Another visit to Murphy’s and whew thank god they are not closing down! There was rumors circulating around that they were but the owner came out and refuted that real quick! I was able to join Chan and his workers for a quick lunch. It was wonderful and we had John as our server and he is just the sweetest server ever. I’ve been to Murphy’s before and have been served by him before and he is consistently the most caring and attentive staff member. It makes a big difference.
Fried Spicy Chicken Wings | $18.00 (full order) served with ranch dressing
One of their specialties – super good. Tastes like homemade ranch dressing too. I forgot to get a picture of the basket of fries we ordered but their fries are super good too. Fried up perfectly.
Irish Dip | $22.50 thin sliced sirloin on baguette with horseradish mayonnaise, served with guinness au jus
Open Face Turkey Sandwich | $21.50 in-house roasted turkey on white or wheat bread, topped with gravy, served with mixed vegetables, mashed potatoes, and fresh cranberry sauce
I have never tried this but I would love to one day! One look at this dish and you’re like…where’s da sandwich? The bread is hidden underneath all that turkey! One of their most famous dishes.
Gaelic Steak | $29.50 new york steak topped with a green peppercorn sauce, served with mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables
Chan’s dish! The steak is cooked well and it’s a very nice gravy. The veggies are good and of course the mashed potato is fluffy and buttery, yum!
Fish N’ Chips | $19.50 cod fish and fries served with malt vinegar
When there is fish and chips on the menu, I’m there. Actually this might be sacrilegious but if I could have, I would have subbed the fries for white rice. I’m too Asian. Super good fish and the fries of course I said before is super good!
Another bougie and expensive restaurant review brought to you by Jenny who benefitted from a very generous friend of Chan’s. I will not even post the cost of the meal here but you can easily look up Mugen‘s website and get a sense of it. Very thankful for this dining experience and spending time with friends.
Quick funny story about this night. We didn’t know the parking situation with this restaurant so Chan decided to park at the International Marketplace and walk over. Before we headed to the restaurant, we decided to walk through Target in case we could find something to buy to cover part of the parking validation. This Target location is crazy busy with tourists and the 1st floor is packed full. As we are making our way through, we suddenly hear a loud “excuse me!” behind us coming from an older asian man. Not sure if he was a tourist – either he was local or from the mainland. Anyway, obviously Chan and I stop and he then walks around us. As he is passing us, he loudly screams, GEEZ! Well guess what? I am old now and am no longer patient so I immediately yell back at him, GEEZ WHAT. He doesn’t stop and doesn’t look up, just continues walking away. And get this guys, we weren’t even walking in a tight aisle or anything – it was a huge walkway in Target so he had every chance to get around us without this commotion. He better watch out cause Target’s cameras almost caught this chinese chica “ch-row” hands. Okay onto dinner. 🙂
Pretty centerpiece
Chic Cutlery!
Pinky Promise | $15.00 lychee & guave puree, lemon-lime soda
Mocktail of the night for me. Oh this was so good…so so good.
Amuse Bouche
Nice starter bite for everyone to start off with. I can’t quite remember exactly what it was, like a fish ceviche/poke served atop a brick of crispy rice. It was pretty good!
Bread and Butter
How cute is this bread! It is so teeny tiny but in the best way since there is so much food coming. And look at the butter! It’s a herb butter and strawberry butter in puzzle pieces! Isn’t that so cute. I would take this bread over the Mariposa popovers anytime lol.
Kona Kampachi Starter kupu place nasturtium, green apple ponzu, trout roe
My starter, it was good but nothing special. I got a different starter from Chan so we could taste different ones. I would get his over mine any day!
Scallops chinese black bean & smoked kurobuta ham veloute, trout roe, celery root
Chan’s scallops. Oh these scallops were so meaty and tender and seasoned wonderfully – I loved this dish!
We got this to share for the table. I love beef tartare so I have no complaints here, it was delicious!
Maui Beets pickled mustard seeds, spiced pepitas, sweetland tomme tuille, ko cho jang vinaigrette
Another shared starter, isn’t that tuille so pretty? The beets tasted good, nice huge chunks and sweet. It was good but I prefer a beet salad with goat cheese myself.
Nigiri
The menu was comprised of tasting menu sets, you could get a tasting set with nigiri if you wanted to. I didn’t get that option but here is the sushi it comes with!
