Wisefish Poke Visited 1/28/2016 4.5 Forks

Wisefish Poke  263 West 19th Street, New York, NY 10011

I usually don't review casual or quick service type restaurants but every now and then when something great and/or unique opens up, I feel like I have to.  It looks like 2016 is shaping up to be the year of the poke in NYC, which is totally a trend that I can get behind.   If you've been reading my blog long enough, you know that there are a few dishes that I am fanatical about and poke is one of them.  The 3 times I've been to Hawaii, I usually bath myself in poke and I could honestly eat it everyday of my life.  At it's core, it's basically raw fish marinated with soy, sesame oil and other  Asian inspired flavors that make this super addictive.  Plus its incredibly healthy for you, so what's not to love about it? 

While poke is extremely prevalent in Hawaii and parts of California, I was always curious why poke never quite made it to NYC.  In addition to Wisefish, there is also Pokeworks in Midtown and you can also go to one of the few Hawaiian restaurants like Onomea or Noreeth to order it but otherwise, there aren't a ton of places that serve poke in the city.   I had just read about Wisefish and I happened to be in the neighborhood so I thought it was worth checking out.  You order at the counter and you can either make your own bowl or they have custom bowls that you can order.  The premise is fairly simple;  order a base + fish (you can get tofu but really why bother coming to a place like this if you're not going to eat fish) + toppings + sauce.  I opted for the large classic Hawaii Style of ahi tuna and scallions on brown rice ($13.95).  Apparently the only difference between a regular and a large is how much fish they put in it.  At first I was a bit skeptical because when they were putting the bowl together it seemed more heavy on the rice vs. the fish but once I started eating it, there was actually plenty of fish and it was a nice ratio of fish to rice.  You can still get other toppings like seaweed salad, cucumber, or add spicy mayo but I wanted to go classic for my first try. 

There is a communal table you can sit at but I took it home and it held up well on the 30 mins commute home.  I was honestly really really happy with this dish.  The fish was bright red and fresh and clean to the taste. It had the right level of seasoning and acidity with the soy sauce, sesame oil, and ginger and it paired well with the slightly crunchy brown rice.  All the meanwhile, I felt like I was eating something really good for me.  While obviously it's still not like the poke you can get in Hawaii, it's pretty close for being so far away from paradise.

I was there on the 3rd day it opened, so the staff was super friendly and the adorable co-owner was also there making sure that operations were running smoothly.  The line was pretty long by the time I walked out with my food around 7pm, so it sounds like the buzz has already gotten out.  Even though I don't live or work anywhere near this, I can definitely see myself going out of my way to come here to get my poke fix at least once a month, if not more.  This had made me incredibly excited for the poke craze to take over the city this year - bring on the fish!  Total bill:  $15 with tax

 Photo Credit:  Yelp

Noreetuh Visited 5/7/2015 3.5 Forks

Noreethu  128 1st Ave., New York, NY 10009

While I wouldn't say that the food in Hawaiian is world renowned, it does have a warm and fuzzy part of my heart just because of how much I love anything related to Hawaii.  There are some traditional Hawaiian foods that I am a huge fan of (ehm, poke) but it's generally not a cuisine that you see around a lot.  So when this place opened up, my friend Van and I (she's also a big Hawaii and food fan) had to give it a try.   Apparently the place was opened by two Per Se alums which may explain why we was so hard to get a reservation - we couldn't one until 3 weeks out and at 6pm none the less.

The menu is broken up into snacks, starters and mains - the waiter had recommended 12 dishes which I would say is way to extreme and honestly a bit offensive.  We netted out at 2 snacks, 3 starters and 4 mains which sounded like a lot of food.  The cuisine is not quite traditional Hawaiian - it's more high end fusion Hawaiian - it's got elements of Hawaiian flavor with their own twist to it.  From the snack section, we got the corned beef tongue musubi ($6) and the silken tofu ($12).  From the starter section, we got 2 orders of the big-eye tuna poke ($17) and the kalua pork croquettes ($11).  From the main section, we got the spam agnolotti ($18), garlic shrimp over rice ($22), mochi crusted fluke ($21) and pineapple braised pork belly ($20).  So yeah - we went a bit overboard but there were 4 of us at dinner and from what we could see, the dishes were on the smaller side.

