Kit n' Kitchen

A friend of mine told me about Kit n' Kitchen a few months ago, but I never got around to visiting this place.  Well, this past weekend I didn't have any choice.  Said friend, invited me to lunch and brought me here.

Kit n' Kitchen is located near the University of Hawaii and was described to me as a "Chinese-Italian" restaurant.  I had never tried Chinese-Italian food before, but I was interested.  Once inside a few of the many tables were occupied.  In fact, as I was walking in, a woman was walking out and told me that I would definitely enjoy the food!  How's that for advertising?

After glancing at the menu, we decided to start with an appetizer, the meat en croute (US$3.95).

On the menu, it's described as "our classic meat sauce baked over crunchy toast".  The toast was crunchy and the bread was very light and airy.  There was just enough meat to give the bread some weight, however, to my tastebuds, the meat sauce was quite bland.  I guess I'm used to the rich, "tomato-y" flavors of traditional Italian cooking.

For the main meal, we decided on having a dish each and sharing.  We first chose the roast garlic chicken on rice (US$6.95).

This was pieces of chicken topped with a tomato-based sauce and crunchy bits of garlic.  The sauce was much better than that on the toast, however, I found it a bit too sweet for my tastes.  The chicken was nicely flavored, but I found that there was too much sauce on this dish.  The crunchy bits of garlic added an interesting texture to this dish...

We also ordered the black pepper pork chop on rice (US$7.50).

This was a typical Chinese-inspired dish.  Here the pork chop was pre-sliced, placed on jasmine rice, and topped with black pepper sauce and cheese (!).  While most of the pork chop was tender and juicy, there were a few pieces that were hard and gristly.  There was also quite a bit of fat here.  For me, this rendered about a third of the dish inedible.  The sauce here was very thick and only mildly spicy.  There was actually so much sauce on this that the rice became "mushy".  I normally don't like this type of food to have too much gravy or sauce, so for me, this was overkill.  The cheese, by the way, did little to enhance, or detract, from the overall flavor of the dish.

While I didn't throughly enjoy what I had here today, it wasn't half bad.  There were actually quite a few items on the menu that I found appealing and that I would be willing to try.  I'm looking forward to sampling more of the dishes on the menu, and I'll remember to ask them to "go easy on the sauce" the next time.

Kit n' Kitchen
1010 University Avenue
Telephone:  808.942.7622

Comments

[FatMan Seoul]

Extra sauce on the side would have been better, I guess. Looks good to me anyway.

[fish fish]

I want to try the plain light n airy bread. They looks wonderful. :) Is it a home made bread?

[Clinton]

One thing about Hawaii it seems that there are several "fusion" type restaurants popping up. We've been to Pietro's which is Japanese-Italian, also there was a Vietnamese-Italian place near McCully, and there was another Brazilian-Italian or South American?) on Kapiolani (I think it was Tony's?). All were different but quite good. They don't seem to thrive here in LA though. I guess LA people are not used to that type of cuisine yet?

[jmogosh]

the garlic pillow bread here is a trademark item...it would be interesting to try and recreate it at home. i guess you'd start with japanese-type unsliced loaf of white bread and a ton of garlic butter.

[Reid]

Hi FatMan,

I'm not one for a lot of sauce on dishes, and to tell you the truth, the less sauce on this the better. Other than that, the dishes were just fine.

Hi fish fish,

According to the waitress, they make their own bread. The "pillow" bread, as it's called, is the same type of bread that they serve in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Hi Clinton,

Yes, there are a lot of fusion places popping up here. I think the one you're thinking of on King Street is the Vietnamese-Italian place called Smooth. I went there and will blog about it shortly. I'm not sure why those types of restaurants wouldn't survive in CA, but I would think, with all the Asians there, it would be nice to have some variety.

Hi jmogosh,

Welcome to my blog! Yes, I'm sure that you could recreate it, but I don't think I've seen bread that's sliced that thick. I believe the thickest sliced bread that I've seen was at St. Germaine's. St. Germaine's sells bread that is sliced extra-thick, about half an inch perhaps.

