Tag Archives: American Food

11Sep / 2023

Ruth’s Chris Steak House – Downtown, HI

This is a memory I will never forget. My friend and I went to Ruth’s Chris Steak House at Restaurant Row (now Waterfront Plaza – yes I’m old) for a holiday dinner years ago. Dinner was going swimmingly, all the tables were full with holiday cheer until we hear a big sound. I was horrified to see that a food runner had dropped his tray of food all over a diner. I’m talking like bowls of hot soup. I was mortified for them! Sorry, that’s the memory I had and when I dined here a few weeks ago, I couldn’t shake that memory because all of them were still carrying trays so full of food way high up in the air…I had PTSD! Anyway, the same friend (lol) treated me to a wonderful birthday dinner here! It was amazing, let me share some pics!!!

Complimentary Warmed Bread and Butter. Yes please.

Caesar Salad | $19.00
romaine hearts, parmesan & romano, creamy caesar

No worries, it’s for two portions! My friend actual ate vegetables, birthday miracles do happen (ha!). The salad was delicious! They don’t make it table side in case you were wondering.

Petite Filet & Shrimp | $67.00
8 oz. petite filet with three large shrimp

I used to get the rib eye but now since I have a smaller appetite, the petite was it! Couldn’t resist a little surf and turf action. I’ve learned my lesson in the past and guess what I did? I ordered it rare.

They cooked it right and I was thrilled. And you know what? This is probably one of the best steaks I have ever had in my life. It was cooked perfectly and it was so tender, broke the mouth soft man. So so so good!

Petite Filet + Lobster Tail | $58 + $20
8 oz. of our most tender cut of lean, midwestern beef
lobster tail sizzling with drawn butter

My friend’s meal. YUM. Well I didn’t have any of it but how can you go wrong??

Mac & Cheese | $18.00
cavatappi pasta, white cheddar sauce

They label this as lobster mac and cheese but if you don’t want to be bougie, you can order the mac and cheese plain which is what we did!!

Complimentary Birthday Dessert – Flaming Strawberries

What a spectacle. No worries, they don’t sing to you! And boy does it take a while for the fire to die down. And when it does…the strawberries are all mushy and kind of junk. What a waste of beautiful strawberries! I would take the strawberries with the chocolate sauce, hold the fire!

Creme Brulee | $14.00
vanilla bean custard with raw sugar crust

Chocolate Sin Cake | $13.00
rich flourless cake, ganache, raspberry sauce

My dessert. So rich and decadent. Super good though!

Post Views: 139

Posted in Food, Restaurant

Tags:

Permalink 3 Comments

01Sep / 2023

Mixed Plate Friday

If you find yourself at Trader Joe’s, give this snack a try! It’s good! It’s exactly as described, crispy, sweet, tart and savory. It’s basically like little blocks of instant ramen, definitely taste the MSG.

Limited time Buffalo Wild Wings Parmesan Garlic flavored popcorn available at Sam’s Club (hopefully still in stock). This is pretty good! Very flavorful, just under $7.00.

Just want to share a joyful moment from my birthday a few weeks back. Chan sent me beautiful flowers for my birthday. They are still in my office today, fighting for dear life. The tulips have bloomed nicely!

Post Views: 145

Posted in Food, Snapshot

Tags:

Permalink 11 Comments

14Aug / 2023

Sunset Texas Barbecue – Kakaako, HI

I have been a fan of Sunset Texas Barbecue since they were a food truck out in Haleiwa. Then they moved into a brick and mortar in Wahiawa and I visited them there too. They are finally in town! They’re located across the old Fisher’s where that bagel shop used to be. Super good food, southern BBQ but the prices. Oh the prices. They weren’t cheap before which is okay since you’re paying for some quality smoked meats but it’s hard for me to justify coming here on a regular basis at all. We came on a weekday right before 11am – no line! Here’s what we got!

Beef Brisket Plate (w/cream corn and pinto beans) | $22.00
comes with 2 scoops of rice (or white bread) and 2 sides

They give a pretty good portion of meat and the meat is good! Would have liked a bit more beans but…and the cream corn was good! I wasn’t feeling like potato salad so I went this route.

