Cafe Kaila, Market City Shopping Center

I've been curious about Kaila's since they took the place of our friendly neighborhood blockbuster, and when a friend told me she went, I just had to give it a go. I have to admit, I'm a sucker for breakfast at all times of the day. On an early Saturday afternoon my boyfriend and I took the short trip here.

As far as decor, I really liked it. It's a narrow space but goes back surprisingly far with a cute little coffee bar towards the back. The lighting is nice and bright, not blinding, but something that made me think, 'I'd like to take photos in here sometime.' The waitstaff were all gorgeous, energetic young women and nice to boot. One of them informed us of the special (Eggs Benedict with crab cakes) and for the life of me, I can't figure out why I didn't order that right off the bat. I guess I had my heart set on pancakes...

And so, I order the Buttermilk Pancakes. I denied the offer of fruit (aside from the strawberry garnish) on the top and dug in. I think I put too much hope in them and was rather disappointed. Maybe it's just that my mom's pancakes have spoiled me to all others for life, but these were certainly not the best. They tasted a little undercooked and more gooey than fluffy. I don't think I'd order them again.

My boyfriend and I also split the Italian Omlette. This mas much better than the pancakes, but still lacking in some areas. The potatoes LOOKED crisp, and might have been at some point, but I'm pretty sure they were simply microwaved to re-heat. While flimsy, they did actually taste pretty good. The omlette had garlic, basil, mushrooms and zucchini and was topped with a dollop of red sauce and a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese. This was the yummiest part of the meal by far.And last, my boyfriend ordered the Steak Panini. Sounds good right? Wrong. I overheard the waitress telling someone that their Panini's were the most popular, but I didn't hear anything about the steak one. By the time we got done peeling off the globs of fat, we were left with about three thinly sliced pieces of tasteless steak. Towards the end of my half, I ended up taking the meat out and just eat the Sourdough bread, which was delicious on it's own.

Thought this trip was unsuccessful, I still have hope. I think next time I'd try that Benedict, or maybe the chicken Parmesan Panini, or chicken pesto.

Go there and see if you have better luck! And right me if I'm wrong! Thanks for reading, over and out.

This Is It Bakery and Deli

I stopped by here after a visit to Fisher and enjoyed a yummy breakfast. Of course, if you're like me, you've noticed the serious lack of bagels in this town. This is it Deli is like a little light at the end of the tunnel. Open weekdays from 6am-2:30pm, Saturdays from 7am-2pm and closed on Sundays, This is it is located across from Fisher Hawaii at 443 Cooke St. It has a nice 'family run' type feeling to it, and a pretty long menu. It's usually good to get there earlier, as the better bagels tend to go faster.

They have a good selection of bagels. When we got there, they had garlic, onion, everything, salt, blueberry, and plain. The choices of cream cheeses were: regular, strawberry, jalapeno, chive and lox (smoked salmon.) And I'm sure there are more options, varying on the different days. Also on the menu are the bagel sandwiches with various meats and vegetables, as well as a good selection of donuts and other pastries. Something that I've always wanted to try are the breakfast bagel sandwiches, with scrambled eggs and spam, portuguese sausage or bacon.

Shown above: my boyfriend's toasted garlic bagel with chive cream cheese (watch the breath on this one.)
And here: my toasted garlic bagel with the lox cream cheese.

Bagels with cream cheese are roughly $3, a good price in my opinion. All in all: I've had better, but this is the place to go in Honolulu. Try it out!

KCC's Farmers Market

After little debate this morning my boyfriend and I decided, since we were headed in that direction anyways, to stop by the KCC farmers market. Every time I go back, I seem to forget how delicious (and expensive) everything is. As much as I wanted to buy everything there, I had to restrain myself to a $20 limit.

I started with the $6 slice of Pesto Pizza. For 6 bucks you'd expect a larger slice, but it was just too delicious to complain much beyond that. Of course, sharing with my boyfriend meant that it ended much too soon.
Next, we made our way to the breakfast plate lunches. We got the Char siu fried rice plate with spam and scrambled eggs. There were so many choices, it was hard to choose. Kim chee fried rice, Char siu fried rice, spam, portuguese sausage, smoked sausage links, scrambled eggs or french toast. Each plate was $7, reasonable, considering the amount you get.




