Category — Eating out in Hawaii

Last week we went riding around the North Shore with our friends. What did they want? To see waves and eat garlic shrimp!

The waves were kind of flat that day (considering it was winter on the North Shore), but we were successful with the second item of business!

We were driving around Oahu counter-clockwise, which is very unusual for us. So when we got to Giovanni’s Shimp Truck in Kahuku, we weren’t quite hungry yet. We decided to keep going and checked out some beaches instead.

When we finally got around to Haleiwa, we were nice and hungry and now definitely ready for Giovanni’s Haleiwa Shrimp Truck! We were lucky with our timing, no line!

Here is their very simple menu.

And here of course is the Shrimp Scampi Plate. I like mine with lots of lemon squeezed over it!

Have you had it before? If you have, I bet your mouth is watering right about now. I know mine is just from thinking about it!

Here is a round up of my favorite eating out dishes experienced here at Made Healthier this year!

1. Highway Inn – Beef Stew Combo

Whenever I get that craving for beef stew, I have to go to Highway Inn in Waipahu! The beef stew is more on the soupy/tangy side, just how I like it. And don’t forget to check out their a la carte items and poke!

2. Longhi’s – Prime Ribeye Steak

Though our experience here didn’t start out the greatest, the night did end very well with some ono food (and even fireworks!). This steak was actually my dad’s order that he let me taste. Well actually he was sitting next to me so I kept stealing pieces from his plate! He said he liked my dish better though, so it was really more like a trading system. I’d give him some, he’d give me some. I don’t know why we didn’t just switch plates.

3. Le Bistro – Colorado Rack of Lamb

This is from my recent birthday post. I love rack of lamb, as long as it comes with a tasty, savory sauce. This one at Le Bistro does not disappoint!

4. Westin Nagoya Castle – Steak with Sakura Sauce

Many of my favorite meals and dishes this year took place when we were in Japan. In this meal we had this sakura steak along with sakura tea, sakura cake, and many other delectable things. Even though it was a buffet, everything was so pretty – and this steak was so tender and juicy!

5. Tokyo, Japan – Sushi

When we were in Tokyo, our friends picked us up for a sushi dinner near Tsukiji. The whole evening was just awesome. Friends, sushi, hanging out in Tokyo – what more could anyone want?

6. Shizuoka, Japan – Green Tea Ice Cream

We had had this particular ice cream cone at a green tea farm in Shizuoka. It was so creamy with a deliciously strong green tea flavor! I will never think of green tea ice cream the same way again…

7. Kunio Restaurant – Teishoku Combo

When we are hungry and craving Japanese food on Oahu, we often stop by Kunio Japanese Restaurant. They have tasty teishoku combos – with many choices to choose from. Some of our favorite combo choices are: sashimi, miso butterfish, yakitori, and tempura!

8. Yama’s Fish Market – Ahi Poke

As I began this post at a Hawaiian food restaurant, so we will end this list of onolicious grindz at another Hawaiian restaurant. No matter what you order here at Yamas, be sure to also get a side order of poke. I can never leave here without either some shoyu or limu ahi poke…makes my mouth water just thinking about it!

Well that’s it, my favorite 8 eating out experiences of this past year. Hmm, it’s not too good to reminisce about your favorite foods right before bed. I think it may be time for a late night snack…

To all the readers of Made Healthier, I hope you all have an awesomely fun and safe New Year!!

Aloha,
Lori

My friend at work has been enjoying dinners at Le Bistro in Niu Valley this past year and it has been killing me! I’m not a breakfast person so imagine coming in to work and getting the latest report on an empty stomach…we had escargot, and beef samplers, and lamb, and…. I’d be drooling with nothing more than a slice of sweet bread to mop it up.

But it’s all good, we love exchanging our foodie stories every week and often get new ideas for places to eat. By this month though, I must have heard at least three Le Bistro dinner stories. So when my husband asked where I wanted to go for my birthday, without hesitation I said, Le Bistro!

