Marukame Udon – Honolulu Special

On our first full day in Honolulu, we bussed out to Downtown to walk around.  In the afternoon we got hungry and visited Maukame Udon in the middle of bustling downtown.  Marukame Udon is a chain of fast food udon shops which you can find in Japan.  We first tried this in a food court when we were in Osaka so we were excited to learn that there are several locations here in Hawaii too.

Here are the featured udons on the sandwich board in front of the entrance:

When you enter the shop, you order your preferred udon first.  Then you slowly walk through the line to pick up any more sides, such as tempura or sushi to go with your udon.

The food is all very fresh. You can see them preparing it behind the counter continuously.  Prices here are very good too. You can get filled up easily for under $10.

We both ended up getting teriyaki chicken udon bowls.  This one included zucchini, squash and prawn tempuras on the side.

This one we had squid tempura as a side.

The udons were hot and fresh and the soup base was not too salty.  The udon itself was very al-dante.

We really enjoyed coming here as it was quick and simple to order, food was fresh and prices were cheap.  Hot udon soup might not be your first choice on a tropical Hawaiian day, but no worries, they have cold udon options as well.

Seating is also very convenient as people usually eat quick and leave so turnover is fast.

SFDD gives 4 out of 5 Delights.

Bubbies Homemade Ice Cream – Honolulu Special

After our late lunch at Fatboy’s, we found a very popular ice cream parlour called Bubbies within the same strip mall here at Koko Marina Centre.

It’s a very nicely maintained shop with wood themed furniture and counter.

Here is a closer look at the popular items on their menu behind the counter:

Aside from ice cream, the other popular item they sell here are different flavours of ice cream mochi.  To simply describe, this is like ice cream inside of a glutinous rice ball so it’s quite chewy on the outside before you get inside to the ice cream.  We ordered 3 mochis to try:

They were about the size of a golf ball.  It had a moderate layer of glutinous wrap and a big ball of ice cream inside. We chose 2 pistachios and one chocolate.  The glutinous wrap was a bit too rough and you can feel some lumps, perhaps it was not mixed well enough.  The ice cream inside was smooth.

We also ordered two different ice cream flavours to share:

We got mango on the left, which was actually a sorbet and lychee on the right which was indeed ice cream.  Both had strong natural flavor so it did not taste artificial at all.

Bubbies is a nice place to pop in for ice cream.  They have a variety of flavours to choose from while the shop is nicely organized and cozy for you to enjoy the desserts.

SFDD gives 3.5 out of 5 Delights.

Fatboy’s Honolulu – Special

After going snorkeling at Hanauma Bay, we were so hungry as it was already way past lunch time.  We drove to a nearby strip mall about 5 minutes away and found this place called Fatboy’s which serves some authentic Hawaiian food.

It’s not a fancy looking place.  It’s simple looking with a big menu behind the counter and some dated furniture.  You order and pay at the counter and pick up the food when ready.

We started with some Hawaiian Sun pop, which seems to be the popular drink around here as we see it all over the place. 

For our first dish, we ordered Hawaiian style noodles called Saimin.

It’s like a cross between a Japanese, Chinese and Hawaiian style dish so it was quite interesting.  It’s served in a Chinese style bowl.  We didn’t get a picture of the side of the bowl but it’s the red and green one with Chinese characters you usually see at the Westernized Chinese restaurants.

The noodles are medium thick, not quite like Japanese ramen.  It is served in a simple clear soup base (chicken soup maybe) with some spam and also some of that Japanese artificial seafood thingy which you normally get in a Japanese ramen bowl.  This was not a complex noodle but did the job in filling us up.

Next we ordered another popular dish in Hawaii called the Loco Moco.  It’s a big hamburger steak, with an egg covered with gravy over rice.

It’s usually served with a sunny side up egg that’s almost raw, but because we have weak stomachs, we asked for the egg to be well done.  It’s served with a small side of salad.  The hamburger steak was quite tasty and went well with the gravy and rice.  What is strange is that they served this on a paper plate so it kind of felt like we were eating in a food court.

