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.

Yama Cafe – East Vancouver

Yama Cafe is located on Hastings near Victoria Drive.  We were here last year when it was called “Basho”.  It seems to look exactly the same, also run by Japanese staff. Other food blogs have indicated that there was a change in ownership.

Yama is a small cozy coffee shop with tables, a counter by the window and also a small sofa on one corner.   They have their menu on a chalkboard up on the wall:

Yama also has daily specials written on separate boards behind the counter.  They also have a variety of Japanese inspired bakeries up on the counter.  Most appear to be small bite sized cookies.

I was alone and ordered the matcha latte.  You can have it sweetened or unsweetened.  I went for half sweet to be safe.

I was quite surprised by the large size of the latte.  It only comes in one size and is served in a very nice Japanese tea cup which actually looks more like a bowl since it was quite wide.  The staff took their time to make it look really pretty with the latte art.

At first I thought it was just the top layer that was dark green with matcha powder.  However as I sipped through it,  I realized the dark green was consistent throughout.   This is truly a matcha latte as it was deep with green tea flavour throughout.

It was not too busy when I arrived late Friday afternoon and I was in no hurry.  It did take a while for the drink to be prepared but it was worth waiting for.  It got a little bit busier later on and I noticed people had to wait longer for their hand crafted drinks.

The service was good and the drink was superb.  We will try their baked goods next time.  Be forewarned that if you drop in while busy, be prepared to wait as they will take time to make the drinks, but know it will be worth waiting for.

SFDD gives 4 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.

Fish Counter–Vancouver

My friend brought me over to try out Fish Counter on Main street in East Van over the weekend. I’ve passed by this place myself a few times while driving and always noticed it was busy with people filling up the  shop.

Upon entering, I was quite surprised that this was not a full service restaurant.  On one side of the shop is like a general store with a small fridge and shelf selling different products. You can kind of peek through the picture above to see what I mean.  Further in, there is also had a big seafood fridge where you can buy sustainable seafood, “Ocean Wise”. 

The other side of the shop was where you can order hot food to eat.  However, there are no tables. There are some seats along the window and also a small standing area with a counter for eating.

They’ve got a simple no no nonsense menu on the wall:

I ordered one piece cod with fries:

The cod was huge!  It was lightly battered and was well balanced so there were no parts that were more crispy than others. The cod inside was still very juicy cooked to perfection.  The fries appear to be home made as I saw freshly cut fries in a bucket behind the counter.  The fries were very fresh and fried with a light crisp.  Underneath was a big delicious pile of coleslaw that had a nice vinaigrette dressing which helped to balance out the fried goodies.

My friend ordered the Arctic Char which apparently is not always available so it was recommended by staff to try it out.

Similar to the cod, it was 3 very large pieces cooked with the same consistency and served with a large batch of fries and coleslaw.

We also shared some crispy oysters.

The oyster had a thicker batter but inside was a extra large oyster. It was very fresh, I can tell from the flavour it was almost like it came right out of the ocean.

The staff here are very friendly and laid back.  They are also quite passionate about the food that they sell as they are very happy to chat with you if you got questions.  The food was superb.  The only downside is that there aren’t any tables so be prepared to stand while enjoying the food.

SFDD gives 4.5 out of 5 Delights.