Here are several shots of the Le Bistro menu…click on them to see the larger version.

To start we were offered some warm, crusty french bread and lavosh.

My mom really likes lavosh, I know she would’ve enjoyed these.

We each ordered one appetizer. I couldn’t resist ordering some Pacific Northwest oysters on the half shell…

And he got the french onion soup that my coworker recommended. Nice and hot right out of the oven…

Being both very happy and content so far, we got even happier when we saw and tasted our entrees.

I had my rack of lamb…

Mmm, mmm good!

For his entree he ordered the Beef Quartet which was a special. It came with four little sampler plates, all of them done very well.

Côte de Boeuf – Rib Eye Steak with Beef Marrow Sauce

Short Ribs Braised with Red Wine and Peppercorns

Kobe Slider – Hamburger Stuffed with Stilton and Foie Gras

Petite Filet Mignon with Port Wine Sauce

All four of these were great, but if I had to choose I’d say my favorite from his quartet was the Filet Mignon with Port Wine Sauce. His favorite was the Short Ribs Braised with Red Wine and Peppercorns.

And the folks at Le Bistro were so nice, they gave me this pretty dessert complimentary since we were there celebrating my birthday!

I highly recommend Le Bistro for any occasion you may have coming up – birthdays, anniversaries, vernal equinox, whatever.

Hmm, one of my brothers has a birthday coming up in January. I wonder if I can persuade the family to choose this restaurant?

Le Bistro Restaurant – Niu Valley
Address: 5730 Kalanianaole Hwy, Honolulu, Hawaii 96821
Phone: (808) 373-7990

I really like dim sum. And for those like me, there are two new places to go to in Aiea.

The first is Golden Lion in Waimalu (by City Mill and Safeway). I went here once for dinner several weeks after they hired their new dim sum chef. It was pretty good, but a bit cramped inside. The waitress we had was really nice though.

The second place in Aiea, the one I’ve been back to about 3 times already, is Imperial Chinese Restaurant. This one is located in Westridge Shopping Center (across the street from Circuit City and Anna Miller’s, near Central Pacific Bank).

Here are my photos from my very first visit…

Dim sum plates are either $2.75 or $3.75 and there is a picture menu. There aren’t any carts here, they are all made to order.

Bean Curd Roll

Steamed Char Siu Manapua

Half Moon

Mochi Rice with Chicken

Chicken and Vegetable Chow Mein

And of course for dessert…Custard Tart.

One other item that I’ve ordered on return visits, and that I really enjoy, is the fried taro, also called taro puffs at other places.

And the best part about this place (for me at least) is that they serve dim sum all day from 10:30 am to 9:30 pm! I like to sleep in on the weekends so this is perfect! Typically we get there around 1:30 or 2:30 pm.

My favorite items: Mochi rice with chicken and the noodle dishes
My husband’s favorite items: Taro puffs and custard tart

I won’t say that it’s as good as Legend’s or some of those other places…but the food is good, the restaurant is clean and spacious, the workers are really nice, and it is super convenient if you are around Pearlridge when you get a craving for dim sum!

Imperial Chinese Restaurant
98-150 Kaonohi St #C115, Aiea, Hawaii 96701
(808) 484-0188

Since we were both off this Election Day, we decided to go out for dim sum for lunch! I was being indecisive so I called up my mom for her recommendation. She named a couple of her favorites and I finally decided on Legend Seafood Restaurant.

It was a late lunch so luckily we got a table right away, cause I was starving! To start off, we got one of our favorites…look funn. Here we tried the Beef Look Funn ($4.15), very tasty!

Another of my favorites, Mochi Rice in Lotus Leaf ($3.15).

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The other weekend we all went out to celebrate my dad’s birthday. Since my mom had a gift certificate to use up, we headed out to P.F. Chang’s near Ward Centre.

