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CINO – Ward, HI

Jan28

Chan and I had a new year’s celebration meal with two dear friends of ours at Cino. Cino is a newish restaurant located at one of those new Ward condominiums (very close to Tonkatsu Kuro). The menu sounded very nice and I was excited to try a new restaurant! Did I jinx myself with the excitement? Perhaps…let’s check it out together.

Yuzu Peach Collins (non-alcoholic) | $10.00

This restaurant seems to be allergic to printing things on menus. I asked if they had any mocktails and this was the only choice so here we are! It was a good drink! Not strong on yuzu taste which is good for me.

1/2 Dozen Oysters | $24.00

No can comment because no can eat!! Damn me and my oyster sensitivity! You know, I did eat one raw oyster in Japan and did just fine. Should I keep testing my resolve? I don’t know…

Beef Tartare | $24.00
Creekstone Farm’s Filet Mignon, Egg Yolk Emulsion, Capers, Tapioca Puff

I apologize for the photograph! I love beef tartare and this was a nice preparation, the tapioca puff was fried light and crispy. Very good dish!

Charcuterie Board | $34.00

Their board is a “chef’s daily special” so we didn’t know what would come on the board. We asked the waitress and she recited it out to us. That’s a lot of information to take in and I can’t remember it all. There were 5 different types of meat, 2 different cheeses and a nice apricot jelly. It was good! This was also where I tasted mortadella for the first time and hmm…not a fan. Not from here anyway.

Rigatoni Bolognese | $29.00
Veal, Beef, Pork, Sofrito

Lamb Shank | $52.00
Seasonal Vegetable Scafata

Got a taste of this, very nice and tender. Had a good gamey taste which I like.

House-Aged Half Roasted Duck | $49.00
Confit Leg, Sauce alla Orange

Felt like some duck and not from Chinatown. It was very nice! I enjoyed the orange glaze with the rich duck. Would I prefer the Chinatown style over this place? Well, probably but it’s nice to branch out!

Pork Chop | $48.00
14 Day Dry-Aged Averna Apple Reduction

This was the shock of the night for me – Chan’s dish but I got to try a piece and it was so good. It was cooked medium so you shouldn’t order this if you are sensitive to pink pork meat. It was super tender and flavorful. We had leftovers but reheated, it wasn’t the same. Once it gets fully cooked, it’s just like any other run of the mill pork. It was good freshly prepared.

Crispy Garlic Potatoes | $16.00
Parmigiano, Parsley

The table enjoyed this dish, I tried a piece and it was good! I’m more of a rice gal.

Mango Panna Cotta with Seasonal Berries | $12.00

Yet another instance where there was no menu! No dessert menu – can you believe it? When the waitress asked if we wanted dessert, we asked to see the menu and poor thing had to recite every single dessert. WHY? Anyway, I decided to try this dish because I wasn’t feeling ice cream or any of the other dishes. I wasn’t expecting much at first but boy was it good. I loved it. I would get this again. If you can see, there’s actually a mango layer in the dessert. The fresh berries offered a perfect offset to the creamy panna cotta.

In the end, the food was good but the restaurant was just okay. It is a very young and trendy restaurant so it was very loud. We were seated by a table of young galpals and they were very loud and vulgar (f-bombs left and right) all night. Made it hard to have any real conversations. Glad to have tried, don’t plan to return anytime soon.

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Lam’s Kitchen – Chinatown, HI

Jan26

Lam’s Kitchen recently reopened after a renovation – I didn’t even know they were closed for renovation! Then again, I don’t make it out to Chinatown all that often. When I was a kid, I dreaded being dragged out to Chinatown with my parents. The smell of urine, the dirtiness (sorry), and just constantly running into people they knew. It would always lead to comments (more like snide remarks) about me so a shopping to trip to Chinatown always felt so much longer than it needed to be. You’d think my dad was running for mayor or something with the amount of people he talked to.

Anyhow, now as an adult going through Chinatown not knowing anyone, I actually find it to be quite joyous. I generally just shop at grocery stores so the large variety of items I can find in Chinatown is delightful. I can get past the smell of urine and not so sanitary conditions lol. Oh sorry, I got off-track. Anyway! Lam’s Kitchen is still in the same exact location, it looks like they just expanded out. It’s a very nice renovation with freezing cold air conditioning.