Maine Lobster truffle nori risotto, hon shimeji mushroom, parmesan foam
How can you go wrong with lobster? Also, the two choices you had was lobster or shima aji. I think the choice is a no brainer – gotta get the lobster! It was delicious. So so good. One of my favorite dishes of the night.
Not my main dish but I don’t think it was worth the extra price tag. I got to try a piece and when I cut it, it was a bit stringy to cut but the texture was just fine when you chewed it.
Marrunga Marble Lamb brown butter ulu puree, pineapple chimichurri, coconut aji amarillo sauce
I’m going to be honest, I was so stuffed by the time this dish came I couldn’t enjoy fully it. The lamb was good but gamey for those who want to know. Good dish but I was too full to enjoy it.
Koloa Rum Toffee Cake date cake, hawaiian honey yogurt gelato, honey meringue, koloa rum toffee sauce
Isn’t this so pretty? So pretty but not my dessert. If I wasn’t stuffed, I would have tried a taste because it sounds like sticky toffee cake which I love. Well, Chan reported that it wasn’t that good and was nothing like sticky toffee cake so we are good.
Passion Fruit Custard lilikoi gelee, chantilly cream, sable, seasonal fruit
Yet another dessert ruined by me being too full. This was my dessert, I would have enjoyed it if I wasn’t so stuffed. Got a few bites in and it was nice and tart. Seasonal fruit? Sure. There was canned lychee in there so not really fresh seasonal fruit you know?
Chan and I were at Kaimuki getting vaccines up the yang (for me anyway) and was here at the perfect time to try HIGOTO Japanese Eatery. By the way, I don’t get any commission for this but if you are in need of vaccines – please do consider going to Longs Kaimuki. My cousin works there and they are very good! Help them out since they also have quotas they have to meet! No wonder she keeps giving me vaccines, but in the end, I’ll assume it is all for my health. I think my body is currently made of more vaccine than water/blood.
Anyway, sorry for the sidetrack. I’ve ordered from Higoto years ago and took the chance to grab lunch here with Chan. They had a line as they always do and they do have a sign on the door that says limit 3 people since it is a small store space. I will tell a story about what happened – and you can see if you would react like me or like Chan (LOL). So we’re patiently waiting in line behind a family of four, when it’s their turn – all four of them go in. Okay, that’s cool. You don’t wanna leave a kid outside by themself. They finish browsing and the parents go up to the register to pay while the two kids come back outside to wait. So at this point, no one is in the bento area browsing so Chan and myself head in to start looking since the other two are already paying. One of the workers comes out and loudly says, we only want 3 people in the store at one time. Nicely but loudly so I was just like okay and let myself out to let Chan browse since he’s never been before. I go back outside and joke to the girl behind me that…wow they strict ah? I wasn’t mad about what happened but Chan was lol. He even says, no brains no business about what they did. How would you have reacted? Technically yes, there was already 2 people in there but they were already done browsing and was just paying…and they let the four of them in before us.
Okay story time over, I’ll post the food. This experience had an effect on Chan’s dining experience.
Ume Shiso Musubi | $2.70
Tuna Mayo & Apple Cucumber Musubi | $2.80
I can’t comment on the other two musubi since I didn’t taste them and I’m sure Chan will just say they were just okay (lol). I’m a sucker for tuna mayo so this was mine. I don’t know what apple cucumber is and also after eating this, don’t need something so special. Regular cucumber would have sufficed. It was good, basic. I would try a different topping next time.
Cheeseburger Musubi | $3.20
Shrimp & Veggie Tendon Bento | $17.80
What I like about their bento is the level of detail and toppings they place in it. I liked the little dish of hijiki, edamame, corn, one cherry tomato, and the lotus root! This particular bento was just okay mainly because the tempura obviously was no longer hot out the fryer so it was just all soggy. I liked that they drizzled tentsuyu on top and also included a small container of it on the side for dipping.
Fish Lovers Bento (w/multigrain rice) | $19.80
This was the bento was the one I wanted to try. A bit pricey but hey that’s the price of things these days and it’s understandable since this was all seafood. The fish contents of this bento differs day to day but my bento included chikuwa, fried white fish, shrimp tempura, butterfish and salmon. This was a nice bento and I liked the multigrain rice.
