So, I’ll start with one of Tom Douglas’ wonderful restaurants which is also attached to a bakery.

I started with a tomato soup.

This was simply the best tomato soup I’ve ever had by far. It was thick, fresh, bright and very rich. It went so good with the buttery croutons and bread served. I won’t look at tomato soup the same again.

Next, an order of Tom Douglas’ famous crab cakes.

Man, these crab cakes rock. The crab meat is so sweet with huge chunks of leg meat. While it’s mostly crab, it still has a nicely seasoned breading with green onions. Served with grilled romaine and crispy potatoes.

Desert time! Coconut cream pie.

So deliciously light and not too sweet. The crust was great texture.

Fresh Pear Tart

Outstanding! Seattle has the best pears I’ve had, and combining that with a fresh flaky tart pastry, this was just delicious.

I’m so spoiled now. Seattle I will return!

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…

For example, check out this loco moco from Japan! The restaurant is called “LocoMoco Hana-Dining”. They also serve beer from the Big Island too.

They even have a “loco cup” in the takeout menu. Too much fun!