OAHU - PART 3 - Honolulu

I think the final part of the trip had overall the best food. Starting with one of the best meals of the entire trip!!

There was a Japanese udon place just behind our hotel that we drive by everyday and there's always a long line out the door...day and night. At first we thought it was some tourist hype but then we looked up reviews online. People RAVED about it. We were getting excited reading about it. Now we HAVE to go!
Marukame Udon
2310 Kuhio Ave.
Honolulu, HI 96815
(808) 931-6000
- Curry Udon (Regular) $5.25~

- Plus Half Boiled Egg $0.50~

- Kamaage Udon (Regular) $3.75~ Hot udon with ginger dipping sauce. This was my fav. It was basically udon in hot water. You can really taste the flavor of the udon and appreciate its texture. The dipping sauce was perfect. Light yet full of flavor. :)

- Bukkake Udon (Regular) $3.75~

- Vegetable Tempura $1.50~
- Eggplant $1.50~
- Fried Chicken $1.50~

- Vinegar Rice & Sesame Seed $1.50~
- Squid-Ten $1.50~

- Croquette $1.50~
- Sweet Potato $1.50~
- Salmon Musubi $1.50~

First of all, they make everything in the restaurant, including the udon! You can see them rolling the dough and cooking it right as you walk in. The place is cafeteria style where you take a tray and walk down the line and pick what you want. They also make the tempura and musubis right there in front of you. Everything looked so amazing. Plus it's super cheap!! Under $4 for udon?!?! That's unheard of! It was by far the cheapest meal we had on the trip. The quality of the udon was amazing. The texture was perfect. Definitely the best udon I've ever had. The different types of tempura were tasty as well. My favorite was the fried chicken and sweet potato. I really wanted to go back again but we didn't have time. :( And the line moves super fast so definitely go check it out.

The next day we were over on the east side checking out Lanikai Beach and Sea Life Park. One of our friends had recommended a place around here. It's his one of his favorite places to eat.
Keneke's
41-685 Kalanianaole Hwy.
Waimanalo, HI 96795
http://www.kenekes.net/
(808) 259-9811
- Pork Adobo Plate Lunch $8.50~ The pork was really moist and flavorful. It was definitely better than Kalua Pig!

- Omlette with Cheese $4~

- Teriyaki Beef Sandwich $5~ It was just a meat patty with some sauce. I didn't think it was a very good deal.

- Mahi Mahi Sandwich $5~ I wanted a light lunch so I ordered this. The fish was cooked perfectly. It was a great sandwich!

- Chocolate Macadamia Nut Ice Cream $3~ This was yum! Rich and creamy and lots of macadamia nuts in there.

It was local Hawaiian fare but they had some other options as well. And it was cheaper than most other Hawaiian food places. I would say out of all the local Hawaiian food places, I liked this place the best.

For dinner, we wanted to get poke from Safeway, which was also a recommendation. No pictures. :( But the poke at Safeway is AWESOME! Especially the spicy poke. The one we got in North Shore was such crap compared to Safeway. YUMMMMM!

Down the street from Safeway was Leonard's Bakery. Malasadas!!! This place has been on my list since the beginning of my planning!
Leonard's Bakery
933 Kapahulu Ave.
Honolulu, HI 96816
http://www.leonardshawaii.com/
(808) 737-5591
- 2 Cinnamon Malasadas $0.90~ each
- 2 Custard Malasada Puffs $1.25~ each
- 2 Dobash (Chocolate) Malasada Puffs $1.25~ each
- 2 Flavor of the Month (Lilikoi Custard - Yellow Passion Fruit) Malasada Puffs $1.25~ each

I totally went overboard and got 8 malasadas. They're basically like beignets or donuts...either filled or plain. I would recommend only getting what you can eat at the moment. Fresh is wayy better than a day old malasada. I liked the filled ones a lot. The plain ones were eh...like a regular donut. I really liked the passion fruit custard. You get the essence of passion fruit and it wasn't too sweet with a hint of tartness. The malasada was warm and pillowy when it first came out. Delicious! The next day... they are not as good...

We hit up a local recommendation the next day for lunch. Multiple people throughout the trip had recommended this place so we went to check it out. And apparently Man vs. Food has been here! Cool!
Helena's Hawaiian Food
1240 North School St.
Honolulu, HI 96817
http://helenashawaiianfood.com/
(808) 845-8044
- Kalua Pig & Cabbage $4~
We have to get this at every meal otherwise there are no vegetables at all!

