Yama’s Fish Market – Moilili, HI

I had a hankering for Hawaiian food one day and wanted to grab and go from somewhere quick. I haven’t been to Yama’s Fish Market in years and years so we decided to give it a go! Kind of realized why it has been years since I been there…(sorry!)…

Sweet Sour Spareribs | $11.85

This was not my dish. Feedback shared? Was just alright, nothing special.

Baked Seafood Salmon Belly | $11.85

Feedback shared, overcooked and smallish portion!

Mushroom Chicken | $11 (around there, I forget, sorry)

Okay, this was my dish. This was a daily special and in my head – I imagined a nice creamy mushroom chicken dish. They run out of Campbell’s soup or something? Haha nah, just joke. It tasted alright but I really expected it to be the creamy mushroom gravy so it wasn’t enjoyed as much. The gravy was a bit more soupy too so I didn’t feel like it stuck onto the chicken as much as it should have. I wouldn’t get this again.

Squid Luau (16 oz.) | $9.65

I used to love getting their squid luau. The only way I can eat squid luau is with choke choke choke sriracha. I don’t know why, why do I even eat this dish if I drown it in hot sauce? But somehow the combination just works so well for me. The taste is still the same and still tastes good, maybe my own tastes have changed. Anyway, I splurged a bit for this – this side cost as much as my plate!

The plus side was that we got there and the lot was basically empty…when the lot is full, you know it’s crazy to get in and out of. Does anyone know what that empty lot next to Yama’s is? It’s like a huge parking lot but I don’t know what for? It’s just locked up.

Masa’s Cafeteria – Honolulu, HI

If I worked in Salt Lake/Mapunapuna, I’d be in food heaven. So many great choices out there but I love the old school choices. I wish these places were open all weekend long so I could give them a whirl. I was in the Salt Lake area around lunch time so we checked out Masa’s Cafeteria for lunch! Oh it was awesome. I was a bit sad we weren’t there during the Baked Spaghetti day (comfort food to the max).

Hawaiian Plate w/ Rice | $11.25
~comes with laulau and lomi salmon
~choice of tripe stew or chicken long rice or beef stew

How can you lose with this plate and the price? It was ono brah! The beef stew was local style with big chunks of tender meat. The laulau had great taste, along with the lomi salmon and rice, you can’t lose! Man I wish I could eat here more often!

Koi Catering and Take-out – Kalihi, HI

Note: Koi Catering and Take-out is closing down their Dillingham location on 2/13/15. They will still be operating their food truck. Get your fix now before they close!

Yes, back to the mecca of food. Kalihi! Koi has been around for a few years now and we’ve done a rare lunch order here once or twice before. We decided to do another order this past week and I wanted to share some pictures with you! We were able to get the order in early in the morning and apparently they had a black-out right before we had to pick up the food! Luckily our food was all ready to go. I won’t be able to provide too much feedback – only on the dishes I actually tried. I also apologize ahead of time for the crazy amount of pictures. It’s all food related so it’s worth it right?

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Oh man, their parking lot is TIGHT. Good luck if you plan to come here right at lunch time.

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150205-03Garlic Ahi Caesar Salad – $9.20

We had two orders of Blackened Ahi Caesar Salad but this is what we got. They made a mistake on the salads. Luckily the diners didn’t mind too much although they were disappointed. One good mistake was that the person who ordered the mini received a full size salad. I like good mistakes.

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150205-05Regular Garlic Chicken Plate – $7.50

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150205-07Regular Garlic Ahi Plate – $9.20

I got this plate for dinner and actually ate it cold. It was still pretty good! The fish wasn’t overcooked and I enjoyed the sweet wasabi aioli on top. I would definitely get this again!

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150205-09Regular Furikake Mahi Mahi Plate – $9.20

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150205-11Regular Steak and Portabello Mushroom Salad – $8.00

$8.00!! Can you believe it? I think that’s a great deal! I love portabello mushrooms and the steak looks perfectly cooked! The diner who had this salad was VERY happy.

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150205-13Regular Mushroom Chicken Plate – $7.50

I was really interested in getting this dish until I read the description. Deep fried chicken with mushroom gravy. I only like oven baked chicken with mushroom gravy. Can you see the piece of chicken to the left? It looks so dry! I like a bit of crisp on my chicken but not rock hard pieces like this.

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150205-15Chicken and Portabello Pasta – $7.75

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150205-17Koi Bento – $10.20

A lot of people ordered this bento. This is a picture of one of the better bentos. I think it sounds like a great deal because you get a piece of garlic ahi, steak slices and garlic chicken. Was it good? I didn’t have too many compliments on it and it’s a bit pricey.

150205-21Pesto Mahi Mahi Pasta – $8.00

Ah this was such a disappointment. This was my lunch. I read glowing reviews about this dish and the great flavor. Did I get this on the wrong day? The mahi mahi is breaded and pan fried with no seasoning. The pesto is mixed in with the linguine but there was barely any pesto flavor on the noodles. The entire dish was so bland – I had to add my own sauce to make it edible. I would have preferred a sauce with the mahi mahi. I think the best part of the dish was the garlic bread – it was terribly bad but delicious for you.

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150205-19Regular Da 60/40 Hamburger Steak Plate – $8.50

Okay I have to give you the regular price because this is another glorious mistake. This diner ordered a mini and received a regular. There is no way this can be a mini size! So what do you folks think the 60/40 means? It’s a beef and bacon patty. Are your arteries hardening as you read this? I got to try a small piece of this hamburger and it was GOOD. Good thing the diner got all rice, gonna need that to balance all the salt and gravy. Definitely a decadent dish.