Beef Brisket x 0.57 lb | $19.95
Pork Rib x 0.60 lb | $18.00

Ehhhh….it’s two pork ribs for $18.00. It’s good, but nothing like great you know? I mean I wouldn’t mind just going to Costco to get their whole slab or ribs for maybe $30? Like I said, it’s pricey! I think if I came back, I’d just get a plate for myself – felt like a better deal. Also, we had to ask for BBQ sauce on the side and pickles on the side. I don’t know if they usually charge extra for it but gosh I feel like at these prices, condiments and pickles should be free?

When you order by the pound, they do give you a small container of pickles and two slices of white bread. I’ll leave you with their menus so you can make your decisions yourself if you want to come here.

Post Views: 258

Posted in Food, Restaurant

Tags:

Permalink 10 Comments

24Jul / 2023

Peaked Pies – Whistler, BC

My friend Naomi told me I had to try these Australian meat pies so of course I did! Peaked Pies is a cute little Australian bakery in the Whistler village!

Get Peaked (Add on)
add mashed potato, mushy green peas & gravy to your pie

We ordered two pies and got both peaked!

Steak, Bacon & Cheese
chunky steak pieces infused with ground bacon, layered with a cheddar/mozzarella mix

Traditional Aussie (sorry for the blurry pic)
ground beef, onions & gravy

How was it? Nice and fast stop for some warm comfort food. I actually preferred the steak pie, I like to have chunks of meat to bite into. Learned that I am not a fan of mushy peas so I probably wouldn’t get it peaked next time or would get it peaked without the peas. I enjoyed it and can’t wait to return during the winter time!

Post Views: 190

Posted in Food, Restaurant, Travel

Tags:

Permalink 4 Comments

21Jul / 2023

Zog’s Dogs – Whistler, BC

For sure had to try poutine while I was in Canada and Zog’s was the place to go! Very short post today lol.

Zog’s Classic Poutine

Yeah, I wasn’t impressed. I don’t know if it was just this place that made it junk or maybe I’m just not into fries slathered in gravy and cheese curds. Not a fan.

Jalapeno + Cheese Smokie
beef and pork stuffed with cheese and jalapeno

Saving grace of the meal. I love myself a good hot dog. This hit the spot. Love the spice and cheese, and the char from being grilled. Yum!

Post Views: 230

Posted in Food, Restaurant, Travel

Tags:

Permalink 8 Comments

19Jul / 2023

Araxi Restaurant – Whistler, BC

One of our top meals of the trip was from Araxi Restaurant. What a wonderful restaurant, and yes, senior citizen dining time so we had the restaurant almost to ourselves. No worries, it filled up quick!

Complimentary Bread and Butter

Okay that butter ball in the olive oil was just to be fancy. It wasn’t good because it’s literally butter sitting in olive oil. I would have been fine with just butter.

Carnival (drink on the left) | $10.00 (CAD)
muddled cranberries, lime, mint, maple syrup, ginger beer

The drink on the right is beer, lol. Carnival was my drink. It was good! I ordered two that night!

Toro Sashimi | $26.50 (CAD)

I think this was toro wild albacore tuna – not sure I’ve had this before and the sight of the white fish kind of startled me. No worries, it was good!

This restaurant also had a prix fix menu – it was $55.00 (CAD) for three courses. I think it was well worth it!

Fresh BC Oysters
chef’s selection of four fresh shucked oysters, chow chow sauce (wat), mandarin oil

We both love oysters so we both got this as our first course. Delicious! The chow chow sauce is apparently the pickled veggies on top? What? Anyway, was a good dish.

Elderflower Glazed Duck Breast
rootdown farm carrots and turnips, carrot ketchup, crispy rice cake, farmer jesse’s mustard greens, black garlic duck emulsion

My main entree! Can’t go with duck and this one was so good. Nice and crisp crust and perfectly rare inside. A slight taste of game but nothing overpowering. The look of the veggies (not peeled and kind of brown) would usually deter me but I know this was a swanky place so I ate it and was fine (lol)!

Peppercorn Crusted Venison
paddy’s wild fennel, truffled mushroom puree, endive leaves, pickled mountain huckleberry game jus

My BF’s dish, venison! I think this might have been my first time trying it and well, it tastes like meat. I don’t know what people expect haha. You know what was SO good? That truffled mushroom puree. You can’t really see it but it was like a dark grey puree that might deter others, but it was SO SO GOOD.

