After hiking the Diamond Head Trail, which is steep but well worth the hike, we needed to find some lunch. I had passed a small smoothie shop but after parking the car my friends spotted a little Mexican place across the street.
Mi Casa Taqueria

It was my friend, Jason, who turned me on to the fish taco. But, fish taco’s are not easy to find in Pittsburgh. So since they were on the menu I had to order a fish taco - it was delicious.

From my table I could look out over the strip mall (they have a lot of strip malls in Hawaii) and see the mountains. It kind of reminds me of being in Colorado.

I still don’t know but it taste good. We had breakfast at Koa Pancake house. It is amazing. We were told to try the portuguese sausage. Does anyone know what the difference between regular sausage and Portuguese sausage is?

Koa Pancake house is amazing. We don’t have anything like this back in Pittsburgh.

Not only are the pancakes delicious, but the hot chocolate comes with sprinkles too.

So I kicked off this Saturday evening with a stop @ Sansei Seafood Resturant and Sushi Bar. click to view larger It is on the third floor of the Waikiki Beach Marriot Resort and Spa. Gracious waitstaff and Late night Sushi or appetizers until 1am.
The sushi was plentiful and the sake’ was hot. click to view larger I should of snapped the photo before I dug in…Ooops. I couldn’t restrain my impulse.
I also found out that every Saturday night Illusions is going on. DJ Great music mixed with nice atmosphere is hard to beat, not to mention there’s never a cover!
I found Illusions going on @
2552 Kalakaua Ave.
808-931-6286
Sansei hawaii

Fellow cabbie, from Washington DC, Lugosi, of Mirth, Musings & More posted this political cartoon by Tom Toles,The Washington Post

Its too funny not to be shared.

Well, on Mau’i there are many great restaurants. And the nice thing about dining out on Mau’i is that you don’t have to get dressed up. Not one location requires a jacket and tie, but don’t try to get into the fancier ones wearing beach attire. The have to draw the line somewhere.

I have three favorite restaurants:
(more…)

At Tokkuri Tei the other night…

I thought about complaining because I felt this guy was getting preferential treatment:

But then I saw how the rest of his order came out (click on the images to enlarge!):

I guess Kazu, the sushi guy, was feeling a little mischievous that night. Don’t ask me where Tokkuri Tei is; I won’t tell you. It’s too crowded there as it is. Not enough room. Look how small they have to make the sushi.

My friend’s birthday was approaching fast, and we still hadn’t picked a place to eat a celebratory meal. Desperate to try something different, we picked Tsukuneya. Tsukune is ground chicken, seasoned and shaped into an egg-shaped ball on a skewer, then grilled.

For those of you that haven’t passed by UH lately, Players is no longer in existence there. Or if it’s been a really really long time since you’ve been by UH, Pizza Hut is gone. In it’s place is this very orange, very swirly looking place called Tsukuneya. It’s a Japanese restaruant serving Robata-yaki (Grilled food). To be precise, they serve Nagoya-style food. Now, I’m not a big fan of Nagoya-anything, maybe with the exception of Chanpon. But here, I was pleased to find out that most of their items were really not much different from the usual Robatayaki items you find nationwide in Japan.

(more…)

Crazy as it may sound, I’ve never been to Wasabi Bistro. But what sounds even crazier is that my 3 friends who have lived here their entire lives have never been there, either. And we all love to eat out so I’m not sure why we’ve never bothered to try this place. I’m sure many of you have been here at least once…shame on you for not telling me how awesome this place is! After eating here I was upset with myself for not coming here sooner. What the hell have I been doing? Anyway…
(more…)

There are a bunch of new restaurants opening up on the top floor of Ala Moana Shopping Center, the first of them being Romano’s Macaroni Grill. At a guild BBQ last week a bunch of us decided that we needed to pay the new place a visit, fueled by the discovery that one of our friends works there.

Jonny Schleif used to be my best friend’s boyfriend back in… well, millions of years ago. He worked at the legendary Trattoria (legendary for good-looking waiters!) for 12 years, & after it closed down this past March, Jonny ended up here at the Macaroni Grill.

Nice place, Jonny.
(more…)

So I got this message from Staci stating that she was up for some shabu shabu if I felt like going to the Mandarin. It had been 8 days since Aoyama closed, & we’d both been walking around with empty spaces in our hearts (or stomachs, maybe.). A long time ago, when we did our Great Shabu Shabu Search, Tokyo-Tokyo was one of the places we visited, & it had come in second to Aoyama only because Aoyama was at least as good for half the price. There had also been these gorgeous hand-glazed dishes (those are wasabi leaves, btw.) from Japan that I couldn’t get over, & the manager, after checking their inventory, had graciously given us permission to take ours home. Hey, I ask first, ok?
(more…)