We started with the musubi which in its traditional form is made with grilled spam over a block of rice and tied together with seaweed.  This one was more like a sushi roll but it had beef tongue, cilantro and peanuts in it.  Surprisingly the thing that I didn't like wasn't the beef tongue but the peanuts.  The beer tongue was actually quite tasty and had a similar consistency to grilled spam. The peanuts weren't bad, but they just didn't seem to fit with the dish.  The silken tofu was made with uni, ikura (salmon roe), shiitake and miso.  I thought it was going to be like a silken tofu cube but it was more like custard.  Obviously I loved the uni and ikura  - but there wasn't enough of it (there never is).  But once you got a taste of the mushroom and miso, it was a bit overwhelming.  Despite everyone's love for uni at the table, the overall dish wasn't a fan favorite.  On to the tuna poke - the dish that we were all most excited by.  This one was made with tuna, macadamia nuts, pickled jalapeño, and seaweed.  It was good but I love poke in it's purest form without much else beside sesame oil and soy sauce so the fact that this had nuts and jalapeno made it a bit too complicated than it needed to be. But the actual raw chunks of tuna was nice and tasty.  The kalua croquettes were served with cabbage and katsu sauce and this was a definite crowed pleaser.  The inside was a soft delicious pork and potato filling and the outside was nice and crispy and I'm always a huge fan of katsu sauce.  The cabbage was actually a really nice refreshing side to the dish.

Next we moved on to the main entrees which all came out together.  I tried the pork belly first - it was quite tender and actually pretty fatty on top but I didn't mind that at all.  It came with yams, mustard greens and peanuts (again!!).  I'm glad that I split it with the table because while it was good, it was definitely way too heavy of a dish to have on your own.  Next I moved on to the best dish of the night, the garlic shrimp over rice.  The shrimp were HUGE and drenched in garlic - so how could that not be delicious?  The shrimp were nice and tender and had real bite to it.   It was by far my favorite dish. I guess after that anything would be a bit of a disappointment but the spam agnolotti just didn't measure up regardless.  It was fine - not a terrible dish but it was an ok dish.  Lastly I tried the fluke which came with baby bok choy, kabocha squash, pinenuts, and black bean.  It was a nice white fish and I enjoyed the mochi crust to it but it could have used a bit more injection of flavor beyond the veggies and black bean.  Even though we ordered a ton of food, the portion sizes were fairly small and I was still pretty hungry at the end.  We ordered the bruleed pineapple ($10) for dessert which was exactly how you imagined it - half a pineapple with a sugar brulee top - it was very sweet and it felt very Hawaiian but I'm not sure it was worth $10.

Overall, there were some great dishes that are definitely worth coming back for.  While I do agree that it's best to share a bunch of dishes here,  you could definitely cobble a solid individual meal here if planned correctly (I'd recommend musubi, maybe poke and definitely the grilled shrimp).  While this place wasn't a traditional Hawaiian restaurant, it did remind me of Hawaii enough that I'm now craving to go back and experience the real thing.  Total bill:  $70 with tax, tip and drinks

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Onomea Visited 1/10/2013 3 Forks

Onomea  84 Havemeyer St (b/t Hope St & Metropolitan Ave), Brooklyn, NY 11211

After my awesome trip to Hawaii last year, I was surprised to find that there really weren't that many Hawaiian restaurants in NYC (even though there are about 100 different kinds of cuisines in the city). So when I read that Onomea had opened up by a local Hawaiian and that it was 15 minutes from my apt, I had to try it.  Even though Hawaii is part of the US, it really has a food culture all on its own and while I loved some of it (I'm obsessed with poke), I could have done without some it (I'm looking at you loco moco). 

