Category Archives: Restaurant

18Oct / 2024

Mixed Plate Friday

Buldak Fried Rice | $7.99 (on sale)

My brother loves buldak noodles so when I saw this in the Longs ad last week, I had to get em! At first I was disappointed because I kept looking around the oriental aisle thinking this was just like a powder seasoning I add to my own rice to make the fried rice.

Just by chance, I went to the freezer section and it’s actually the whole dish there! You just gotta heat it up on the stovetop or microwave. It comes with two individual packets inside.

Sorry, but I think the portion is kind of small. This is actually both packs heated up. It was enjoyed, also wasn’t that spicy but that’s according to my brother.

Homemade Bossam

Odeng!

I love Sundays with Chan. Sometimes we plan meals on a whim and on this Sunday, I told him I felt like odeng but odeng with the fish cakes on the skewers (just like you see in the Korean dramas). So we made our run to Hmart and got the kit and also picked up some fixings to make bossam! Bossam looks nice and seasoned yeah? It’s all thanks to Chef Chan’s skills. What a delicious dinner! Have a great weekend folks!

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16Oct / 2024

King Restaurant & Bar – Ala Moana, HI

I was so disappointed when I heard Yung Yee Kee Dim Sum closed down. Chan and I liked going to eat there and grabbing take-out from there. No worries, they still have their take-out location at the Lanai in Ala Moana but that’s just not the same to me. King Restaurant & Bar started serving dim sum recently so we decided to give them a try! They make great lunch/dinner food so let’s see how the dim sum is!

Sesame Mochi w Red Bean Paste Ball (Jin Dui) | $6.50

I’m not usually in the mood for like deep fried dessert items but I had that craving this day! I enjoyed it a lot. And it wasn’t super greasy like I’ve had in other places.

King’s Pork Hash (Siu Mai) | $5.95

So puny looking. I enjoyed it! Tasted good, just like the other Chinese restaurants. If I look at this closely, it looks like they put an ikura on top? Usually places put a carrot lol.

King’s Shrimp Dumpling (Har Gow) | $5.95

I’m impressed by the look and size of these har gow. Nice and soft skin with jumbo tender morsels of shrimp inside, would recommend!

Pan Fried Chives & Shrimp Dumpling | $5.95

Chives and shrimp make such a great combo together, especially in a pan fried dumpling. I don’t make the rules okay? They have a steamed option but I think the pan fried option is the only way to go.

Stick Rice in Lotus Leaf | $8.50

Chan loves sticky rice so we got this. He enjoyed it! I need to make him my version of sticky rice, nice home cooking that will have a lot more innards and flavors than restaurants (sorry, not sorry!)

Twist Cruller | $3.50

Another favorite of Chan’s. I’d like to get this next time with their jook. I love eating this with jook.

Chicken Feet w/Special Sauce | $5.95

Okay, no need gag. Yes, I eat chicken feet. Just me. I only like chicken feet dim sum style. They did a good job!

Beef Chow Fun (Dried) | $16.95

Can’t have dim sum without one noodle dish. I usually like to order seafood chow mein but they make a good beef chow fun here and it has nice wok hei taste. What is wok hei? Look em up brah! Shootz.

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11Oct / 2024

Mixed Plate Friday

7eleven Kibun Sesame Tofu Noodle | $4.19
new, ready-to-eat tofu noodles with delicious sauce packet included. the noodles, made from tofu, are very simliar to somen noodles but lower in carbs and 0 cholesterol. healthy with only 110 calories and 7g of protein. can be eaten cold or warm by heating in the microwave for 1 minute.

I saw this at 7eleven last weekend and just had to try it. I was so curious how the noodles would taste. I almost didn’t get it because let’s be real, $4.19 for this little packet didn’t seem worth it. But something told me just go for it.

I opened the cellophane and drained out the water. I ate it cold with the sauce packet. Doesn’t look like much in this picture but bugga was GOOD. It really does taste like regular noodles. How do they do that! It was so good, but dang, I wish they would sell this in bulk at Costco or Sam’s so I can get a better deal. I would absolutely get this again.

When I sent a picture of this to Chan, he mentioned he had it in Japan before and really enjoyed it! They finally brought it over to us! Give it a try!

