Category Archives: Restaurant

07Aug / 2024

Lucky Box Restaurant – Kalihi, HI

Lucky Box Restaurant opened a few months ago in the Waiakamilo Shopping Center. It’s like a local BBQ joint run by Chinese (aren’t they all?). I had a serious hankering for cold ginger chicken this day and Liliha Drive Inn didn’t have it (FOILED) so I went to Lucky Box! Short post ahead.

Pork Chop with Gravy (mini) | $9.99

Ho brah, super salty. If you need one salt lick, get this dish. And the pork chop itself was kind of dry. I wouldn’t get this again.

Cold Ginger Chicken (mini) | $9.89

I didn’t get a picture of the ginger sauce for this. It comes in one of those small dressing containers, looks small but works fine for the dish. If they had given me more, I would have just slathered everything in it. I really enjoyed this dish, it hit the spot and I super appreciated all the dark meat pieces! Yum!

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05Aug / 2024

Frog House – Honolulu, HI

I’ve written about Frog House so many times already. It’s always going to be winnas food. You can search for frog house in my old posts but it’s always the same. Oh by the way, I am blogging ahead of time because guess what? I struck gold. I got covid. Oh yes. I don’t know how or who I got it from, I woke up on Sunday with post nasal drip symptoms which is something I get here and there. I felt a bit better Monday morning and got ready to go to work, got to work and on a whim decided to take the covid test. Kapow, positive. Came straight home and decided to test again on another test brand, kapow, positive. So yeah, I’m going a bit stir crazy at home. I am very thankful it has been mild thus far, I haven’t had a fever at all. Dry cough and runny nose. I heard it’s going around again so I hope you folks all stay safe. Let’s hope I get some good antibodies out of this round.

Kimchi Pancake

Complimentary Banchan

The best.

Soft Tofu Stew

Can you just feel the steam and bubbles from this picture? Yum, what a great stew.

Stirfried Octopus with Pork Belly

Chan introduced this dish to me and it has been my favorite ever since. I even got my friend hooked on it. Oh man, if you give me some rice and this dish, I would ch-row down. So good!

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02Aug / 2024

Mixed Plate Friday

Knife Cut Noodles

I’ve talked about this a lot already. Knife cut noodles, and this is how I like to eat it. The easy, delicious and lazy way. I cook up the noodles and drain it. I heat up a little bit of oil and add chopped green onions to “pop” it. A real quick fry and then add the noodles back into the pan and add oyster sauce and sriracha, I sometimes add a bit of sweet soy sauce too and that’s it. Toss and serve. It’s like a quick and easy version of indomie (well the flavors of it).

Underwood Ranch Sriracha

Speaking of sriracha, Longs had Underwood Ranch sriracha on sale so I had to try it. You know all the drama with Underwood Ranch right? They used to supply peppers to Huy Fong Foods sriracha but they had a dispute so they no longer supply the peppers for Huy Fong and started making their own to sell. I tried it so you don’t have to. It’s not as good as the original, it’s very vinegary. Too vinegary. No thanks.

Chun Wah Kam Plate | $14.00
one or two choice starch & two choice entrees

Chun Wah Kam still offers up a whopper of a deal for a huge portion. My starches are the ginger chicken fried rice and the Hong Kong Chow Mein (vegetarian). I got the chicken mushroom zucchini stirfry and orange chicken. I would have gotten their veggie stirfry but they didn’t have it today. I am a fan of chicken mushroom zucchini but not of this one. It was a bit salty and the chicken was dry and hard, they either use chicken breast or cooked the heck out of the thigh meat. Sorry to say, Panda’s does that dish better. Their orange chicken is good though and I love their starches!

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31Jul / 2024

Dave and Busters – Ward, HI

It’s summer time and you know what that means. Time to find activities for teenage boys to engage in. There isn’t much anymore – and a lot of entertainment options are PRICEY. Well Dave and Busters has a great summer thing going – they offer half price on all the menu items Monday through Thursday if you join their rewards program. I think it might only be until 4PM but I can’t even find it on their website right now so I wonder if that deal ended. But hey if that deal is still on, go on a Wednesday for lunch. Get your food half off and then play games for half off too! Win win!