[Seattle Bon Vivant]

Those pork chops look fit to be devoured. Yum!

[Jonny]

Oh, I always wondered about this restaurant on my way to UH. Thanks!

By the way, in my last entry I have a sort of reponse to your entry on Okinawan sweet potato pie. :-D

[Reid]

Hello Seattle Bon Vivant,

Nice to see you here again! The pork chops, and sauce, were good. I just wish they had used a leaner pork chop! I normally don't like to eat too much fat.

Hi Jonny,

Thanks for dropping in! I didn't realize you were in Hawaii. I've had the Magnolia brand of ice cream before. The one you had was macapuno-ube (coconut and purple yam/sweet potato). It's actually quite yummy. The flavor is similar to the flavor in this pie, however, it lacks the crust and is a bit sweeter. My favorite is the ube! By the way, thanks for the mention! =)

[kit]

Personal preferences have a lot to do with what we're accustomed to. What we're accustomed to depends a lot on things like culture, geography of where we're raised, resources that are available, attitudes our parents take when they raised us etc etc.

For the record, I think the more sauce the better, obviously to some limit. Mushy rice has its place. Fat has its place. But then again I'm from Montreal, Quebec where we don't really care about our health and am of Toi San poor Southern China decent where sauce is prominent when there isn't enough "meat" to go around.

I don't like hard & gristly pork but I have Haitian friends who love just that. Try their Haitian GRIOT - it is to die for.

[Reid]

Hi Kit,

Thank you so much for stopping by and leaving me a comment.

I totally agree with what you have to say, but my personal preference is for less sauce, on anything. As for the pork, I have met people who can eat whole cubes of pork fat and those who enjoy chewing on tendons and such. I just can't and I honestly don't enjoy eating tough meat either.

Hope to hear from you again!

[joanna]

Oh My Goodness
This is one of my favorite restaurants in Honolulu. We're from Washington DC, and everytime we go to Hawaii we stop by Kit and Kitchen. The sauces are delicious to my taste. The price is right. Host and hostess are extremely friendly. How can you say this is a mediocre restaurant? Sure it isn't a five star, but for a neighborhood university dig it does the perfect food so appropriate for the fusion culture of Hawaii!

[Reid]

Hi Joanna,

Thank you for stopping by my blog, I appreciate your comments.

I don't think I mentioned the word mediocre in my review at all. The food, in my opinion, wasn't as good as it could have been and it may very well have been an off day. However, I've been back to visit a couple of times after this review was written and had similar experiences.

I'm glad you enjoy the food here, there are apparently many people that like it as much as you do. In fact, I know quite a few of the them myself.

Thanks again for stopping by!

[n@r!k!]

Gosh, when my bf and I find good food, we're so tempted to find the recipe...just because we simply can't get enough, and we're absolutely in love with eur-asian cuisine!

Our usual is create your own pasta...ours is really to die for--pasta with their tomato sauce, broccoli, mushroom, portuguese sausage, and bacon. We were wondering if anyone knew the secret to their tomato sauce.

Thanks,
nariki

[Ron Brown]

I love this place! Been home twice in the last year from the Mainland and had to go there for the Garlic Chicken Wings. Best ever. The place is always packed,which should tell you a lot. Yes the pillow bread is delicious. Keep up the good work Kit

Ron Brown
KVYN Napa Ca

[lina]

Hello,
I ordered food from the mapunapuna Kit n Kitchen. I was really upset with the service. We asked for it to be delivered and it took 2 hours because the driver said he spilled the food all over his car. They then brought our food finally... after waiting the 2 hours! We ordered the pork chops with mushroom cream sauce. NEVER AGAIN, will we order from them because the pork chops were red inside! After waiting 2 hours and getting raw food, we didn't get anything back from them after advising them of the red pork chops.

[joo]

I've also had food from the mapunapuna K 'n K, I'm fairly certain that the "secret" to their sauces is MSG. Everything I've had from there has given me a MSG reaction.