Dark Chocolate ‘Snickers’ Bar
milk chocolate mousse, candied peanuts, caramel popcorn, peanut ganache

Not my dessert but it was enjoyed!

Black Forest Gateau
dark and white chocolate mousse with flourless chocolate cake, brandied cherries and chantilly cream

Man, when we have all these three course meals – I am so full by the time dessert comes. I would rather have like fresh fruit or something but the always seem to have heavy desserts. This was mine, couldn’t finish it but it was good. Here’s a blurry picture (sorry) of the inside!

Post Views: 227

Posted in Food, Restaurant, Travel

Tags:

Permalink 6 Comments

14Jul / 2023

Mixed Plate Friday

Sweet and Spicy Trail Mix | $7.00

I never heard of this Sweet Sentiments but they had a pop-up at Nordstrom last weekend so I decided to support local! It’s pretty good! It does have a bit of a kick to it and she uses stuff I like to eat, love the little goldfish too lol

Shoyu Chicken Mozzy | $5.50
homemade aromatic shoyu chicken laced with kewpie mayo, topped with thin sliced sweet onions, crowned with melty mozzarella

I’ve been wanting to try Coco’s Cravings 808’s baked goods for a while now! Always salivate when she posts her sales. She had a pop-up at Nordstrom last weekend so I got to try it! How was it? Well to be honest, I was a bit underwhelmed. It was $5.50 for this bun, it wasn’t bad but definitely not great you know? I still would love to try her pepperoni one and the cinnamon bun was pretty good!

Sorry, I got this image off the internet and not sure who the owner is. If it’s you, please let me know and I can credit you. Remember this building? It brings a smile to my face when I see this picture, it’s bittersweet. I’m so sad to see Keeaumoku turn into high-rise central, we lost so many of our favorite businesses. On the left, you see Jae-il Video, I used to love going there as a high schooler. You see, I was super into K-pop in high school so I used to take the bus to this shop to rent VHS (yeah I’m old, so wat) of the music shows. The Korean ahjumma thought it was cute that this chinese girl who couldn’t speak Korean would come in to rent tapes. She would always greet me so warmly and they would even give me free Korean magazines and posters (I WAS IN HEAVEN – THAT WAS LIKE GOLD TO ME). I hope that family is doing well nowadays.

Post Views: 246

Posted in Food, Snapshot

Tags: ,

Permalink 8 Comments

07Jul / 2023

Mixed Plate Friday

I’ve talked about Toshi’s Delicatessen on the blog already, here. Old school okazuya, super old school. Yes it’s pricey but you are supporting a small family business and let’s keep them open please! I don’t know their plans because the head chef is an obaasan, I really hope they can continue for years to come!

Chow Fun, Omelet, Spam, Salmon, Fried Chicken

Chow Fun, Omelet, Spam, Shoyu Chicken, Stir-fried Veggies with Spam

Oh yum yum yum. They serve what I like to call haole chow fun (sorry if that offends you), while it looks bland – it actually tastes great! I still slather it with hot sauce. How much did these two plates cost? $40…yeah kind of pricey but once again, worth it.

Okay, usually I would do a whole post for this amount of food but let me explain. We came here for a birthday lunch for my brother, he told me he wanted Chubbies Burgers and we haven’t been there since they opened their brick and mortar. Warning, they are super busy. It’s first come first sit booths, but luckily a booth opened up when our food was ready. Ordered plenty for the four of us, wanted to try it all. This came out to just over $100.

Warning for possible grossness: one of the burgers (mine of course) had a hair on top. It was just sitting right on top of the bun like it fell gingerly on top? I don’t know but it was black short and curly and like even as I type this I am grossed out. I didn’t make a big fuss, I took it back up to the counter and showed it to them and just said, just give me a new one…I not gonna make a scene. They apologized and told me I could throw it away and they would give me a new one.

Unfortunately, my appetite was kind of turned off for the rest of the day. It was just one of them days. The burgers are pretty good and fries are okay too. I don’t know if I will be returning soon, there are other smash burger places to try. Also, my tip is to order it to go even if you eat there (unless you know you gonna slam ’em). It’s just easier if you gotta take home the leftovers. They weren’t being very helpful when I was trying to pack things to go (the fries spilled all over my car cause no lid).