Fatboy’s is a simple restaurant where you can get some well known Hawaiian dishes. Their menu is diverse and prices are not out of the ordinary.  Service here was quick and straight forward, but not exactly full service as you order and pick up food yourself.

SFDD gives 3.5 out of 5 Delights.

Eggs ‘n Things – Honolulu Special

We were strolling down the Waikiki strip looking for a late dinner and decided to pop into Eggs’n Things.  We passed by this restaurant daily and it seemed to have a line up all the time.

It turns out the line up at the door is because they require that you order outside before they take you in.  The line up is just because people are reading the menu deciding what to get.  This was an unusual arrangement.  After you place your order with the staff at the door, you are brought into a 2nd counter behind the door where you pay.  After that they will assign a table for you.

We got a nice window seat:

The restaurant has plenty of seating available when we arrived in the evening:

It had a strange line of seats facing the wall too.

We ordered Kalbi and Eggs:

This is basically a Hawaiian style steak and eggs meal which comes with a stack of pancakes.  The steak was tender and the eggs were cooked to order (over hard).

The pancakes were very fluffy and fresh.  We would say their pancakes taste a lot better than IHOP’s.

Next we ordered their plantation pork chops:

It’s like a ham steak with pineapple and an egg cooked to order with some pan fried potatoes.  I was not expecting the pork chop to look like this.  It’s pinked colored like ham, so perhaps it is Hawaiian style.

The pork chop was too salty for our liking.  Nothing spectacular about the egg.  The fried potatoes were way too dry. They were overcooked and did not have any fluffy potato texture left.

Eggs ‘n Things queuing system is a bit strange and inconvenient since customers have to order outside.  At least, if you are at fast food joints like McDonalds, you can order inside the restaurant.  We had high expectations for their eggs seeing that “eggs” are part of their name, but as you can see, they are just normal looking eggs which doesn’t really distinguish them from other greasy spoons. The best part of our visit was the pancakes.

SFDD gives 3 out of 5 Delights.

Gorilla In The Café–Honolulu Special

We were delighted to visit Honolulu for a short end of summer trip.  We were blessed with wonderful weather during our stay.   We visited a couple of coffee shops including this one called Gorilla in the Café which had a name that really caught our attention.

 

It is located on the busy Waikiki strip.  Since it was afternoon, it was not that busy when we arrived for a coffee break.  On the counter they show what sort of coffee beans are used:

We ordered a house brewed coffee.

It was piping hot and had a deep bold flavour to it without being too bitter nor too acidic. It had the right balance.

We also ordered one of their specialty fruity iced teas :

It was served with light ice and was a good drink to have to cool down after a long walk.

There is actually no seating inside the coffee shop, but a few tables have been set up outside.  It was preferable to be sitting outside anyway since it was a nice day and most importantly since we were in Hawaii!

Service was good and we have no problem coming back next time if we can be back in Honolulu again hopefully sooner than later.

SFDD gives 3.5 out of 5 Delights.

Jean-Philippe Pâtisserie–Las Vegas

While we were in Vegas in June, it was 47 degrees Celsius.  Despite the dessert heat, the strip was always crowded with people day and night.  With this heat, we craved for something sweet and cold so we headed into the Bellagio to get some gelato here at JPP.

Aside from the ice cream and gelato, this place has all sorts of desserts and pastries too.

They also have pre-packed goodies on the shelf too:

You can order crepes too:

Don’t miss the chocolate fountain outside their store:

The much awaited frozen section to cool us down:

We ordered 2 flavours, pistachio and mango.

There is plenty of seating around the hotel where you can sit comfortably to enjoy.  Both of the flavours were very deep, not too sweet and very creamy. A very perfect gelato.  JPP looks pretty busy so be prepared to line up for a bit.  If you are coming out from a buffet, save some space for some sweet delights here.

