Since my girlfriend is a vegetarian, we both were looking at other places that serve vegetarian plate lunches that aren’t the usual bland tasting plates that I have tasted in the past. Welcome Well Bento. I consider this place a hole in the wall type of takeout restaurant. We’ve been hearing from several people that this place is a gold mine of delicious food, so we decided to check it out.

Well Bento is located in a kind of obscure location. They are located at 2570 S. Beretania Street, Suite 204. To give you a better sense of where this is, it’s in the vicinity of Puck’s Alley. It’s actually in a building that is surrounded by Burger King/Jiffy Lube, and the little shopping center that has Blimpies, Kit-n-Kitchen, etc. Once you see the 2 story building, just walk on up and you can’t miss it.

First impressions of this place was “wow, this place is SMALL”. Not only is it small, but it’s SUPER HOT in there. I don’t think they really invested in anything that would keep the cooks comfortable. They have two fans on high blast rotating, but it doesn’t offer much cooling at all. The kitchen was not only small, but very simple…in ways, it looks kind of dirty, but it could be because the kitchen looked dated. The cooks were definitely sweating, and it kind of concerned me if their sweat would ever reach our food.

Well, before I start turning you folks off, let’s talk about the food. Despite what I described above, the food was fantastic. I ordered the grilled chicken, which was served over a bed of brown rice with tahini sauce (a fantastic gravy), macaroni salad and cole slaw (they don’t use mayonaise), and broccoli, carrots, gobo, and potatoes. I got the chicken grilled Louisiana style, which was kind of peppery and spicy at the same time. The chicken was absolutely tender and delicious, and the Louisiana style definitely fit the bill. Although I’m not a big fan of carrots, all their vegetables including the carrots were very tender and tasty at the same time. The vegetables were also very bright in color, and they also let you know that they only cook fresh ingredients…that means NOTHING out of the can. Crazy. The tahini gravy over brown rice was AWESOME. I could eat that everyday. And to think all this was healthy…it was mind blowing.

My girlfriend got the grilled salmon which came with the same sides. The salmon was perfectly grilled, very tender on the inside, and was seasoned with tamari sauce and olive oil. Man, I would definitely order this the next time.

The prices were very reasonable as well. The chicken was $7.95 and the salmon was $8.50. Very cheap and very good. They also have a large selection of vegan dishes as well. Check em out or visit their website www.wellbento.com.

Just wanted to comment on breakfast that we had this morning at I Love Country Cafe. They are known for the breakfast menu of giving large amounts of food for a very decent price. And there are MANY MANY healthy choices, as it is a popular spot for bodybuilders and athletes. But this morning while going to work, my girlfriend and I were hungry, so we stopped by I Love Country Cafe (the one next to Ala Moana adjacent to Blockbuster and Payless Shoes). What did we find there? Seriously, one of the cheapest breakfast’s I’ve had in the longest time.

Basically, for $2.75, you can choose between three combos. The first is 2 eggs, rice, and ham or spam. The second is 2 eggs and french toast, and the third is 2 eggs and pancakes. We both got scrambled eggs, brown rice, and ham (we’re both trying to be more health conscious). All I can say is wow, for $2.75, this is a steal. The ham was very tasty, and were cut up into large triangles. It kind of had a slight spam taste, but most likely this was because they probably cooked the ham next to spam on the same pan (that kind of rhymed huh?). The eggs were great, and didn’t have that very buttery taste some restaurants make them, which I don’t like too much.

So was this a bargain? Sure it was! They have lots of local variations for breakfast, so I would say stop on by if you are short on cash and want delicious healthy food. Really, I KNOW I’d rather go here to get their breakfast than any fast food joint. Period.

This isn’t to say that this place isn’t good.  It just isn’t great.  Why you ask?  Here are the main reasons.One, the service takes WAAAAAAAY too long for takeout.  The restaurant were empty to being with, with only one table being used.  And being that it was early in the night around 6:30pm, they shouldn’t have taken so long with the order.  We waited about 15 minutes for our two take out plates.  During that time, they dropped someone else’s order while we were waiting on the inside.  I heard the cook say that it was slowly falling, and the girl at the counter didn’t even try to help, rather she just watched it drop and started to blame the cook.  Nice teamwork there.Two, the cost was pretty expensive for the little amount of food they give you.  A mixed plate of chicken kabobs (not on sticks, but just in cubes) with lamb and beef gyro meat, greek salad, and pita cost me $11.95.  My girlfriend got the shrimp which came with rice, greek salad, and pita cost $14.95.  We were able to use our $7 Entertainment Book coupon, but for some reason, she only took off $5.  Compared to Olive Tree or Greek Marina, this place gave too little food for too much money.  I only have 5-6 small slices of gyro meat, and the chicken tasted bland.  Plus, the salad was very little and didn’t have much dressing at all.  Tasted something a school lunch would make.  The rice on my girlfriend’s plate was also very bland.Thirdly, their service just wasn’t good.  They weren’t that nice, they blamed the cook for something they could have prevented, and they just took too long for food that was so little.  It wasn’t even hot.  I ate at this place before and it wasn’t that bad, but for some reason they aren’t that good anymore.  With so little people at the restaurant at 6:30pm, maybe they changed owners.  But I definitely don’t recommend this place anymore.