Post Views: 239

Posted in Food, Restaurant

Tags: ,

Permalink 10 Comments

28Jun / 2023

21 Steps Kitchen + Bar – Whistler, BC

21 Steps Kitchen + Bar was one of the restaurants we went to for dinner in Whistler. It’s a cute little place and yes, there are 21 steps to get up to the restaurant! Not the stairs pictured here but inside the place, I counted on the way up. 🙂

It’s a cute eatery and as you can see we were one of the first diners there. No worries, the place filled up real quick after we started dining. I’m a senior citizen diner as you know. During the off season (which is when we were there), they offer a prix fixe menu. That’s what we went with! $44 for the 3 course meal, with upcharges if you decided to go a little fancier. 🙂

Sangria

Sangria is one of the few drinks I can drink. And it was delish! Did I have two drinks this night? One of the nights I did…lol

Basket of Warm French Bread | $6.00 (CAD)
with housemade garlic butter

Yup, you gotta pay for bread but hey, they give you a lot! We had so much food, probably didn’t need this bread. But it was good bread and who can resist garlic butter?

Garlic Chili Prawns | $21.00 (CAD)
scallions, peanuts and crispy wontons

I’m giving you folks the ala carte prices but these dishes were all included in the $44 three course meal. Can hardly tell where the prawns are yeah? They’re GREEN. The dish was good! I liked that they had asian dishes on the menu!

Tiny Bacon Wrapped Beef Filets | $21.00 (CAD)
horseradish aioli

Not my dish but it was enjoyed. Can you go wrong with meat wrapped with bacon? I’m not a bacon fan so I didn’t partake.

Braised Boneless Beef Short Rib | $35.00 (CAD)
leek, shallot and red wine demi sauce with crispy onions

My entree! Yum! Delish. And it came with rice, I think it was brown rice. Not at all sticking to each other, I have a not so nice phrase for this kine rice but I won’t share it here. The dish was super good! I really enjoyed it.

12oz. Ribeye Steak | $50.00 (CAD) – $13.00 (CAD) upcharge for prix fixe menu
chipotle garlic butter and crispy onions

Oh yum. Another winner dish. I was too full to try it that night but when we heated up the leftovers the next day to eat, I thought it was great! And even reheated tasted great.

Creme Brulee | $13.00 (CAD)

Not my dish but it was enjoyed! Think it would have been nice to included some berries on top.

Raspberry Sorbet

I was too stuffed so I wanted a dessert that was somewhat light. This was nice! I think the usual menu comes with the sorbet and chocolate mousse, I wouldn’t be able to do that with our meal this night! The meal was lovely! I would definitely return in the future!

Post Views: 220

Posted in Food, Restaurant, Travel

Tags:

Permalink 4 Comments

09Jun / 2023

Mixed Plate Friday

On a walk around the UH Manoa campus, I spotted this note on the ground. It was the Monday after graduation and I was just so intrigued by the letter. Simple note. Do you think it’s authentic? Do grandparents sign letters with “Grandmother”? I guess I would assume Grandma or something less formal? Not sure. I felt sad that it was littered on the ground. So what do you folks think? Real letter or like a plant to catch attention? Either way, sweet but sad message.

Spicy Tofu Poke Bowl | $11.75

Walked down to Down to Earth (ha!) but didn’t get my usual tofu pockets, decided to try this spicy tofu poke bowl instead. How was it? Well it tastes like a health food store made it, does that help you? Get a big helping of hijiki salad which I love. Rice was kind of hard. The tofu was just alright. I wouldn’t get it again.

Miso Butterfish Bento | $14.00

It is dangerous that Mai Musubi is so close to work, since I walked down to Le Flowers to get a lei, swung by here to grab breakfast and lunch. This bento was supposed to be my lunch but I ate it for breakfast (lol). It was good! Two good sizes pieces of fish, I enjoyed it. I don’t enjoy their fried chicken but I enjoy this.

Post Views: 253

Posted in Food, Restaurant, Snapshot

Tags: ,

Permalink 8 Comments