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Okdongsik – Ala Moana, HI

Sep29

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.

Soup Spoon Shot!

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Mariposa – Ala Moana, HI

Sep22

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.

Truffle Fries | $18.00
parmesan cheese, rosemary aioli, chives

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.

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Hong Yeon – Moilili, HI

Sep15

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!

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Mixed Plate Friday

Sep12

Left: Sesame Garlic Chicken (3rd Pan 2#) | $37.50
fried boneless chicken, sesame garlic glaze, ginger scallion
Right: Fried Noodles (3rd Pan 2.5#) | $27.50

Chan had a lunch order with his office from Alii Fish Market and this was part of the order. I thought the pans were so cute (lol), I never seen this size before. The food was all good, as usual! And I finally tried the yaki onigiri and yes, I now know what the hype is all about. Highly recommend!

Doesn’t this picture look almost like it’s from Japan or something? We were driving down Kapiolani and I glanced out the window while we sat in traffic and saw this. Just felt very Japanese-y, it was really cool to see. Oh! And we’re going to Japan in November! There’s my announcement lol, I’m so excited!!

Happy belated birthday to me! Of course I gotta show off the beautiful flowers and balloons that Chan got me for my birthday. He always makes me feel so special even though I don’t like getting older…especially at this age. I am at Auntie age but I am a-okay with that. I earned that badge. Have a great weekend everyone!

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Okayama Kobo Bakery & Cafe – Ward, HI

Sep8

Okayama Kobo Bakery & Cafe is one of the most popular bakeries in Hawaii right now. They are located downstairs of the Ward Theaters and since Chan and I were in the area for another errand, we decided to line up for when they opened! Yup, even before they opened their doors, they had a line forming – a mix of tourists and locals. Was it worth the hype? Let’s see…

Bakery Box | $1.00 per box

I wasn’t a fan of this. If you want to order a lot of pastries, the only choice in boxes is this option. The box is cute as all heck but you have to pay $1.00 for this box. They do not have plain white boxes for you to load up on. I asked what the other option is and it’s either single pastry size white bags or single serve plastic clear clamshell packages. What?? That was crazy to me. Then he asks if I want a bag at the end of the transaction, that probably means more money so I am good lol.

Top Left: Mentai Salt & Butter Roll | $4.60 each
Right, Salt & Butter Roll | $3.35 each
Bottom Left: Everything Salt & Butter Roll | $3.75 each

The mentai salt and butter roll was one of my favorites of this outing. Though, while I can’t prove it, might have gotten me sick that same day but I’ll just say it didn’t. Good taste, nice balance of salt and butter in the bread. The mentaiko is not only on top of the bread, it’s inside the bread too! Yum, I would get this again.

Matcha Mochi Anpan | $4.95 each
Bottom right: Spicy Curry Pan | $4.95 each
Top Center: Fish Panini
Top Right: Japanini | $4.25 each

Spicy Curry Pan
baked, panko-crusted bread filled with original Japanese style vegetable curry, chili flakes

Curry Pan is one of my favorite pastries of all time. Was it spicy? Yes. Will I admit that it was spicy? No. Chan is too satisfied when I cannot handle spicy because I keep saying I am the spice queen. So yeah, spicy for me, not for him.

Matcha Mochi An-Pan
matcha flavored bun filled with chunky red bean and mochi

I love an-pan and was intrigued by the mochi filling too. How was it? Ehh…I can just eat regular an-pan. The mochi adds nothing but too much carbs – and there was no matcha flavor in the bun (not that I wanted matcha flavor).

Japanini
original panini with shiso leaf, basil pesto, bacon, cheese and tomato

Chan super enjoyed this panini! At first I thought they didn’t give us this pastry because the girl helping us was constantly mishearing all the customers. It was a bit frustrating as we were ordering.

Fish Filet Panini

Another favorite of mine. Well, if you like filet-o-fish from McDonald’s, you would like this. I liked it! I don’t have the price for it because they charged me for two japaninis but I’m thinking maybe I made out in that mistake.

All in all, I enjoyed the pastries we got but it was just a bit too pricey for me. Maybe I’ll bring my own big Tupperware next time cause buying each box was wasteful – not like they’re reusable. Would return again but maybe if I’m in the area.

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Mixed Plate Friday

Aug29

Strawberry Jam and Butter Sauce Packets

Yes oh yes, I was able to snag a few packets when Don Q had it in stock. Of course it was posted on social media and sold out like crazy. One of my favorite things to eat in Japan is the strawberry and butter sandwiches from the convenience store. It’s made like an uncrustable but it’s not easy to find and not at every combini. This will have to suffice until I find it in Japan again! Pretty good! I would definitely get more if I see it in stock again.