Sushi Robot Breakfast Bento | $5.00

I’ve talked about Sushi Robot before, they are located in the food court of Kaheka Don Quijote (the indoor one not the outdoor one). They used to be outdoors. Well, they are the only ones who open super early which helps me since I do my shopping early. They open at 6 but when they have some foods ready, they just open at 5 something.

I was actually staring from outside to see if they had food out but didn’t have…was about to leave when the lady waved me in. I reluctantly went in and she said she can make whatever I want. I said I wanted the portuguese sausage omelette bento. I didn’t know the real name but they knew exactly what I was talking about and put this together fresh for me! They already had all the different components cooked and ready to go. And yes, $5.00 total…this is with tax. Where else can you find prices like this???

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09Oct / 2024

Gyotaku Japanese Restaurant – King Street, HI

REDEMPTION POST HERE. I came back to Gyotaku after my recent disasterous visit and I can happily report that this visit was SO much better. Super good. And I got the right food! Also, my cousin treated me for my birthday so how can this meal go wrong?? FREE! Check it out!

Watermelon-ade | $8.50
refreshing watermelon juice served over ice & topped with mint & lime

Not good. Not awful but it just soounds much better than it tasted. Maybe the watermelon taste wasn’t as strong as I would have liked…

Pele Lava Roll | $17.95
california roll topped with spicy ahi tataki, green onion, volcano sauce & wasabi aioli sauce

Yummy appetizer to start! If you know me, you know I love spicy ahi. We ate too much at this meal but hey, it’s my birthday and I’ll eat if I want to, eat if I want to.

Miso Soup & Salad

I don’t have to explain this one right? This is their signature! Signature for a reason, love their salad and dressing.

Assorted Poke Don & Tenpura | $33.45

YESSSS!! I got the right dish this time and it was heavenly. I’ve been missing this dish for YEARS. I am so dang happy they brough it back. It’s a simple sesame oil salt seasoning for the poke but I feel like the different cuts of seafood just creates the perfect taste and texture profile. You know? Plain ahi poke is boring to me, but this dish just has almost any seafood you can imagine. I love it. And it’s not just random seafood they plop in, it’s consistently the same seafood each time when I order it.

Hit you with the last shot. So good. The limu and sprouts work well with it too. Man…I want to eat it again…

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07Oct / 2024

Kokoro-Tei – Moilili, HI

Kokoro-Tei has been in the Moilili neighborhood for many years now. I am super glad they were able to get through the pandemic and thrive. I say thrive because when I went to pick up today’s meal, they had so many orders stacked up and ready to go. You used to have to phone in your orders but they now have online orders, thank goodness. Chan was treating his co-workers for a birthday and I got to jump in on the order! Check it out!

Nori Shrimp Salmon | $11.98
Plate upgrade | $3.00
2 piece chikuwa, 2 piece fried shrimp, 1 piece salmon

Three people ordered this! Chan nicely upgraded their bentos to plates. Not super sure what you get more…it looks like the proteins are the same size so maybe more rice and side dishes? Anyway, it was enjoyed by the diners!

MEGA NORI | $18.98
2 pc chikuwa, 3 pc karaage, 1 pc croquette, 1 pc deep fried shrimp, 1 pc white fish, 1 pc regular salmon with extra large white rice

Maybe my picture isn’t showing the size in true fashion. The description sounds mega! Sounds like a great mix too! Chan enjoyed it!

Steak & Vegetable Bento | $21.98
comes with multigrain rice

This was my dish. For some odd reason, I was feeling like red meat so I went for this. I was also super excited for all the side veggies! How was it? Sigh. The steak is super tough and overcooked. They don’t ask how you want the steak cooked. I really enjoyed the garlic tare (sauce) they serve with the steak but Chan thinks it’s just a bottled sauce you can buy. Well, I want it then! Anyone know the secret? I still enjoyed this a lot because some pieces of meat were okay and the veggies were good as always!

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02Oct / 2024

Ginger & Garlic – Chinatown, HI

Ginger & Garlic used to be my favorite dim sum restaurant. Hard for me to say used to be…it’s still one I will go to but the quality has really gone downhill in recent times. I went about a month ago? Found the dimsum to be much smaller than before and the restaurant just seems not to be aging well. It definitely did not make me want to return soon. Here’s some dim sum items we got!

Baked Egg Custard Tart | $5.50

Good stuff! I love this.

Deep Fried Taro | $5.50

Basic – nothing special.