Onomea is located right around the corner from all-time favorite place, Fette Sau, and the inside of the place is pretty cute and inviting.  It's got a beautiful carve out of the islands in the back of the restaurant and lots of pictures of the islands to make you wish you were actually in Hawaii instead of eating Hawaiian food in Williamsburg.  The menu has a lot of your staple Hawaiian items: poke, spam musubi, loco moco, and Kalua pig and cabbage.  The waiter said that the owner was from Hawaii and that all the recipes were old family recipes - sweet!  We split the poke ($13) for the table, while Van got her own order as her main meal as well as the shoyu shrimp skewers ($9).  I got the Kalua pig and cabbage with spam fried rice ($15), Anuja got the tempura ahi roll ($10), and Chelsea got the shoyu chicken ($13).  The poke appetizer came out first and my first impression it looked pretty legit.  The flavors were pretty spot on with green onions, sesame oil and soy sauce and the tuna was nice and fresh.  It might have been a bit too heavy on the sesame oil but overall, considering there are no other places to get poke in the city, I was pretty happy with this version.  Next came our entrees.  The pig and cabbage plate consisted of pulled pork and cabbage served with macaroni salad, regular green salad, and spam fried rice.  There was a pretty hefty amount of food on my plate that I wasn't sure if I was going to finish everything.  I tried the macaroni salad first and it was fine, nothing really to write home about.  I wasn't a huge fan of the smaller size macaroni shells used and while I'm probably in the minority, I actually like mayo and wished there was a bit more mayo to the salad.  The actual pork and cabbage part of the dish was very meaty and had much more pork than cabbage.  I wish there was more cabbage to offset the heaviness of the pork.  Despite my numerous trips to Hawaii, I have surprisingly never had spam fried rice.  In all honesty, it didn't really taste that different from regular fried rice except that it just had a few pieces of salty spam.  I'm not sure if it was the spam or the salt in the pork, but I did feel like they were a bit heavy handed in the salt on the dish.  In fact, I probably drank an entire carafe of water on my own.  I didn't try anyone else's food except for Anuja's tempura roll.  You'd think by the description that it would be these small to medium size rolls - like what you find in a typical Asian restaurant.  But no, these things were the size of a small house.  We were all a bit shocked by the whole thing and sadly, they didn't really taste very good.  There must have been about a pound of rice that had too much rice wine vinegar in it with bits of cooked tuna and carrots and then wrapped in seaweed, covered in tempura batter and deep fried.  I felt really bad this was Anuja's main entree because it was just kind of a hot mess.  If our meal had ended here, I probably would have rated this place a 2.5, but their dessert kind of brought them back up to the 3 range.  We got the coconut custard and it was a lovely refreshing dessert.  I love coconut so I didn't mind the intense flavor of it, but if you don't like coconut I'm sure you'll find it too overbearing.  It's got an almost soft tofu consistency sprinkled with shaved toasted coconut on top.  Chelsea and Van both got gelato (in coconut and vanilla flavor) which were pretty good.  We were a bit surprised that they didn't offer shaved ice, which is the quintessential Hawaiian dessert.  

All in all, it was fun experience but definitely not on par with a true Hawaiian experience.  The poke was definitely the best part of the meal but at $13 for a small plate, it's quite the difference from the giant vats of poke you get in Hawaii for less.  If you've got a Hawaiian food craving, Onomea gets the job done but I'd still rather be on the beaches of Hawaii instead.  Total bill:  $30/pp with tax and tip 

Photo Credit: Yelp

Hawaii Day 9 Visited 5/26/2013 2.5 Forks

Downbeat Diner 42 N Hotel St., Honolulu, HI 96817

I realized that I totally forgot to write up this review almost 2 weeks after I visited...I guess that should be indicative of my meal there.  To be totally fair, my review is less about the actual restaurant but about my one dish.  On our last day in Hawaii, Deanna and I left our hotel early and decided to try a hipster diner in Chinatown.  Usually I am a huge fan of most city's Chinatown section because of the cheap food and just fun crazy atmosphere.  I guess since almost all of the island is full of Chinese people, Chinatown is not that big of a deal here since Honolulu's Chinatown was kind of depressing not super interesting.  In fact there were lots of homeless people and it was only a couple blocks wide.  But in the middle of all of it, is this hipster vegan friendly diner called The Downbeat Diner.  It's got this very rock and roll feeling (maybe because there is a local rock club across the street) and of all the restaurants we've been to, this one had almost no Asian locals there despite it's location.  The menu here has lots of salads, sandwiches (with lots of vegan/fake meat options), burgers, and bar appetizers such as fries, mozzarella sticks, and jalapeno poppers.  For breakfast, they have an array of egg dishes and a variety of their local breakfast favorite "loco mocos".  I figured on my last day in Hawaii I should finally try a loco moco even though it didn't sound too appealing.   I got the original version which was a beef patty, over brown rice with 2 fried eggs covered in gravy ($8).  There were other versions that came grilled chicken or chili or the mega version which had 2 of everything (2 patties, 2 scoops of rice, 4 fried eggs, etc).  Deanna got the pesto chicken sandwich with vegan chicken with fries ($8).