Fin’s Bagel with House-cured Salmon | $17.95
choice of house-cured fish: salmon, ahi, mahi, ono, or smoked fish salad with tomato, onion, cucumber dill, local sprouts, capers and cream cheese (we got roasted garlic cream cheese)

Thank you Chan for treating lol! This was for a meet-up with Kat, it was so nice seeing her and spending some time with her. I know her trips to Hawaii are always busy so I am happy she tries to schedule some time with us! Fin’s Bagels just opened up in downtown a few weeks ago so we wanted to try! We ordered our sandwiches with everything bagel and wow, they are HUGE. I could barely finish half for lunch. So how was it? While they are super generous with the ingredients and cream cheese – I thought it was just okay. I actually found the bagel itself to be too big and too chewy. I also don’t love sprouts so I would get it without the sprouts next time.

Fat Cheeks Hawaii Fish and Fries | $18.50
flaky white fish, battered with our house seasoning and fried crispy on top of fries. served with lemons, tartar sauce, and hot sauce on the side.

I joined in with Chan’s office order one day and finally got to try their version of fish and chips. Oh my gosh, it was SO GOOD. And it was a HUGE portion. 4 big pieces of fish fried to perfection and the fries are good too! Of course I couldn’t finish this, shared with Chan too. I didn’t even realize it came with a container of hot sauce on the side so I didn’t even use it! Ugh! They did find the hot sauce in the bag and thought it belonged to the hot chicken sandwich order but I guess it was for mine! It’s great that they have online ordering and they keep to the time you request. It won’t be ready earlier than that which is a good thing, you’re getting your food fresh!

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Stadium Pho – Salt Lake, HI

Aug27

Stadium Pho was a main stay for me when I would venture out to Salt Lake Target, they are located in the same lot as Ice Palace. During the pandemic, they switched to take-out orders only which I took full advantage of. I noticed that even after everything died down, they continued doing take-out only orders for a very long time. In fact, they only reopened for dine in very recently. We came for a lunch a while ago and this meal was a nice surprise because my baby brother treated all of us. Oh yes, all three brothers being employed finally is earning some perks.

Lemon Beef Salad | $13.25

Good dish, not great. I’ve had this salad better at other restaurants and actually prefer when the beef is raw. They usually serve it with the raw thin slices of beef that “cooks” in their lemon/fish sauce dressing. Tasted good but I prefer the beef prepared another way.

Culantro! Gotta have culantro, restaurants that don’t serve culantro with pho should not be serving food!

Special Combination Pho (Small) | $15.95
Special Combination Pho (Large) | $17.95

Steaming hot bowl of pho, one of the most comforting dishes. This is definitely what I would want if I was feeling under the weather. Either pho or jook. Delicious!

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Mixed Plate Friday

Aug22

Notice anything odd about this? I was driving one day and this truck was BEING TOWED through the roads like this. Yup. With all the garbage bags, gardening debris and the garbage can in the back. Nothing flew out at me but then again, we were stuck in traffic. Isn’t that’s crazy?

Trolli Gummi Pop | $8.99

I’m such a silly sucker for trends. I saw this on social media and was intrigued, a gummy worm type textured popsicle? I love gummy worms so I wanted to try this out! They sell this in Safeway and took a while to get here. How was it? Ehhh…it has a weird texture that is a bit flexible for a popsicle but not exactly a gummy worm texture. Wouldn’t recommend it.

Kokoro-Tei Omelette Rice | $14.98

I love Kokoro-Tei and have been wanting to try their omelette rice for a very long time. They only have this for a daily special so you have to check their website to know when to order it. First time trying it and I loved it. Love the soft runny omelette and the demi glace sauce over the rice. Great dish! I would definitely order it again! And love their online ordering system – makes everything so easy peasy!

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Lam’s Kitchen – Chinatown, HI

Aug18

One faithful Sunday morning, after doing a quick grocery run with Chan, I offered up a drive to Chinatown to get some GRUB. Had a hankering for some beef noodles even in the hot Hawaiian summer heat. We parked in my favorite municipal lot and headed out. Lam’s Kitchen is super busy all the time but guess what, it ain’t busy before 8AM lol. We were the only 1 of 2 diners that morning. They did however have a lot of Chinese folks walking in and out of the shop for their takeout orders.

Chinese Doughnut Stick | $3.00

One of Chan’s favorite dishes and it was nice and crispy here too. We didn’t have jook today but it is nice dipped into the noodle broth too!

Beef Flank & Tendon Mein with Won Ton $18.99

I made Chan order his with won ton so I could just have one or two (mwahaha) and it was so much food, Chan could hardly finish his bowl even after giving me wonton. He got his with the skinny mein noodles.

