'Ono Kine Grindz

Maki's Sushi Café

FYI...The name of this post was corrected from Bishop Street Café to Maki's Sushi Café.  Since the name on the front plate glass window shows Bishop Street Café, I naturally assumed that was the name of the shop.  Apparently, the shop changed names, and ownership, but for some strange reason the signage was not changed.  My apologies for the confusion.

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A while back a few friends had mentioned this little shop downstairs from where they worked.  They were kind of surprised to discover that Maki's Sushi Café, formerly known as Bishop Street Café, served an interesting combination of foods -- panini, salads, pastas, udons and sobas, and donburi.

The menu items seemed to have little to do with one another, but the fact that there was a line to enter this shop, made it more intruiguing.  So based upon their recommendations/curiosity, I decided to pay Maki's Sushi Café a visit.

The long narrow space is evenly divided between counter and walkway -- there is no seating inside the shop.  If it's any consolation, you can have a seat outdoors.  The menu board is conveniently located at the front entrance, so that as you step up to the counter, you can review what's on the menu and place your order.

The serving area is layed out cafeteria-style with pre-cooked food served from warming trays by the cheerful and helpful staff.  Today, I decided to order the chicken katsu curry don (US$5.99).

A nice sized piece of chicken katsu was served atop a bowl of chicken curry and rice.  The curry had pieces of onions, carrots, potatoes, and chicken in it.  The curry was mildly spicy and just a little sweet, which is typical of traditional Japanese-style curry in my opinion.  It was all served with a bowl of miso soup and some tsukemono (pickled vegetables) on the side.

The chicken was moist, well fried and not at all greasy.  The curry was delicious and filling.  It was almost as if I had cooked this at home.  What I was most surprised about, though, was the curry sauce.  Normally, when eating at Japanese curry restaurants like CoCo Ichibanya Curry House, or even at places like Mr. Frypan, the curry sauce is served plain, with no added ingredients.  Here, you have the added bonus of both chicken and vegetables included in the sauce.  How's that?

Here's a better look at the chicken katsu curry don.

Maki's Sushi Café is destined to become a frequent lunch spot for me, not only for the value that it offers, but also for the service and quality of the food.  My only suggestion, please change the signage on the glass window out front.

Maki's Sushi Café
Dillingham Transportation Building
725 Bishop Street, Ground Floor
Telephone:  808.537.6951

Café Laufer

A couple of days ago, a friend of mine asked if I wanted to meet for coffee at Café Laufer in Kaimuki.  Since I haven't been here in a while, I gladly accepted.

Café Laufer is located on a stretch of Waialae Avenue that is somewhat of a mini "restaurant row".  On the corner is Happy Days, a Chinese restaurant and right next door is Maguro-Ya, a Japanese one.  On the other side of Café Laufer, you'll find Big City Diner.

Inside, it's quite bright, especially those two "trees" made out of hundreds of tiny Christmas tree lights.  There's ample seating here and besides the baked goods and coffee, Café Laufer also offers a small selection of hot food items and salads.

To go with my coffee (US$1.95 including one refill), I decided to have the cherry sour cream tart (US$4.25).

There was lots of cherry filling here.  It was topped with a thin layer of sour cream and some whipped cream swirls.  The crust, in my opinion, was a little under-baked and the cherry filling seemed like it came from a can.  In all honesty, I thought that the filling would have been made with fresh cherries.  I was quite disappointed.

My friend ordered the cheesecake (US$4.25) to go along with her cup of coffee.

The topping on the cheesecake was strawberry, also canned.  I didn't have this, but I was told that it was just OK.

You'd think that with the premium prices that this place charges, you'd have the freshest, most wonderful tasting pastries and desserts.  Instead, the tart I had was mediocre and not worth the price I paid.  By the way, after being seated, no one ever came to our table to check on us.  In fact, I never got that coffee refill that was included in the price I paid for my coffee.  Maybe that's why I haven't been here in a while.

Café Laufer
3565 Waialae Avenue Suite 107
Telephone:  808.735.7717

The Old Spaghetti Factory

Feeling a bit under the weather, and bombarded with work, I haven't been able to post to this blog regularly over the last week.  Last night, I went to the Old Spagetti Factory at the Ward Warehouse for dinner.  This is a family style restaurant that serves mostly spagetti, but a few other Italian-style dishes as well.

When I arrived, it was not crowded...a bit unusual for a Friday night.  I initially requested to sit near the cable car, but unfortunately there were no tables available in that section, so I ended up sitting in the main dining room.

I ordered the chicken parmagiana (US$8.95).  I also asked for the complete meal (additional US$2.25) which comes with your choice of minestrone soup or salad, beverage of your choice and dessert.

I started with the homemade minestrone soup.

Previously when I had ordered the soup as a starter, it was salty.  The explanation was that they were trying out a new vegetable-based stock.  Today, the soup was great.  The saltiness was gone and it was  very tasty.  Full of flavors and made chunky by the inclusion of lot of vegetables, this soup really hit the spot!

Now on to the main dish...

The chicken parmagiana is first seasoned, then lightly coated in bread crumbs and pan-fried.  It's then topped with marinara sauce and mozarella cheese and then baked.  When this arrives at the table, the chicken is still crisp and crunchy.  It's not overwhelmed by either the marinara sauce or the cheese which is great. 

