Our first meal was at my brother’s house, with a take-out meal prepared by Poke Stop at the Waipahu Town Center. At first, I was a bit disappointed because I love turkey and gravy, but Poke Stop changed my mind at the first bite.

For $75, serving 4-6 people (generous servings) you get:

• Crab & Corn Chowder
• Fresh Green Salad w/dressing
• Fresh Ahi Poke
• Dinner Rolls
• Whole Tai Snapper w/black bean sauce
• Pumpkin Cheesecake

The only preparation needed is to warm up the chowder and bake the snapper! A chef’s hotline # is even listed on the instructions for emergency.

Even with five of us, there were a lot of leftovers. Everything tasted so good and fresh. Poke was so fresh that it melts in the mouth. Snapper was tender and moist, with a tasty black bean sauce. Salad was fresh and crisp with a sweet vinaigrette dressing. Crab & Corn chowder was thick and tasty, with fresh crab. Pumpkin cheesecake was fluffy and soooo rich… a small slice is all you need. Even with the rich cheesecake, this has got to be the most healthy Thanksgiving meal I’ve ever had… and a very tasty one!

For a different twist of the traditional Thanksgiving meal, be sure to check out Poke Stop in the Waipahu Town Center!

Also, be sure to check out Reid’s (onokinegrindz.com) Poke Stop visit.

Poke Stop
Waipahu Town Center
94-050 Farrington Highway Space E-4
Waipahu, Hawaii 96797
Telephone: 808.676.8100

Being born and raised in Waipahu, my family ate here all the time ever since I can remember. It just feels like home everytime I eat here. No wonder I always try to visit here when I fly to Oahu. Unfortunately, they moved to a different location in Waipahu recently, but the food and atmosphere here is still the same and very homestyle.

When I was little, I don’t recall many Filipino restaurants around, but now there are many other Filipino restaurants sprouting up in Waiphu and other places (i.e. Golden Coin). But as far as I’m concerned, Elena’s is the best!

My two favorites here are the Sari-Sari (a tasty vegetable & pork soup) and the Kare-Kare (a peanut buttery oxtail soup).

Here’s the Sari-Sari.

Mixed vegetables, egg plant, squash, ongchoi, and very crispy lechon (pork skin). I love having this for breakfast! The hot soup is very rich with a strong fish and pork flavor, the vegetables are nice and fresh, and the crispy lechon is scrumptious.

Here’s the Kare-Kare.

This is like an oxtail & vegetable stew but with peanut butter. This might sound weird to some at first, but the peanut butter really thickens the stew up and balances out the flavor. The oxtails are fall-off-da-bone soft and the vegetables soak up a lot of flavor. The salty Bagaoong is a perfect compliment to this slightly sweet dish.

Filipinos love pork. Here is pork presented three ways: pork guisantes (pork & peas), pork adobo, and dinuguan (pork blood stew). Elena’s got these traditional dishes down to a science. They all are so tasty and tender. The flavors permeate through all of the pork. My favorite has always been the dinuguan.

I can’t wait to come back to Oahu to eat here again. Hilo just doesn’t have any good Filipino restaurants.

It smells so good everytime I visit (or pass) here. They make one of the best cups of coffee!

That big contraption in the middle of the store is a coffee roaster. I see them actually using it sometimes, so this might be why the coffee tastes so fresh.

I was lucky on my visit because their coffee of the day was the Kona Peaberry, a special type of coffee berry that less than 5% of the entire crop yields.

The flavor is much more intense and a bit sweeter than regular Kona coffee. It’s just hard to describe how happy this made me!

Also ordered was a Cafe Mocha.

Not too sweet with the espresso flavor still dominating, this was an excellent mocha!

Honolulu Coffee Company
Ala Moana Shopping Center, Upper Level
1450 Ala Moana Blvd., Space #3066
Honolulu, HI 96814
Phone: (808) 949-1500

Late night chowder cravings brought us here. Our last visit was quite awhile ago and we recalled some decent chowder. Chowder House is located in Ward Warehouse. There were about 7 other tables occupied at around 9pm.