Now we get to the bad stuff (GREAT stuff, that bad stuff) One of the stands had amazing options when it comes to fried goodies. Their Lumpia menu was the most extensive I've ever seen. Garlic shrimp, vegetable, chicken and when I noticed the salmon and cream cheese one, I stopped paying attention (but there must have been at least 5 other kinds.) Another thing we purchased at the stall was some delicious beignet- little french donuts sprinkled with powdered sugar and dipped in tart lilikoi sauce. The stall also had fried polenta and risotto, that I was not lucky enough to try. It's cruel how they tempt us.



We topped our massive brunch off with a tart lemonade. And sat on the grassy hill in the shade, astounded by what we had accomplished, and not at all ready to do anything but take a quick nap.

Anniversary Dinner at Paesano's, Manoa

I've often passed by Paesano's and said to myself "I'll have to eat there...sometime." That's right, it's a "sometime" place. You know the kind, where you can only hope that the next time there is a special occasion, someone might surprise you by taking you here. In this case it was my 6 year anniversary with my boyfriend (awwww) and we magically acquired a $50 gift certificate.

I almost expected the staff to be a snobby bunch, but they were really quite nice, it might have had something to do with the lack of rush on a Tuesday evening. The bread they brought out was warm soft and delicious (in fact, my mouth is watering just thinking about it.) For a starter we ordered the Bruschetta. I wasn't impressed. It was too sweet, and the onions overpowered. You know when there is too much onions, it's almost painful to finish? That was the case, and the wonderful delicious bread became sad, soggy bread. But fear not, the rest of the meal was certainly up to par.(Sorry about the photo quality, the lighting was poor and, honestly, I was more concerned with eating than photographing.)

I ordered the Chicken Rollatini- ricotta and spinach, rolled in a breaded chicken breast topped with prosciutto and a little melted cheese. YUM. I chose the red roasted potatoes (out of my 3 options of potatoes, vegetables or pasta.) My boyfriend got the Veal Piccata which surprised me because he never orders veal on account of "It's never as good as my moms." I think he didn't regret it, seeing as it was gone shortly. We also shared your typical cheese ravioli with red meat sauce. The portions were very large, which meant lunch the next day! I also saw that they have a small amount of deli foods available, but I can't seem to remember what these consisted of.

All in all it was a good meal, on the expensive side, but a good "special occasion" type of place.

Their website is a little hard to find but I did! Here is a link, just for you: http://www.paesanohawaii.com/home

The Greek Corner

Ok The Greek Corner on University is WONDERFUL. I haven't tried any other Greek places on the island come to think if it but I've heard a few things, mainly about The Fat Greek (that the portions were small, not amazingly tasty, and pretty over priced.) BUT we're not talking about them, the Corner, on the other hand, is really good!

Every time I go, I get the Fish of the day plate, which is pretty much always mahi mahi. The fish is marinated in something heavenly and grilled, then paired with a rice pilaf type thing, with a large salad and a good amount of pita bread on the side. The portion is more than enough and reasonably priced at $12. I usually get the hummus appetizer with extra pita bread, and I have to say that it is hands down the best hummus I have ever had (and that's saying a lot, considering my parents were [are?] hippies.) Their thick cut french fries are yummy too, and REALLY hot when they come out, obviously I haven't learned from my mistakes, because I can't seem to wait long enough for them to cool off ever. And for dessert, the Baklava is amazing too! (and sometimes, if you're nice enough to the wait staff, you'll get it for free!)

The staff are mostly college girls, in fact, I don't think I've seen a male working in the front before. They are all very sweet and the kitchen works pretty fast, the only thing I'd say that gets a little annoying is the constant "are you ok?"s and "how is everything?"s, but really, thats not enough to qualify as a complaint against them. Sorry no photos for now, I've always been too focused on consuming everything to take out my camera, maybe next time I'll remember.

Enjoy!

Well hello there...

Hi, I'm Rosie and I'm a blog virgin (Hiiii, Rosie) After years of hearing about blogs and even gathering information from them, I've decided to pop the cherry. Why, you might ask? Well, for one, I LOVE food, and living in Honolulu, the food scene isn't very spectacular to say the least. So I've decided, to the demise of my bank account, to share my opinion with the rest of you deprived folks. Saimin (ramen), Italian, Mexican, you name it. Of course, I'm no Anthony Bourdain, and I certainly haven't been to every restaurant there is, but where I have eaten, I'll tell you. (How lucky you are!) But where to start...? Any suggestions?

Thanks!