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[stirringthepotwithhaylie]

Finally Friday - A Day of Eating in Honolulu

It's no lie that we all look forward to Friday, the closing of the week and the start of the weekend. I like to think of Friday as a symbol of relaxation and good times, where I can spoil myself with all my favorite foods. So whether your Friday is actually a Thursday, or a Saturday, following this guide will channel those Fri-yay vibes.

Breakfast - 8:30 AM

It's time to start the day with a little de-stressing and what better way to do that than with a sweet acai bowl? Our first stop is at Lanikai Juice, which has locations throughout most parts of the island, but we will be stopping at the one located at Salt, Kaka'ako.

Go ahead and park in the front lot but don't forget to get your ticket validated. We won't be staying long, only five minutes down the road is the ocean-front view where we will be eating these acai bowls. Plug-in Kaka'ako Waterfront Park to your GPS to get there (:

Lanikai Juice is your average smoothie shop, with quite a few different options in terms of toppings, I like to keep it simple with the "Da Classic" bowl. This comes with the acai, granola, and banana, I always add extra honey.

After devouring this bowl, it's time to go back home and get ready for the day. For me, my day starts with two morning classes, then work from 1 PM - 5 PM. This guide can always be shifted to follow your timeline! Let's move onto lunch-

Lunch - 11 AM

I like to get an early start on lunch, so I don't have to worry about bringing lunch to work. To hold me over until dinner, I opted for one of my favorite dishes, katsu curry and rice. I have tried a handful of curry places on Oahu, but none seem to be as good as Curry House.

Curry House is another eatery with many locations throughout the island. I live in Aiea, so takeout from the Pearl Kai Shopping Center was the best option for me. (Heads up, Curry House is still doing takeout only and most locations are also cash only). There are so many different curry options to chose from, but my two favorite are katsu and shabu-shabu, I also love that they also have vegetarian options.

Back at home, I wolfed down lunch and got ready for work.

- Intermission while I work...time is ticking...almost done...so close...-

Finally, pau hana! Time for our Friday night plans, starting in Waikiki.

Quick Bite - 5:30 PM

To do Friday night right, you gotta get some food on your stomach (drinking will most definitely be happening). We're going to stop at Eating House, located in the International Market Place in Waikiki.

Parking is located in the garage, again, don't forget that parking ticket (it's $2 after validation, street parking is an option but almost never available in Waikiki).

On the third floor, Eating House is a semi-boujee restaurant, that serves food from clams to a boar burger. If we remember, I am a picky eater, so we're probably wondering what I am doing here? Well, their chicken spring rolls are to die for.

Chicken, water crest, and sprouts, all wrapped up, sitting in a bed of mango glaze. Don't judge it, I know mango doesn't seem like it would mix well, but oh man, is it good. The salty-crunchiness of the spring roll compliments the sweet mango glaze perfectly, making an amazing appetizer to start the night with.

Dinner - 7 PM

You know we have to get our KBBQ on, right? Dinner will be located at Gens, a Korean barbecue restaurant at Ala Moana Shopping Center (also at Pearl Ridge). I would suggest coming a bit earlier if you don't like lines and crowds.

Gens has a very modern and young vibe, and they are almost always playing hip-hop, pop, or dance music. With an all-you-can-eat menu from pork belly and brisket, to chicken and shrimp, you're sure to find something you like. My top favorites are the pre-cooked popcorn chicken, smothered in a spicy sauce, kalbi (bone-in), brisket, and premium steak.

At $30/person, it is a bit pricey, but we just got paid so we gonna ball out a lil.

Drinks - 8:30 PM (and onnnnnn)

You had a hard week, you deserve a drink. My go to places at Alas are Lucky Strike or Mai Tais. I suggest going to Mai Tais on a weekday, weekends bring long lines and a lot of waiting.

This Friday we are gonna celebrate at the recently re-opened Lucky Strike. With an adult Chuck E. Cheese feel, Lucky Strike has a perfect "Finally Friday" vibe. So go ahead and pick your poison, maybe an AMF? Corona? Whiskey on the rocks? Whatever you pick, you can find me, patron in hand, cheering to the weekend ahead.

[stirringthepotwithhaylie]

Nuggets- the final three

sEver since the beginning of time- well the beginning of fast food restaurants- there has been a great debate over who has the best burgers, fries, and chicken nuggets. Although we wont be diving into all three of those, I do consider myself a chicken connoisseur, and so we will look at three different fast food places and evaluate their chicken nuggets. 

Now, this wasn’t an easy task, each nugget is unique in flavor, breading, and overall quality, making it hard to compare one to another. Nonetheless, one nugget was bound to shine brighter than the rest and so each one will be rated on a scale of flavor and breading, crispiness, price, quantity, and overall quality. 

With probably more than 10 restaurants that serve nuggets, I chose my top three favorite places, and went out on a drive. It was easier to go to each place back to back and be able to compare the nuggets in real time. Without further ado, here are the results from Jack in the Box, Mcdonald’s, and Burger King. 