Island Style BBQ – Kalihi, HI

Island Style BBQ is one of the few restaurants I follow on Facebook and I always salivate at their daily specials. If their shop wasn’t so hard to get to, I would go there more often. They don’t have parking and it’s in a bit of a sketch area but shoot, if there was parking – I’d still go, sketch or not. Well, I hate to report that I had a bad dish and I have to share it. They had posted a picture of their Blackened Steak with Garlic Herb Butter on their Facebook page and it looked AMAZING. I went about a week ago and ordered it, and gosh…it was such a disappointment. I might give them another chance with another dish because they have such good ratings!

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Blackened Rib Eye with Garlic Herb Butter – $13.99

You see the top right corner? I legitimately thought they were being generous and threw in a piece of lobster (don’t ask me why I thought that) because it looked white and meaty. Well upon closer inspection, it was just a big lump of fat. In fact, half the plate was basically fat. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a bit of fat with steak, not big chunks of it. Do you see the bottom left corner? I think it’s like the oil and butter melted together from the steak. The rice was drenched in it. Ughh…

150108-02The white spots are where the butter rounds melted

150108-03I ordered the steak rare because I figured it would cook a bit from the drive home. This is actually one of the better pieces, I would say the steak was more so medium than rare. I know I ordered a blackened steak, but it was just…super burnt tasting on the edges. The burnt edges, globs of fat and oil drenched rice was just too much bad for me and I spent a pretty penny on this plate too! I wouldn’t get this again.

Pioneer Saloon – Diamond Head, HI

I saw a picture of a Pioneer Saloon plate lunch on instagram and knew I had to check them out for myself! In fact, I ran out on my lunch break the next day to give them a try! They are located pretty close to my work place and luckily for me, we went fairly early so there was a parking spot open. I think they have a total of 3 stalls and it is VERY tight and you better like parallel parking. This a Japanese style plate lunch joint and is very cute and quaint! They even have a small little boutique section.

Do not bring your pre-conceived notion of what a plate lunch is to this place. They definitely serve quality over quantity and I really enjoyed it! I was very surprised at the lightness of my plate when I grabbed it but the contents made up for it! Let’s take a look!

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Miso Butterfish- $13

141230-06This was Linda’s plate, she was not impressed. For $13, I don’t blame her.

141230-07Deep Fried Baby Tako – $11

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Substitute Shiso Rice – 50¢ (Delish!)

141230-08This was delicious! Yes, this was my plate. And yes, I enjoyed eating every single one of those babies…lol. It was very good, I would definitely get it again. I think if I return, I’d like to try a meat dish. Maybe the beef tongue…stay tuned!

Local Boys Cafe – Kalihi, HI

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…

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141107-02This 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!

141107-03All 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

141107-04The 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.

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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.

141107-06I went for the lau lau and beef stew combo for lunch. I figured what could go wrong?

141107-07 The beef stew was good! Good flavor, not too salty or too bland.

141107-08I 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!

 

St. Louis Drive In – Kaimuki, HI

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…

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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.

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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.

Mixed Plates

Just a quick update of a few plates we had from dinner one night. Got lazy and drove to two different places to pick up dinner to satisfy different appetites.

140606-01Two piece Jollibee’s Plate – we got double mash. The little white container contains more gravy…I don’t know what for. The chicken itself is seasoned already so I wouldn’t use the gravy. I got to try a taste of the chicken and I thought it was pretty good! Fried crisp and it had pretty good seasoning in the meat too! I wouldn’t mind trying a plate of my own next time.

140606-03Hamburger Steak plate from Richie’s Drive Inn. The first time I’ve tried it here, wasn’t a fan. This time I was. Pretty good! Their mac salad is good too.

140606-02Richie’s Chili Dog Plate, it comes with a small soda as well. It looks like they raised the price. It used to be $5 something but now it’s $6, still a great deal if you ask me!

 

Koi Catering & Takeout – Kalihi, HI

I coordinated a lunch order with Koi Catering & Takeout last week and they must have had a heyday with me. I called constantly to change and add orders in but each time they picked up the phone, they were nice as could be. I really appreciate great customer service. When we went to pick up the food, the cashier was sweet as pie too! We were running late with lunch this day so I wasn’t able to take much pictures of the food. I hope to return there soon so maybe I’ll have more pictures then! The food was good. I got the wrong dish so I definitely have to go back and try one of their ahi plates, I heard that was good. I originally wanted the mushroom chicken but they were out of it so I had to get the pork chops, it wasn’t a good choice for this order.

140604-02It doesn’t look THAT bad but it really wasn’t good. It was overcooked and dry, I was disappointed.

140604-01Steak and Portabello Mushroom Salad – looks GOOD ah? My coworker loved it, I’m pretty sure she did because she cleaned it out!

You Hungry? – Honolulu, HI

You Hungry? has been around for a few years now but has moved locations a few times (or have they expanded?). I had a meeting in the downtown/Kakaako area and we had to drop in when we drove past this truck! It’s located in a parking lot and it was pretty busy! Everyone must know they’re there. Let’s get to the food!

140408-01Here’s the menu for the day. The prices are great!

140408-02Furikake Mahi Mahi and Garlic Chicken Combo – $8.25

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140408-04My co-worker had this plate and she actually enjoyed the fish more than the chicken! I don’t know if you can tell but the fish was cooked perfectly, very moist! The chicken was just all right.

140408-05Roast Pork with Fresh Rosemary – $6.00

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140408-07$6.00 is a steal! It comes with salad and very generous portions of rice and meat. How was it? S-A-L-T-Y. I was so disappointed. I should have thrown this out but I’m Chinese and can’t. The meat itself was heavily seasoned when it was first cooked – then you add dark brown gravy on top? It was all too much. I wouldn’t recommend this dish at all. My original dish was not available so this was my second choice.