Ahi & Vegetable – Kalihi, HI

Nov25

Long time no see folks! I hope you are all doing well. Everyone is probably busily getting ready for Thanksgiving huh? The past 2 weeks were probably the worst of the semester. Nonstop events and my final presentations. The presentations are all done and the bulk of the events are done. We had a craft fair this past Friday and I made my famous kimchee fried rice and holiday bowtie pasta. I don’t mean to toot my own horn but I will, the kimchee fried rice was the best yet. I paid for my own order (lol) and it was heavenly. I make some bomb fried rice. It was hard work prepping and cooking it but it was all worth it.

I hope to do some cooking soon so I can share new recipes again. I won’t be making a turkey this year, maybe some oven baked chicken tenders. Random yah? It’s okay, I’m hoping they will be delish. Quick post today to share a previous lunch from Ahi & Vegetable, they opened a fairly new shop in Kalihi. They basically specialize in seafood..and not much else. Here goes!

Sashimi Combo on Rice – $15.00

I don’t think this is on the main menu but look at that fish! Looks amazing. My coworker got this and she LOVED it. A bit pricey for lunch but did you look at the fish??

Bento B5 – $11.00

This bento comes with spicy ahi, ahi poke and BBQ chicken over rice. I think it’s a bit pricey and the cuts of fish isn’t that great. Their spicy ahi has a different texture from usual spicy ahi – it’s more of a mush than the cubes of ahi you’re used to. This bento set also comes with a miso soup. Would I get it again? Not likely….

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Aloha Vietnamese Foods – Moilili, HI

Nov15

Aloha Vietnamese Foods (aka Aloha Pho on Yelp) is located in the same lot as Sweet Home Cafe so if you plan to come during dinner, expect a struggle in finding parking. I’ve seen some great reviews for this place so I wanted to give it a try. My experience was a bit lackluster. I thought the food was okay but they were super short-staffed so service was very slow. I somehow wish that since they have such a small staff that they would lessen the tables they have in the restaurant – there’s no sense in seating so many people if you can’t keep up with their orders.

Oxtail Curry with Rice

I was really looking forward to trying this dish. I love coconut milk based curry and oxtail is always winners. How was the dish? It was good, not great. I feel like there is something missing from it. It was a bit sweet for my taste – I feel like it was missing some kind of spice. I can’t pinpoint it – but I do wish more Vietnamese restaurants had this dish so I can try different variations!

Pho – nothing special but not bad. I think the portion is a bit small. This place is all right but I’m not sure I would add it to my dining rotation…

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Yajima-Ya – Ala Moana, HI

Nov12

My co-worker offered a lunch pick-up from Yajima-Ya and I couldn’t resist. I couldn’t resist trying what Jalna tried either! For once, I didn’t feel like noodles (I must have been crazy that day) so I gave their Samurai Donburi a try!

Samurai Donburi – $8.00

You can’t go wrong with beef and kakiage on top of some great rice. As I mentioned before, their kakiage has chunks of shrimp – it’s awesome. Their meat is thinly sliced but still quite tender. Good quality food – I would get this again!

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Ahi Assassins Fish Co. – Moilili, HI

Nov10

The weather has been lovely this weekend! Last night as I walked out of a store, I actually felt windchill. Wind. Chill. It was great. Last night was positively chilly, I actually had to grab my blanket. This is fantastic. And Sunday? The nice weather continued, nice winds and not too hot temperatures. Please please please continue! So here I am, updating some posts for my blog. Yesterday was lost, there was a Law and Order Special Victims Unit marathon on and I can’t possibly study when that is going on. Today, what have I done so far? I tried to continue my presentation but can’t concentrate. I started my final paper a bit and well here I am updating my blog. Hehe…

Ahi Assassins Fish Co. has been open for less than a month and they are getting stellar reviews on Yelp. I love that they are so close to where I work so I got to give them a try for lunch. Their parking lot is a bit small but I was able to get a spot before it got busy! The most appealing part about this shop is that the owners are fishermen! How much fresher can that be? They also charge quite little to me…all good stuff! Let’s get to the pictures, shall we?

Menu as of October 2014 – Cash only!

