Honolulu Eats Nov '23

[linguafood (Natascha)]

Highly recommend Pint n Jigger. I wasn’t aware that the guy who runs the place was one of the first folks to popularize craft beer, or introduce sous-vide and barrel-aged ingredients for cocktails to Hawai’i.

Really, the only reason we even walked in was to kill time until our hotel room was ready. Large selection of craft beers on draft (leaning heavily towards IPAs and pale ales, which are not my cuppa),

a good cocktail menu, and a reasonably priced food menu. Kitchen is open late on Fri & Sat nights, and there’s also brunch. The scotch selection is the largest I’ve seen in my life, and the staff is friendly & knowledgeable.

I had a lovely “The Floor is Guava” sour (so lovely that I had 2), then enjoyed a “Catch Her in the Rye” and an Ohoro martini.

We didn’t get to try the much touted Scotch egg (but just might before we leave), the seafood cakes with a tobiko vinaigrette and caper sauce were perfection.

[linguafood (Natascha)]

Lunch at Liliha Bakery was ok. Located in the Ala Moana Shopping center on the 3rd floor inside a Macy’s, its atmosphere is that of a HS cafeteria more than a restaurant. Maybe it’s jet-lag, but neither of us felt like a ginormous lunch or sweet breakfast, and that seemed to be the major options. We got the eggs Florentine and the mahi sammich, respectively. My eggs came with roasted potatoes that probably spent a little too much time in the bain marie, but the egg scramble with Portuguese sausage and spinach was quite good. Just too much

The mahi sammich was also gigantic and came with potato mac salad. Not my thing.

The first thing brought out, however, were their famous butter rolls - basically Hawaiian rolls soaked in butter, and with a little plastic cup of a bright red substance that was reminiscent of robitussin, and tasted similar. I’ve no idea what it could’ve been.

Neither of us tried the coco puffs so I guess that is still on the agenda.

It seems to be super-popular with locals, so maybe we didn’t order the right stuff.

[ipsedixit]

@linguafood

little plastic cup of a bright red substance that was reminiscent of robitussin, and tasted similar. I’ve no idea what it could’ve been.

Radioactive Jelly

[tcamp (Tamara)]

LOL, I love the category BEERS?

[linguafood (Natascha)]

Yup, that was a favorite part of the menu for me as well

[linguafood (Natascha)]

A tip from a local who chatted us up at the hotel bar on our first night: Eleven, tucked inside the Foodlands Farm market in the Ala Moana Center. What an odd location to find elevated small plates & fabulous cocktails! They also have quite an extensive spirits list.

Our welcome aperitivi - seltzer and some Italian amaro/bitter.

I started with one of their seasonal drinks, the Pear and Sage Spritz, a bit of a twist on a French 75 with prosecco rustico, Malfy lemon gin, pear juice, and sage syrup, then had the very good HNL sour (Milk & Honey single malt, pineapple, yuzu, lemon, egg white foam, juicy cabernet).

My PIC had the Kopa negroni with Kona coffee infused Bèrto Bitter, Mānoa cacao nib sweet vermouth,
Malfy lemon gin, citrus oil,

and a Lapsang Manhattan (Yellowstone bourbon infusedwith lapsang souchong tea, Hakata 10yr koji whiskey, Bèrto rosso sweet vermouth.

We shared the bacon fat popcorn with toasted parmesan & sage,

two orders of the oysters with chili pepper water vinaigrette (a lil heavy on the vinegar for me),

a fantastic yellowtail carpaccio with local heart of palm, Hamakua tomato, yuzu kosho, nori tsukudani, scallion wasabi oil, micro herbs.

The hearts of palm added nothing but kronch, and the tomatoes were devoid of flavor, but the fish was great & that chive wasabi oil found itself being spooned onto two of my oysters

The final dish was the least interesting to me - bacon candy: Nueske’s applewood smoked bacon, bourbon molasses, black pepper. I would’ve preferred it less floppy & have never been a fan of eating bacon any other temp than hot out of the oven. This dish obviously cools down quickly, and room temp/cold bacon fat is unappealing to me.

Service was outstanding & friendly.

[linguafood (Natascha)]

Absolutely mediocre food at Moku Kitchen. Avoid, even if you love big groups with kids running around everywhere & live music. I don’t even remember how it got on my list of places to try. A decent Caesar and the blandest fish tacos I’ve ever had. Meh.

[linguafood (Natascha)]

Great meal at Katsumidori Sushi located in the Prince Waikiki hotel.

You order from a screen at your own, leisurely pace until you are sated. I had a lovely junmai sake that was (over-)poured generously, my PIC had an Asahi. We shared the seared nigiri (fatty tuna, scallop, salmon with miso, white fish, shrimp mayonnaise), golden eye snapper, medium fatty tuna nigiri, negitoro, uni, and ikura (with generous extra bits of each on the side), golden eye snapper collar (maybe our least favorite dish), and I finished with a fatty tuna nigiri and soy-cured salmon nigiri. Not too $$$, either.