I guess the best way to describe the dish is that it's like steak and eggs meets biscuits and gravy.  Even though I ate the whole thing, I really didn't want to.  The patty was like a hamburger but it was cooked medium-well which I normally don't like.  It was super salty and the gravy on top was just too much to deal with.  The brown rice was fine but just didn't go well with the overall concept of meat and eggs to me.  I guess this is really a local acquired taste.  I did try Deanna's pesto sandwich and it was pretty good, even the vegan chicken part.  I probably would have liked my meal better if I had stuck with a basic egg/pancake or burger but I wanted to try something new.  This definitely looks like it would be a fun place late night but I didn't have time for it.

Hawaii Day 8 Visited 5/25/2013 4.5 Forks and 4 Forks

KCC Farmer's Market - Kapiolani Community College, 4303 Diamond Head Rd, Honolulu, HI 96816

Now this is the shit I am talking about.  I love a good a farmer's market and it's even better when there are food stalls along side with it.  This is like the Union Square's Farmer's market plus the Smorgasborg Flea market all in one but on a slightly smaller scale.  We stumbled upon this place totally by accident on our way to Diamond Head.  I had just finished hiking to the top and we had a 2pm paddleboarding class, so we decided to check this place out for lunch since it was nearby.  Even though it's crazy crowded (and it was made even worse by the fact that Japanese tour buses were dropping tourists off by the bus load), I totally loved it.  Lots of great local fruits and veggies stands and other knick knacks like honey and flowers.

After I walked the entire market, I had to make the tough decision on what to actually eat for lunch.  The one surprising thing was that a lot of the food was pretty heavy.  I was kind of hoping for something light like a poke or local salad but there didn't seem to by any stalls that offered it.  So I landed on The Pig and the Lady, a Vietnamese place that offered lots of delicious soudning options and I chose the pho french dip ($11).  It was a totally and utterly amazing sandwich, one of the best ones I've had in a long time.  It was made with 12 hr roasted brisket, sauteed bean sprouts, thai basil chimmichurri, and pho au jus all on a super soft and pillow-y french bread.  Everything worked perfectly together and each bite had all the different ingredients dancing in my mouth.  The 2 ladies next me split the sandwich while I wolfed the entire thing down myself.   Deanna also ordered lunch here and got the vegetarian curry.

I know the picture doesn't really do a lot of justice to it but it was actually very good as well.  All the vegetables came straight from the farmer's market.  In fact, I saw one of the workers run to one of the vendors next door to buy some spring onion and put it directly into some of the dishes.  Talk about fresh.  Even though I was sweating and it wasn't a restaurant, this was one of my favorite dishes on vacation.  It proves that you don't have to go to a 5 star fancy places (or even a physical space) to have really good, quality food.

Cafe Sistina - 1314 S King St., Honolulu, HI 96814

For our last real dinner in Oahu we decided to go somewhere that had good veggie options so that both Deanna and I could enjoy our meal.  My friend Van had recommended this place as a great Italian place away from the hustle and bustle of the beach area.  At first I was a bit reluctant to have Italian food but I was glad I went.  I do have to comment on the decor of this place.  It's uber cheesey with tons of "fresco" artwork on the wall done to replicate the artwork in the Sistine Chapel.  It's a cute concept but it was just way too much.

We started with organic baby greens salad ($9.75) and it was a nice but huge starter salad.  It came with fresh tomatoes, cremini mushrooms, bell peppers, sweet onions, cucmbers and very lightly dressed with mango vinaigrette.  I would have preferred to have had a bit more dressing on it but otherwise it was a nice basic salad.  For entrees, I was torn because I really just couldn't stomach anymore heavy cream pasta and almost everything on this menu had some kind of heavy sauce or cream.  But I was also craving really fresh good seafood, so I asked our waitress for a recommendation.  She mentioned that the scampi alla vodka ($17.25) was a great choice, but I was a bit weary because of the heavy vodka sauce but she mentioned that it had more clam juice than anything else to give it flavor.  When the dish came out, I was a bit skeptical because it was huge and looked really heavy.