Jack in the Box was up first, with a menu from burgers to tacos, the chicken nuggets get lost in the overwhelming menu. Although there is a combo meal, I opted for the 5 pcs at $2.59. I am a BBQ girl myself and decided to test the nuggets with sauce and without. 

I’m not sure if it was the cooks or that store in particular, but upon pulling over to test the nuggets, they were already lukewarm. The breading had a good flavor, nothing too great, but the BBQ sauce helped elevate the flavor. 

I would give the flavor and breading a 6/10, the crispiness 4/10, the price 8/10, and at ~$0.5 per nugget the quantity for the price 7/10, making the average overall quality ~6/10.

I then moved onto Burger King, where one of my favorite meals is actually the chicken fries. You would think these are just the chicken nuggets in fry shape, however the breading on them is very different. 

Compared to Jack in the Box, the nuggets seemed a lot more fresh. Their menu had 8 pcs listed at $2.59. The breading visibly had some sort of seasoning in it, and had a good bite to it. This nugget does very well standing alone. With the BBQ sauce there wasn’t much difference, but I would probably still eat these with a sauce since it was a little dry. 

I would give the breading and flavor a 6/10, the crispiness a 5/10, the price 9/10, and at ~$0.31 per nugget (unbeatable price) the quantity to price a 9/10, making the average overall value ~7/10. 

The last place and most loved, Mcdonald’s. I feel like when it comes to fries, burgers, and nuggets, many people opt for Mcdonald’s. I don’t mind their food, but their nuggets are so different from the other places, it would be easy to say they have the best. 

I decided to go with the 4 pcs which was weirdly listed at $2.59 too. These were the most fresh and hot of the batch, which made eating them the best experience. Mcdonald’s nuggets are so good alone, that sauce really isn’t even needed. The flavor and breading is closer to one of fried chicken than the breading on the previous nuggets. (I heard it has to do with the oil and frying process). These were also the most crispy out of the bunch, and I would have to say the best. 

Here’s the breakdown, for flavor and breading I would give these a 9/10, crispiness 8/10, price 7/10, and at ~0.64 per nugget (and the most pricey) the quantity to price a 7/10, that brings the average overall quality to ~7/10. 

To my surprise, Burger King and Mcdonald’s matched up pretty close. Each had strengths in certain categories and weaknesses in other. When it comes to nugget eating, which is the most important to you? 

[stirringthepotwithhaylie]

DECK. At Queen Kapiolani Hotel

Tonight's dinner was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. You know I had to get that pre-dinner selfie.

In celebration of my friend's birthday, we had a belated dinner at Deck, which is located on the third floor of the Queen Kapiolani Hotel. I had actually seen this place from a tiktoker who visits local restaurants in Hawai'i and was intrigued.

We arrived around 5:30 PM and were seated right away. The vibes at the restaurant were pretty great, the view was stellar, and the service was awesome. We started with a few drinks, I ordered a strawberry lemon drop with Tito's and my friend got one of their signature cocktails, which was lilikoi flavored.

As we scanned the menu, there were so many options that sounded so good. Instead of getting our own entrees, we decided to do it pupu style, and share a bunch of small plates. Although I am pretty picky, we settled on five plates. Ahi tacos, glazed chicken wings, burger sliders, barbecue ribs, and shoestring fries. Lets start with the fries...

Shoe string fries are one of my favorite fry styles. I love how thin and crispy they are, and these fries were perfect. Perfectly salted, perfectly crunchy, 10/10. I also love munching on fries whenever I drink, so it was a great mixture. Next up, wings!

These glazed wings had a crispy outside and amazing flavor. A good amount of spice and tang, but was evened out with the macadamia nut sauce that was hiding underneath the wings. I avoided the celery, but was so satisfied with these. 10/10. By the way, do you prefer the flats or drums?

Although my friend ordered the ahi katsu tacos, since I don't eat fish, I decided to be a brave girl and give it a shot. Mistake, I did not like the taste, so fishy, I could barely swallow. She let me know that it was really good and it was just me, so I will have to pass on a rating for these, as to not be bias.

The burger sliders were pretty ono, with onion, what they called tomato paste (ketchup...?) and melted cheese, it was a pretty basic flavor. I enjoyed it, along with the pickle slice. If you don't like pickles I don't know whats wrong with you. 8/10.

Our next adventure was the guava barbecue ribs. I'm usually not a fan of ribs, but the guava part got me interested and I had to try. They were cooked pretty well and besides from there not being a lot of meat on the ribs, the flavor was *chefs kiss* For someone who doesn't eat ribs, I would recommend this to first-timers to the restaurant. 9/10.

Would a birthday dinner be complete without dessert? No, the answer is no. We went with the creme brulee, a somewhat safe but still risky choice. It was sweet and creamy but the fresh fruit helped even the cream flavor out. I would also like to note the size and price of the creme brulee was unbeatable. The two of us couldn't finish it and it was only $10. 8/10.

