Da Island Dragon (16 oz. only) | $11.99 Pineapple, Banana, Vita Coco Pressed Coconut Water, Organic Dragon Fruit Sorbet, Coconut Cream, Nana Sea Moss Gel-Pina Colada, Koko Kai Simple Coconut Yogurt, Organic Agave, Coconut Flavor, Organic Coconut Shreds and Activated Charcoal
Unless you’re living under a rock (ha pun not intended), you would know that Bretman Rock collaborated with Down to Earth to create his own smoothie. We were looking for a nice refresher so curiousity got the better of me. I like that they allow you to order online before heading down. We went on a very off peak time so my order was ready when I got there! So how was it? Well, it’s a good smoothie. That’s about all I got. Sounds like it’s got a lot of good stuff in it – though I could do without the coconut shreds. Would I get it again? For $12? Probably not but glad to have tried something on trend.
The Wrecking Crew Pac | $15.95 Fried Chicken, Portuguese Sausage, Fried Fish, Chili, White Rice and Mac Salad
Wow another trend for Jenny lol. Jason Momoa is doing a special collaboration with Zippy’s for his newest film and he is a huge Zippy’s fan. And you know what? Brada has great taste, he put everything I want into one plate. I always want fried fish and a piece of fried chicken. And for prices today, I think this price tag is pretty good for the food you get (especially for Zippy’s). I would get this again and hope they would consider keeping it on the regular menu!
Chan and I are graciously and generously invited to this fundraiser dinner by his dear friend. I think this is my third year coming and they upped their food game this time! It’s fun to be able to go to Stan Sheriff and dine on the “court.” They have a bunch of restaurants that set up tables around the perimeter and we get to eat some good grindz! Not much commentary, just pics of food!
Okay obviously I forgot where a lot of the food came from. As I type this up, Chan is laughing in my face because I didn’t do my “job.” I should have taken pictures of the booths so I could identify where all the food came from! Ugh! Free grindz is good grindz in my eyes okay? It was all very good! Usually we have our table to ourselves but they placed two volleyball players at our table this year. I don’t need crippling social anxiety with my meal okay? Nah nah, it was okay and they only stayed with us a little while. Had a good chat with them.
I either have never tried Grace’s Inn or it’s been over 20 years. Did they open a location in Market City Shopping Center before? By Ben Franklin’s? If so, maybe I’ve tried it but for sure I’ve never tried their Beretania location. I was pleased to see they had online ordering! I picked the wrongest day and time to come, it was a rainy day after work and both Beretania and Keeaumoku was slammed with traffic. As I am patiently driving in my backed up lane, of course another car decides they want to cut in last minute because waiting doesn’t apply to them. They get to the side of me, stop, turn on their blinker and already start coming into my lane. Well guess what? I like to play games too and I drive straight up and don’t let them in. I could care less. The car in back of me ends up letting them in and we both ended up at the same parking lot. It’s all fun times and I didn’t get clobbered. Heh. Anyway, as many people mentioned – the lady at the front counter is oh so sweet. I would return just to be helped by her.
This must be an inside joke thing but I had to ask her how the “every other day” specials worked. Like what day started the day…so I could figure out what every other day would be. LOL, she had a kick showing me the sign. Yeah so the joke is, those specials are available every single day…I think. She showed me the sign so fast. I hope I got that right. Anyway, so how was the food??
Fried Noodles w/Chicken Katsu | $15.50
Chan’s order for dinner, gotta be honest – they could be a little more generous with the amount of noodles to give. Noodles are cheap! It should have been chicken katsu on a BED of noodles! Anyway, the noodles tasted fine – nothing special. The chicken katsu is good, fried crisp and they have a good katsu sauce.
Mixed Plate (Chicken Katsu & Roast Pork) | $17.00 Mac Salad and Kimchi (choice of 2 “salads”)
I read on Yelp that they might have changed ownership in the past few years. I have nothing to compare it to so I can only judge what I ate. The roast pork in the Yelp pictures were thick cuts of pork slathered in gravy. This pork was sliced super thin – the meat was rough and dry. Would not get that again. And yes, they still do put some chow fun under your entree. Since I got the mixed plate with two entrees, both entrees got the chow fun treatment. You no can even see the chow fun so you don’t really get a lot. The mac salad was a bit sweet so it was just alright for me. Kimchi was local kine style, not hot and very vinegary (Mr. Korean did not approve of this).
Side Order Chili Cheese Fries | $6.50
Got a little appetizer to go with our food which allowed me to try their chili. Hm, I actually like their chili! It was nice! And the portion of fries with chili and cheese was good. I would get this again!
All in all, the food was good. Your typical lunch plate fare, would I make a special trip out here again? Not sure on that one. I’m happy to have tried and maybe I’ll come back to try their other dishes. But if I’m going to be at Times Beretania, why not go Kevin’s Kitchen?
I risked my life driving in a very unfamiliar part of Kalihi for this post. Yes, I was influenced yet again by Yelp and social media. Heard about T&L Market and their Saturday Huli Huli chicken special. Small mom and pop shop that huli’s whole chickens every Saturday. People seems to be big fans of the chicken and the dipping sauce so I had to try it!