We were promptly served some water and given our menus. Service was very friendly.

They have a bar with some beers on tap. I tried a Keoki Gold Draft brewed in Kauai ($3.25) for the first time.

This was a very refreshing, somewhat fruity, medium-bodied beer. It kept a nice head too.

We both ordered chowders: one New England Clam Chowder and one Corn Chowder ($4.75 each).

The chowders filled our chowder cravings, but they didn’t taste like what we remember them. Both of the chowders tasted a bit watery. The clam chowder, to me, tasted too starchy and not creamy enough. I think the corn chowder actually tasted better. What made it even worse was that the clam chowder was served warm, not hot!

We also halved a hamburger deluxe w/fries ($7.25) to go with our chowders.

This burger was hit and miss. The burger patty was fresh tasting, flame grilled, tender and not over cooked. The bun crumbled as eating it. Toasting the bun might’ve helped it. The fries were the worst! Many of them were chewy, soggy and oily. If you zoom in on the fries you can see what I mean. We ended up not finishing the fries, and rarely do I waste french fries.

This “Ginger Fire” sauce was sitting with the other condiments and it caught my attention.

I sampled it on the burger, and it tasted yummy. Then I sampled it in the chowder and it was… yummy but kind of weird. This sauce had a hot ginger kick, sort of like the heat that comes with eating raw ginger. The heat hits sharp and hard but did not linger too long. Interesting stuff.

Although our chowder cravings were fulfilled, I’m sure there are better places for chowder in Hawaii. Maybe we came here on a bad day?

The Chowder House
1050 Ala Moana Blvd
Honolulu, HI 96814
(808) 596-7944

Well, It seems like I’m posting more places in Oahu than in Hilo recently. During the holidays, I visit Oahu more since a lot of my family is there. So I’m sorry that I’ve been slacking with the Big Island places!

According to Pho Viet’s sign, they claim have the “best soup in town”. A strong statement considering the amount of Pho places on Oahu, although I’m not sure how many there are in Aiea.

The restaurant is a very small, but inviting place. There was only one other family there at the time we went (which was quite late).

We started with the spring rolls (I forgot the prices, but it was ~$5).

Along with the spring rolls came a nice vinegary sauce, lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, mint and some thin rice noodles. I guess you eat it like this?

Eating these were a real pleasure. The spring rolls were very light and crisp with a delicate flavor. There was not much meat filling, but it was still tasty. When eaten with everything else, it was great because of the contrast of textures and flavors.

I also ordered a large Beef & Meatball Pho (~$6). There was also a small for about $5.

I should admit now that I’m not a Pho expert (I’ve even been misprounouncing it for some time!), so it is quite hard to gauge what a good pho should taste like. With that said, I can tell you that I did enjoy this pho. Everything tasted fresh. The soup was very flavorful and had a distinct anise flavor… stronger than what I had at 1 Plus 1 Cafe or Hilo Rice Noodle Shop back in Hilo, but I liked it. The beef was served nice and rare, and the meatballs were very tender and had a good flavor. The garnishes were given very generously and the basil was very fresh.

Later, I went condiment hunting and found this:

Not sure what it is, but I think I put too much in mine. Very spicy and garlicky! Good, though.

Overall, this place was very good. The service was also friendly and attentive.

Pho Viet
99-163 Moanalua Rd Aiea
Aiea Hawaii 96701
Ph: (808) 486-7688

My Mom wanted to treat Bev and her family out for a nice dinner. She suggested to go to House Without A Key at the Halekulani Hotel, saying that it was a great place to go to during sunset, with live music and hula right next to the beach.

Halekulani is a beautiful hotel. While walking through the hotel, I noticed some beautiful flower arrangements and lush green grass everywhere… it reminded me of Hilo since they had a lot of anthuriums.

Here’s one of their arrangements (huge flowers!) and the entrance to House Without A Key.

We were asked if we were here for cocktails or dinner, then led to our seats. It was a beautiful location.