Beef Flank and Tendon Look Fun (no tendon) | $14.99

My friend doesn’t like tendon so she asks for just beef flank and they are absolutely fine with that request! If I remember correctly, they used to serve this with choy sum but this time it was lettuce. I’m used to Chinese folks serving up cooking lettuce but wanted to let you folks know.

Beef Flank & Tendon Mein | $14.99

I decided to get the same dish but with mein instead of look fun. I was full of regrets, I enjoy the skinny noodles but dang it looked like I got WAY less noodles than my friend did. I learned my lesson! How was the taste? Good as always! Wasn’t too hungry this morning so we didn’t get any side orders.

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Mixed Plate Friday

Jan23

Soon’s Kal-bi Drive-In

Bento Combination Plate | $15.95
BBQ Beef, Fried Chicken, Meat Jhun, Mandoo, Bean Sprouts, Cabbage, and Rice

Soon’s Kal-bi Drive-In has been around for decades – I used to go to school across the street from Salt Lake Shopping Center and the willowing smoke from their kitchen was a signature memory. There is a distinctive taste to their food, it’s hard to explain. It’s not authentic Korean, more of a local style Korean. But somehow, their taste is very distinctive to Soon’s. I’d say if someone fed me their meat jhun and banchan blind folded, I would be able to tell it was from Soon’s.

I got to try it the other week and am happy to report that the taste is all the same. How nostalgic that was. It was a nice treat to get after a Target run. I would definitely return! And for prices nowadays, $16 isn’t bad for all this food!

L&L Hawaiian BBQ Regular BBQ Chicken | $17.25

Uhhh…it’s been a while since I got a regular plate from L&L but does this look worth $18 to you? Especially comparing it to the Soon’s plate, I can’t help but feel cheated. Especially just for BBQ chicken! But heck, I felt like the good ole L&L style BBQ chicken so here we are. Tasted fine, wasn’t worth it.

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Hong Yeon – Moilili, HI

Jan14

Back for another visit to Hong Yeon, if you remember my previous post, I came here when they first opened for their $10 jajjangmyun deal! This time we came back after things have settled in and tried their lunch combos! I think the lunch combos are the best deals in the restaurant, they only have it on weekdays so plan accordingly. Also, the parking lot is junk with limited stalls so I recommend coming early! Let me just say, this restaurant was pretty bustling full of Korean customers. Whew. I wanted them to continue to be busy because I don’t want them to close! The wait staff was a mix of Chinese and Korean folks, that was interesting. It doesn’t matter cause we got great service! Here’s the lunch combos menu.

Daikon, raw onion slices and black bean paste are the required banchan. I don’t make the rules. (Kimchi would have been nice though).

Tangsuyuk (Sweet and Sour Pork)

The combos are either jajjangmyun or jjampong with your choice of side dish. We both chose tangsuyuk as our combo choice. They brought this out first and placed it on the table and I wasn’t sure what was going on. Did they combine our two sides into one and serve it? I say that because it’s a pretty big portion of pork. Guess what? Nope, this was just the first one! They brought out a second one that was the same exact size. Crazy! We both packed up the other plate to go home which fed very satisfied S.O.’s (significant others).

Small Jajjangmyun

When the waitress placed this dish down, she mentioned it’s the small size. I think because the regular size when you order it ala carte is way bigger. I think this is the perfect portion size for a combo!

Jjampong!

I decided to try something different this time and got this. No regrets, it was SO good! Not as spicy as it looks, the broth has great flavor. Lots of seafood too! I was concerned about getting my clothes dirty so I started making a napkin bib when they came around and gave me a disposable bib to wear! Thank god they did, I needed it (lol). Love the thick noodles too. I’ve been to other restaurants where they have split bowls and you can order both the jajjangmyun and jjampong as one! Wish a restaurant here would do that.

Noodle Pull!

Definitely would recommend checking this restaurant out – it’s nice to have another option for Northern Chinese cuisine.

