Aloha Loop – Honolulu, HI

Hi folks! Wow, it is so cold this morning! This whole week has been super windy and for some odd reason, my office has been COLDER than all the other parts of the office. I should not complain, I much rather be cold than hot any day of the week. I hope everyone is doing well. This was a hard week for me. I had a presentation to do for class on Wednesday and I had such a hard time working on it. I had so much information to cover on the presentation but only had 10 minutes to do so. I just know I flashed through that thing. I hope my instructor recognizes how much time and effort I put into it, it was a lot of material to cover. But in the end, it’s over! I do have a paper due on Wednesday but I’m not too worried about the paper.

So JAPAN. My trip is coming up on Thursday. I will be gone for 10 days! I’ll try to get some posts scheduled up for posting while I’m gone. I’m very excited but also pretty nervous because I haven’t had any time to plan out the trip. I got the Rail pass yesterday and I am going to try to get my yen on Wednesday. Everyone is running out of yen because it is such a good rate right now, everyone is buying it up for future trips! I’m pretty excited for my trip, I really hope I get to see at least some cherry blossoms!

So today, I just wanted to share a quick post with sandwiches from Aloha Loop. They set up shop across our campus so I decided to walk over one day to try them. A bit pricey and shame how I tried to frame the photo. Lol…I wanted a nice background so I put my file folder but you can still see the background behind the folder..hahaha. Anyway, here are the pictures!

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150314-02Pastrami Panini – $9.00

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150314-04Pulled Pork Panini – $9.00

$9 is a bit rich for my taste, especially for a sandwich like this. But what they try to focus on is local, organic, fresh, healthy, etc. We know that it costs more money to eat healthy. I just didn’t think the food was that great, it tasted like an average sandwich you can get anywhere. They also sell salads for a hefty price but I think I’d rather make my own from our farmer’s market.

Win-Spuntino – Waialae, HI

Win-Spuntino is a brand spanking new restaurant that opened up in the Market City Shopping Center. They are located right by Foodland, above the Thai restaurant. I know what you’re thinking, there’s a two story place there? Yes, there is. Anyhow, this restaurant got an interesting start. The owner of the cell phone shop that was located by Anytime Cafe had to move locations and found they had too much room in the new space so they decided to open the cell phone place along with an Italian restaurant. Interesting starts aside, they serve up some pretty good food! I’ve been waiting for a good priced, good tasting, take-out Italian eatery for a while now. I have a lot of pictures to share in this post because it was an office order. My biggest piece of advice, forgo the sandwiches and garlic bread and go straight for the pasta. That’s the good stuff. Let’s get started shall we? Oh! By the way, I found out that the old Fun Factory space will become a Walgreens. As if that parking lot couldn’t get more congested and junk right? Okay, now on with the pictures and review!

140810-05Small Eggplant Parmigiana Sandwich and Salad Combo – $7.75
We had a decent sized order, this is a great deal. Six inch sub along with a small salad – they were nice enough to pack the salad separately to avoid the dressing running into the bread. How was this sandwich? My coworkers didn’t enjoy it. They found that the eggplant wasn’t cooked long enough so the eggplant was a bit too firm/crunchy for their taste. They enjoy their eggplant a bit more cooked/mushy, FYI.

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Small Meatball Sandwich and Salad Combo – $7.75
It was all right, nothing special.

140810-09Small Chicken Parmigiana Sandwich and Salad Combo – $7.75
It’s okay, would taste better fresh (it was eaten a bit later). Also, they put raw romaine in all their sandwiches. That’s a bit weird and not necessary.

140810-07Small Italian Sausage Sandwich and Salad Combo – $7.75
Oh blah. I was really looking forward to this sandwich because…look at the sausage! How awesome does that look? Big chunks of whole sliced sausage. Well I saved this one for dinner since I had pasta for lunch. The bread is terrible. Does not hold up well. The sausage? There was a weird taste to it. Not like spoiled or anything, I just didn’t like this sausage and I like all kinds of sausage. Okay let’s move on with the commentary…

The following salad pictures are the salads that come with the small sandwich combos. Big salads I say!

140810-22Pea Salad – it wasn’t mine but it doesn’t look too appetizing to me…peas look a bit mushy as well

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140810-26Pasta Salad – yes, it’s served on a bed of romaine lettuce. All their salads are…lol

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140810-24Tomato and Mozzarella – this was my salad. I was all excited for it thinking it would be a lot like a caprese. Hmm…didn’t work that way. The tomatoes, cucumbers and cheese are marinated in a very light balsamic vinegar dressing. The cheese was a bit firmer than I expected and very flavorless – I didn’t enjoy this salad.

