Agu Ramen Part 2 – Honolulu, HI

Feb11

Here’s to second chances! And here’s proof that second chances work! For my first post on Agu, please go here. For my second visit, I wanted to raise the stakes…and boy did I ever.

Side Order Gyoza – always necessary. They make these fresh daily, delicious!

Kotteri Tonkatsu – $11.75

Spicy Kotteri Tonktasu – Level 5! It is definitely spicy. Not so much when you slurp the noodles but when you drink the soup…watch out!

Soft boiled egg. Actual soft boiled egg. Thank you Agu for making your eggs RIGHT. Other places are always overcooked.

So after my second refill of water in my regular cup, our waiter brings me this huge cup. And yes, it was initially full so I was drinking my way through that too…haha, sad yeah?

I like what they did with the design of the interior! Very different from Da Kitchen, like it a lot!

So what did I think? I LOVED the Kotteri Tonkatsu. My friend let me try her broth and it was SO good. I definitely want to get that the next time I go. The spicy one? Yup, it was spicy. But I didn’t feel too bad afterwards. But later that night…I paid for it. Horribly. And it’s not the TMI thing you think…I just had major stomach cramps for 2 hours. I do not wish this on anyone. So while I could handle the heat, my body couldn’t afterwards. There’s even an Epic spicy level, I don’t even wanna know how spicy that one is! Give Agu a try! It’s definitely worth it. Our waiter mentioned they plan to extend hours soon so folks can get their late night fix. 🙂

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Helena’s Hawaiian Food – Honolulu, HI

Feb2

Helena’s Hawaiian Food is one of the most popular Hawaiian food joints in Hawaii. It might be controversial to say this, but they’re probably the best? If you don’t agree, feel free to comment on who is…cause I’d be more than happy to try them out! Helena’s is located in my neck of the woods and my first ever visit was two weeks ago. I know, what kind of Kalihi girl am I? Well even after I started hearing more about Helena’s, the lines and horrible parking lot certainly scared me off enough. So how was my experience? Um…magical! Take a look if you don’t believe me!

We ordered Menu D which includes: Kalua Pig, Lomi Salmon, Pipikaula Short Ribs & Luau Squid with 2 scoops of Rice ($18.40)

Lomi Salmon

Kalua Pig

Luau Squid (my favorite!!!!)

This set comes with haupia, raw onions and Hawaiian Sea Salt

Pipikaula Short Ribs

Yummmmmy – star of the show. Seriously!

Lomi Salmon with Raw Fish & Limu – $4.95

Beef Stew – $3.95

What a great meal! We got here pretty early but not early enough…the parking lot was packed! Luckily, just as we were turning in, someone came out. Score! We had about a 10 minute wait and got right in! The staff are all so friendly. Especially the cashier who is the mother of the owner, super sweet lady. And genuine sweet – I love it. She also adds up your check manually first and then re-calculates it on her calculator. That’s a really good way to keep your mind sharp! I’d love to come back here again, but I will only brave it on a weekday at like opening time. I also got an order of pipikaula short ribs to go to take back to the office. I did share it, but not nearly as much as I should have, hehe…

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The Cheesecake Factory – Waikiki, HI

Feb1

I don’t have to tell you about The Cheesecake Factory do I? Of course I don’t. I don’t have to tell you that this place is busy all the time with a line stretching across Waikiki. I don’t have to tell you that an hour and a half wait time is normal. So why is this place so popular? Must be the cheesecake. Well, it is mighty good cheesecake. The food is not bad either but it can be a bit pricey. I came for lunch on a weekday and hallelujah, we didn’t have to wait at all. First time ever. Let’s look at the pictures!

This. is. it. Fresh Strawberry Cheesecake. Delicious!

The bread. They usually serve two breads, a sourdough bread and this sweet honey wheat bread. I don’t eat the sourdough so I just asked for all wheat. Was gooood.

Fried Calamari – it comes with a garlic aioli and cocktail sauce. Delicious!

Ahi Poke – market price! Umm..market price always scares me. Hahaha but had to get em cause it was a special meal. It was very good and the guest of honor enjoyed it so it was well worth it.

Spicy Chicken Chipotle Pasta – Lunch Portion. I took a chance on this dish, haven’t tried it before and wow was it good! I could do without the deep fried stick thingies…but the actual pasta was so good. The vegetables, chicken, sauce and pasta just worked so well together. We were both sooo stuffed at the end of this meal. Great lunch though.