Bu it was actually incredibly delicious and not as heavy as it looks.  The spinach fettuccine was great and perfectly al dente, the shrimp was amazing and had that nice crisp and bite that truly fresh shrimp has.  There was a bunch of capers that added some saltiness to the dish but it wasn't overwhelming and the waitress was right when she said that the sauce as more heavily flavored with clam juice but it was just the right amount and it didn't make the sauce taste fishy or weird.  It was exactly what I wanted in a seafood pasta.  Deanna got an angel hair pasta with fresh pesto and she loved it as well.

And yes, it looks like enough pasta for an army but it was very very thin and it was just very spread out on a large plate.  That would be my one complaint about this place:  that even the food is great, they need to work a little bit on presentation.  It kind of looks like they just slopped the delicious pasta on a dish and it just doesn't look at appetizing as it should.  The waitstaff here (like most of the people in Hawaii) was super friendly and nice too.  It may sound strange to have had our final dinner at a totally non-Hawaiian restaurant, the didn't really matter because the food was great and that's all that matters.  Total bill:  $48/pp with tax and tip.

Hawaii Day 7 5/24/2/13 3 Forks and 3.5 Forks

Mac 24/7 Hilton Waikiki Beach Hotel, 2500 Kuhio Ave., Honolulu, HI 96815

When I'm on vacation, I generally try to avoid restaurants in hotels just because I like to get away from the hotel and because they're generally more expensive.  But in the Waikiki area almost every building is a hotel or resort and it's difficult to avoid eating some meal at some hotel.  One of Deanna's friend had mentioned that Mac 24/7 at the Hilton had great food and since it was right across the street, we gave it a go.

The vibe here is more of a cool, fun, modern diner and I had read that it was on the Travel Network's Man vs. Food for the pancake challenge.  When we sat down, the table of Japanese tourists next to us got the Mac Daddy pancake and they literally worked on it for an hour and they barely made a dent in ti.  I was not ready to dive head first into a pancake the size of a car, but I did end up getting a meal that also almost left me comatose.  Most of the hotels we had been staying at so far offered free breakfast but most of the food was your standard, eggs, bacon, fruit kind of thing.  I decided to get the most "local" breakfast on the menu which was the kalbi, rice and 2 eggs overeasy ($15).  I had an idea what kalbi was but I wasn't expecting 3 giant strips of meat.  Kalbi is essentially a Korean beef short rib and it was quite tasty here. It was super thin (which made it slightly easier to deal with than if it were a filet cut) and had the great marinated taste of a bulgoi.  I normally don't get sunny side up eggs but they were fried perfectly here with a perfect runny yolk inside.  My only gripe was the rice.  It was dry and could have been moister and stickier.  While I enjoyed my meal, it was kind of hard to start off my day with essentially 3 large strips of meat and white rice.  I should also mention that Deanna got the Mac Attack ($16) which was pancakes, eggs, potatoes and your choice of bacon or sausage.  There was a mis-communication about the meat and they brought out a plate with bacon on it.  Deanna told her that she didn't eat meat and if they could make a new batch, which they said sure.  They came back in 2 minutes with a "new" dish without bacon, so it's pretty clear they just took the bacon off the plate which wasn't exactly what Deanna wanted.  I took a quick bite of her pancake and it was nice and fluffy  but I definitely wouldn't be able to eat an entire plate full of it.  I should note that the waitstaff, while very nice, is soooo slow.  Even the table next to us made a comment about it, but I guess that's island life. :)  Total bill:  $18/pp.

Sansei Seafood Restaurant and Sushi Bar Waikiki Beach Marriot Resort & Spa, 2552 Kalakaua Ave., Honolulu, HI 96815

Sansei came highly recommend on both Big Island and Oahu, so when we didn't get a chance to go on the Big Island we had to go when we were on Oahu.  We both had friends who had separately raved about this place and both said it was some of the best sushi they had anywhere.  While we were looking up the address to this place we noticed that they had a Friday Happy Hour special - 50% off!  Perfect!  My two favorite things, sushi and a discount. :)  But the catch here was that it started at 10PM.  It was a late night happy hour that ran from 10-1AM and also had free karaoke.  In order to not go totally crazy and be starving, we did grab a drink and a quick snack at Roy's.  I didn't review it here simply because we just split salad but I will say that the salad there was delicious and I would totally go back there for a full meal.