With the drinks and food the check came out to $123, not bad for a place in Waikiki. Now, in no way am I accurately adding up these scores, so please don't check my math, but I would recommend this place to anyone looking for something new and fun. I enjoyed the atmosphere, at some point there was live music, and the food was enjoyable. I would give Deck a 9/10, and this time I would go again AND pay :)

Bonus: the common area of the hotel, to the side of the restaurant, had a neat wall with portraits of some of Hawai'i's Monarchy and other important figures. Who doesn't love a little history with their dinner?

[stirringthepotwithhaylie]

TEX 808 BBQ + Brews

I sat at my dining room table, too lazy to cook, scrolling through UberEats. Such a good idea, load a bunch of restaurants on an app and let people scroll away- only problem in Hawai'i is half of the places are Mcdonald's, Jack in the Box, Subway, blah, blah blah.

Well, I was lucky enough to find one restaurant I had never been too, or really heard of, Tex 808 BBQ + Brews. I always feel uneasy about ordering food from somewhere new, not that I'm stingy with my money, but I hate wasting money on bad food. With 4.6 stars from 254 reviews, I decided to give it a try.

I had something similar to this while I was in Virginia visiting my mom, so I had an idea of what to order. I was a little put off by the prices, $22 for two meats and two sides, as a college student I try not to spend more than $15 on meals, unless I am eating out with people. However, the nice thing about places like this is you get to eat different things, I hate having to eat one type of food for my meal.

I decided to order the smoked sausage, pulled pork, bbq beans, and took a chance with the macaroni. I like macaroni but you never know how good it will actually be.

-Quick intermission while the food was being delivered-

As for my drink, I decided to try out a recipe my mom had sent me. Since peach Crown has been all the rave, I was lucky to have a bottle handy. The recipe is easy, it's just peach Crown, lemonade, and peach juice. I'm not a big drinker, so I prefer my drinks a little lighter on the alcohol side. After taking a sip I was pleasantly surprised, light and refreshing, I feel like this would be a perfect summer drink.

-Ding dong, the food is here-

Now it was time to chow down. Enjoy this quick video, and the aggressive cup tap

Now to rate the food, it did come with pickles and a dinner roll which was a nice surprise (free food, yay!). Unfortunately though, it's only a 6/10. I was very underwhelmed. When I got the package, I could smell the yummy bbq seeping through the container, but I would soon learn I had been deceived. I quickly opened it and was so excited to chow down. The first few bites of everything wasn't bad, but I felt like the more I ate the worst it got. Remember that macaroni comment I made earlier? Well, this macaroni was no bueno- not good. I didn't really taste any flavor and it seemed pretty grainy, I wish I ordered the corn on the cob instead.

As for the meat, for $22, I would have rather of bought sausage from the store and cooked it myself...now don't let this discourage you, it was pretty decent but this will definitely have to get the same rating as the BirriaXPho, would eat again if someone else was buying.

[stirringthepotwithhaylie]

Birria X Pho

I always find it interesting when people decide to fuse together two foods from two different cultures. I remember earlier in the COVID year, when birria tacos became all the rave. Living in Hawai‘i, its hard enough to get decent Mexican food (I remember falling in love with a restaurant in San Fransisco because I hadn’t had good Mexican food in soooo long).

Luckily, we were blessed with a few new places that served birria tacos. A place in Hale Ohana at ward, where old Sports Authority was, with a line that stretched on for miles it seemed. A taco truck outside of Pearlridge Mall, another line stretching for miles. Another one I discovered was a small restaurant on King street, Cocina de Roja- Red Kitchen (um, what a cool name!)

Lets talk about Cocina de Roja. My first encounter was a short one, excited to finally try some birria, my friend and I walked to the door, only to see the following sign:

“Closed, sold out of birria”

Well, damn. We ventured on to another restaurant, and birria soon left my mind. Until, I went searching on Yelp for somewhere to eat. I know I can't be the only one who suffers from I’m Hungry but I Don’t Know What I Want to Eat syndrome, IHBIDKWIWTE for short :)

Here’s the Yelp report, 4.5 stars from 97 reviews, two money signs $$, and “trendy.” It looked like tonight was the night to try it.

Let me stop here and make a note- I had no idea this was a fused restaurant. Vietnamese meets Mexican, so I was a little thrown off upon trying, but not upset. They had a few different taco choices and a birria pho, and possible the best drink, bottled Mexican coke.

I ordered the Combination Plate, two closed tacos and one open-faced taco with birriaXpho soup and a Mexican Coke. Upon receiving my order, I realized that it wasn’t what I thought it was. I had watched plenty of Tiktoks about birria, and the broth was nowhere near what I had in front of me- pause for a moment of realization- but I thought, I like tacos and pho, can't be too bad right?

For a first time birria experience, it was a bit different than imagined. I enjoyed the taco meat, and the pho broth nicely accompanied the lime and salsa. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the tortilla, a bit too burnt in my opinion, but still yummy.

My review: good flavor and a nice amount of birria meat. A bit pricey at $16 but not the most expensive plate lunch I’ve ordered. 7/10, would recommend, would eat again (if someone else pays, haha).