Beneath a huge kiawe tree, musicians were just setting up to play. Directly behind them was Waikiki beach. There were a lot of people already enjoying their drinks and food. It was very pretty.

One thing I noticed is that the vibe here is very easy-going. The waiters gave an impression that we were welcome to stay here all night long to just “chill”, yet still, they were very attentive.

I resisted ordering an alcoholic beverage since Bev’s parents or my Mom don’t drink, so I got their signature Halekulani Iced Tea.

This iced tea looked great and also tasted great too. They used a piece of cane as a swizzle stick. Pretty cool, huh?

Bread and lavosh was brought to our table.

The bread was yummy! Crusty and soft in the middle. The lavosh was also excellent.

Here’s the menu:

The selection here was very limited, but sometimes that’s good. There were seafood appetizers, salads, and familiar American-type dishes. The prices were also very reasonable considering the view and free entertainment.

I ended up ordering the Spaghetti with Meat Sauce ($13.50) since I felt like eating spaghetti.

I was skeptical about ordering this since it seemed odd having just spaghetti in this beautiful setting by the beach, but it was actually pretty good. The sauce was fresh and homemade tasting, and the meat was very flavorful. The garlic bread was very crusty and slightly chewy (good), with a great buttery/garlic flavor. The only bad thing about this dish were the noodles, which were a little overcooked.

Bev ordered the Fresh Island Catch of the Day ($16.50), which was Salmon. So, umm, where do they catch Salmon in Hawaii?

I should’ve ordered this. The salmon tasted so good! The inside was moist, and the outside had a great flavorful crust. There was a creamy dill sauce over it too which complimented the salmon perfectly. The vegetables tasted super fresh and were all cooked just right. One of the best pieces of salmon I had in recent memory.

We were all too full for dessert, so some of us just ordered coffee.

Coffee was just ok, but it was served in a nice pot.

We all stayed until near closing time, enjoying the music from a guitar, steel guitar, and ukulele. There was also a lovely hula dancer.

I would highly recommend this place to anyone who wants to have a leisurely dinner or cocktails with a beautiful view and entertainment.

Hey, check out this Lamborghini parked right outside of the hotel!

House Without A Key
2199 Kalia Rd (At the ocean end of Lewers St, Mid-Waikiki/Makai)
Phone: 800-367-2343
Web Site

I used to come here more often in the past, but have stopped going for a while… until I sampled a bite of their loco moco, I had to come back for further investigation!

Koa Pancake House has 3 locations I know of (Aiea, Waipahu and Kaneohe). They look like they are doing great since they are constantly busy, especially during breakfast. We went to the Aiea location which is right next to McDonalds.

It was about 11am and the place was packed with people eating mostly breakfast items. Lots of pancakes, waffles and eggs… I also saw lots of burgers too. The inside has a very warm koa theme with koa walls and decorations, giving the restaurant a nice mellow ambiance.

I had to order the Fried Rice Loco Moco ($5.95).

A generous portion of fried rice with ham and crisp green onions topped with a tender grilled burger, tasty thick brown gravy, and two eggs. This loco moco tasted great, but there was something different about it. The problem was that it didn’t really taste like an authentic loco moco. It might’ve been the gravy: thicker than usual, tasting more like a salisbury steak type of gravy. Good stuff, but I wish it were less thick so that it would mix better with the rice. On the plus side, they did everything else great: the fried rice was very delicious , the burger was very tasty – slightly charred, and the eggs were nicely cooked too.

Bev ordered a “Lite Bite” which included 2 pancakes, 2 link sausages, and 1 egg ($3.75). Really good deal!

The pancakes tasted good and were very light and soft… but the inside was a bit too soft to me and Bev (probably a little undercooked?). Still, it tasted good. I also wished that the outside of the pancakes were a bit crispier too, but they weren’t. The link sausages were good and crisp (tasted like Farmer John’s). Good deal for $3.75.

Koa Pancake House has good food for a great price, although not the best you can get. Service was very friendly and everybody had smiles on their faces, including the customers, who seemed all very friendly. I would probably come back again for some breakfast or try some of their lunch items.