We started with the famous lettuce wraps ($9.50) as seen in the picture above. I thought they were pretty good but my younger brother said he prefers the similar lettuce wraps that my mom makes at home. I think they’re both good in their own way.

For a second appetizer, my younger brother chose the Crispy Green Beans ($7.50) for us to share. I thought that was an unusual choice, but after tasting it we all agreed that they were awesome! They’re just like green bean tempura, nice and crispy with a spicy mayo type sauce.

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We started out this past weekend by heading to Shirokiya for lunch. But as you can see from the title, we weren’t successful.

We like to watch those crazy old Soko Ga Shiritai reruns, and it seems like during each commercial break there would be an ad for the current fair going on at Shirokiya. The thing that stuck out to me, that I was on a mission to get, was the unagi don. Continue reading →

We had some errands to run near Kaimuki yesterday so we timed it that we could have lunch over at Rainbow Drive In.

Although it was pretty late – around 2:00 pm – it was still packed with no tables open. I was hungry and didn’t want to hover around to snag a table so we just hopped into the car and ate in there.

I had a chili and rice bowl ($2.50)

and some of his mix plate – teri beef, chicken cutlet, fish, rice, mac salad ($6.50)

I really love Rainbow’s chili. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever gone there without getting it! My orders seem to revolve around the chili plate, chili bowl, chili bowl and sandwich, or chili dog plate!

After satisfying our Rainbow’s craving and running our errands, we stopped by Ward Center to do a little window shopping. I haven’t been there for quite some time but I knew there was one place I wanted to check out.

For my birthday last year, one of my coworkers bought me this awesome chocolate cake from Satura Cakes. In my … years of life, this was definitely the most delicious birthday cake I’ve ever had! I had to see what else this shop had to offer.

In the display case I saw my chocolate cake but it looked a little different with nuts on top. Mine last year had fruits like blueberries and raspberries on top – it matched really nicely with the dark chocolate!

Yesterday we decided to go for these individual desserts that sell for $3.95 each.

We shared the Berry Blue Parfait. In the description it says this is a low fat yogurt mousse with a blueberry compote, soft sponge cake and fresh blueberries. It was really, really good!

Rainbow Drive In
Address: 3308 Kanaina Ave, Honolulu, HI
Phone: 737-0177
Website: http://www.rainbowdrivein.com

Satura Cakes – Ward
Address: 1200 Ala Moana Blvd, Honolulu, HI
Location: Next to Borders at Ward Center
Phone: 537-1206
Website: http://www.saturacakes.com/hawaii

I’ve had these pictures in my camera since June! Luckily a post from Lauren reminded me to rescue them from the black hole to which all unused blog photos disappear.

What can I say about Bangkok Chef? I love this place in Nuuanu! When I was in grad school at the University I used to always stop by here to pick up some dinner on the way.

When I would get to about 5 minutes away from Nuuanu on the freeway, I’d call in my takeout order. I actually have their number saved in my cell phone for this reason. If I had that Fave 5 program, they’d probably be one of my faves!

Here’s what it looks like on the inside. It has a garage door for a store front, a moderate amount of tables, water cooler, tv, and various Thai ingredients and produce for sale.

My favorite thing to order is the eggplant chicken. I usually get it mild instead of medium spicy. It’s made with chicken breast, eggplant, oyster sauce, ground bean sauce, garlic, and fresh basil. Yum!

They also have lots of other good things to order. Take a peek below!
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When it was finally the week for our friends from Tokyo to return home, we went with my dad to take them out for a sayonara dinner at Longhi’s in Ala Moana. I’ve been here once before, and several times to the Longhi’s on Maui.

What I remember about this restaurant, especially on Maui, is that it was always so accommodating with excellent service and good food. I remember back when they didn’t use menus. The waiter would just ask you what you felt like eating – seafood, meat, chicken, pasta, etc. And in a couple minutes you’d have a personalized order being sent to the kitchen.
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