Must eats for an Oahu vacation

A friend asked me for a list of places to eat for her boss's niece who is visiting Honolulu from New York City. Gee...they have a lot of good choices for foodies in NYC. I felt under quite a bit of pressure to come up with a list for some young 20-something year old hipsters!

What should I include on my best of list?? Here's what I came up with...let me know what you would add / take off!

1) Fancy local bar food

Side Street Inn - the original

Home Bar - the new comer

I can't choose between the two...I guess Side Street since it's more convenient for visitors staying in Waikiki.

2) Hipster diners

Downbeat Diner: For Sunday brunch or 2 am snacks after going out in Chinatown

3) Authentic Hawaiian Food (not what you get at a luau)

Helena's Hawaiian Food - in Kalihi

Ono's Hawaiian Food - on Kapahulu, closer to Waikiki

Both of these are LEGIT - hole in the wall, been there forever. Get a combo plate at either so you can try kalua pig, poi, laulau, lomi salmon and haupia.

 4) Japanese food

So many choices here - I went with Sasabune...currently on my bucket list of restaurants to try. This would be more high end Japanese. There are two different omakase options, and you put your meal in the hands of the chef to make all decisions for you.

 5) Locavore farm to table dining

Town.The first one in town. Located in Kaimuki, a more residential neighborhood, but still close to Waikiki. Others to consider are He'eia Pier, Sweet Home Waimanalo, and coming (in April 2012) The Whole Ox.

Here's my first trip and my second (more recently).

6) Misc. and snacks

Tanioka's musubi and poke: I can't get enough of the ahi poke, the mochiko chicken musubi, or the shiso musubi there. And if you've never had a spam musubi, gotta get one of those as well.

 Shimazu Shave Ice: Because you can't visit Hawaii without have shave ice (once...or 5 times!) This one has the most unique flavors to choose from.

 7) Bars

My current favorite spot on the island for drinks is the pool bar at the Modern (formerly the Edition) on the Ala Moana end of Waikiki. Feels very South Beach with the white chaise lounges.

The deets:

 

Side Street Inn: Yelp

Home Bar: Yelp

Downbeat Diner: Yelp

Helena's: Yelp

Ono Hawaiian Food: Yelp

Sasabune: Yelp

Town: Yelp

He'eia Pier: Yelp

Sweet Home Waimanalo: Yelp

Tanioka's: Yelp

Shimazu Shave Ice: Yelp

The Modern: Yelp

Comfort food: 3 noodle soups

Panya niu rou mian / Goma Tei ramen / Asahi Grill
Noodle soup is my comfort food. I think it must stem from special Saturday lunches when I was growing up...my dad would make Sapporo Ichiban saimin instead of tuna sandwiches for all of us. It was a treat, since my mom thought saimin had too much fat (the fried noodles). He would throw in fishcake, green onions, whatever sort of leftover meat or green veggies were in the fridge.

Now my version that I make at home when I’m craving some comfort adds in spam, egg (dropped in raw, like egg drop soup), and chopped up baby bok choy. Plus lots and lots of sambal oelek (hot sauce with the green cap). Yum.

We are spoiled for choice when we go out to each in Hawaii for good noodle soups: Japanese ramen, Vietnamese pho, local Oxtail Soup, and the list goes on. My usual go to is pho - I like the lightness of the rice noodles and the cleanness of the broth. But I can also often be convinced to go for a heavier bun rieu at Golden River or the Bun Bo Hue at Bac Nam.

Some recent new noodles soups that I’ve tried are:

A) Taiwanese beef noodle soup at Panya (niu rou mian)
There aren’t a lot of lunch choices near my office in Kakaako, but luckily there is a Panya. I usually get the chopped chef salad and a bubble tea, but the niu rou mian there is exceptional. Big hunks of beef with tendon attached, and a spicy rich broth.

B) Dan dan ramen at Goma Tei
If you read the reviews on yelp, the Tan Tan ramen is the thing to try here. I haven’t tried the shoyu ramen, but I’m sure it’s great as well. I got the chicken version - which is served with plenty of slices of poached chicken breast on top of the massive mound of noodles and the thick, spicy broth.