Service at D&B’s is always a hit or miss. This time was a big miss. It started off fine with our waitress but of course as the meal went on, she disappeared on us. Ugh. As we were winding down on our meal, another staff member approaches me and asks to confirm my D&B’s Rewards points so I give her my phone number to input into her machine. At that point, my waitress comes over and asks her what she’s doing. The other waitress just plays it off and walks back to another table. My waitress then comes to our table and says, this is why you don’t give your phone number to just anyone. WHAT??? I started freaking out because what does she mean??? She got me fully scared but she said that the waitress was actually getting my number so she could apply the half off discount to her table, I guess they didn’t have their own rewards account. The waitress said that shouldn’t affect my own bill, and yes it didn’t but what the heck is going on. She even said that none of the other staff members like that waitress. I got pulled into some work drama there but really didn’t appreciate what happened. Needless to say, the meal was ruined but I got over it. Okay, let’s see the food (lol).

Fries GPT | $11.99
tossed with garlic butter, parm, & truffle dust and served with garlic aioli

Of course this was good. Come on!

All-American Cheeseburger (served with fries) | $15.99
Sub Fries GPT | $3.49
two slices of american cheese topped with fresh lettuce, tomato, onions, pickles, & secret sauce on a potato bun

Not my dish but it was devoured. Great looking burger!

Cajun Shrimp Pasta | $23.99
blackened shrimp, jalapeno cheddar sausage & bell peppers tossed in spicy alfredo sauce, topped with shredded parmesan

Good dish. Sauce was a little bit thin so it didn’t cling to the pasta as much as I would have liked. Still tasted good and can’t beat half price!

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29Jul / 2024

K&M Drive Inn – Kalihi, HI

I am writing this post with a heavy heart because I know K&M Drive Inn is a new locally owned family business but it wouldn’t be my blog if I wasn’t honest with my own experience. They are located in the same building as Alicia’s Market and I thought their food looked good in pictures and the menu prices? Spectacular! In fact, I was actually considering an office lunch order from them for a training. Something told me that we needed to do a dry run before committing, and good thing we did.

First of all, we wanted to call in our order before heading over so it would be ready when we arrived. It went from the phone ringing non-stop, to the phone ringing shortening (I’m assuming the denial of our call) and then finally, just straight to voicemail. That experience alone did not help me want to trust them with a bigger office order.

When we got there, there were a bunch of people at the window. Good sign right? Sure. I guess an office had put in an order earlier that morning and they all walked down to pay for each plate individually. Oh my. That took…quite a while. Also, the food wasn’t not ready when they requested for it to be ready when they called it in early in the morning! The other office folks were very nice but after I waited out all the payments and finally could order at the window, there was no apologies for the wait or anything. In fact, she seemed like she didn’t even want to help us. Did not feel good.

In the end, I’ll judge the food as is. By taste. None of us were pleased with our dishes…I’ll just share the pics below.

Fry Pork Ribs | $10.95

Not my dish, but was not enjoyed by the diner. Dry and flavorless, the sauce they serve with it was also weird. It’s supposed to be a hot chili sauce but it was just spicy and somehow flavorless too. How do you acheive that??

BBQ Chicken | $10.95

My dish. So I ordered this dish expecting BBQ chicken like you get from other Drive Inns, you know? Just boneless chicken thighs that is grilled. This one was sliced chicken thighs in an American BBQ sauce. It was odd. It didn’t taste bad but when you were expecting something else, it’s a little jarring you know?

HBS (Hamburger Steak) Plate | $10.95

Okay, this person enjoyed the hamburger steak but do you see the garnish? They garnish all their dishes with green onions and cilantro. I find it kind of funny and think people who hate cilantro (which is probably a lot) would not like or expect this addition. So if you don’t like cilantro, make sure you tell them you don’t want it.

Lao Sausage | $13.95

The way their menu is laid out, it looked like lao sausage was a protein option for their chow fun stirfry so that’s what I was trying to order. I was told it was only a plate. Okay, I got the plate. The sausage itself is good and spicy! The sauce, it’s the same sauce as the pork ribs. Spicy yet flavorless. It was so odd. And I am a saucy person (wink) and I just threw it out. What a waste, and I hate wasting but it was that inedible to me.