Beef Flank & Tendon Look Fun | $14.50

Look fun is always good and Lam’s makes it very well. I got all confused in my mind that morning and was feeling like lai fun. I don’t know why I’ve been hankering for lai fun lately and I hardly see restaurants carrying it, let me know if you know of a good lai fun joint. Anyway, lai fun is kind of like udon noodles but a bit skinnier and not as soft. Anyway, this dish was good as always! Can’t beat a classic!

Noodle Pull!

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Tempura Ichika – Honolulu, HI

Aug11

Let me apologize ahead of time for a very long post, I did not realize how many pictures I took! But hey, I want to show you the full experience. Chan and I were invited to a wonderful dinner at Tempura Ichika, I never heard of them before but they serve up a tempura omakase. Intriguing. I wasn’t sure how I would take to a never ending spread of just tempura but boy did I eat my words (and tempura). Very special experience, intimate dining room with awesome food and service. Let’s take a journey shall we?

Bonito and Red Snapper (Tai) Sashimi

I got too excited and ate mine before I could take a picture, luckily Chan’s friend took one and sent it to me. Very fresh pieces of fish, nice way to start the dinner before all the fried food comes out.

Table Setting

Here they are readying you for your tempura, there is a lemon slice in the silver serving dish, regular salt, konbu salt and curry salt. Bottom right is the tentsuyu with grated daikon. The server will tell you how to season each piece of tempura that gets served.

Kyushu Fried Shrimp Head

No waste. I like it! And I love shrimp head so this was great! If you don’t like fried shrimp heads, please dine with me and I will help you out.

Kyushu Shrimp Tempura

Isn’t that a thing of a beauty? Not only does it look pretty, it tasted amazing. The shrimp flesh was so tender and sweet. Absolutely one of the best dishes of the night, in fact, it was Chan’s favorite of the night.

Kisu (Japanese Whiting Fish) | Fried Bone and Fish

Wow. We were instructed to eat the bone with some salt sprinkled on top and the fish with the tentsuyu. Perfect dish, the bones were super crispy and light.

Kani Miso

Some kani miso (essentially crab organs) – my favorite part of the crab! This was actually the “sauce” served with the next dish.

Snow Crab

Um…yum!! We were instructed to dip this snow crab into the kani miso and then sprinkle fresh squeezed lemon juice on top. So so good.

Palate Cleanser | Shio Koji Marinated Succotash

Not sure what succotash is used in this context – I think this included celery and radish? Very refreshing, perfect cleanser mid-meal!

Cauliflower

Yup, cauliflower. We were advised to eat this one with the curry salt. The curry salt isn’t very strong in curry or salt (lol) taste – this dish was just okay. I mean, it’s cauliflower. It’s nothing special…

Salted Snapper

Oooh another raw fish dish. I like that they keep mixing in fresh dishes between the fried dishes. This was good, not great.

Kizami Wasabi (chopped fresh wasabi stems)

I love kizami wasabi – the fresh wasabi tends to sting less and has a smoother taste!

Sea Scallop

Eat one side with the kizami wasabi and one side with the konbu salt. This was hands down my favorite dish of the night. The scallop was so firm and sweet – so meaty in texture! It was perfect with the kizami wasabi, I loved this dish.

Nasu (eggplant) with Bonito and Ginger

Not usually a fan of eggplant myself but you can’t really lose with this combination. Tasted great!

Tomatoes with Snap Peas, Tororo Dried Konbu

Rakkyo Shallots

Seabass with Shiso Wrap

We were instructed to eat this with the rakkyo shallots and a bit of konbu salt. It was good, but honestly, not super memorable.

Konbu Wrapped Hokkaido Uni with Truffled Salt | $30.00

This dish is not included in the omakase, this was an extra we ordered off the ala carte menu. Luscious and decadent – so rich and delicious. Still doesn’t beat the scallop lol.

Anago (Conger Eel)

No seasoning needed, eat as is! That’s a big wad of wasabi I think and yeah, it was hot. Chan probably laughed at me.

Maitake Mushroom

I don’t remember if we were told to dip this in anything, I might have dipped it in the tentsuyu myself. It was good! I love mushrooms.

Miso Soup

Tendon

Tendon Ikura Topping | $25.00

Not quite sure why a lot of Japanese meals end with either a rice or noodle dish, I like to eat those in the beginning or during the meal! Now, did I body this bowl? Yes, but still. We had a lot of food all through the night so saving this for last is a bit harder but I’ll take one for the team. It was delicious!

Dessert

I think I gave up on taking notes by this point, it was a small scoop of a very fresh tasting yuzu sorbet, it was very nice!

Green Tea

What a special meal, and apparently this is one of the few tempura omakase restaurants in the world! Very rare and I am very happy to have tried this. I am unsure of the price since Chan’s friend very generously paid for the meal but I know it was pricey even just from the ala carte prices! It’s definitely a splurge experience but I would recommend you try it at least once if you love tempura!

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