Added bonus: you can add on a side of curry rice.

C) Oxtail soup at Asahi Grill
Asahi Grill is a funny little spot. It looked like an L&L type plate lunch spot from the outside, but when you’re seated inside and look at the menus, you realize that it’s Kapiolani Coffee Shop (or something like that) re-incarnated and you feel like you’re at a mom & pop Japanese restaurant from the 50s.

I went for the Oxtail soup, but was not that impressed. The broth was lacking to me that day - like it hadn’t been cooked long enough. My friend had the eggplant curry which was also a little strange to me - seemingly sweet?

 

Comes with rice; you can upgrade to fried rice.

OK, all of this talk makes me miss the amaze-balls (been dying to use that word) noodle soups from China. Every province had it's own completely different but totally delicious specialty. This is the fully loaded noodle soup from Guizhou (southern China) that you can find all over Shanghai for about a buck. Rice noodles in a pork (beef?) broth with a tea egg, tofu, some sort of meat, lots of tendon, and green onions.

Gratuitous Shanghai shot:



Panya
Couple of locations around, including Ala Moana Shopping Center and Queen St
Yelp

Goma Tei
Ward Center
Yelp

Asahi Grill
Ward Avenue

Yelp

Happy 2012!

It wouldn't be New Year's Day without ozoni at the Wilsons.

According to Wikipedia:

Zōni, often with the honorific "o-" as o-zōni, is a Japanese soup containing mochi rice cakes. The dish is strongly associated with the Japanese New Year and its tradition of osechi ceremonial foods.

It is said that zōni finds its roots in samurai society cuisine. It is thought to be a meal that was cooked during field battles, boiled together with mochi, vegetables and dried foods, among other ingredients. It is also generally believed that this original meal, at first exclusive to samurai, eventually became a staple food of the common people. Zōni was first served as part of a full-course dinner (honzen ryōri), and thus is thought to have been a considerably important meal to samurai.

As for ways of cooking the soup, different regions in Japan sport many variations, but in most cases it is either a clear soup (sumashi-jiru) flavoured with dashi (stock usually made from flakes of dried bonito) and soy sauce, generally preferred in eastern parts of the country, or a miso soup generally preferred in the western parts.

Bowls of ozoni soup waiting to be dressed up with toppings

 

 Toppings include fishcake, shitake mushrooms, and greens

 Also traditional sashimi platter

 Nishime

 Long life beans (one for each year of your life) and gobo

 Kanten, dried permsimmon, and my favorite: cream cheese stuffed lychees

 Sticky rice with azuki beans

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy 2012!

Old vs. New: Side Street Inn vs. Kaimuki Grill

I was fascinated by Melissa Chang's post on Nonstop Honolulu about top places to take visitors (I would link to it here, but their website is really difficult to search, and I haven't been able to find it). She lists Kaimuki Grill as one place she always takes people, for when she "knows that Side Street Inn will be impossible to get a table."

In opportune timing, Kaimuki Grill was also featured on Groupon, so I snapped up a coupon. I've actually been twice now; the first time with a friend who was visiting from the mainland. I wanted to take her somewhere local, but she'd already been to Side Street on a previous trip. So I thought, "Perfect! I'll take her to Kaimuki Grill." The second time I went with some old friends who'd never been there but wanted to try it. Both times we loved it (although let me warn you...there's nothing light on the menu. Go hungry and ready to eat something that will kill your diet).

And since I am a die-hard Side Street Inn fan, I wanted to compare them side by side.

Side Street's menu is a beast. It takes forever just to read through it. Being a huge fan of Side Street fried rice (my "must-order" whenever I go there), here's the Side Street fried rice.

We also had the side street kal bi - a little tough and hard to get off the bone (not the best date food! haha)

The Kaimuki Grill menu, on the other hand, is much more manageable. Both sides of a simple table tent. Beers are listed separately on the back of the napkin holder. It's tiny in comparison to side street (maybe 8 tables?) but very homey and comfortable.