Yes, you read that price right. Pricey but I really wanted to give this place a try especially since it is a local mom and pop. So how was it? Well…there’s nothing special about this chicken. There’s supposed to be a lemongrass seasoning to it, didn’t taste that. The breast meat was a bit dry and tough and the dipping sauce was like a chili vinegar dipping sauce. Nothing special honestly. I could buy my Costco rotisserie chicken and make my favorite crying tiger sauce. I’ll try to post the recipe to that sauce one day.
They do serve it with a little brick of sticky rice so if you like that, you’re in for a treat. In the end, I am glad to have tried it but didn’t think it was worth $25 and probably wouldn’t buy it again.
Chicken Bento | $10.00 (around)
I wasn’t sure what the chicken came with so I got this bento to try too. Since the chicken did come with rice, I let my brother eat this. He ate it up – I think this was a good price for the portion you get. The fried chicken was a nice big thigh piece. He said the fried chicken tasted like Genki Sushi’s chicken karaage which sounds like winners to me. The spam slice was “tick” too. Good deal. They have basically NO parking so I can’t find myself returning anytime soon. Nice to have tried.
Had a quick breakfast at Yogurstory and you can’t go wrong with the fat pig fried rice. I must be getting old because oh man was this dish salty. I really prefer blander foods now other than spicy (ha!). It was very good but I always forget how the dish comes and find myself asking where the portuguese sausage is. It’s just chopped up as part of the fried rice! Duh! Anyway, good dish but like I said…salty and probably get MSG.
Garlic Shrimp Spaghetti | $14.25 including 2 pc garlic bread
Mini Cold Ginger Chicken (all rice) | $9.89
Back at Lucky Box Restaurant again – can’t go wrong with their food. Tried a new dish this time, the garlic shrimp spaghetti. How was it? Good. It’s just garlic shrimp scampi on spaghetti noodles and well, the noodles are a bit bloated because I think they pre-cook it and just throw it into hot water again to warm them up for orders, so yeah…not at all al dente. That’s okay with me though, I like noodles in all shapes, sizes and textures. The garlic shrimp tasted good. And the cold ginger chicken? Well nothing new there, still good as always. I think I like their cold ginger sauce the most of all that I’ve tried. I am pretty sure they add garlic to it too which makes it lip smacking good. Love it!
Alii Fish Market Weekend Special | Crispy Mochi Mahi Mahi w/Smoked Tsuyu Cold Soba & Spicy Ahi “Lava” Poke | $21.00 cold soba, smoked tsuyu, mari’s garden green salad w/yuzu vinaigrette, “spicy lava sauce,” sumida farms watercress namul
Alii was having this as a special the other weekend and my brother generously treated me to lunch. We placed the order and headed in after doing an errand, they quoted a 30 minute cook time. It took an hour. The parking lot is also horrendous especially during the weekend. If you are pre-ordering easy stuff like musubis/onigiris and just poke – I’m sure your order will be ready quick. If you order a special, I would set aside extra time before heading in to grab it. I don’t think I want to return on a weekend anytime soon.
Oh! And the food! It was good, not great. The mochi mahi mahi was already soggy when I ate it. The tsuyu wasn’t super smoky, nothing I noticed extra. It’s a good plate though, glad I tried it.
Chili Cheese Fries
Mini Cold Ginger Chicken (all rice)
Mini Chicken Katsu Curry
Mini Loco Moco
Everyone keeps raving about the L&L Hawaiian Barbecue at the Manoa Marketplace (when did they stop calling themselves L&L Drive Inn??) so I decided to give it a try. I’ve tried it a few times because thankfully UH has restarted their shuttle service to the Astronomy lot which is behind the marketplace. I can do some farmers market shopping and grab my lunch here. It’s funny because we have L&L Drive Inn on-campus which offers in-app ordering which I like, this location does not allow for app ordering. The one on campus does not serve the full menu so it’s nice to have one near by that does. The yelp reviews are right, the woman up front is very friendly. All the dishes I got were good! I can’t taste the difference between the two locations but I’ll continue coming here anyway.
Oh boy did this trip prove how Asian I am. I needed rice the morning after we landed. I wasn’t even 24 hours out of Hawaii yet. We did a water run at Target and I looked up a place to grab breakfast and found Aloha Kitchen. No regrets!!!
Longanisa and Spam Breakfast Platter | $16.29
Chan’s breakfast, two scoop rice and scrambled eggs. Kind of pricey for the plate but they actually give choke!
Portuguese Sausage & Longanisa Platter | $16.29
My platter! I wanted my pocho sausage. The sausage was just alright. I like to get my eggs over medium. Great portions! We had enough leftover for another day of breakfast. Thankfully our room had a little kitchenette!
Side Order Tater Tots | $5.29
LOL, what you want me to say. It’s like mini hash browns okay!
Kind of a double post, anytime I go mainland, I have to go Bambu! Since it closed down in Hawaii, I haven’t been able to get my number 10 dessert fix.
Almost forgot to take a picture, it is too hot outside to do anything so I took one in the car. Was it good? Uh, yeah! Should have got another one of these during the trip. Along with playing more games of craps!!!!