For those of you who frequent Windward Mall in Kaneohe, make sure you pass by the food court and get yourself something from Blazin’ Steaks.  This past weekend, we headed down to Windward Mall just to get out of the rain, and when we got hungry, we went to the food court.  They had a variety of foods, but the longest line was at this place called Blazin’ Steaks.  So what made it so popular?

Basically, it’s a plate lunch place that serves steaks, chicken, and fish grilled to order.  For a mere $6, you can get an 8oz steak seasoned, grilled, and sliced, or chicken, or even opakapaka fish.  And if you are really hungry, you can get a 10oz portion of steak for only $10.  The plate lunches also include salad with your choice of ranch, thousand island, or italian dressing.  They also include rice with your order.  And if that wasn’t enough, they also threw in a drink too!  What a deal.

I ended up ordering the 8oz steak plate.  They give you a generous portion of salad and two scoops of rice with my purchase.  The steak tasted great and was very tender.  The only downside was that it wasn’t fresh off the grill.  Instead, since there were so many people there, they would cook up the steaks first and then put it in a heated container and pulled out the desired amount when a steak plate was ordered.  Nevertheless, the steak was very flavorful and much more tender than I thought.  I put A1 all over my steaks and even put some Korean BBQ sauce over my rice.  And for $6, it was a bargain.

My girlfriend got the opakapaka with the Korean BBQ sauce.  For the fish and chicken plates, you can have your variety of sauces, including Korean BBQ, Thai peanut, or just plain hibachi.  The fish was very tender and even included the skin.  It didn’t taste like it was frozen, so that was pretty good.  The only thing I could gripe about was that it took 15 minutes if you ordered any fish plate.  Then again, at least the fish wasn’t already cooked and just reheated, so in that case, I guess the 15 minutes is worth the wait for the freshly grilled taste.

So if you’re strapped for cash and want some very flavorful food while strolling Windward Mall, make sure you head down to Blazin’ Steaks.  You won’t be disappointed!

Yesterday for lunch, we were craving hot food, so we headed down to Restaurant Row on Ala Moana Blvd. to have our favorite food there…Chez Sovan Express.  This great little eatery serves Cambodian food.  Now if you haven’t had Cambodian food, it is very much like Thai and Vietnam food.

I went for the three item combo.  For $7.29, I was able to get their fried noodle, chicken curry, and eggplant tofu.  It also comes with a scoop of steamed rice.  First off, their fried noodle was very much like pad thai.  The noodles were decently wide with nice spices, but not too overwhelming.  They also include little pieces of chicken and tofu, and it was all topped off with some crushed peanuts.  They gave a big heaping scoop, almost like two servings full…how generous!  The eggplant was very very tender, and the tofu was nice and soft.  The sauce was a bit spicy, but it was very delicious.  Lastly, the chicken curry came in a separate container, and contained a HUGE chunk of tender chicken, a carrot, and a large chunk of potato.  The curry was spicy, and was very similar to Thai curry, which contains coconut milk.  Eating it over my brown rice (you can get white or sticky), I felt very satisfied since yesterday was pretty cold.

My girlfriend had the fish curry, which was also very good.  It came in a very large bowl, and cost $7.29.  It came with a side of rice as well.  The curry contained pieces of fish, eggplant, string beans, and basil.  The curry was a bit spicy and also had the nice coconut milk flavor.

Would I go back again?  OF COURSE.  For the price and especially the delicious food, Chez Sovan Express is definitely my favorite restaurant in Restaurant Row.  Next time you’re there, make sure you stop by…I guarantee you won’t be disappointed.

If you are looking to eat Indian food, look no further.  Cafe Maharani on South King St is definitely the place to go.  Located right across Star Market and wedged in between Down to Earth and Subway, this Indian eatery might possibly be the best Indian food I’ve ever had.

