Favorite Downtown Honolulu Restaurants

[CranBeree]

Re: Favorite Downtown Honolulu Restaurants

I wonder if they have butterfish (black cod) tacos...

lurks, have you ever eaten at Wong's Okazu-Ya when they were still around? they had the best shoyu butterfish!


when in downtown, i like to visit rada's pirsosckis (sp)?

[glossyp]

Re: Favorite Downtown Honolulu Restaurants

I wonder if they have butterfish (black cod) tacos...

The fish is whatever they have that day. They have around 10 different choices for fillings. You can check out their website. It's pretty good but I didn't like their fish tacos any of the times I tried them - the fish was never very fresh. I liked the carnitas, vegetarian and carne asada better. The best fish tacos in town are at South Shore Grill (imho, of course!).

[lurkah]

Re: Favorite Downtown Honolulu Restaurants

lurks, have you ever eaten at Wong's Okazu-Ya when they were still around? they had the best shoyu butterfish!

No! And shoyu butterfish is my fave!

I remember always passing by that place and wondering why somebody named Wong would be running a Japanese food restaurant. Doh! The ignorance of youth.

[1stwahine]

Re: Favorite Downtown Honolulu Restaurants

when in downtown, i like to visit rada's pirsosckis (sp)?

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f3...Picture071.jpg

Lurkah, foa you. Not shoyu. Still ono. Sending it Cyber. HAHAHAHAHA
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f3...asdecor028.jpg

Auntie Lynn

[jkpescador]

Re: Favorite Downtown Honolulu Restaurants

I 2nd that about South Shore Grill. Good stuff! I think it's the slaw that helps out the tacos.

[zccb]

Re: Favorite Downtown Honolulu Restaurants

The fish is whatever they have that day. They have around 10 different choices for fillings. You can check out their website. It's pretty good but I didn't like their fish tacos any of the times I tried them - the fish was never very fresh. I liked the carnitas, vegetarian and carne asada better. The best fish tacos in town are at South Shore Grill (imho, of course!).

I don't like the fish ones either, I liked the carnitas and the chicken filling isn't good at all.

[liberty]

Re: Favorite Downtown Honolulu Restaurants

This isn't really a restaurant, but I like the salads at the San Francisco Salad Company, in Pioneer Plaza. It's just funny how it's called the San Francisco Salad Company.

[Adri]

Re: Favorite Downtown Honolulu Restaurants

This isn't really a restaurant, but I like the salads at the San Francisco Salad Company, in Pioneer Plaza. It's just funny how it's called the San Francisco Salad Company.

I really like their tortilla soup

eta: Oddly, I've never had a salad there *g*

[liberty]

Re: Favorite Downtown Honolulu Restaurants

I really like their tortilla soup

eta: Oddly, I've never had a salad there *g*

Me too - can't forget about the tortilla soup. I don't think I've ever witnessed anyone order a soup there that wasn't the tortilla soup.

[pzarquon]

Re: Favorite Downtown Honolulu Restaurants

Any thoughts on Soul de Cuba, across from Hawaii Theatre? Seems I'm the only guy downtown who hasn't tried it. Here's an Advertiser review, a Star-Bulletin review, and a story from the business angle by our Erika Engle.



Something is coming in right next door, too. A long bar, and even more interestingly, some kind of open courtyard insidethe building. I didn't even know there was one back there. Anyone got the scoops?

[Miulang]

Re: Favorite Downtown Honolulu Restaurants

Any thoughts on Soul de Cuba, across from Hawaii Theatre? Seems I'm the only guy downtown who hasn't tried it. Here's an Advertiser review, a Star-Bulletin review, and a story from the business angle by our Erika Engle.

Oooh! I LOVE Cubano sandwiches (I make them at home with panini bread, mayo, mustard, ham and cooked pork roll, provolone cheese and the kosher dill pickle of course, pressed flat in the panini grill). And piccadillo...wow, you guys are lucky. I don't think Seattle has a Cuban restaurant...yet. Cuba Libre cocktails are nice too as is the cocktail du jour, the mojito. To me, Cuban food is more like home cooking...good, honest food with no pretension.

Miulang

[glossyp]

Re: Favorite Downtown Honolulu Restaurants

Any thoughts on Soul de Cuba, across from Hawaii Theatre? Seems I'm the only guy downtown who hasn't tried it.

I like it very much. Don't expect spicy food - Cuban food is quite bland by and, as Miulang mentioned, features humble ingredients like ground beef, beans, platanos, etc. Their empanadas are excellent.

Something is coming in right next door, too. A long bar, and even more interestingly, some kind of open courtyard insidethe building. I didn't even know there was one back there. Anyone got the scoops?

That's Dave Stewart's (Indigo, Bar 35) new spot, Du Vin. It's a wine bar/tapas restaurant. They have 4,000sf and there are three distinct areas including an open-air courtyard that is supposed to evoke the feeling of being on a backstreet cafe in Provence. Last I heard they were going to try to open after the First Friday in September.

[pzarquon]

Re: Favorite Downtown Honolulu Restaurants

That's Dave Stewart's (Indigo, Bar 35) new spot, Du Vin. It's a wine bar/tapas restaurant. They have 4,000sf and there are three distinct areas including an open-air courtyard that is supposed to evoke the feeling of being on a backstreet cafe in Provence. Last I heard they were going to try to open after the First Friday in September.

Thanks for the scoops, glossyp. The courtyard sounds especially promising. Sounds very cool... likely too cool for me. Seems like Dave Stewart's got his finger on the pulse of Honolulu, and Chinatown!

[Adri]

Re: Favorite Downtown Honolulu Restaurants

Me too - can't forget about the tortilla soup. I don't think I've ever witnessed anyone order a soup there that wasn't the tortilla soup.

Ok, just to be daring I tried the tomato basil soup. It was good, but I'm going back to the tortilla soup

[Erika Engle]

Re: Favorite Downtown Honolulu Restaurants

[I like it very much. Don't expect spicy food - Cuban food is quite bland by and, as Miulang mentioned, features humble ingredients like ground beef, beans, platanos, etc. Their empanadas are excellent.]
Already knowing the answer, I asked owner Jesus Puerto, for my column, 'What is the biggest misconception about Cuban food?" and he answered that people think it's going to be spicy, like Mexican food.
As Glossyp pointed out, it's not, so to expect hot spicy food there is folly.
She's a food reviewer with no doubt a more refined palate than mine, but I woudn't call the food bland -- rather, I would refer to it as flavorful but mellow. I was AFRAID to order the oxtail dish, but I did sample a bit -- and it was SOOOOO GOOOOOD and fall-off-the-bone tender. (No, nobody paid me to say that.)
The restaurant, according to my Hispanic friends, serves honest-to-goodness Cuban homestyle cooking. Comfort food, true to Jesus' upbringing. They have been there numerous times and rave about it for its authenticity and for the heart and soul that Jesus and his crew pour into the place.
Glossy's right, the empanadas are really good -- I LOVED the potato ones. I have yet to try the Cuban staple -- the black beans -- but I think Jo McGarry said that was the dish she was going back to eat again.