In the end, a disappointment. Maybe I’ll give them a try again later when they’ve adjusted to running this restaurant. It doesn’t look like they are hurting for business, their prices are great and the food is okay. I just don’t think it’s worth the drive out there for me.

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15Jul / 2024

Fooki – Pearlridge, HI

Kat is in town and I was excited to meet up with her! Fooki has been open for a few years now and I’ve wanted to try it but I hardly come out west. I used this opportunity to try out some Taiwanese food and meet up with Kat! I will say, this restaurant is not hurting for business. Perhaps it was the day we chose but there was already a huge party waiting to get in when we got there before opening! It was a huge office event but there was also a bunch of tables that came in after us too. Luckily the waiter was smart and got our orders in before the big table started ordering.

Winter Melon Lemonade | $6.00

Ugh! Now I know why it was sour! I ordered a winter melon tea and they gave me the lemonade one. I really did not like this. I even had Kat try it not knowing! Lemonade and Winter Melon tea should not be mixed together. Period. Blah! I drank it because I am Chinese and will not waste.

MaLa Wonton | $14.00
House-made shrimp and pork wonton with water chestnut, shredded taro chips, cabbage, Sichuan peppercorns and Mala chili oil, spicy garlic sauce. (Numbing Spicy, Recommend to start with regular spicy)

Okay, reading this description and I am questioning where the shredded taro chips were? Huh? Like was it in the wontons? I wouldn’t call them chips if they are smoshed into the filling? Hah? Also, they did not ask us for spice level when ordering so I’m assuming we got regular spicy?

I was a bit thrown off by the raw looking cabbage, luckily Kat told me that it is actually parboiled and she is right! I don’t like the taste of raw cabbage too much. The wontons themselves are pretty okay, nothing special. Worth $14? I don’t know…

Beef Scallion Noodles | $18.00
Noodle mixed with fragrant scallion oil soy sauce, topped with braised shanks, fried taro chips, cucumber, red onion, cilantro, parsley, and green onion (No Soup)

A nice dish! Good cold noodle dish for a hot day. It had good flavors, the meat was seasoned nicely. Not a wow dish, but a nice dish!

LU ROU FAN (Taiwanese Pork Rice Bowl) | $15.00
Minced pork belly, garnished with pickled mustard, green onion, fried shallots, white rice, braised tofu and egg

Another dish Kat and I was excited to try. Her first comment? The rice was mushy. That’s one of the things I will never get! Asian restaurants who can’t cook rice right? She was right, it was a bit mushy. That’s hard to do especially for long grain rice?? The taste of the pork was good, the braised tofu was good and the pickles I liked. Not a huge fan of the egg, was a bit non-descript. What’s up with them saying there is fried stuff in every dish but I only saw it on the noodles? There was no fried shallots on this dish!

The food came out super fast. Like suspiciously fast. We ordered and I swear it took 5 minutes for ALL the dishes to come out. Perhaps they had them all made and just ready to serve out? I’m not sure. I think the prices are a bit high for the portions they serve. And just an FYI, they charge a credit card surcharge. I didn’t know this until after I saw my receipt. And another TMI FYI, I got a tummy ache that afternoon. 🙁 But perhaps that was just me. In the end, Fooki was a glad I tried but probably don’t plan to return restaurant.

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10Jul / 2024

MW Restaurant – Kapiolani, Hawaii

I haven’t been to MW Restaurant since they were in their original location by Don Quijote. I think I went there when they first opened. I tried their sister restaurant Artizen a few times which has been good so I was excited to try! MW is now located in the Velocity Honolulu Building, fancy digs means…fancy prices. Artizen has parking stalls but MW does not, you have to drive up the ramp and pay for valet parking. $6 for Valet and that doesn’t include tip.

Beautiful interior

Mango Peach Iced Tea | $8.00

The table shared a bottle. I got myself this tasty sounding tea. It wasn’t sweetened, DOH! Sorry, I was all excited for a sweet drink. And I could barely taste any mango and peach? Huh? Yeah, I wouldn’t get it again.