Since we were pressed for time, we decided to purchase take out.  Little did we know, the place was already packed, and had a group of people waiting to be seated in this small but cozy restaurant.  Parking was found in the back, but very limited.  I’d say there no more than 10 parking spaces.

After walking into the crowded restaurant, we placed our takeout order.  Seeing how busy it was, they said it would take 20 minutes.  40 minutes later, our food arrived.  This was the same with everyone else who was waiting to get takeout, as I talked to a few one them, even running into a friend who was trying out their food for the first time as well.  The people waiting to be seated also said they were standing for about 30 minutes.  This gave me a good sense that this restaurant must be good, since everyone was willing to wait!

By the time we received our food, it came in two bags.  Yes, TWO bags.  Cafe Maharani is known for giving lots of food, and let me tell you, I eat a lot.  This was a lot of food folks.

So what did we order?  We got the dinner for two.  For $38.95, you get to choose two chicken, beef, or vegetable entrees, and it comes with an order of samosa, rice, and naan.  I went with the chicken masala since the worker told me I would not be disappointed, and my girlfriend got a vegetable curry.  Samosas are cooked curried vegetables (potatoes, carrots, onions) that are filled in a very delicious fried pastry crust.  They were ENORMOUS…about the size of my fist.  They were very delicious, hot, and the crust was phenomenol.  The samosas also included two dipping sauces, one very simliar to tsatsiki sauce (tasted like yogurt with cucumber and mint) and a spicy reddish sauce.  I liked both, but the spicier sauce was more my cup of tea.

The chicken masala was phenomenol!  The curry had some coconut milk along with tomato and onions, and was reddish in nature.  They didn’t skimp on the chicken as well…there were huge chunks that were extremely tender to the bite.  I had probably 10 chunks of chicken in there.  The curry was very tasty and was decently spicy.  Of course you could ask for any strength of spice, but mine was perfect.  My girlfriend’s vegetable
curry was also very good, and had lots of vegetables including potato, peas, carrots, and onions.  It was very chunky and tasted very good.  All of our curry were poured on an enormous amount of rice.  And I really mean enormous.  It was basmati rice which had a nice rich flavor with some saffron mixed into it.  Perfect.

Of course, an Indian dinner would not be complete without naan, the Indian version of bread.  This was definitely a winner in my book.  It was basically a HUGE soft and slightly chewy (and at times crispy) flat pita-ish bread.  I say it’s almost as big as a medium sized pizza from Pizza Hut.  Yeah, that’s big.  It was very delicious, and was even good the next day when we threw it in the oven.  Nothing better than fresh hot naan.

Overall, the food was great.  Waiting 40 minutes for takeout food was a bit overboard, and I can only imagine how long people had to wait when they dined in, as they had to wait to get seated and wait again for the food to arrive.  I suggest going earlier to miss the prime time dinner crowd so you don’t have to wait.  Otherwise, call in and order takeout, and arrive 30 minutes later.  By then, you should only wait a few minutes before your food arrives.

Want Indian food, try Cafe Maharani!  The food in great…now if you can just wait long enough…

For my girlfriend’s birthday, we decided to go to Nick’s Fishmarket since she’s heard only wonderful things about this place, and she is a seafood lover.  I made reservations and let them know it was her birthday, because they normally have great service and give a nice slice of cake with a candle to commemorate the birthday girl.

Arriving to Nick’s, we were greeted by 2 valet people who promptly valet’d the car.  The lot was very very small…probably could hold about 15 cars total, and even if I wanted to park myself, you can’t really since it was valet only.  Good thing it was free, but you still should pay tip.

The restaurant is very elegantly laid out.  It’s not on the calibur of many other high end restaurants, but it does have a nice “homey” feeling, with dim lights and ample seating.  We were promptly seated and served water.  As we were looking at the menu, we were given their sourdough bread with butter.  It was very delicious as the bread in the middle was very warm and soft with a little crunch on the outside.  It was so good we went through two baskets.

When we finally decided to order, we wanted to start off with an appetizer.  We ended up ordering the Assorted Hot Appetizer Platter.  This wonderful platter comes with blackened sashimi, shrimp scampi in garlic butter, crab seafood cake, and oyster rockefeller.  But don’t let the assortment fool you…the portions were very small, as there were two slices of sashimi, one shrimp, one crab cake, and one oyster.  Needless to say, even with the small portions, they all tasted wonderful, especially the blackened sashimi.

For entrees, I ordered the Hawaiian Opakapaka, which is sauteed, and served with a sundried tomato, basil, and garlic butter sauce.  It is served on a bed of parmesan mashed potatoes and tomato confite.  They also included a slice of carrot and zucchini.  The fish was VERY tender and everything was piping hot.  The garlic butter sauce was extremely good, but if you are sensitive to things that are salty, you might want to look for a different dish.  But I do like salty things, and this sauce was phenomenol.  And it is more of a salty taste from buttery and not strictly salt.

