Showing posts with label MomAndPop. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MomAndPop. Show all posts

Saturday, December 12, 2015

Fort Street Cafe

1152 Fort Street Mall, Honolulu, Hawaii

 

Foodelicious


A short one today...

 

Fort Street Cafe is one of my absolute favorite places to get my version of comfort food in Hawaii. This place has been around for a long time. It brings back a lot of memories because I frequented it a lot during my college days. 

It's located in Downtown Honolulu on Fort Street Mall, almost in the middle of a row of restaurants/eating places. Besides the little hole-in-the-wall Korean sushi place next door, it's been here longest. During lunch time, there's a line out the door since it's a favorite of not just HPU (Hawaii Pacific University) students but the office workers downtown.  


Today, I ordered the Pad Thai, which is a favorite of many, with Panang Curry. Most will tell you to order it with the Garlic Chicken, which I highly recommend, but today, I felt like a curry. I also ordered a Thai Iced Tea. 

There is not much seating inside so my co-worker and I grabbed a table outside. It's much more spacious anyway especially if you don't like the line of customers standing next to your table while you enjoy your meal. 

 

They do give you quite a large portion here so there's usually enough for a leftover. The pad thai and the curry are both delicious. I don't normally like mixing my pad thai with curry but here I do. 

 

Besides the pad thai, garlic chicken and curry, I recommend trying the lemongrass chicken (I ate lots of this during my college days), fried rice for breakfast, pho on a cold day, tofu with eggplant if you are looking for a vegetarian option, and the spam if you just need a quick snack. I don't have pictures for them but will make sure to share another blog post when I visit again.  

Food                                4.5
Customer Service         5.0
Ambiance                       2.5
Decor/Details                1.0
Parking                           0.5

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Season's Ice and Eatery

100 N. Beretania St. Suite #117, Honolulu

 

Foodelicious



Welcome to my first post for this blog! I hope you will continue to join me on my journey of taste, touch, smell and sound that hopefully will also be a feast for the eyes.



I love food and love trying new food so when a friend raved about this Taiwanese restaurant in Chinatown, I knew I had to try it. I’m not one to eat alone at restaurants so I dragged along a friend. 

An older lady, presumably the owner, greeted us by her shave ice machine next to the door. The sound of the machine whirring made me crave for a shave ice...mental note - check out the shave ice selection.  

We sat down at the last table by the kitchen since the other three were taken. Everyone in the restaurant except us spoke Chinese to the owners (including a guy delivering groceries). The pictures and corresponding numbers on the menu made it easy to order. We decided to share the Taiwanese beef noodle soup, braised tofu, and Taiwanese crepe with egg and green onions. 

The tofu was steaming hot when it came to the table. My friend almost burned her tongue popping a piece into her mouth. It was a pretty good size serving. The color may not have looked appetizing but the garnishing of green onions helped. The sauce had a tinge of yellow bean paste and some very tiny pieces of minced pork. We wasted no time in devouring the tofu since we were both quite hungry. Well, I was starving actually. 

 

Next came the beef noodle soup or niu rou mien (牛肉麵). The broth had a very deep color and filled the bowl almost to the rim. The noodles were thin, flat egg noodles. The few pieces of beef I had were cooked just slightly done. Besides a generous garnishing of cilantro and green onions, I was pleased to find pickled mustard greens.

It was a tasty bowl of beef noodle soup but I find myself wanting more beef flavor. Maybe because I was comparing it to other noodle soups I’ve had in the past. My friend, on the other hand, could probably have drank the whole bowl of soup on her own if she had not exercise such restrain.

 

The crepe or dan bing (蛋餅)was my favorite. The breading tasted somewhat like roti canai from home but of a darker color, not flaky and dotted with sesame seeds. I was happy with the portion of eggs and the green onions were not overpowering.

 

It was a satisfying meal. Needless to say, we cleaned the plates (and bowls). The best part was the price that totaled less than $16. The fact that the owners, husband and wife, also cooked the food themselves, made it even more heart-warming. 

Oh, wait – the shave ice! I was so full, it will have to wait for the next trip. We vowed to try the fish ball rice noodle soup next too.  

Food                            3 
Customer Service     4.5
Ambiance                   3
Decor/Details            2
Parking                       5