Siu Mai | $5.50

Good, not great. I feel like they used to make it really well. Maybe the original chef left…

Seafood Bundle in Bean Curd | $6.50

One of my must have dim sum items. There’s another dim sum restaurant that I don’t want to name that is opening locations left and right and I don’t think they have this on their dim sum menu. What a shame! I love it.

Seafood Chow Mein | $15.95

Another must have item for me at dim sum, seafood chow mein. The aforementioned restaurant chain also doesn’t have this? This is a staple for me! Unless that restaurant chain ups their game, I’m good. I wasn’t impressed with their dim sum anyhow.

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13Sep / 2024

Mixed Plate Friday

Yummy’s Korean B-B-Q Bibimkooksoo | $16.95

Oh the pricey. So pricey. But so good. I get this one from the Ala Moana food course and I order it spicy because I am trying to prove to Chan that I am the Spice Queen (I’m not). I think they give a lot of veggies and meat and a good amount of noodles so it’s worth it for me. I’m always up for a nice good cold noodle dish.

Chinese Roast Pig!!!

Look at that thing! It’s funny to look at, I guess I’ve never seen the pig chopped up and put back in like this? It’s good they were willing to chop it up though! When we get our pig for bai san – we gotta chop our own. Not sure where this is from, was good but not super great. I thought the skin was too hard and not a light crispy, you know?

First Round

The roast pig was part of our UH Football Viewing Party. Chan and I brought Chun Wah Kam Ginger Chicken Fried Rice and Orange Chicken. Was delicious. Then I thought there was a pot of chili so I made my own chili nachos but learned it was baked beans. LOL, was good anyway. Have a good weekend everyone!

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11Sep / 2024

Olive Garden – Ala Moana, HI

It was the labor day holiday and I decided to take all three brothers out to Olive Garden because they have the special Never Ending Pasta Bowl promotion going on. I mean, this is the way to go when you have three ravenous teenage boys (soon to be all men – cry face). It’s a great deal, you get never ending salad, soup, bread sticks and of course pasta! Well I got full super fast so it was wasted on me but at least one of my brothers went ham so it was worth it. It was laborious to get there (joke intended) but I hope they enjoyed.

House Salad

Bros ate this up! We got two servings. I went for the soup.

Zuppa Toscana
spicy italian sausage, kale and potatoes in a creamy broth

First soup up! First time trying this. Not creamy, I mean it looks creamy but it’s very thin. Not full on the fillings either, but I guess it’s meant to be a lighter soup. Tasted ok.

Chicken & Gnocchi
a creamy soup made with roasted chicken, italian dumplings and spinach

Got this just to try it. It wasn’t that good and was salty. I didn’t even finish it cause I had to make room for the pasta!

Fettuccine Alfredo

Creamy Mushroom Angel Hair

My pasta. Super good but super rich and I got full fast. Foolish mistake! And since angel hair is so thin, they give you more! Wasted tummy space!

Creamy Mushroom Angel Hair with Crispy Chicken Fritta

Meat Sauce Rigatoni with Meatballs

So there are two different deals with the bowl, you either get the pasta with no toppings (proteins) for $19.99 or you can choose to have toppings with your pasta for $27.48. Here are your choices when creating your pasta bowls:

Pasta:
Spaghetti
Rigatoni
Angel Hair
Gluten-Free Rotini

Sauce:
Traditional Marinara
Five Cheese Marinara
Creamy Mushroom
Meat Sauce

Toppings (extra $7.49 and not the full topping menu):
Meatballs (3)
Italian Sausage
Crispy Chicken Fritta

I’m perplexed why grilled chicken is not a choice but the crispy chicken comes with it. Weird. Also, the first plate of pasta is a full portion. After that, you basically get half orders which I don’t mind. You can order to your heart’s content. Also! They allow you to take home the leftovers…and! They don’t limit it to all or nothing, so only two brothers got toppings while me and another brother got the plain pasta. But honestly, you can probably sneak meat off the other person if they don’t mind I guess. It’s easy to make reservations because they are on Open Table. If you can eat plenty, go check them out!

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09Sep / 2024

Rainbow Drive-In – Kapahulu, HI

Decided to do a last summer lunch order before school started. I wasn’t craving anything special and wanted some comfort food so we went to Rainbow Drive-In! There is a Rainbow Drive-In near my home but that one pales in comparison to the original. Now that Richie’s is a disappointment, I had to give Rainbow Drive-In a go! The online ordering system makes it so much easier.

