Pancakes & Waffles BLD – Kalihi, HI

Pancakes & Waffles has been around for quite a while. I remember a long time ago, when I came back from an international trip, I asked my ride to take me there to eat. I just had to grind on some pocho sausage, eggs and rice. Don’t worry, I treated her to breakfast too. Anyway, can you believe that I had not tried their fried chicken and waffles until this past visit? The audacity.

Fried Rice Special | $8.25
fried rice, 2 eggs, choice of bacon, link, spam, or portuguese sausage

Your basic special. Nothing great about it but nothing to complain about either.

Grilled Cheese Benedict with Avocado Fries | $11.45
choice of white or wheat bread grilled cheese sandwich, topped with a perfectly poached egg and covered in creamy hollandaise sauce

Seasonal menu item! I only saw the sign near the door, it wasn’t even on their menu when you go up to order. I didn’t actually get this myself but it was gobbled up!

Honey Butter Chicken & Waffles (3 pcs) | $12.95
crispy fried chicken thighs on a golden waffle

The star of the show. Here it is guys. We got our own entrees but got this to share. Well, four people sharing this plate was JUST NOT ENOUGH. Yes, I had to order another plate. We loved the chicken, delicious! Nicely seasoned and so crispy. The waffle, nice to have it there but I don’t need it. I just need the chicken! Highly recommend the chicken. Actually, I think the second one we got was a fried chicken plate because we just wanted the chicken and not the waffle…haha

IHOP – Honolulu, HI

Sometimes, you just gotta eat. You don’t want to cook and you just want to eat some good ole American Breakfast. IHOP is just that. Yup, I read the reviews beforehand (spoiler alert: they aren’t great) but I figured I could get some not terrible food. Was it good? Ehh…food was alright. A bit pricey if you ask me. The service was a bit inattentive because it was a bit busy, would I return? Well, not anytime soon.

Appetizer Sampler | $12.99
Mozza Sticks, Onion Rings & Crispy Chicken Strips served with marinara & choice of honey mustard or ranch.
Philly Cheese Steak Stacker | $13.49
Signature favorite is stacked with grilled Philly sirloin steak and thinly sliced onion, then topped with melted American cheese on a perfectly grilled roll.
Country Fried Steak & Eggs | $16.99
Get an 8 oz. fried beef steak smothered in country or sausage gravy, then served with two eggs*, hash browns and two buttermilk pancakes.

This was my entree, sorry I didn’t get a picture of the pancakes! This was just alright. The country fried steak was breaded heavily and deep fried too long, so it was too hard for my liking and not enough gravy to soften it. The eggs were cooked perfectly, there are hash browns hiding underneath the country fried steak. Wouldn’t recommend it, you can get better CFS at other restaurants.

Heavenly Island Lifestyle – Honolulu, HI

Okay, have you folks ever watched Terrace House? I heard about it before but didn’t really start watching it until late last year when I got access to Netflix again (thanks Kyle, lol). I didn’t know where to start so I started on the Hawaii season, out of order I know, but it was kind of neat to watch them go around to local spots. Oh by the way, Terrace House is a reality show much like the Real World, only Japanese so a bit more classy? Haha, is that the word for it? Well, there’s definitely drama up in Terrace House too.

Anyway, Heavenly Island Lifestyle was one of the spots they frequented so I decided to give them a try while I was in Waikiki. The Yelp reviews look great but as I learned in LA, could mean nothing! They seem to focus on healthy and organic foods, so how was it??

Energy Smooth | $7.50

Delicious! This drink includes acai, strawberries, blueberries, banana, and soy milk and it supposed to be good for antioxidant vitamins & good memory. It tastes great so that’s definitely a plus!

Local Eggs Benedict (w/Salmon & Spinach) | $16.00

Homemade hollandaise sauce with lilikoi butter, poached local eggs served with Okinawa purple potato, fresh local salad, and a wheat muffin

Okay, this dish looks too healthy to be good. I get it. Look at the copious amounts of raw kale on the plate. Does one need so much ruffage? Normally I would say no. This time, I must say yes. I usually equate kale as being tough and hard but this kale was so easy to eat. This is the meal I learned about baby kale and boy oh boy, do I love baby kale. The eggs benedict was cooked perfectly as you can see. The kale salad was wonderful with their own dressing. The Okinawan sweet potato was perfection. A little pricey but worth in my opinion.

Heavenly’s Organic Veggie & Beans Loco Moco | $16.50

100% Big Island Kulana beef, local eggs, local ginger soy glaze, and 10 grain rice with local farm green beans, broccoli, organic carrot, organic lentil beans, and organic black beans

Another winner! Not your typical loco moco, no sir. There is no gravy, it is a ginger soy glaze which tastes like comfort home food. Another great dish, I enjoyed it a lot. The veggies was cooked perfectly along with the grains. I enjoyed this new take on loco moco…and Big Island beef? Shoots! I highly recommend this restaurant! They don’t take reservations (for breakfast) and have a bit of a line…but the line moved along pretty quick while I was there.

Sunny Side – Wahiawa, HI

Everytime my cousin comes home to stay, we always play tourists. It’s a nice change of pace and it gives me an excuse to pig out in the North Shore side. I wanted to share a recent breakfast at Sunny Side, they offer some great food and pie! Nice local owned small mom and pop type shop. Isn’t there a street in Wahiawa that is supposed to have Cherry Blossoms? Does anyone know if this street still exists? I would love to visit it if it does!