My girlfriend ordered the seabass which was a very large portion of the fish over a bed of mashed potatoes, surrounded with 1 scallop, 2 shrimp, mussels, carrot, zucchini, and smothered with a tomato sauce with capers.  It was very tender and very delicious from the bite that I had.

Our food was complimented with a riesling and a blush white zinfandel.  Both were very good and decently sweet.

We ended the night with a banana flambe.  Make sure you order this dessert because it’s not on the menu.  Not only that, but a cook comes out and makes the flambe right next to your table.  In any case, they make their caramel with 3 different types of alcohol with brown sugar and butter, with a few drips of orange at the end.  And it’s not a flambe without the flames, which he did twice.  He also put in macadamia nuts on top of the cooked bananas that soak the caramel, then pour it over vanilla ice cream.  Pure bliss.

The total cost was about $132, but using our Entertainment card, we saved $28, bringing the grand total to $104.  Head over there if you want great seafood!

After 2 of my coworkers suggested Diego’s as the best Mexican food on Oahu, I decided to take a trip there.  This little Mexican restaurant is located on 2239 S. King St. right across Longs and next to a large park.  Parking is in the back…just take the street right before it and turn immediately to your left.  There should be parking for about 10 cars.

Walking into the restaurant, you immediately notice that it is a very very small place.  There are probably about 7-8 tables that can only seat 2.  At about 6pm, all but 2 tables were filled.  I ended up purchasing a combo plate that included a carne asada burrito and two rolled tacos.  The plate also came with Mexican rice, beans, and a medium soft drink.  This combo plate cost me $7.85.

The burrito was HUGE.  I mean, HUGE.  Cutting the burrito in half, I noticed that there was basically nothing but meat, meat, and meat.  I couldn’t believe how much meat was in the burrito.  It had to weigh more than a pound.  The seasoning was very tasty, but it wasn’t too spicy.  Even with their homemade salsa (very watery and not chunky like most salsa), the spicyness wasn’t there.  Then again, I did ask for mild.  If you are into hot salsa, make sure you ask for the hot one.  Anyways, the burrito had some sauce that I assume was sour cream, but very little of it, and specks of parsley.

Next was the two rolled tacos.  The tacos were actually deep fried, filled with ground beef, and topped with lettuce, shredded cheese, and sour cream.  The tacos were alright and nothing special, but it definitely was a good addition to the total cost of the combo.

The rice and beans were pretty standard and didn’t really stand out in anyway.  The beans were actually kind of mushy and a bit on the watery side, but somehow they still tasted decent with its unusual runny texture.

For such a hearty meal that cost less than $8 is outstanding.  I was left very full and very content.  By the way, I also tried their Mexican soda that they actually import from Mexico.  We tried the mandarin flavored one, and I didn’t really care for it that much.  Somehow there was this funny taste…kind of bitter and sour at the same time, which I assume is their carbonated water and most likely on all of their Mexican sodas.  The guy at the register (very nice individual I might add) liked the strawberry one, so if you are adventurous, give that one a try.  There are about 7-8 different flavors to choose from.

After experience Diego’s, I have to say I’m also a big fan.  While I still have yet to try many different Mexican restaurants around Oahu, I have to put this place as #1 for now.  Give it a try!

Wow.  That’s how I felt after eating the legendary Sunday brunch buffet at Halekulani’s Orchids restaurant.  It was for my girlfriend’s mother’s birthday, so we all went out to Halekulani this past Sunday to eat brunch.  We arrived at 9:30am and valeted our car to very friendly people.  After walking over to Orchids, we were seated next to the beach end of the restaurant, and were treated to a fantastic view of the ocean.  The server promptly asked what kind of drinks we wanted which were included in the meal.  They offered coffee, orange juice, cranberry juice, pineapple juice, guava juice, and water.  I tried both the orange and guava juices, and I ended up liking the orange juice much better.  The guava was slightly on the bitter side, and wasn’t that sweet.  It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t all that great either.

So what did they offer?  On one end, there was the usual salad area and cold section.  This included poke, thai beef salad, papaya salad, asian duck salad, tomato with mozarella slices, green bean salad, assorted sushi, sashimi, cheeses, cold cuts, soba, and the soup of the day just to name a few.  This section was OK, but the papaya salad was good as well as teh tomato with mozarella.  I also had their salmon with capers, but they lacked bagels and cream cheese.  Nevertheless, the salmon was delicious.