Mix Plate | $13.75
a combination of our BBQ Beef, Boneless Chicken and Mahi Mahi

Why do they serve gravy with the boneless chicken in the boneless chicken plate but not in the mix plate? A bit baffling and I didn’t feel like ordering extra gravy. Man oh man, if you check out their ordering site, they have really nailed down how to add things to your plate. I know in the past you could say gravy all over and it would be free, now gravy all over it 95¢. I thought the plate would be too dry but it was okay in the end. The boneless chicken had good flavor and I was surprised that I liked their bbq beef, I usually dislike meat prepared this way but their meat was not hard or rubbery at all!

Mix Plate | $13.75
Add Chili on the Rice | $3.75
a combination of our BBQ Beef, Boneless Chicken and Mahi Mahi

My co-worker’s plate. Do I think it’s worth it to get chili on the rice for $4.00? Ehh…

Boneless Chicken Plate | $12.75
tender, boneless chicken thighs seasoned, breaded and fried golden brown on our griddle served with gravy

Chili Tots | $6.50
Add Cheese | 95¢

Got some chili tots to share with my coworkers and yes I had to pay like $1 for cheese on top. Blah! But it was good. Super good. Worth it. This was definitely a good run! We placed the order and it was ready when we got there. We lucked out with parking, had choke tourists there.

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04Sep / 2024

Ruth’s Chris Steak House – Honolulu, HI

Ah yes, another birthday celebration! Good food and great company, can’t be beat! I don’t think I am ever disappointed by Ruth’s Chris Steak House. IDK what the name means but we came on a Sunday evening with a 5:30 PM reservation. We should have reserved for 5 because we showed up early and they were actually seating everyone at their assigned times so we had to wait basically 30 minutes. Just a heads up.

Nothing new here, everything is so expensive but I spocked out a early bird dinner menu. It’s like a prix fixe menu that they call Ruth’s Classics. It’s only available from 4:30 PM – 6:00 PM so go check it out. It includes a starter, entree, personal side and a dessert! My friend and I got the two entree options so you can see below what you get and the cost!

Complimentary Bread and Butter

We were huuungry. I was hangry. I basically ate all the bread except one slice. The butter was so good too. Why does butter taste so much better in restaurants? Forreal! This was a fatal mistake because I couldn’t finish my dinner but it was worth it!

Starter Caesar Salad
starter options: steak house salad, caesar salad, louisiana seafood gumbo

Oh my goodness, this was a HUGE salad. And we each got one. It felt like the regular salad that could be shared. Was so good. Too good. That dressing is addicting!

Personal Side: Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Creamed Spinach
personal side options: creamed spinach, garlic mashed potatoes, steamed white rice

You must be asking the question, what happened to Jenny? Why was white rice not ordered? Well I tell you what, I was super close to doing it but decided last minute that we should just share both sides and included a veggie side. Although creamed spinach isn’t really healthy yeah? Both classic sides and both are great!

Steak & Shrimp | $68.00
our tender 6 oz. filet with three large shrimp

Yes, $68 looks expensive but you get so much! The petite filet and shrimp ala carte $81(!) folks. Delicious as always, great cut of meat and great seasoning on the shrimp. Highly recommend!

Steak and Lobster | $78.00
buttery cold water lobster tail paired with a 6 oz. filet

Great deal! Look at the size of that lobster! You gotta get their prix fixe menu so you can enjoy this.

Chocolate Ice Cream

The dessert choices were the sorbet, ice cream or the bread pudding. I was pretty full so I went for the chocolate ice cream. Can’t beat the classic.

Creme Brulee | $5.00 (up-charge)

So, if you want to have another dessert on the menu that doesn’t come with the prix fixe, you have to pay an up-charge. What I don’t understand is…all the desserts, including the bread pudding is the same price so why is it an upcharge for the others? Who knows. It was enjoyed nonetheless.

Flaming Strawberries

A complimentary dish for birthdays. I didn’t know this was coming and wish I could have just told them to give me the strawberries with chocolate sauce. No need alcohol and the whole show. It burns for like at least a minute and the strawberries get all mushy. This time, it was mushy AND burnt. Sorry to sound unappreciative. It just feels like a waste you know? Anyway, great meal. I always choose the restaurant row location.

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