SFDD gives 5 out of 5 Delights.

Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.–Las Vegas

We first tired Bubba Gump in Maui back in 2016 and had a pleasant experience so we tried again this time in LV.

We had some trouble finding the restaurant because we were looking all over on the street level.  Turns out it is on the 2nd level of the building we were standing next to which was largely a drug store.

We got in for a late lunch and the place was almost empty.  We were seated immediately while the hostess informed us that they were giving out free appetizers for their guests.  The free appetizer of the day was their spinach dip.

It has a big plate of tortilla chips and warm spinach/cheesy dip which we had nothing to complain about since it was free.

For our mains, we first got the Shrimp Po Boy.

This had a big load of fried shrimp on top of soft bread with mayo, fresh cucumber and lettuce.  The shrimp was fried very well with a light batter.  It had a big serving of fries too.

Next is Forrest’s Seafood Feast.

This had fish and chips, fried shrimp and something they call seafood hush pups which are the round balls you see in the picture.  This was not that great as it seemed over fried as you can see from the dark batter compared to the shrimp po boy batter above.

The service was fast and the food overall was acceptable.  We would have preferred the feast plate was fried a minute or so less so it wasn’t so dark.

Our server was trying to heard to be affectionate which made it look too fake and condescending we’d suggest they dial it down a notch or two.  We also think they should put up some more signs at street level to make it easier for first timers to find the restaurant.

SFDD gives 3 out of 5 Delights.

Ruth's Chris Steak House - Downtown Calgary

We celebrated a relative’s birthday in downtown Calgary at Ruth’s Steak House.  This is quite a classy upscale restaurant.  We learned that this restaurant has roots in the US and has now expanded to multiple locations in North America.

The restaurant is located on the 2nd floor with many windows with the view towards downtown Calgary.

We went quite early on a weekday for dinner.  Ruth’s has this special date night menu which they have extended to every day of the week so we were happy to see this deal available for us.  The date night menu allows each couple to order a wine, appetizer, main course and dessert.

There were six of us so we ordered quite a variety from the date menu.

For appies, this is the house salad with some goat cheese spread on top.  Veggies were very fresh and was served on a long shaped plate.

This one is the calamari.  It was deep fried then tossed in a sweet and spicy chili sauce.

It seemed to be Asian inspired.  The calamari was cooked just right and was not too chewy. It was a unique spin to calamari which we never tried elsewhere before.

Here are the different sides that come with the main dishes.

The mashed potatoes were very creamy and buttery.  The one in them middle is a creamy spinach.  The spinach dish was prepared well and it was not bitter at all.  The one on the right side is the sweet potatoes. 

This one is just a regular fries that came with one of our steaks.

The first star of the show is a petite filet.  It was a nice thick cut, seared perfectly on the outside.

Inside was made to order, medium.  It was served on a hot plate with butter melted and still sizzling below it.

We also ordered a chicken breast main course.

It is cooked perfectly with some the skin lightly crisped.

This is a fresh salmon main course. 

The salmon was very juicy and flavorful also served on top of sizzling butter.

The yellow thing you see on some of the dishes above is just some lemon wedges for you to gracefully squeeze the juice without squirting all over the place.  Such attention to detail!

Here are the desserts:

Apple Crumble:

Crème Brulèe

Bread pudding:

All the desserts were perfectly sized and expertly created.  They were also not overwhelmingly sweet like at some other places.

A lot of attention to detail was put into preparing all our dishes from the appetizers to the desserts. Our server was also very attentive to our needs.  He was a bit snobby but he really took pride in his job to make everything  right from seating us, pouring us the wines, and serving our plates of food.

The restaurant was rather quiet throughout our stay there.  There were less than 5 tables from beginning to end.  Expect to pay premium prices here, but know that it is well worth it.  The food is superb and you get upscale service..

SFDD gives 4.5 out of 5 Delights.