Shortrib & Foie Gras Won Tons | $18.00
kabayaki sauce

I think $18.00 is only for 3 won tons, but we asked for more since we were a table of 5. It’s a good dish, fried up nicely. I’ll just go out on a limb again and say when it’s good innards like shortrib and foie gras and it’s ground into a filling for dumplings, something gets lost. It tasted good, don’t get me wrong!

Pork Hash Dumplings | $18.00
truffle bacon dashi

Not sure how many dumplings comes in the original order but they upped it to 5 for us again. Well, this dish was good. If I was alone, I would have probably slurped up that dashi. Or added like somen noodles. Carb queen.

Farmer’s Salad | $14.00
metro grow butter lettuce, yuzu miso vinaigrette, assorted local vegetables

Good salad! I didn’t each much of it but I did try it and enjoyed it. I guess it’s a bit deconstructed because the assorted veggies are splattered through the plate.

Truffle Braised Shortrib | $67.00
roasted vegetables and potato, truffle sauce, seared hudson valley foie gras

16 oz Brandt Brand Prime Ribeye Steak | $85.00
garlic butter, potato gratin (served separately), mushroom medly

Miso Honey Glazed Butterfish | $49.00
kimchee potato salad, taegu

Not my dish but it looked so good! I would definitely get this dish next time if I return!

Surf and Turf | $70.00
hapa new york strip, seafood fried rice

Chan and I shared our entrees. Here is his dish! How was it? Okay. The fried rice did have a good amount of seafood in it! Thought the fried rice was a tad bit salty. I can’t get over the price of the steaks here!

Seafood Bouillabaisse | $65.00
stuffed lobster, calamari, crab, clams, scallop, tomato saffron broth, toast

MW likes to mix it up a bit with their menu offerings and they used to serve a similar dish but paella style. Being the carb queen I am, that’s what I wanted. They didn’t have it and this was the current dish. I think for what you get, this is a decent priced dish! And you know what? It was DELICIOUS. The broth was so good and the seafood was tender and succulent. The lobster head is made with stuffing while the body meat is left intact. Yum. Chan and I enjoyed this dish a lot!

Mud Pie | $18.00
japanese hibiki ice cream, coffee ice cream, milk chocolate crunch

Strawberry Shortcake “Pavlova” | $16.00
souffle cheesecake, laie vanilla panna cotta, strawberry yuzu sorbet, shiso strawberries, crispy meringue

Brulee | $16.00
lilikoi sorbet, custard, lilikoi “gummies,” haupia tapioca, tropical fruit

Chan’s dessert. I didn’t read the description before taking my first bite and I was taken aback by the sour lilikoi! I love lilikoi and it’s a fun way to do this dessert. Usually creme brulee is very rich so I think using the lilikoi really helps to cut the sweetness.

Banana Cream Pie | $18.00
butterscotch pudding, banana, ulu pate brisee, kohana rum ice cream

I don’t know what a ulu pate brisee is. Is that the crust they created? Look it doesn’t matter, this dish was so good. I loved it! A nice take on the banana cream pie. I enjoyed that there was both slices of fresh banana and caramelized banana. I really enjoyed it!

So verdict on MW Restaurant? Definitely a restaurant if you want to treat yourself or splurge. I took a look at the Artizen menu and actually found more dishes I would want to try on that menu. And one of the dishes they serve, I think it’s the mochi crusted fish with somen noodles is almost half the price for lunch take-out. I’m sure it’s a different portion and all but I think I want to try Artizen so I can see how they fare!

I almost forgot! They still do end the meal by giving every diner their own cookies to take home. The cookie is so delicious.

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05Jul / 2024

Mixed Plate Friday

I gave it my all. I tried my best. I wasn’t drinking coffee for a while and well, it didn’t work. I get so tired during the day. I also wake up super early, like 4AM early. I don’t set any alarms, my body just hates me and wakes me up at that time. So yeah, I get really tired by the time the afternoon hits. I’m going to have to start drinking coffee again. Been lazy to get that going so I pick this up when I stop into Don Quijote. I like that it’s lightly sweetened and get milk inside too. It doesn’t give me the jitters and the sugar level is not crazy high. This bottle can last me like 2-3 days (lol). Just wanted to share!