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Yakiniku Like – Ke’eaumoku, HI

Jan7

Yakiniku Like is a newish restaurant near Ala Moana. This is a chain restaurant from Japan and they offer up premium meats at a good value price – they also offer up a smokeless grill environment. I didn’t even know that was part of the restaurant until I was there and I was pleasantly pleased that I didn’t smell of grilled meats when I left! That’s a big plus. They have a lot of great value set menus, the only thing I didn’t like is that you have to pay right when you order. It’s a QR code ordering system (of course it is) so they do not take cash, you have to place your order on your phone and pay right away for them to prepare it and bring to your table. So yeah, you basically have to pay tip before you even get any service. No good. The service was pretty attentive so I was okay with it – I don’t give a huge tip for restaurants that I cook my food myself. Especially this one where they drop the food and that’s it, not like an AYCE where they have to constantly bring you plates and plates of food.

Also, they have a $9.99 special every month which comes with 2 choices of meat, rice, soup and salad. We didn’t go for the special, we wanted to try the other meats!

Beef Lovers Set!! | $19.95
kalbi short plate (100g), misuji (100g), and harami (50g)

Best Duo Set!! | $19.95
kalbi short rib (100g) & pork belly (100g)

We got both sets and shared the meats! I think the beef lovers set is the better deal and for the same price! The quality of the meat is pretty good and the grill cooks pretty fast. We enjoyed our meal! I think it’s worth it and I would return (maybe not soon soon but one day). Their parking lot is junk – get chance if you go super early, if not, good luck with street parking.

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Merriman’s – Honolulu, HI

Jan5

New year means a new meal with one of my nearest and dearest friends. This year, we decided to try a new restaurant (new to me) Merriman’s located in Ward Village. They are open for lunch and dinner but the lunch menu is a better value has has better food (to me). Let’s check it out!

Lilikoi Pop (Zero Proof) | $7.00

Another year, another (non-alcoholic) drink. Yum! Love the sourness of the lilikoi in this drink. The zing comes mostly from the foam sitting up top – it started going down the sides and I absolutely did not lick the cup (I did). Delicious!

Tako & Country Bread | $27.00
octopus “a la escargot,” cognac parsley garlic butter

I didn’t think my friend would want to get this dish since he isn’t an adventurous eater. He reminded me that he’s had real escargot before and yeah it was probably because of me. Anything swimming in garlic and butter will not taste bad. This was good. The octopus was super soft and tender. Delicious!

Fish & Shrimp & Chips | $29.00
hana koa brewing co. ‘breaktime’ beer-battered mahi & wild shrimp, rosemary sea salt fries, malt vinegar aioli, lemon

I was the most excited for this dish. I love me some fish and chips, I didn’t read the menu clearly since I didn’t know it was shrimp too! It comes with two big shrimps and 2 pieces of mahi – perfect to share. A bit disappointed that this was not served with tartar sauce, not a big fan of the malt vinegar aioli. The dish itself wasn’t bad – I just think we got too much fried items and everything was too greasy after a while. Wish they had tartar sauce (yup I’m stuck on that).

Steak Frites | $45.00
black peppercorn crusted prime sirloin, rosemary sea salt fries, herb compound butter

Yup, more fries. Too much fried food! I’ve been wanting to try a good steak frites plate for a long time now. The keyword is good. The steak was tough and hard to chew – it was also overcooked. A very blah dish for me especially for the price. Would not get this again. Need to find a place that makes this dish but with a good cut of meat.

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Totoya – Kaimuki, HI

Dec29

Totoya opened a few months ago with pretty big fanfare, I didn’t dare go because of the long lines! They are a super small shop so unless you lined up early, you would have to stand and wait for the next seating. I came on a random weekday for lunch the other week and luckily for us, even though we came 30 minutes after opening, we scored our two seats! Had more seats open after we sat too…so I guess they aren’t as busy as before. They also opened a second location by Ala Moana.

Totoya specializes in rice bowls – specifically negitoro or kaisen bowls. In other words, if you don’t like raw fish, don’t come here. So was it worth the hype? Check it out!