The next station was an omelette station that included LOTS of toppings.  What I remember seeing was shrimp, salmon, bacon, chives, onions, american and swiss cheese, tomatos, and mushroom.  The omelette was delicious and made very well.

Next, we went over to the hot foods/entree section.  There we found suckling pig (with the head still on!), roast beef, chicken, mahi mahi, bacon, rice, mashed potatoes, spicy sausage, turkey, assorted stir fried vegetables, and a unusually good warm pastry wrapped around cream cheese and topped with blueberrys.  I loved all the dishes, btu the spicy sausage wasn’t all that great.  They also had a puffed bread that was very airy and looked like a chef’s hat.  I forgot what it was called, but you get this type of puffed bread at Mariposa in Neiman Marcus, which is much better than the one at Orchids.  They do have a very nice lilikoi butter, which I wish I could purchase and use everyday.

Finally, there is the famed dessert section.  If you have a sweet tooth, you are in luck!  There are TONS of cakes, mousses, haupia, fresh fruit, cheesecake, and chocolate everything.  There is even an awesome ice cream station where you can get a wide range of toppings, including fresh blueberrys, blackberrys, raspberrys, caramel, chocolate, cherrys, macadamia nuts, and even lilikoi sauce.  The ice cream was definitely the best dessert for me, but if you are into lots of variety, make sure you stop by this hard to miss station.

My girlfriend’s brother was gracious enough to pay the bill for the five of us, but beware because it is on the pricey side.  Looking around the internet I found that it is about $50 a head to eat at Orchids.  But they don’t have trouble finding business since it was completely packed that morning.  Personally I would go back there again.  If you want to splurge on a great brunch with a great view, don’t forget to head down to Halekulani’s Orchids restaurant!  Oh, and don’t forget to make reservations.  From what I heard, it’s hard to get in without reserving first.  Happy eating!

Since my girlfriend’s parents were in town for the weekend to celebrate her birthday, we decided to get together and have dinner at Tsukiji Fish Market at the Hookipa Terrace in the Ala Moana Shopping Center.  I’ve heard some good and bad things about this buffet restaurant, but since it was new, we decided to give it a shot.

The cost of the dinner was $32 a head.  We were promptly seated since we had reservations.  After serving us water and tea, and asking if we wanted to have any other drinks (which are not included in the price of the buffet), they let us know it was OK for us to start getting our food.

The beginning of the line was a whole range of nigiri sushi.  It wasn’t that high quality, and looked more like something from fast food sushi places such as Kozo.  It made Genki Sushi look more appetizing.  I did enjoy the spicy tuna roll, and the unagi (eel) nigiri was decent, but the rest were very subpar.

We walked over to the next section that included more American foods like lilikoi BBQ ribs, fish, and chicken wings.  I didn’t really care for this section, so I went to the next section which was the crab legs.  This is where I was thoroughly disappointed.  The restaurant did not provide at crackers, and to top it off, they don’t even crack it for you.  In addition, the legs were really pointy and pokey, so it was hard to crack in half with your bare hands.  And when you finally worked hard enough to take out the meat, it was really dry and didn’t taste good at all.

The next section was a teppanyaki area, where they cook steak to your desire with bean sprouts.  This was pretty good, but there was no taste to the steak because they don’t add any type of seasoning or sauce.  The only sauce was shoyu that they had on the side.  Regardless, this was one of the better foods there.

The next section included more Japanese foods, like misoyaki butterfish (very tender) and chicken karrage (basically fried chicken, but it was suprisingly crispy and very tasty).  Those two were good enough to go back for seconds.

The next section consisted of tempura fried right in front of you and placed right under heat lamps.  There were the usual suspects of shrimp, potato, and vegetables.  They were surpisingly good as well, with the batter still hot and crispy.

The last station was a noodle section, where they offerred udon, ramen, and cold or warm soba.  I opted for the cold soba, which was very refreshing.

There was also a dessert section with a bunch of cakes that I never tried, but none of them looked good enough for me to pick up.  The highlight of the night was the shaved ice.  The shaved ice was very light and powdery, much like snow.  There were many flavors, including strawberry, banana, melon, and vanilla.  You can also top it off with azuki beans and condensed milk.  I mixed in strawberry, melon, and vanilla with the beans and condensed milk. By far, the best part of the night.  If I wasn’t so full, I would have one for seconds.

Personally, I would say take your buffet money elsewhere.  Some do enjoy this place though, so hold your judgement until you taste it for yourself.  As for me, I think I’m going to take my $32 and eat at Roy’s.