Thursday, October 21, 2010

New finds in town

Hi everyone! Since I've been home, I've been trying to visit some places
that are newly opened (ok, I've been living away from the island for over two years, so my definition of "new" is not necessarily that new).

I've been reading the following in order to get ideas that go on my "list of restaurants to try"

-
Yelp Honolulu- Nonstop Honolulu
-
Chowhound
- And of course all the great Hawaii food blogs

#1) Cafe Kaila


When I was growing up, my parents had this old school waffle maker that made the flattest, crispiest waffles ever. I couldn't stand them. That experience made me avoid waffles for most of the rest of my 31 years.

The old waffle iron:


Until I discovered soft, fluffy Belgian waffles, like this:


Yum.

So when I read on
yelp about the best breakfasts in town, I had to try Cafe Kaila.

We got there around 1030 or 11 am on a Sunday and faced this line:


Yikes. We thought we could go browse at Fujioka's wine at market city, but they weren't even open yet! So we stood in line (the staff kept everyone in line happy with free waffle samples).

Once we were finally seated, we were starving and ordered what felt like half of the menu:

- a waffle (of course!)
- pancakes
- the breakfast quesadilla
- the fritatta

The waffle unfortunately did not live up to my soft fluffy expectations, but everyone else at the table loved it. Everything else was fantastic though - the pancakes were soft and fluffy and slightly spiced, the breakfast quesadilla was stuffed with bacon and incredibly addicting, and the fritatta was very satisfying.



The frittata




Breakfast quesadilla


The belgian waffle


#2) Soul
Pulled pork sandwiches.

Shrimp n grits

Mac n cheese

Cornbread with honey butter

Hush puppies

I spent a summer living in Atlanta once, and while the city itself never grew on me, I fell in love with southern cooking. I would drive all over town searching out new soul food or bbq joints to try out.



I'd been missing my southern bbq or "meat + 3" (a heart attack on a plate) but luckily Soul on Waialae solves that problem.




I ordered the vegetarian sampler: veggie chili, collard greens, buttermilk coleslaw and cornbread. Each was better than the previous. Can't wait to go back and try some other things on the menu. My only gripe is that they are quite expensive - I went at lunch, no lunch specials or mini plates available. I think they could attract a larger lunch crowd if they offered "minis" of the specials (which range up to $18 I think, but don't remember exactly).





Kaila Cafe
2919 Kapiolani Blvd (Market city)
732-3330 (not that they take reservations)
Yelp



Soul Cafe
3040 Waialae Ave (by city mill and the fat greek)
735-7685
Yelp

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