99-115 Aiea Heights Drive #256
Aiea, Hawaii 96701
488-8805, 488-8816

Now it’s morning, and I’m hoping to go to my old time favorite: Rocky’s in Waipahu. I grew up on their pancakes and fried rice ommelettes when I was little!

Also, I just had a sample of my brother-in-law’s fried rice loco moco from Koa Pancake House’s, and I must say, it was so delicious. Watch out Hilo! The gravy was dark and thick (there was even a spare bay leaf in there!), the burger homemade and tender, and the fried rice was good too. I hope to do a loco moco review there before I leave…

So much food so little time! Give me some recommendations…

This past September I visited Oahu, and instead of posting multiple posts (like last time — I still need to finish that series), I’ll just post a more condensed photo-heavy post of my food adventures.

Okay, so I land on Oahu. What’s the first thing to do?

Curry House-u!!!!!1111

To drink, we had Cowpis… err, I mean Calpico… and a squid salad

Calpico is a nice sweet and creamy drink which goes great with a spicy curry. Their salads are always great since they have a wonderful dressing.

Beef Curry and Fish Curry

We went to the McCully location this time, and everything was fantastic. I can’t get enough of this curry!

Popeye’s Chicken

This is another must-go place I wish Hilo had. The chicken here is so much better than KFC… and the side dishes (especially the red beans and rice) have so much more spice and soul.

I usually get the chicken, but this time I felt like shrimp, so I got the shrimp po boy.

The sandwich was good, but I think I would rather have got the chicken. They do chicken better than they do shrimp, it seems. The cajun fries were crisp and had a nice spicy kick to them.

Genki Sushi

We stopped by Genki Sushi in Waikele for a quick late breakfast before some shopping.

For a fastfood sushi place, the fish at this new Waikele location was actually really fresh and tasty. Service was very attentive, even though there was a line waiting for seats. Highly recommended location!

We skipped dessert so that we could get some ice cream right up the street at…

Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory

There is a big selection of chocolates here, but we felt like ice cream and couldn’t resist a chocolate chip cookie. They also have chocolate-dipped frozen cheesecake and bananas. The ice cream was good, but the cookie, while good, was a little dry.

Picnic on Magic Island

featuring Imari Bento and Curry House take-out

Imari Bento is a nice little bento place near Ala Moana.

Imari Bento’s Bento

It’s best to call in your bento order to Imari Bento since it can get quite crowded and parking is limited there. You can order from a list of different items. We ordered a 3-choice bento with chicken karaage, hamburger steak (Japanese style), and crab croquette. The bento comes with rice, all kinds of pickled vegetables, and mac/potato salad.

The chicken karaage was excellent – very crispy and tender/juicy on the inside, which was very tasty. The Japanese style hamburger steak was interesting… something like a meatloaf with a tomato sauce. It tasted really good, but pretty basic. The crab croquette was just ok – it was hard to taste the crab. The rice was not your regular rice… it was short-grained, perfectly cooked, and tasted extra good especially with all the pickled vegetables. The mac salad was also excellent – it had a very smooth, potatoey texture, which I like.

And since we were in the area, we stopped by Curry House in Ala Moana Shopping Center, by my request.

Curry House Take-out = The Best Idea Ever!!!

Boston’s Pizza

It was almost 10pm and I was hungry, so I stopped by Boston’s Pizza on my way home. It looked like they were about to close, so I made it right in time!

One huge slice (or was it actually two?) of Pepperoni and Olives for $3.00

The pizza here is not too bad. Though this slice didn’t taste too fresh… I think I got an older one since they were closing up already. But I didn’t complain, I like thin crust pizza and thoroughly enjoyed this slice! It’s hard to give me a pizza I don’t like. Though, I don’t think I’ve been to a real proper pizza place yet… Are there any in Hawaii?

Wailana Coffee House

Reid from Ono Kine Grindz inspired me to come here for breakfast after reading his review!