In the end, when you come here you will be getting some nice bentos to eat. You do have to wait in line and they do not have an online ordering system. I believe you can pre-order through their instagram page and just pay when you pick-up. You also do not have to stand in line when you have a pre-order, just have to peek in and let them know you have a pre-order and they come out to help you. I’ll give my rating for the food based on just the food, we’ll see if Chan gets mad enough to comment on this post.
I risked my life driving in a very unfamiliar part of Kalihi for this post. Yes, I was influenced yet again by Yelp and social media. Heard about T&L Market and their Saturday Huli Huli chicken special. Small mom and pop shop that huli’s whole chickens every Saturday. People seems to be big fans of the chicken and the dipping sauce so I had to try it!
Yes, you read that price right. Pricey but I really wanted to give this place a try especially since it is a local mom and pop. So how was it? Well…there’s nothing special about this chicken. There’s supposed to be a lemongrass seasoning to it, didn’t taste that. The breast meat was a bit dry and tough and the dipping sauce was like a chili vinegar dipping sauce. Nothing special honestly. I could buy my Costco rotisserie chicken and make my favorite crying tiger sauce. I’ll try to post the recipe to that sauce one day.
They do serve it with a little brick of sticky rice so if you like that, you’re in for a treat. In the end, I am glad to have tried it but didn’t think it was worth $25 and probably wouldn’t buy it again.
Chicken Bento | $10.00 (around)
I wasn’t sure what the chicken came with so I got this bento to try too. Since the chicken did come with rice, I let my brother eat this. He ate it up – I think this was a good price for the portion you get. The fried chicken was a nice big thigh piece. He said the fried chicken tasted like Genki Sushi’s chicken karaage which sounds like winners to me. The spam slice was “tick” too. Good deal. They have basically NO parking so I can’t find myself returning anytime soon. Nice to have tried.
Had a quick breakfast at Yogurstory and you can’t go wrong with the fat pig fried rice. I must be getting old because oh man was this dish salty. I really prefer blander foods now other than spicy (ha!). It was very good but I always forget how the dish comes and find myself asking where the portuguese sausage is. It’s just chopped up as part of the fried rice! Duh! Anyway, good dish but like I said…salty and probably get MSG.
Garlic Shrimp Spaghetti | $14.25 including 2 pc garlic bread
Mini Cold Ginger Chicken (all rice) | $9.89
Back at Lucky Box Restaurant again – can’t go wrong with their food. Tried a new dish this time, the garlic shrimp spaghetti. How was it? Good. It’s just garlic shrimp scampi on spaghetti noodles and well, the noodles are a bit bloated because I think they pre-cook it and just throw it into hot water again to warm them up for orders, so yeah…not at all al dente. That’s okay with me though, I like noodles in all shapes, sizes and textures. The garlic shrimp tasted good. And the cold ginger chicken? Well nothing new there, still good as always. I think I like their cold ginger sauce the most of all that I’ve tried. I am pretty sure they add garlic to it too which makes it lip smacking good. Love it!
Chan and I’s yearly pilgrimage to Kaneohe to lay flowers for my mother’s memorial day. I appreciate Chan taking time off to come out with me, it’s a nice chill day. We headed to Koolau Times for flowers and I kept looking at the DMV in that lot and remarking how I’ve never seen a more empty DMV. Chan remarked that he’s actually due to renew his driver’s license so on a whim, we decided to go inside and check it out with no appointment. Let me tell you, it was a breeze. The worker warned that anyone who had an appointment would be taken in front of Chan and we said that was fine. Chan was pau with his renewal within like 30 minutes and this was without an appointment. That was crazy awesome!
Anyway, I’ve been wanting to try Local Boy Sushi for a while now and were both STARVING by the time we were pau with the Kaneohe visit and some errands. We were the only customers there at first and then a whole bunch of folks came after! They make the order fresh so be prepared to wait for a bit since it’s a small operation. All in all, I’m glad to have tried it but think I won’t go again. The sushi was alright, nothing special.
Salmon Pack | $17.00 5 pc salmon nigiri, 5 pc smoked salmon
I was craving some salmon this day and this hit the spot. My favorite was the fresh salmon nigiri. The smoked salmon sushi is like…tuna-fied smoked salmon. How do I explain that? Like a salmon dip mixed with corn on top of a sushi. Was a bit odd but also good?