Shoyu Garlic Ahi Poke Bowl – $7.00

I just realized I forgot to take a picture of my Spicy Ahi bowl! Good stuff, great slices of fish. The spicy ahi, it’s definitely spicier than other spicy ahi! So when they say spicy at this place, they mean it.

Pan Seared Ahi with Garlic Plate – $8.00

Yes, that’s garlic on top. Garlic garlic garlic.

Very raw inside. I like that so it’s okay.

I originally wanted to get the baked ahi stuffed crab but they were all out, that made me sad. So I settled for this, great piece of fish. Great portion but the taste was unfortunately not there. The ahi was not seasoned and I feel like they just sauteed a bunch of unseasoned garlic and put it on top. I was so disappointed that the ahi had no seasoning – I had to add a dressing to eat this meal. If I get this next time, I will probably try the furikake one.

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Local Boys Cafe – Kalihi, HI

Nov7

Local Boys Cafe is definitely deep within the Kalihi warehouse district. I was picking up some food before heading into work and I was lucky enough to score a parking spot right in front of the shop! Very friendly crew and they definitely have a regular clientele that includes construction workers and cops. How was the experience? Well let’s talk about the food…

This is how menus have to be! So many choices, where do I start?? I spent quite a while standing there because I just didn’t know what to get!

All Meat Breakfast Special for $5.00! Isn’t that crazy? It also comes with fried rice and two eggs. Take a look at this load, luncheon meat, ham, bacon, portuguese sausage, and vienna sausage. Yes, it’s a heart attack waiting to happen but what a way to get there…lol

The fried rice from the special. Eh…the fried rice was very bland. No real flavor or toppings as you can see. I would be okay with just plain white rice.

I was generous and got my cousin lunch that day – he went for the bento. More and more bento shops are using styrofoam boxes, it’s kind of sad to see. Also, what’s gonna happen if they ban those? Wait, did they ban those containers? Anyhow, he liked it but thought the chicken was too salty. I can see why, they pour gravy over already seasoned chicken – other than that, he seemed to like it.

I went for the lau lau and beef stew combo for lunch. I figured what could go wrong?

The beef stew was good! Good flavor, not too salty or too bland.

I don’t know what what I expected with the lau lau. It was just very dry inside and the luau leaves. My gosh, that’s usually my utmost favorite part of this dish and the leaves were just so bland. It just tasted like bland unseasoned leaves. Usually the leaves take on the taste of the ingredients inside and it’s great. I did end up adding hot sauce after to help season the leaves a bit. While this plate was a bit disappointing – I still do wanna give this place one more chance!

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The Pineapple Room – Ala Moana, HI

Nov5

This was my first visit to The Pineapple Room and quite possibly my last, I really wanted it to be better but it really wasn’t. The menu and prices were definitely overrated and overpriced. Not a lot of choices – I think the only good deal would be the Loco Moco but you have to get it as part of a prix fixe menu, I wasn’t hungry enough for that. Anyhow, maybe their lunch menu is a bit better because dinner was a disappointment.

Well this was good. I enjoy this kind of bread, is this a plain focaccia? I could have had more of this…and I think we did.

Shrimp Escargot. Garlic shrimp with salt, pepper and parmesan cheese. It sounds good right? It wasn’t. It was like eating a salt lick. It was incredibly salty, the salt and parmesan cheese is too much.

Here is the bread. Half grilled and half burnt. Obviously half of the bread was inedible, not that I cared for the hard bread anyway. I used the focaccia to eat the dip…hehe.

Seared Ahi served puttanesca style over spaghetti. This dish includes portuguese sausage, tomatoes, olives, capers in a light tomato broth. Kristian enjoyed this dish a lot and the fish looks like it it was cooked on point!

Miso Garlic Butterfish – this was my entree. I enjoyed the root salad a lot, the rice was pretty good. The fish was good too. Pricey though.

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Win-Spuntino – Kaimuki, HI

Oct27

I’m still around! I think it’s time for a little break so I can focus on staying alive…lol. Last week was another whopper but I got through it, yay! Once this semester is over, I will go back to regular blogging again. I don’t know if I can take two classes in the same semester again. Or if I do, I should do it in Spring semester rather than Fall. I hope you are all doing great! I’ll do quick updates here and there as I can.