We came here at about 5am, since Bev worked early that morning and there was hardly anybody in here yet.

The waitress was very nice and friendly. She was really laid-back and always smiling, which was really nice to see.

I ordered the pancake special (Reid, you made it look really good!) and Bev ordered the loco moco (one of the many reasons why I love her).

The pancake special comes with 2 eggs, your choice of meat, and all you can eat pancakes. ~ The eggs were not overcooked and the bacon was tasty. The pancakes were very moist, light, and had a wonderful little crisp on them, making them very yummy! I wished I was hungrier because this one order of pancakes already made me full!

How was the loco moco? It was not bad, not good either. The burger’s size was impressive and it was homemade, but the quality of the meat was chewy on the inside and lacking flavor. It needed more salt or something. The gravy was a mushroom type of gravy and was pretty good… a little buttery flavor, but could of had a beefier flavor. The egg was good. The mac salad and rice was good too. Overall, though, I don’t think I’d order this.

After breakfast, I wandered around Waikiki waiting for the sunrise…

Then for lunch!

Golden Palace Seafood Restaurant

We went for a wonderful dim sum lunch at Golden Palace Seafood Restaurant.

The food here was great and the prices were very cheap (only $1.50 per item).

We also ordered the House Special noodles.

The noodles were tasty, thin and soft, and came with a generous portion of various seafood and veggies.

A cute baby in Chinatown.

Leonard’s Jr. Malasadas

Before I returned back to Hilo, I picked up a dozen and a half of Leonard’s malasadas.

So good! Light and crispy on the outside and moist and chewy on the inside.

On the plane back to Hilo…

This is part two of a 5-part post from my recent visit to Oahu in July featuring the following places: Curry House, Angelo Pietro, Kaka`ako Kitchen, Elena’s, Yotteko-ya, and Popeye’s.

I’ve passed by this place many times whenever I visit Oahu since all the stores/movie theaters are nearby. It always looked appealing to try this place… a local plate lunch place sitting on high priced real estate? The food gotta be good there, I thought. I’ve also heard some good things about this place. I was able to try this place out for a late breakfast/early lunch this past July.

There was a good amount of people considering it was before 11am, but we found that we just missed breakfast. We were sad because we wanted to try the loco moco, and they consider the loco moco a breakfast food(!), so they wouldn’t serve us a loco moco.

C’mon now, what kind of place only serves loco mocos for breakfast? Who says a loco moco is just breakfast food anyway? They had hamburger steak — how much harder would it be to make a loco moco? Depriving a Hilo boy of his loco moco is a very bad idea!

Other than the loco moco inconvenience, the place was really nice (I only have food pics, sorry). Everything looked really clean and there was a nice open sunny vibe about the place. The people were actually nice besides the loco moco thing. If you are eating in, you place your order at the counter, then they give you a number. When your food is ready, they bring the food to your table, which is nice.

After a lot of thinking, I ordered the Beef Stew ($6.25) with brown rice and mac salad.

What a perfect breakfast, right? The beef stew was good and satisfying, but not really good. It tasted like regular homemade type of beef stew, but without the love… not as good as da one gramma or aunty [insert name here] makes. There was too much vegetables for my taste and I prefer more bigger fatty pieces of beef. The mac salad was not bad. Gotta have tabasco, right?

Bev ordered the hamburger steak ($6.25), the closest thing to a loco moco.

Bev thought the hamburger steak was just ok. It was good at first, but it got tiring to eat after a while. The consistency of the burger was very mushy like a soft meatloaf, but without the yummy meatloaf flavor. The outside of the burger was also burnt. I like slightly charred burgers, but there is a difference between a nicely charred burger and a burger burned by frying it too much.

The gravy was good, though, and the onions on top made for a nice texture combination. Overall, it was acceptable, but like the beef stew, it wasn’t that great.

We might’ve just ordered the wrong things. I’m willing to give this place another chance, but I’m not too excited to come back here.

Kaka`ako Kitchen
Ward Centre
1200 Ala Moana Boulevard
Telephone: 808-596-7488