Instead of the usual spaghetti with marinara sauce on the side, I asked for it to be substituted with spaghetti with browned butter and mizithra cheese.  Sinfully delicious, this is one of their signature dishes.  While definitely not good for the arteries, tonight's spaghetti was done just right.  There have been times when the spaghetti has been "swimming" in the browned butter, but not tonight.  The spaghetti had just a light coating of the browned butter, just enough to give it a slightly rich flavor.  Topped off with the mizithra cheese and a bit of chopped parsely make this one of my all time favorites.  If you've never tried mizithra cheese, it is a Greek cheese that is similar in texture and flavor to romano.

If you're looking for homestyle Italian food, at reasonable prices look no futher than the Old Spaghetti Factory.  I guess that's what keeps me coming back time and time again.

The Old Spaghetti Factory
Ward Warehouse
1050 Ala Moana Boulevard
Telephone:  808.591.2513

Bravo Restaurant

A friend's birthday was about 2 weeks ago.  At that time, I invited him out to dinner, but he couldn't make it, so he asked to take a "rain check".  Well, last night he called and asked if I was free and I was.  He decided to cash in his "rain check" and asked if I wanted to go to Bravo's.  I haven't been there in over a year, so I said sure why not.

Bravo's is located at the Pearlridge Shopping Center right below Anna Miller's and across the parking lot from Starbuck's Coffee.  It specializes in Italian food and has received high marks from many local diners.  As I looked over the menu, our server brought some garlic rolls that were hot, buttery, spicy and delicious!

The rolls are so good that I could have probably eaten the entire basket by myself!

I decided to start off with a salad.  I ordered the chopped salad (half, US$6.95; full, US$8.95).

This salad is a mix of lettuce, tomatoes, olives, turkey, salami and gorgonzola cheese.  All of this is tossed with some creamy dressing.  The ingredients for the salad were very fresh.  The one thing I didn't like about this salad was the dressing.  There was simply too much of it!  I normally like my salads on the "dry" side.  This salad, however, was soaked in dressing which formed a small pool at the bottom of the plate.  This made the lettuce and other ingredients feel soggy in my mouth.  Maybe next time, I'll ask to have the dressing on the side.

For my main dish, instead of ordering pasta, which I always have when I come here, I decided to try one of the pizzas.  I order the 8" Wahiawa pizza (US$8.75).  Wahiawa is a town that one passes through on the drive to Oahu's North Shore.  It was once known for it's endless sugarcane and pineapple fields. 

On the menu, the ingredients sounded good:  SPAM®, Canadian bacon, pineapple (I guess that's where the name Wahiawa came from) and green onions.  When the pizza arrived, however, it was not what I expected at all!

Doesn' this look like something a child in the second grade would put together?  What I had expected were chunks of SPAM®, Canadian bacon and pineapple surrounded by melting mozarella cheese with a bit of green onions sprinkled on top.  What I got was a 3 pieces of each ingredient on top of a half cooked pizza with green onions sprinkled on top.  The pizza arrived at the table just slightly warm and the cheese looked barely cooked.  This was an utter disappointment.

All in all, this dinner was a let down for me.  In addition to being a bit pricey, the food was not as good as I had hoped it would be.  The only thing I found worthwhile tonight were the garlic rolls....and they were free!

Bravo Restaurant
Pearlridge Centre
98-115 Kaonohi Street
Telephone:  808.487.5544

La Pizza Rina

Since I had a somewhat healthy lunch today, I thought I could indulge a bit more during dinner.  So I called a friend and headed on over to La Pizza Rina. 

This is a fairly small place that has room for about 35-40 people.  It's usually very crowded, and tonight, there was just a tiny bit of breathing room.

It's been a while since I've been here, so tonight, I resort to having my favorites!  For starters, it's a large antipasto salad (US$5.95).

This salad is huge!  It's a bed of iceberg lettuce, topped with rolled ham and cheese, salami, pepperoni, pickled celery, onions, cauliflower and carrots, black olives, and slices of tomato and cucumber.  Then, it's drizzled with La Pizza Rina's own homemade Italian-style dressing.  This dressing is actually one of the best Italian dressings that I've ever had!  Full of herbs and spices, but not over powered by either the olive oil or vinegar.  Two thumbs way up!

Next, we both decide to order the lasagne with meat sauce (US$6.50).

What makes this dish special is the meat sauce.  It's thick and chunky and is served topped with some melting mozarella cheese.  After I load it up with some crushed red pepper and grated parmesian cheese...it was gone in no time!

The lasagne also comes with a side order of garlic bread.

Tonight, the bread is a let down.  It doesn't seem to be cooked at all.  I normally like it to be served nice and hot with a crisp and crunchy crust, but this arrives at our table just mildly warm and lacking any sort of crunchiness. 

For the most part dinner tonight was a success.  The bread, while not to my liking, can't really detract from the overall satisfaction that I got from eating this meal!  After having both the lasagne and antipasto salad, I remember why this is one of my favorite places to eat homestyle Italian food.

La Pizza Rina
1425 South King Street
Telephone:  808.941.6634