Taste Of Honolulu

[AbsolutChaos]

Re: Taste Of Honolulu

PS--tips to maximize your food intake at Taste of Honolulu:

If you go on the last day at the last hour, the restaurants are desperate to get rid of their extra food, so you'll get a whole bunch of stuff for a lot fewer scrips than advertised! (At least that was my experience.)

PPS--I can understand why TOH isn't for everyone...I like a mix of social activities, some crowded, so less so, some with more people-watching and people-meeting, others with just enjoying time with the friends/family ya already got. This is one of my "enjoy the crowds" events...I like going with a group of good friends so we can scout out a shaded location and then send people out while leaving some people behind to guard the precious spot so you can chat and eat and watch with maximum efficiency and minimum hassle. Carpooling is also good so everyone's not looking for parking and getting cranky.

[scrivener]

Re: Taste Of Honolulu

Much of the restaurant experience is sitting down and being served. after a hard day at work. and enjoying the ambiance. the setting. AT the restaurant.

I'm with you, kimo. I dislike eating off styrene, and I dislike mob-dining (if it could be called "dining") and I dislike standing in lines. However:

You can't tell what the restaurant is like at a park. where they prep the food you eat completely outside their original kitchen.

That's why it's called a "taste" of Honolulu. There is something appealing about sampling food from twenty-four different restaurants in one night. To get the same variety in traditional dining would take a month, eating out every night, and who can afford that? Not me.

And while I hate the whole carnival atmosphere of the thing, it seems that a lot of people actually enjoy it. It's festive and social and a lot of things I don't equate with a pleasant weekend evening, but there you go. Some people like it.

IF I want easter seals to get my money, I will find their direct address and send them some.

I'm sure Easter Seals and other organizations treasure attitudes like this; yet if it were collecting enough in donations this way, events like this would be unnecessary. The popularity of this event really speaks for itself: the restaurants get some good exposure, Easter Seals gets the money, the participants get to sample the food at a price (and for a cause) they consider worthwhile, and there are no losers, unless you really want to visit that landfill issue in another thread.

I teach at a school that has the highest tuition in the state (we beat Punahou by a couple hundred) at over sixteen grand a year. When students can't afford Punahou, they go other places that offer good educations and good experiences. When students can't afford the tuition at ASSETS, there is nowhere else for them to go, because we're the only school that offers what we do.

I bring this up because we have a huge tuition-assistance program (more than a quarter of a million per year at a school with about three hundred students from K to 12th grade) funded completely by donations (tuition goes strictly for operating expenses--we don't make students who can pay for themselves also pay for the other students). Toward that end, we have an annual event similar to Taste of Honolulu, but on a smaller scale and at the lovely facility at Koolau Golf Club. In addition to the pricey admission, there's a silent auction on really great items donated by our benefactors in the business community and then a traditional auction of students' artwork with two local television journalists presiding (their kids are students at my school). Sure, it might be more profitable all around if everyone involved just gave money, but something else happens at The Event that perhaps we can't put a price on: Many of our benefactors (such as Bank of Hawaii) will purchase a whole table and give tickets to people who otherwise don't know anything about our school. This is huge because it's a way for prominent members of the community to be made aware of our mission and the importance of what we do.

I'm not saying that's what's happening with Easter Seals, but when an event this size has Easter Seals's name on it, it generates public awareness. Clearly, you are not the target audience of this thing. Still, you might save some of your derision for more worthy targets, such as the legislature, the city council, and the local unions!

I am very familiar with these restaurants:
Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant

Have you had the dunkles (I think that's how it's spelled) there? Yum.

[kimo55]

Re: Taste Of Honolulu

"That's why it's called a "taste" of Honolulu. There is something appealing about sampling food from twenty-four different restaurants in one night. "

Oh man. I eat too much in one sitting as it is.
i would blow up larger than one o those inflatable jumpers they have there...
"And now kids, it's the Kimo55 ride!"

" Still, you might save some of your derision for more worthy targets, such as the legislature, the city council, and the local unions!"
I hear ya. Social commentary is my dharma, and nothing escapes my sights.


"Have you had the dunkles (I think that's how it's spelled) there? Yum."

Oh, yea. as much so; no beer escapes my sights.
I attend each brew release event. aside from this being almost my second home.
http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/gordon-...les/2450/1880/

[1stwahine]

Re: Taste Of Honolulu

After much thought and reading the comments, MAMA and I have decided not to attend. We enjoy dining out. Infact, more than the norm. We also like to eat and enjoy the ambience of the resturant. We love being served and waited on. Being formally in the resturant business ourselves, we know where to go for exellent food and service. Our standards are high and we are critical from service to presentation of food. Sometimes too critical.

Plus, pushing MAMA in the wheelchair may be a bit hard since it will be on the lawn area. Thank you for your comments. I'm staying home and cook...da best!

Auntie Lynn aka Auntie Pupule

[cezanne]

Re: Taste Of Honolulu

Okay fair enough. But I think we're gonna go just to see and taste for ourselves. I hear what you're saying though... it's like going to a buffet, there's no way you gonna have some of this and some of that and really "enjoy". But we'll go just because it's for a good cause... if it weren't for charity we most likely would change our mind and not go.

and I will NOT have anything to do with
Dave & Buster's

Me too... they ripped us off when we rented one of their rooms... but that's another story.

