken katsu, saba, and nigiri.
Brightly colored and super clean, Hula Boba offers Taiwanese style boba drinks and shave ice. You can get all sorts of flavors (lychee, passion fruit, mango) but I went with a basic milk tea boba…and was disappointed by the tapioca balls that were too chewy. But if you like that style, then check this place out. The shave ice comes with fruit syrups or fresh fruit and condensed milk that looks really good, I’m curious how the ice is shaved (fine like Waiola’s or not)…but on Yelp it says that it’s not just ice, it’s soy milk, so I will definitely try that next time…
I’m torn, with so many frozen yogurt choices in
So aside from the tacky name, Milano Freezer (an LA chain?) is a new entrant in
Milano serves both gelato and fro yo. Their fro yo is delish – super soft and creamy, just the right texture and sourness. They have 4 flavors every day: always plain, and then 3 rotating fruit/green tea flavors. We also tried the gelato, and I’d have to say go with the fro yo. It tasted more like frozen yogurt than gelato to me, but I guess that’s a bonus if you’re looking for a dessert that’s on the lighter side…
Kailua
(808) 262-7555
So I have to say that this evening’s dinner started out in a very disappointing manner. We wanted to try out Formaggio Grill – a new outpost of Formaggio wine bar in
Our 2nd choice was
It turned out to be a lovely evening. From the outdoor seating (despite the rain), to the friendly service, to the amazing cheesecake, Baci comes highly recommended.
We started with the garlic toast (roasted garlic with toasted Italian bread) so-so, and the eggplant tower (roasted eggplant served with an eggplant spread and fresh tomatoes) which was much better.
The yummy eggplant
Pass on the roasted garlic...there's not even very much garlic!
Our entrees included both pastas and meat dishes. The pastas tasted primarily freshly made (with the exception of my spaghetti) Everyone’s favorite by far was the gnocchi, in a delish cheese sauce.
The gnocchi are to die for:
Lobster with spaghetti: excellent buttery lobster, just average spaghetti in a plain tomato sauce
Black fettuccine with scallops
Meat lovers papperdalle: chicken, beef and sausage
Veal (I am blanking on the name) with your choice of veggies or pasta
Even though we were stuffed after all of the pasta, I felt the need to splurge on dessert. The manager recommended the marscapone cheesecake, and we also threw in some vanilla-chocolate profiteroles and the crème brulee. The cheesecake was absolutely to die for: high, white and creamier than a
On top of the lovely meal, I also learned that baci means ‘kiss’ in Italian…as evidenced by the big set of lips on the restaurant’s sign outside, as well as the copy of ‘il bacio’ in the restrooms