Nagomi | $22.90
Add Egg yolk shoyu | $1.50
original negitoro, red shrimp, salmon (2pc), scallops, tobiko, nori (2pc)
aosa seaweed miso soup

Matsu Negitoro Bowl | $34.90
Add Egg yolk shoyu | $1.50
tuna, scallops, cucumber, kazunoko, green onion, tobiko, nori (2pc), sesame seeds
Matsu: luxurious bowl topped with sea urchin and salmon roe
aosa seaweed miso soup

Miso Soup

Shoyu Egg Yolk (honestly, not needed)

This was my bowl. Ooh…it’s a lot of food! I liked it the first few bites and then it was just…too much? Too much rice? Too much stuff. I think since it negitoro – it’s also very mushy. We also added the shoyu egg yolk and well, that’s just triple mush lol. It just becomes a bit too much at the end. It was good but nothing I would return for. I think I’d rather go to a sushi restaurant and eat sushi by the piece! If you love negitoro and rice bowls, please have at it!

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Nihonbashi SUI – Machida, Japan

Dec22

A visit to Snoopy Museum means a visit to Grandberry Park and our favorite kaiten sushi place, Nihonbashi SUI! Machida and Grandberry Park is such a cute neighborhood, I’ll bet it’s expensive to live here too. If I was rich, I wouldn’t mind living here! Not much to say in this post, just look at al the food we had. We really go crazy at this place. This time, there was no line. We were the first ones there but it did get busy after we started to eat.

Look at this shrimp tempura! The shrimp was HUGE. It was so plump and bouncy – super good!!

One of my all time favorite fish – flounder! It’s so good and tastes so well with shiso leaf. Highly recommend!

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IPPUDO – Gotanda-Higashiguchi, Japan

Dec15

Chan has never been to an Ichiran, can you believe it? I don’t know why I brought that up when this post is about Ippudo. I like Ippudo but don’t necessarily come to Ippudo when I visit Japan. This location was located really close to our hotel and I really wanted some ramen and chahan so off we went. How was it? Much better than I remembered! This was also Chan’s first time trying Ippudo and he liked it a lot! In fact, this was the first out of two visits during this trip.

Free sides! Pickled spicy mustard cabbage, bean sprouts, gari and whole garlic cloves! They offer garlic graters to put freshly grated garlic into your ramen. Oh so good!

Gyoza (10 pcs) | ¥470

Chan’s Noodles!

My noodles! I only got half an egg…humph!

Chahan

This is super random but I really enjoy Chinese fried rice made by Japanese ramen shops. Is that random? I super enjoy this version of fried rice, it has a good wok hei flavor and a good amount of MSG. Not many places in Hawaii makes this…or makes it well. Sorry, I must have been hungry and didn’t get a picture of all the menu prices!

The service here is enthusiastic, they get you in and out quickly (which works great for all the business people). I think their broth is deep in flavor and I like that they offer up many different bowls with a variation of toppings. English menu available on their ipads! I would return (and did return).

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Shunkashuto – Kawagoe, Japan

Dec10

Chan and I were hanging with his friends and made an impromptu trip out to Kawagoe! Totally unexpected and so awesome because there is a Snoopy Village there! We started off with a warm and nourishing udon meal on this rainy day (the only rainy day of our trip) at Shunkashuto. I think the restaurant is geared towards tourists but it doesn’t matter, it was still so good.

Kakuni (Boiled Pork) | ¥800

Yummy kakuni for the table to share. What can I say? Broke-da-mout tender, fall apart in your mouth kine. Delicious!

Sweet Potato Tempura | ¥420

Yum! So glad they ordered both side dishes because I wanted to get a full set that included these sides but didn’t…and they ordered them as sides anyway. Isn’t life great? LOLOL.

Shrimp Tempura Noodles | ¥1550
classic udon noodle dish topped with deep fried shrimp tempura

I was excited to eat some shrimp tempura with “tick” udon noodles but soon regretted my choice after my fellow dining companions got their meals. Not that my dish was bad, not at all, it’s just that theirs was better!!!

Kakiage Noodles | ¥1380
ukiuki is happy or a delightful noodle dish with kakiage shrimp and veggie fritter
kakiage is deep fried shrimp and veggie fritter, which uses a variety of ingredients, such as shrimp, onions, sweet potatoes, carrots and japanese parsley.

The other three including Chan got the kakiage set and damn, take a look at that kakiage. The kakiage we get here in Hawaii looks so sad compared to this. If I knew this is how their kakiage was made, I would have definitely gotten this. Chan let me have a taste and it was so good! Big chunks of vegetables and shrimp – fried light and crispy. Dang. I enjoyed this restaurant a lot!

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