- Short Ribs Pipikaula Style (Large) $10.40~ They are known for their short ribs. For a large order, it's not very big but I thought the flavor was pretty good. Not the best short ribs ever. But still tasty.

- Fried Butterfish Collar $4.85~
This was my favorite of the meal. I love me some butterfish. And the collar meat is always the most tender. Fried makes it even better! :P

- LauLau $4~
The pork was pretty juicy but the leaves were a little bitter.

- Haupia (comes with the meal)

This is a coconut milk based Hawaiian dessert. It's kind of like a stiff gelatin. I liked it a lot. It's light, not too sweet, and very refreshing after a heavy meal with all the salt and meat. I would say it was a better Hawaiian meal than all the other times I've had on the trip so far...

For dinner we hit up another highly recommended local Hawaiian joint. The place is tiny and normally has a line. We went pretty early so got seated immediately. It definitely LOOKS like a hole in the wall. haha.
Ono Hawaiian Foods
726 Kapahulu Ave.
Honolulu, HI 96816
(808) 737-2275
- LauLau Plate (LauLau, Pipikaula, Lomi Salmon, Haupia, Rice) $16~
The pork laulau was a tad dry in my opinion, but they had the best leaves. It had the best flavor.

- Chicken LauLau $6.25~
This was really good. The chicken was super tender.

- Plain Butterfish (Boiled) $6.25~
Totally NOT worth the money. Tiny little pieces. Kinda bland...
- Kimchee $2~

Theirs was even better cuz it was just a tad sweeter than Helena's. I could just eat a giant block of that!

We met up with a friend of mine that goes to school in Honolulu later that night. She introduced us to this place. I'm still wondering why no one had told me about this place earlier!! It's open late and there's ALWAYS a line out the door.
Bubbies Homemade Ice Cream & Desserts
1010 University Ave.
Honolulu, HI 96826
http://bubbiesicecream.gourmetfoodmall.com/
(808) 949-8984
- Chocolate Eggnog Mochi Ice Cream

- Chocolate Mint Mochi Ice Cream

- Strawberry Dark Chocolate Chip Mochi Ice Cream - 3 for $2.95~

The strawberry was by far my favorite. I liked how the mochi was really thin. They had a lot of interesting flavors. I tried guava too and that was pretty good!
- Multiple Orgasm Ice Cream Cake (Oreo, Coffee, Chocolate ice cream) $5.45~
Online reviews raved about this cake. It was pretty tasty!! You can't go wrong with 3 different layers of ice cream!

- Bubbies Navel (chocolate chip cookie sandwich with coffee ice cream and dipped in chocolate) $4~
This looked better than it was. It was kinda hard to eat and the middle of the cookie was too doughy. But still not bad. I love ice cream. haha.

Our last day in paradise.... Sigh. :(
We had a great lunch! Found a tiny little Japanese restaurant actually next to the place where we booked our surf lessons! :) It seems to be owned by an old Japanese couple. Only about 4 tables plus a small bar area. And the entire time we were there, only Japanese people came in to eat. That's a GOOD sign!
Hana No Sato
2410 Koa Ave.
Honolulu, HI 96815
(808) 922-9635
- Baked Ginger Pork Set (Ginger pork, salad, miso soup, rice) $6.98~
For the price, this was an amazing deal! Fresh salad, lots of pork. Good flavor and tender. Yum!

- Sea Food Bowl - Regular (Tuna, Salmon, Yellowtail, Octopus, Squid, Red Snapper, Shrimp, Egg, and Fish Eggs on rice; with miso soup) $9.98~

I totally wanted sushi during this trip but never really got it, so this'll have to do. For all the different types of sashimi on top, this was also a great deal! The fish was fresh and it made me happy. :)

We ended the trip with happy hour at our hotel later that night and watched the sunset. Sigh... I sooo didn't want to go home.
Sheraton Princess Kaiulani Splash Bar & Bento
120 Kaiulani Ave.
Honolulu, HI 96815
http://www.princess-kaiulani.com/dining/splash
(808) 922-5811
All the drinks were so colorful and pretty!
- Blue Hawaii

- Mai Tai

- Chi Chi
I've never had a Chi Chi before and it's awesome! :)

It's been a great trip. I can't wait to go back to Hawaii. Surfing is so fun!! And I just love the beach... Gotta save more money so I can take more trips!!!

~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~