Park in the Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center garage and you can get validation when you dine here. Make sure you pay at the parking machines by the elevators before you go to your car. They don’t have live attendants collecting money at the end anymore.

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Sushi Bay – Kapolei, HI

Jan29

Sushi Bay is a fairly new sushi restaurant in the Kapolei Shopping Center. Anytime there is a new sushi anything – I’m down to clown. Okay, I don’t know where that phrase comes from, I heard it on Parks and Recreation and I really just wanted to give it a shot. Sushi Bay will undoubtedly be compared to Genki Sushi and Kuru Kuru Sushi. Well after trying it, I’d say it’s almost an exact copy to Kuru Kuru Sushi but dare I say…better! They do have a few more items than Kuru Kuru and serve the same big slices of fish as Kuru Kuru (Genki’s serving sizes pale in comparison to both). Ahhh…let’s let the pictures tell the story.

Garlic Hamachi – $2.80, yummmmy…so good!

Onion Salmon – $2.80

Hamachi – $2.80, there’s bits of green onion on this and in another dish. That’s the only small complaint, they’re a bit sloppy in that regard.

Ika – $1.50 (hi green onion/furikake again!)

Ahi Poke – $2.20, delicious! And it doesn’t come with limu which I prefer.

Mix Don – $8.99, half Spicy Tuna and half Ahi Poke. Topped off with sliced onions and a slice of ahi and salmon. Heavenly.

Avocado Chicken – $2.20, here is something new that I had to try! Sorry that the avocado is browning but it was delicious! It’s just a slice of avocado topped which karaage chicken. Well not just…it was good!

We came on a weekday at about 10:30 am and they already had diners! This place definitely picked up as we ate. I hope they get successful enough to branch out and open in town. They offer a lot of other noodle and rice bowl dishes too which I enjoy! If you’re ever out in Kapolei, give them a try. I like the Target and Costco in Kapolei because it’s much slower than the ones in town.

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Tonkatsu Yachiyo – Tsukiji, Japan

Jan26

So we visited Tsukiji and guess what we had for lunch?! You guessed it! ….char siu and tonkatsu! Forreals. So if you want to try the place I tried, look for the sushi shop with the super long line and go into the doors to the left of it. LOL! I seriously actually did do some research before heading to Japan and had a brilliant resource. If you haven’t been, go to Tokyo Cuisine Guide! This blog is in English and he put in so much great details for each restaurant! Having his blog is much more useful than any published guide book. Unfortunately life has gotten quite busy for him as of late so he hasn’t updated recently but I still feel like all the stuff on his blog is still very useful!

You know how I found this blog? So I’m totally obsessed with the show Soko Ga Shiritai even though it’s over 20 years old…and I just LOVE it when they do their food specials. Well on one of their 1000 yen shows, they showcased Kitchen Carrot. This cute restaurant run by a cute little couple had these bambucha sizzling steak plates and I always drooled when I saw the clips. So I did a google search on Kitchen Carrot and got onto this blog and what a find! For the Kitchen Carrot post, go here. Great to see that they still exist and that the food they serve is still the same! Anyway, sorry for the babbling. Here’s the restaurant we went to! They didn’t know a single word of English. It was an interesting meal…lol.

Tsukiji!

Trying to navigate our way through the shops! (Hi Linda!)

My char siu meal. Awesomely cooked eggs and char siu…I do not regret going here!

Mandatory gratuitous egg shot!

Look at the giant ebi fry. This was Linda’s and she loved it! Was ono.

This is the picture we pointed at to order because we are not fluent in Japanese…lol

Original Tonkatsu Yachiyo post from Tokyo Cuisine Guide:

http://tokyofood.blog128.fc2.com/blog-entry-46.html

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Typical Breakfast – Shinjuku, Japan

Jan25

I had two issues in Japan. One, I woke up every morning feeling super dizzy. It lasted all day and I don’t know what it was. I carried my dramamine with me to try to control it but it didn’t work too well. Second, there wasn’t enough time or room in my stomach to eat everything in Japan. The second one is what made me most sad, lol. For breakfast, we weren’t always in the mood for breakfast but ate some anyway! Precious eating time! What we ended up doing was going to small little shops that had computer vending machines taking your orders. Those are the best places. Put your order in, seat yourself, food is delivered, devour and then leave. We need that here.

My breakfast! A curry and udon set.

Linda had the wakame udon. She wanted to clean her system out from all the eating!

Best eggs are in Japan. Please tell me I’m wrong and if you do, you must tell me where the best eggs are.