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150225-02Fried Rice Special – delicious! The boys love it.

150225-03Portuguese Sausage, Eggs and Rice. I think they ran out of the fried rice special so we had to get this as a substitute!

150225-04Their famous Blueberry Cream Pie. Connie’s favorite! Although, that’s probably just canned blueberry pie filling huh? Still good though!

Hong Kong Style Breakfast

Hey folks! Time to dig into my archives and share some travel photos. This is from my trip to Hong Kong a few years back. I wanted to share a few different breakfasts we had. It’s really interesting to see how global chains adjust their menus to suit the taste of their customers. Hong Kong is really cool because it’s such a good mix of both East and West food and cultures. I’ll share more pictures of Hong Kong soon!

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140827-02Macaroni is a pretty big part of breakfast menus in Hong Kong. Macaroni in a broth/soup.

140827-03Sample of the Western influence – very English breakfast set-up.

140827-04This is breakfast from KFC. Yes, their KFC is open for breakfast. This is a combo that includes a roast chicken thigh, egg and hash brown. The container? You guessed it. Macaroni in chicken broth.

140827-05Coffee with KFC brand sugar…lol. I’m sorry I didn’t get to try their Flava Crava Meal.

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140827-08Breakfast at McDonald’s is very similar to the restaurants in the U.S. I think they also have macaroni in soup but I was pretty tired of it by then. Their food tastes very similar to the American counterpart. KFC in China tastes way better than the U.S.

Deluxe Breakfast!

Hey guys. I assume that you folks know about the breakfast platters at McDonald’s right? The deluxe platter comes with three pieces of portuguese sausage and 2 pieces of spam. My cousin told me that if you ask for no spam – they just give you double the order of portuguese sausage. THAT’S SIX PIECES. Okay, that’s way too much but if you are ever feeling hungry – go for it! It’s only a little more than the regular platter and McD has the best breakfast platters. Yup, I said it. I’ll stand by that unless someone can prove me wrong. 🙂

140625-01Yah, I was hungry this morning. It was way too much. Gosh, this picture is making me hungry.

Koa Pancake House – Kaimuki, HI

Koa Pancake House is a breakfast/lunch chain of restaurants in Oahu. If you’re looking for a quick and decent breakfast, Koa is the place to go. I wouldn’t say they are great but they aren’t bad. They have a good amount of tables and chairs so you could eat quickly and go. They also have runners who come around refilling coffee if you bought a cup!  Pretty nice. Anyway, just wanted to share a breakfast I had. I would not recommend it…

140602-02Steak and Eggs – $8.95

140602-03I don’t know if you can tell but this is a very thin piece of steak. Also, they asked how I wanted it done…I don’t see how you can do anything but well with such a thin piece of meat. I really didn’t enjoy this breakfast, the grill marks on the steak were completely burnt. The entire steak tasted just burnt. Disappointing.

140602-01Blueberry Waffle – $4.75
This is the waffle my dining partner got. She liked it! It’s a very thin waffle but she enjoyed it and it was thin and crispy.

St. Louis Drive-In – Kaimuki, Hawaii

St. Louis Drive-In serves up some real hole in the wall goodness. Okay, I can’t comment on their entire menu but I do enjoy getting breakfast from them once in a while! It’s a great deal – about five bucks for a breakfast plate AND a soda! I tried to be good and declined the soda. Good ah? 🙂 Anyway, just a quick update and wanted to share how the plate looks.

140301-01I just love the way they pack their food. They place the plate in a pie box with wax paper which is then topped with condiments (i.e. ketchup, shoyu, etc.), utensils and napkins. Perfect way to package the food!

140301-02Hapa Rice, Portuguese Sausage and Eggs. This special specifically comes with scrambled eggs but you can choose how you want your eggs with a few of the other plates.

Boots & Kimo’s Homestyle Kitchen – Kailua, HI

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!

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

140119-03Umm…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!

140119-05Portuguese Sausage, Eggs and Rice. This plate was $10. Sorry, it was good but not worth the money. You get more at McDonalds.

140119-04Smoked Hawaiian Sausage, Eggs and Hash Brown. The sausage was all right but pretty salty. Again it was $10, overpriced.

Sunny Side – Wahiawa, HI

I’ve heard about Sunny Side for years now but I hardly go out to that side so I never got to try it.  On my productive day off, I decided to hit up Sunny Side on the way to the North Shore.  What a great idea!  I’ve been missing out all these years!  I love the feel of this place, definitely a small business that serves up some great food for us locals.  We got ourselves some breakfast and a slice of their infamous pie.  Check it out.

140110-01Fried Rice Special with Eggs over Easy.  Delicious!  And so cheap…cash only though.  Luckily I knew.  

140110-02Side of hash browns.  Can’t go wrong with this.  I thought it tasted just fine!  Like my art work?  Haha!

140110-03Slice of their blueberry cream pie.  This was mainly for my cousin who is a blueberry freak and she LOVED it.  She’s pretty picky too.  She even asked for it the other day…I guess we’ll have to go back when she comes home again!