Lava Roll | $14.00 shrimp tempura with avocado, spicy ahi, sweet chili, unagi sauce, green onions
Another good roll! Can’t lose with shrimp tempura smothered with spicy ahi. It was good!
Spicy Pack | $16.00 10 pc spicy ahi
I am a fiend for spicy ahi or spicy tuna. They do it pretty good, nothing special though. I used to love the genki sushi spicy tuna – I haven’t been there long time so I can’t comment on if it is good anymore. I think they drizzled unagi sauce on this too – not sure if that’s needed.
Alii Fish Market Weekend Special | Crispy Mochi Mahi Mahi w/Smoked Tsuyu Cold Soba & Spicy Ahi “Lava” Poke | $21.00 cold soba, smoked tsuyu, mari’s garden green salad w/yuzu vinaigrette, “spicy lava sauce,” sumida farms watercress namul
Alii was having this as a special the other weekend and my brother generously treated me to lunch. We placed the order and headed in after doing an errand, they quoted a 30 minute cook time. It took an hour. The parking lot is also horrendous especially during the weekend. If you are pre-ordering easy stuff like musubis/onigiris and just poke – I’m sure your order will be ready quick. If you order a special, I would set aside extra time before heading in to grab it. I don’t think I want to return on a weekend anytime soon.
Oh! And the food! It was good, not great. The mochi mahi mahi was already soggy when I ate it. The tsuyu wasn’t super smoky, nothing I noticed extra. It’s a good plate though, glad I tried it.
Chili Cheese Fries
Mini Cold Ginger Chicken (all rice)
Mini Chicken Katsu Curry
Mini Loco Moco
Everyone keeps raving about the L&L Hawaiian Barbecue at the Manoa Marketplace (when did they stop calling themselves L&L Drive Inn??) so I decided to give it a try. I’ve tried it a few times because thankfully UH has restarted their shuttle service to the Astronomy lot which is behind the marketplace. I can do some farmers market shopping and grab my lunch here. It’s funny because we have L&L Drive Inn on-campus which offers in-app ordering which I like, this location does not allow for app ordering. The one on campus does not serve the full menu so it’s nice to have one near by that does. The yelp reviews are right, the woman up front is very friendly. All the dishes I got were good! I can’t taste the difference between the two locations but I’ll continue coming here anyway.
Okdongsik is a new restaurant in the new Renaissance Hotel across from Ala Moana. They specialize in dweji-gomtang which is basically a clear pork broth with thin slices of pork and rice. Chan and I have been waiting to try this place since they opened but wanted to wait until the hoopla died down. The best reason? His credit card recently started covering some dining credits and this restaurant is part of it! They are definitely still busy but you can make reservations on Resy so I highly recommend that.
Diet Coke | $3.00
This is just funny to me because I call everyone bro. People at work? Bro? Chan? Bro? My brothers? Bro. Just felt like fate.
Ok Donggeurangttaeng | $5.00 meaty seafood cake, lightly seasoned with soy sauce
This was good! It has the texture of a fishcake patty – very nicely seasoned and it is pretty meaty. Pretty good price for $5.00. I would get this again!
Lard Donkatsu | $21.00 pork loin cutlet with cabbage salad, pickled pepper, soup and rice Limited to 40 servings daily
This was just alright. They are doing a good job selling it as limited supply and frying it with lard. Didn’t taste much of a different in the frying method. It is nice and crunchy but the pork inside is a bit dry. It was good, not great. Just realized they have shrimp tempura too, maybe we can try that next time but it might not be available as a stand-alone, looks like it has to be an add-on to this donkatsu. Not sure yet.
Dweji-Gomtang | $18.00 clean and savory pork broth with abundant vegetal aromas. served with rice, sliced pork, geotjeori (kimchi), and gochu-ji.
Star (?) of the show. Was it really? I don’t know. I wasn’t that impressed. It was a nice comforting rice soup dish but is it worth $18.00? It’s a pretty poor showing of pork slices. Too much broth and too big of a bowl makes it hard to eat it too. It was good but once again, not great. Their menu is pretty limited and this is one of the only main entrees so if this not your thing, no come.