The food is great. These restaurants are probably thought of as low quality fast food which to me was like high quality for Hawaii! It was so good. We were one of the few diners this particular morning. We were joined by a drunk girl in the corner, passed out in her bowl of noodles. Yes. In. Her. Bowl. The workers don’t do much of anything – I assume they see a lot of people who come in to pass out after drinking…haha!

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Kani Doraku – Shinjuku, Japan

Jan24

If you’ve been to Japan, you have probably seen the sign for this restaurant. They are located all over Japan and we definitely had to give this place a try while we were there! Kani Doraku is definitely not a cheap restaurant but I believe it’s worth every cent. And worth every cent from Linda. We came here for her birthday and she treated! Thank you so much, it was such a memorable and delicious meal.

You can’t miss this business sign!

Check out their chopstick holder, it’s the details that count!

Their own chopsticks? It’s on now. And it includes a tool to help take the crab meat out! Genius.

Gotta try some hot sake…I’m not an alcohol girl. Hahaha. There are so many great pictures coming, so get ready (over 20)! Continue reading →

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Gyotaku Japanese Restaurant – Honolulu, HI

Jan22

Gyotaku is a great Japanese restaurant. I know it’s not one of the trendy fancy smancy restaurants, I think locals equate this restaurant with big family dinners or a place for older diners. While this restaurant is definitely great for those groups, I think it’s a great place to dine for anyone! Anytime I feel like having a delicious no frills Japanese meal, you will find me here. They have three locations but I prefer the location on King Street, I’ve had on and off experiences at the other two locations.

Poke Don – one of my favorite dishes! Continue reading →

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Tango Contemporary Cafe – Honolulu, HI

Jan20

If you know me, it would be no secret that I am a constant yelper. I’ve been a user of yelp for a few years now and I’ve learned how to decipher legit reviews and not so legit reviews. Generally, I agree with a lot of the reviewers but I can’t say I do with this one. Tango Contemporary Cafe is currently averaging a 3.5 star review, I think that’s pretty low! I would give this place 4 stars at minimum! I really hope people who had a bad initial experience gives it another shot!

I don’t know if we were just hungry or what but the bread was so good. Crusty on the outside, soft on the inside and a big ball of butter. There’s nowhere to go wrong.

140120-02 Garlic Herb Grilled Sterling Silver Pork Chop – my friend Kristian had this dish. He LOVED it. He said the pork was cooked perfectly, delicious and tender. Wish I had a better picture to share!

140120-03 Mustard Herb Crusted Rack of Lamb – my dish and it was delicious as always. Oh man, compared to what I just ate for dinner…I am drooling at this picture. Perfectly cooked and seasoned – no complaints!

140120-04 Kona Coffee Ice Cream Cake. Our favorite dessert. When we ordered it, they thought we were sharing one. We had to correct them immediately and get another slice (lol). This dessert is so good. There is a slight bitterness in the cake due to the coffee but it’s offset but the chocolate sauce and fruit on the side. We pretty much cleaned off every plate. 🙂

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Boots & Kimo’s Homestyle Kitchen – Kailua, HI

Jan19

Total tourist post today. Boots & Kimo’s Homestyle Kitchen has been a Kailua institution for a long time now. I’ve never wanted to brave the crowds for this place. The one time I tried Cinnamon’s Restaurant, it was a bad experience which made me not want to try Boots and Kimo all the more. But all the stars aligned last weekend and I made the trek out to Kailua early in the morning. When I say early, I mean early. I think we left at about 7 in the morning on a Saturday. I got there and scored a spot in the almost empty lot and stepped into the restaurant and straight into a seat (yes!). The restaurant is geared very much towards tourists, the decorations were over the top but it totally feeds into the vacation feel. The service was good, not great but good. The food was good too but overpriced. I am definitely glad I tried this place out but now that I have, I don’t know how soon I will be returning. Let’s get to the pics!

The world famous pancakes with mac nut sauce. How was it?

Umm…ONO. If you know me, I’m not even a fan of sweet stuff and I liked it. No one else wanted to eat it so I had to eat most of it myself. I was fine with that!

Portuguese Sausage, Eggs and Rice. This plate was $10. Sorry, it was good but not worth the money. You get more at McDonalds.

Smoked Hawaiian Sausage, Eggs and Hash Brown. The sausage was all right but pretty salty. Again it was $10, overpriced.

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maybeitsjenny

Hawaii based food blog with foodie travels!

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