I thought these lotus furikake chips were unique to Kaimuki Grill, but I also saw them at Shokudo (or was it at Side Street? I'm completely getting them all mixed up). The furikake flavor didn't come across as strongly as I'd hoped.

Garlic - soy salmon...I was expecting this to be grilled, but in true "bar menu" style it was fried.

Kaimuki Grill fried rice - I had to compare to Side Street. This was great, but I'd have to say that Side Street is still my favorite - the rice is a little stickier is the only way I can think of to make the comparison...

Mac n cheese wedges - Kraft mac & cheese formed into cute little triangles and deep fried. If it wasn't Kraft, these might be the most amazing food.

In sum, I'm still a die-hard Side Street fanatic, but Kaimuki Grill is a great option if you're in Kaimuki or looking for smaller (and cheaper) portions than what Side Street offers.

Kaimuki Grill

1108 12th Ave (in the parking lot near Harding)

732-2292 (they take reservations)

Side Street Inn

1225 Hopaka St (by Ala Moana)

591-0253 (don't also take reservations)

Side Street in the Strip

614 Kapahulu Ave

739.3939

Venturing down to Waikiki: Sansei

When I think of sushi in Hawaii, I think of Sansei. However I realized that I am dating myself...because I also think of Sansei in Restaurant Row turning into a dance club at 10 pm on Friday and Saturday evenings....yikes!

I was meeting a friend from the mainland who is staying in Waikiki for dinner. I'd originally planned to take her to Side Street on the Strip on Kapahulu, but neglected to realize that it was Tostito Bowl BCS championship day, and the bar was COMPLETELY packed. Boo :(

So we walked back towards Waikiki (since we'd already paid for parking in the lot next to Side Street) and went to Sansei, since I was curious how they are doing these days.

It's on the 3rd floor of the Waikiki Beach Marriott (on the Diamond Head end of Waikiki), right next to DK Steakhouse (which are both owned by DK restaurants). The interior looks surprisingly just like Restaurant Row.

The Sansei Special Roll: spicy crab, cilantro and veggies dusted with furikake. Meh.
Kapalua "Butterfry" roll with Ponzu dipping sauce - meh. Where's the rice? Why is it deep fried?

Miso butterfish...delicious, but it's also pretty hard to mess this one up.

Tempura sweet onion rings - nice touch with the tempura batter

Poke - really liked the addition of salad greens here

Overall, I'm glad I went; it definitely satisfied a craving for Sansei-style sushi. But I think next time I'm craving Japanese, I will splurge on Sasabune or Gaku, or hit up a more reasonably priced sushi joint...does anyone have recs for one with fun rolls like Sansei?

After surf breakfast in Kapahulu

I was starving after a near dawn surf the other day, so I stopped at Diamond Head market on my way home. I was hoping for a piece of cornbread, but it wasn't out yet, so I got a banana cream cheese scone ($3.50). It reminded me of Sconee's banana bread :)
Then as I was driving up Kapahulu towards the freeway, I spotted Bento-Ya Iyasume (in the little mall near Tutti Frutti frozen yogurt). I thought it was Iyasume musubi, which I had read a great review of on Tasty Island, but had never made it over there since it's such a pain to get to anywhere in Waikiki, with the lack of free parking.

I wasn't 100% sure if they were the same owner, but according to Yelp, this one on Kapahulu is the main kitchen, and they send musubi & bentos over to the Koa St location.

Mini bento ($3.50?): choice of one musubi (choose from ume, bonito, salmon or konbu), two pieces of fried chicken, and two little sausages.

A side of nishime ($1.92). They also had other okazu choices, including gobo, eggplant, mac salad, which all looked delish.