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140810-21Curry Chicken Salad – this is probably the winner of all the salads. If you like a mild curry, you will like this. You must also like raisins. Wish I got this!

140810-06Garlic Bread – $3.00
Blah. Not worth it for 3 bucks. You might as well go to Foodland and grab your own loaf to bake up…I have a big issue with their bread in general

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140810-02Chicken Alfredo and Mushrooms – $9.50

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140810-04Shrimp Scampi – $11.25
Oh my gosh. I knew what I was getting into when I ordered this. All kinds of good and dangerousness for my body. Shrimp scampi soaking in butter and garlic. They are so generous with shrimp and the sauce was delicious. It was SO good. I would definitely order this again.

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140810-11Chicken Marsala – $9.50

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140810-13Chicken Sorrentino – $10.25
Chicken, Eggplant, Cheese, Mushrooms, Butter and Marsala Sauce

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Chicken, Bacon and Shrimp Casino – $12.00 (Daily Special)

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140810-19Spaghetti with Meat Sauce – $7.75
How can you lose with this much pasta and meat for 8 bucks?? This usually comes with Linguini. Their pasta dishes come with linguine by default but spaghetti is also available!

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140810-17Linguine Meatball – $8.75 (with spaghetti instead)
My coworker kept this dish for dinner (putting it in the fridge of course) and didn’t think the spaghetti held up real well. I wouldn’t mind trying it with linguine.

Anyhow, the pasta dishes were great! They give incredible portions for crazy great prices. I don’t know how they are going to stay in business with these portions and prices. Even though I say this, I will still be disappointed if any of this changes! They are doing great for now, I hope they keep it up!

Earl Sandwich – Waialae, HI

So when I write my restaurant reviews, I struggle with putting Honolulu which basically almost everything is in or naming the neighborhood. I should stick to the neighborhood yeah? How is everyone doing? I hope you all had a great weekend! This weekend was so busy for me, had a lot to do! Sorry I didn’t have a post up for Sunday! This week is going to be a bit nuts too but luckily we get a day off on Wednesday (my apologies to those who do not get a day off). Have you folks been to Earl Sandwich yet? It’s a brand spanking new sandwich shop located in the same parking lot as Happy Days, Cafe Laufer, etc. They took over the spot of a BBQ joint and they are still very new! Great ratings on Yelp so far so I wanted to do a quick lunch order! Here are the results!

140324-01French Dip – Beef, Gruyere, Dijon, Fennel Onion Marmalade, and Au Jus – $8.00

140324-02Gotta get a look at the insides! Doesn’t that look amazing? For this particular visit, they forgot to pack the Au Jus. 🙁 Luckily, my coworker still liked the sandwich and said that it had so much flavor for him that he forgave the Au Ju mistake. Would definitely recommend, just check for the Au Jus before you leave!

140324-03Jamestown – Turkey, Mayo, Dijon, Lettuce, Tomato, Curried Yams, and Cranberry – $8.00

140324-04What a beautiful sandwich – I can see why the job title is sandwich artist. Well for this place anyway… 🙂

140324-05This sandwich was good. Not great but good. It’s an interesting combination – the curried yams, cranberry, turkey…it’s a whole lot of different flavors going on. Not too sold on the curried yams for this sandwich.

140324-06Goat Cheese – Herbed Goat Cheese, Sautéed Asparagus, Cherry Tomatoes, and Balsamic – $8.00

140324-07Look. At. That. Goat. Cheese. Oh sorry, herbed goat cheese. As a lover of goat cheese, this sandwich was calling me.

140324-08Oh yes…I don’t care if you can’t see the other ingredients. That’s just how much I love goat cheese.

140324-09How was the sandwich? Awesome. I didn’t even miss the meat – I just enjoyed the flavors and fresh vegetables in this sandwich! Highly recommended!

If you are ever in the Waialae area, I highly recommend this place. The sandwiches are great! The bread is fresh and very crusty. While I’m not usually a fan of hard bread, their sandwiches made it a-okay. They were pretty fast in making the sandwiches too! They are still starting up so help support them! We need to keep these quality places around.

Fendu Boulangerie – Honolulu, HI

We ran an event in our office recently and ordered lunch for the participants.  Since I helped out – I scored a sandwich of my own!  I’m not sure if Fendu Boulangerie would be known for their sandwiches, but they are good!  I would definitely recommend them!  Here’s how two of them look:

131214-01Black Forest Ham Sandwich – delicious!  I couldn’t eat mine on the same day so I had it the next day and it was still good!  It’s a testament to how good the bread was!  I definitely recommend this. 

131214-02Vegetarian Sandwich – doesn’t that look great?  I love all the grill marks.  This wasn’t my sandwich but my coworker seemed to like it too!