[scrivener]

Re: Taste Of Honolulu

and I will NOT have anything to do with Dave & Buster's

Me too... they ripped us off when we rented one of their rooms... but that's another story.

I like Dave & Buster's. I like the food, I like the games, I like the waitresses, I like the twenty-something female clientele.

[kimo55]

Re: Taste Of Honolulu

I like Dave & Buster's. I like the food, I like the games, I like the waitresses, I like the twenty-something female clientele.

of all that I was amenable, too, for a while. It all came to a screeching halt and then turned 180 degrees when through one whole night, when our family went there for my brother's birthday, they performed just about every infraction servers could make. And this was to the person! from the hostess. to the bartender. to the three servers ruining our night via each of their visits to the table.
and thoughtlessly insulting to boot. Not even slightly apologetic.

[shaveice]

Re: Taste Of Honolulu

haven't been to d&b for over a year now (fatherhood changes everything) but your (kimo) experience is, i agree, inexcusable. someone started a thread some days ago about the dining experience and gave us some links which were, i think, predominantly from the waiters' perspective. in this case, we're talking about a customer's experience and that must have been a nightmare.

1stwahine, how'd you like the taste of honolulu?

[kimo55]

Re: Taste Of Honolulu

haven't been to d&b for over a year now (fatherhood changes everything) but your (kimo) experience is, i agree, inexcusable.

hey that ain't da half of it. here's another dose of the sad sorry true tale of the ballad of Dave and Buster's of that ever so loverlee Ward Complex;

The hostess didn't have our reservation. EVEN tho I called one in, and my brother's girlfriend called to make one, too.

They did not seat us in the dining room. tried to sluff us off in the boring dark empty bar.
We would have none of that.
When appetizers came to our table there, we got up to take a table in the dining room, which we saw there were quite a few open and available. The bartender argued and finally relented. We handed the food and serving crap to him to serve us in the dining room. (customers do not carry their own food) He didn't like that arrangement. He then placed the bowl of whatever we initially ordered into my brother's hands and draped the tongs over his arm!

and said; "ok fine. knock yerselves out"
(My brother later noted that in his letter to their corporate customer apathy department, he advised; that bartender would be best suited in his rightful place back in prison, working with heavy machinery... anything else but assure all and sundry that he stay far away from the general public.)


We ordered alotta stuff for alotta people. The pizza came toooo late, just as we filled up on everything else and figured it would never come. Just as we were about to leave, it arrives. Ya know how they set it on the table, it hovers above everything on two tall tomatoe sauce cans. One waiter was clearing the area to set the cans down and he handed me one of the dirrty old cans as soon as he came and said;
"here, Hold this".

Gee, Zuss!


ya know all that junk all over the walls? one thing was a framed picture of an actual dog taking an actual $#1t. I swear. (and it wasn't shot from the front where all ya see is that blank, dumb, heavy-lidded, slightly cross-eyed, half concious expression a dog wears when he's doin his bizness. Nooo. It had ta be the back end perspective; anatomically, scatalogically, explicitely detailed. (the only way they coulda made it more disgusting is, if it were scratch-n-sniff.) I was so amazed, wondering how a waiter would describe or even define or defend it.
I asked "hey what da hellzat!?
No surprise here;
He, of course replied, in a loud voice at our table, in front of ma and pa;
"That's a photo of a dog takin a sh!t."

oh, ok.

and then it went downhill from there.

[1stwahine]

Re: Taste Of Honolulu

1stwahine, how'd you like the taste of honolulu?

We decided not to go. Lucky we didn't...my grandson came and daughter and son-inlaw went out. MAMA and I had a wonderful time with Antonio than Taste of Honolulu could ever give us.

[beemo]

Re: Taste Of Honolulu

We ordered alotta stuff for alotta people. The pizza came toooo late, just as we filled up on everything else and figured it would never come. Just as we were about to leave, it arrives. Ya know how they set it on the table, it hovers above everything on two tall tomatoe sauce cans.

Ya know that really sounds like Buca de beppo and not D&B. Are you sure you dont have your restaurants confused.

[1stwahine]

Re: Taste Of Honolulu

Ya know that really sounds like Buca de beppo and not D&B. Are you sure you dont have your restaurants confused.

Now, das is FUNNY! I can't wait to see BroKimo's answer. heeeheheheheheheh

auntie lynn aka auntie pupule

[lavagal]

Re: Taste Of Honolulu

hey that ain't da half of it. I asked "hey what da hellzat!?
No surprise here;
He, of course replied, in a loud voice at our table, in front of ma and pa;
"That's a photo of a dog takin a sh!t."

oh, ok.

and then it went downhill from there.

That is DISGUSTING. I've never been, never planned on going and know now neither will my offspring. Your tale of wo pains me, Kimo. Even if you don't give me straight answers about tea tree oil for my frizzy hair. @

[kimo55]

Re: Taste Of Honolulu

Even if you don't give me straight answers about tea tree oil for my frizzy hair.

whaaa...
who... tea hair... frizzy tree... I don't... whatdahell?

[kimo55]

Re: Taste Of Honolulu

That is DISGUSTING. I've never been, never planned on going and know now neither will my offspring. Your tale of wo pains me, Kimo.

yes. Never patronize that horrid place, Bucco di Buster.