A very filling breakfast :)

Diamond Head Market & Grill

3158 Monsarrat Ave.

732.0077

Bento-Ya Iyasume

611 Kapahulu Ave

735.3530

Iyasume Musubi

2410 Koa Ave.

921.0168

Ethel's Grill in Kalihi

One (of the many) good thing about having a new job, is getting new recommendations about where to eat! We had a very disappointing office holiday lunch at Sam Choy's Breakfast, Lunch & Crab (the menu choices sounded delicious, but no one actually enjoyed their meal), so we took ourselves for a guaranteed good meal at Ethel's Grill in Kalihi. I'd heard amazing things about the mochiko chicken and sashimi there, so knew I had to try it.

Ethel's is sit-down (in my mind, it was more of a bento / okazuya type place), and sitting down next to us was none other than Honolulu Magazine's renowned restaurant reviewer. A sign of a good place!

First page of the menu

I didn't even notice the specials up above the kitchen until after we had ordered, but I know I need to expand to those on the next trip. The cabbage rolls were especially popular today; I noticed several tables eating them.Additional menu items:
We started with the tataki sashimi, which is only $5. I loved the sesame - soy dressing, and the boiled fern greens on the side. Topped with thinly sliced fried garlic. Amazing.

I had the mochiko chicken - it was big pieces compared to an okazuya - so light and crispy on the outside, moist on the inside. I poured the dipping sauce all over the chicken. It comes as an entire meal (with rice, miso soup, salad and fruit punch / iced tea) for just $7!

My friend had the garlic chicken....yum. (That's a piece of it on the center of my mochiko chicken plate)

The service was fantastic and so friendly; they gave us some free andagi because they felt the wait was too long, even though we didn't even notice it!

232 Kalihi St.

Honolulu, HI 96819

847-6467

Dinner @ Shokudo (Ala Moana)

For some reason, I thought Shokudo was going to be a very traditional Japanese restaurant, so I was surprised when I walked in to see all locals eating there, and a creative / fusion Japanese menu.

I wasn't blown away by any of the food (except the honey toast!) but I thought maybe it was just me, and I should get some second opinions. I checked out the Yelp reviews, and even though it has 3 1/2 stars, no one really raves about it or swears by this place. There's an interesting quote from one Yelper, saying "Shokudo was one of those cool places where all the cool kids went to eat. Now, and I'm sure thanks to Yelp, it's just some place that sells you toast that isn't toasted." hee hee

We ordered a bunch of appetizers to share, since we were saving room for dessert.

Cucumber ume salad with bonito - this was tasty
Homemade tofu - very different from Chinese homemade tofu. Curious how they make it. Much creamier, although I got a slightly powdery and roasted flavor as well. Comes with a soy sauce, green onions, chopped up nori, and kosher salt (the big crystals) to sprinkle on
Spicy scallop roll - this was not very good. It was falling apart, not much rice, and had this weird white nori - type wrapping
Yukari french fries - couldn't really taste the yukari sprinkled on, not very hot
...and then dessert...the famous honey toast. 2 giant slices of white Japanese toast, hollowed out. The innards are cut into cubes, fried in butter, drizzled in honey, then stuffed back into the crusts, and topped with two scoops of ice cream :)
Shokudo
1585 Kapiolani Blvd
941-3701
Yelp

A trip back to Nobu

2233 Helumoa Rd
Waikiki Parc Hotel
Honolulu, HI 96815
(808) 237-6999
Yelp

We got a great Christmas gift from one of my aunties – a gift certificate to Nobu! Both my brother and I had been there before, but this was my parents first trip. On a weekday night between Christmas and New Years, the place was packed (but it seems we’ve had a good tourist season this holiday, Waikiki has been packed every time I’ve been down there this year). The restaurant was a bit of a madhouse – servers bumping into each other, very noise, diners squatting on the super low bar tables at the bar (outside the main dining room) eating dinner.
We started with my favorite dish – yellowtail with jalapeno in a ponzu sauce

Sushi – salmon avocado roll and spicy scallop – yum

“Tacos” – lobster, shrimp, tuna and salmon on tortilla chips--> this was beautiful & delish!

Shitake salad – also a winner

The most famous dish – miso black cod

Tasmanian trout with crispy spinach – this is the only dish that I wouldn’t order again – too greasy and fishy tasting