Jersey Mike’s Subs Turkey and Provolone (Regular) | $10.95
Miss Vickie’s Spicy Dill Pickle Chips | $2.05

Saw this on TikTok a long time ago. I like when people give their specific sandwich orders so I can try it myself. So I got the regular turkey and provolone on their Rosemary Parmesan bread. I then let them put all their seasonings on it and add all the jalapenos and stuff in. It’s a great sandwich. I also wanted to try the pickle chips, was good!

Sukhee Haesoo | $6.99

I saw this on social media so long ago. Have you seen it? These bottles are made special so that you can screw directly onto Korean soju bottles and it infuses the soju with the syrup but it is also like a hangover cure! Hawaii finally got it, but specifically Palama Supermarket Makaloa. I was able to get it at $4.99 cause it was on sale when we went. Tried one so far, pretty good! Makes the soju super sweet and well it’s dangerous cause you feel like you’re drinking juice. There are currently five flavors you can get from Palama. Check out the video below, it’s so neat!

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03Jul / 2024

Aloha Burma – Kakaako/Kaheka, HI

Aloha Burma is a fairly new Burmese food truck. They come into town every Thursday and are either parked in Kakaako by Fisher’s or in Kaheka near Don Quijote, follow their Instagram to get updates. I’m a fan of tea salad so I wanted to try it out since Dagon no longer opens for lunch. But the thing that drew me in this time? Laksa Shrimp! I love laksa and I love shrimp. So how was it?

Veg Curry Bread | $8.00

This is an interesting dish. I guess from the look of it, I expected like a vegetable curry croquette deal. It’s actually rolled up bread (like a naan) with the curry and then it’s breaded and deep fried. Not my favorite, Felt too carby for me? Breading and then bread inside too? You know? The curry was good though.

Burmese Tea Salad | $9.00

Have you ever had Tea Salad? It’s chock full of great ingredents and tastes great. It’s also a lot to chew because of those ingredients. Get this salad if you feel like crunching down on a lot of different elements – I wasn’t in the crunchy mood this day lol. I did try it and it was good but I can’t give a full review since I didn’t eat the whole salad.

Masala Beef Curry | $14.00

Chicken Curry with Biryani Rice | $14.00

Oh yum. I ordered this for dinner. It was so good! And their bok choy, very well seasoned (think tons of garlic). Yummy!

Laksa Shrimp | $14.00

Finger licking good. Literally. I love that they peel the shrimp for you but leave the heads. Brah that’s where all the flavor is. I will fight in a battle on this. It was so good. Deep laska flavor, he mentioned that this is his take on laksa. I don’t know how the different variations of laksa tastes, I just know this was good. Would order again!

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01Jul / 2024

North Shore Grinds – Kaimuki, HI

When Jalna updated her blog with all the ono grinds she got from North Shore Grinds, I had to go! I used to come to this area all the time for Your Kitchen. Oh boy do I miss Your Kitchen. Not a great parking situation for North Shore Grinds but we were able to snag street parking pretty easily, and get plenty turnaround since people are grabbing their lunches to go (there is no seating).

Killah Pulehu Ribs | $18.95

Chan’s dish. The seasoning is good but he felt like the cut of meat was not the best. It says ribs, it’s “boneless” but I wonder if they are really even using ribs? You know? I don’t feel like it is.

Chicken Katsu w/BBQ Horseradish Dip | $16.95

Oh winner winner chicken dinner! This wasn’t my dish but I got to try a piece with the dip, I can see why they are known for this dish. I would get this next time!

Hamburger Steak w/Onion Gravy | $16.65

Not my dish but it was enjoyed!

Brandon Special (Pulehu Ribs & Furikake Mahi) | $18.95

This was my dinner that I shared with Chan. The fish was good, same pulehu ribs. Once again, pulehu was nicely seasoned. But is it really ribs??? Idk…

Herb Crusted Mahi Mahi w/Lemon Cream | $17.95

Jalna got this dish and raved about it and I had to get it too. Well, she was good and got all salad. I need my rice. The dish was really good! I enjoyed it! I enjoyed it more than the furikake mahi, would get again!

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