Here is one of them! A recent lunch I had from Win-Spuntino. Still a good deal but this dish is still way too rich. There’s a lot of oil so I spent my time trying to eat it…while also draining it. The amount of garlic is awesome and I love garlic. They usually serve their dishes with linguine which is what I prefer but this is the second time they ran out of linguine. I don’t get how – it’s their primary noodle and I was one of the first customers of the day.

Shrimp Scampi – $11.25

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Candi’s Cafe – Kalihi, HI

Oct16

I am alive! I had two papers due this week so I really had to hunker down and get them done. I am happy to say I got both of them in and on time. I still have papers and presentations to prep for but I am going to give myself a little free time tonight. I’ll get down and dirty again tomorrow. Work is also nuts! It’s not a good combination. I’ve been told I look tired and I believe it. I hope you folks are prepared for the potential storm! This one felt like it really crept on us yeah? I think I’m pretty prepared. I do have to fill up gas but I’m afraid to check out the lines. I wish there were cameras all over so I coud look before leaving the house. I hope Hawaii doesn’t have much damage from this storm like the last two we were preparing for. Anyway, just wanted to share a review of Candi’s Cafe today. I’ve been dying to try them out, now that I have, I’m good. The staff there are super nice but the food was mediocre. Let me explain…

Burger and Fries. My friend had this plate, she was not impressed. It was nice to see a hand formed patty but it was dry and not flavorful. What a shame…

Shrimp Scampi with Pasta

This was my dish. Meh, it wasn’t great. The sauce was a bit rich. The shrimp had a bit of a freezer burn taste and they cut it into small chunks which I thought was hiding how little shrimp they give. What made it worst was the long wait we had! It was almost 30 minutes. I highly suggest you phone in orders early if you don’t want to wait. Limited parking too.

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Liliha Bakery – Liliha, HI

Oct11

I still haven’t checked out the Nimitz location and I’m not sure if I plan to anytime soon. I guess I’m gonna try to stay loyal to the original. I hardly get to eat at their diner but when I do, it’s always so nice. They just serve very simple comfort food. Nothing fancy but something about it is just so nice. One night, after running a ton of errands, I had very little options of what I could eat for dinner. I stumbled upon Liliha Bakery and they had just enough seats for us! It was fate. I didn’t get too many pictures but I will share my meal here!

Famous Butter Rolls with their own jelly. This is the famous neon jelly I see in all the pictures. I don’t know if I was starving or what…but this tasted SO GOOD. I don’t even usually like jelly/jam but this was so ono. The freshly toasted buttery roll with the sweet (but not crazy sweet) jelly, I am salivating as we speak. I want to return back just to order a bunch of these to gobble down at home.

Here is what I got for dinner. Meat loaf with gravy, rice and tomato salad. Um, for those who go to Liliha Bakery – do they just throw a glob of mayonnaise onto the salad? Hahaha I know it wasn’t ranch but I’m a bit afraid to think it really was just a glob of mayonnaise (it was huh?).

How was the meat loaf? I thought it was all right. Tasted very home cooked – nothing spectacular but edible. Do you know what I mean? I would definitely come back again! Wish I knew when their slow times for the diner was…

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St. Louis Drive In – Kaimuki, HI

Oct9

I’m happy to report that St. Louis Drive In has a green pass sign on their window. Does it make the place look any cleaner? Umm…I’ll let you be the judge…hehe. I gotta say, some of the best food comes from not so shiny places…unless I get sick – I’m fine with them. I didn’t have much options for food one day so I decided to clog my arteries all in one place. I ordered two plates from St. Louis for my day’s meals. Oh boy…I can say both had gravy so you already know what kind of food I went for…

Loco Moco for breakfast. One burger patty, eggs over easy, gravy and rice. I think I missed the breakfast run so this was being served as a lunch plate, hence the mac salad.

Onto my second meal…lol. This was roast pork with gravy. What can I say about this? Don’t get it. First thing, the pork slices are super fatty. I enjoy a bit of fat on meat but this was a bit ridiculous. And…a few slices were SUPER salty. Like so salty that it was bitter and I had to spit it out. I think this is the second time I’ve tried their roast pork and both times were duds. It’s really too bad.

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maybeitsjenny

Hawaii based food blog with foodie travels!

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