A delayed birthday celebration but no less special. Chan took me to Mariposa for my birthday dinner and I was quite excited! Mariposa is located in Neiman Marcus and from Friday-Sunday, they have a sunset lounge menu and that’s the only menu you can order from. It’s okay, I could have ordered from either menu and have been happy!
Complimentary Popover with Strawberry Butter
I believe they used to only serve the popovers with their lunch menu but I am happy to report they served it to us at dinner. Am I the only one? I don’t see the big deal with these popovers and everytime I get them, they seem to be raw in the middle. Not a huge fan, I wouldn’t mind just some plain bread. Sorry to be a party pooper. The strawberry jam butter is nice but also nothing special.
These fries were it man. So good, fried perfectly and nicely seasoned. The aioli to me is a bit much since the fries are already rich. The ketchup is a good accompaniment to cut into the richness of the cheese, truffle and fried potato! Would order this again.
Braised Pork Belly & Scallops | $26.00 island watercress, lilikoi brown butter, pickled onions
Good, not great. The watercress was awful, super bitter and pretty old looking. Some sad greens. The braised pork was good and the scallops were great! Glad I tried it, probably wouldn’t order it again.
Lion’s Mane Mushroom Bruschetta | $24.00 sauteed “super food” mushrooms, brandy green peppercorn sauce, grilled bread, truffle whipped cream
Big disappointment. And you know what? I got myself mixed up, I thought it was going to be the same lion’s head mushroom I got in Korea, I read it wrong. This dish certainly SOUNDS good but it wasn’t. There was something very sour about this dish, not sour as in gone bad but just a sour taste. It wasn’t good. Do not order this.
Lobster Fra Diavolo | $44.00 maine lobster meat, spicy pomodoro sauce, spaghetti pasta
Our main dish! Chan and I split this pasta so this is my serving of it. They offered to split it into two plates and me being the good Chinese girlfriend I am – I asked if there was a charge for that (there isn’t!). This was a delicious dish. I love pasta and love seafood so I knew we couldn’t go wrong. I probably could have downed the entire entree myself, don’t tell Chan.
While we were stuffed with this dinner, I was surprised they didn’t serve a complimentary dessert since we booked it as a birthday reservation. It looks like they used to but we didn’t get anything. It’s okay, the waitress we had was very good so it was a nice dinner.
Hong Yeon just opened last week and I am shocked I am making this post before social media shares it out. The main rush of why I wanted to share this now is because through the month of September for their grand opening, they are selling bowls of jjajangmyeon for only $10 each. Hong Yeon is located on Isenberg and took over the Maple Garden restaurant spot. Parking is HORRENDOUS. Small lot that is hard to maneuver around, street parking exists but was barely available when I went.
My coworker was nice enough to offer a ride here for lunch one day. I write this with a bit of shame because I should have come here with Chan first since he’s the one that told me about it! But shoot, I couldn’t resist $10 noodles and a free ride. Besides! I gotta report back to you folks right? If you go to their yelp page, I uploaded the entire menu in pictures so you can check that out.
Must have sides for jjajangmyeon! No other banchans by the way…maybe for now?
Sweet and Sour Pork | $32.00 (!)
The price is a bit shocking (a lot not a bit). It’s a nice sized serving but is it worth $32? I don’t know…we enjoyed it a lot. The pork was fried perfectly crisp, not a thick batter and not hard crunchy – light and crispy! We enjoyed it very much. They do have lunch combos that combine noodle and sweet sour pork for $24 – that’s a much better deal in my eyes.
Jjajangmyeon | $9.99 (Opening Special)
Sprinkle on that gochugaru! I like that they serve up the fine gochugaru – I didn’t want the coarse powder to affect the texture of this dish.
Noodle Pull!
So it was super busy when we were there during peak lunch hours but they were able to move us customers into seats very quickly. And I assume they just had them all ready because our jjajangmyeon came out basically right when we ordered it. The noodles were perfectly cooked, a nice bounce to them! Lovely sauce, mild in taste but delicious. Pretty sure it’s chock full of MSG but that’s okay, I will suffer for delicious food! We all enjoyed this meal very much. Service was also very good but it was the grand opening so I will have to judge service on when they’ve been open for a while. If you want to get the special price, I highly suggest you go early and during lunch. I’m just so glad we have another northern chinese restaurant to eat at!