We got to Sansei around 9:45pm and there was already a line of 70 people there!  Crazy.  People walking by were giving us looks and asking what we were waiting in line for.  Luckily the line moved pretty quickly and I kid you not, we were the LAST people to get a table.  It was essentially first come first seat (I guess the wait staff just didn't want to deal with all these crazy people at night), but there was a 2 top outside (away from the karaoke) and we got the last one, otherwise the hostess had said to check back around midnight.  Yeah - I'm a city gal and don't mind eating late but having dinner at midnight was not what I wanted. 

So I probably should have known that a 50% discount does come with some strings attached.  While there was a 3 page menu (with everything on the menu 50% off) but it was about half the size of the regular menu.  So there were tons rolls that we had seen on their website that wasn't available for this happy hour deal which was a bummer.  I guess that does make sense but still a bit disappointing none the less.  But I made the best of the situation and ordered more than I probably needed to.  I ordered the sashimi trio appetizer (regularly $18), the caterpillar roll (regularly $15), and the Alaskan roll (regularly $12).  I thought that the prices seemed a bit over inflated and maybe they jacked up the prices just for happy hour but then again it's also a sushi restaurant in a hotel right on Waikiki beach, so that all lends to higher prices. 

The sashimi was fantastic - 3 pieces of salmon, 3 pieces of tuna and 3 pieces of yellowtail.  It's a classic but always a goodie if the fish is fresh - which is was here.  The caterpillar roll consisted of fresh unagi rolled inside out and wrapped with creamy avocado, topped with masago and unagi glaze.  This was my favorite roll of the night mostly because the avocado was super ripe and creamy and the eel was great.  It was very filling and was totally worth the half price and even the full price because there were 8 pieces of it.  Next I tried the Alaskan roll which was a "flower roll" which was slices of raw salmon and shiso wrapped around a mini rice ball, topped with seasoned salmon roe and fresh lemon in a "flower" shape.  This was essentially like an inside out roll with the rice on the inside and the fish on the outside.  The salmon was very fresh on the outside and I loved the plethora of the salmon roe on top of it.  It was just difficult to eat with the fish wrapped on the outside because it was so slippery and it kept slipping out of my chopsticks.  I also wasn't a huge fan of the shiso leaf inside.  I've never been a lover of shiso and this just confirmed my belief of it.  I should have totally stopped here with my food but I felt like I could do one more roll, so I ordered the scallop and cucumber roll (regularly $6.50) which had fresh, minced scallops with cucumber and masago aioli.  It had all the components of a great roll but it was way to big and had too much of rice inside.  Given the fact that I was already pretty full, I just couldn't deal with all the rice so I had to poke it out of the roll which kind of destroyed the roll in general.  But the scallop was fresh and delicious, so if this roll was half the size it would have been perfect. 

Given the reduced size of the menu, they cut a lot of the veggie rolls so Deanna ended up ordering the tempura onion rings, a cucumber avocado asparagus roll and another kind of pickled veggie roll.  I only tried the tempura onion rings and they were pretty good and crispy.  They could have been a bit smaller and thinner but overall they weren't soggy.  

While I am not a huge fan of karaoke, the whole karaoke experience at night with what looked like mostly locals was a lot of fun.  People were really belting it out and enjoying themselves and their enthusiasm was definitely infectious.  I also wanted to give props to our waitress.  She was super friendly and awesome.  She gave us some great tips of local, off the beaten path bars that we did end up going to and they were great.  While I can't say that the sushi here was the best I've ever had but I will give it the benefit of the doubt because we went during a crazy late night happy hour.  Total bill for just my portion was $40 with 2 beers. 

Photo Credit: Yelp

Hawaii Day 6 Visited 5/23/2013 3 Forks, 4 Forks, 2 Forks

Giovanni's Shrimp Truck 66-472 Kamehameha Hwy, Haleiwa, HI 96712 - 3 Forks

Oahu seems to get a bad rap was being super touristy and not the true Hawaii.  I can totally see why that would be true, but I would say that if you just rented a car and drove an hour away from Honolulu and up to the North Shore, you will see a side of Oahu that's gorgeous and beautiful and just as nice as some of the other neighboring islands.  One of the best things about the drive up north are these fun random places you pass by along the way.  One of them is the famous Giovanni's Shrimp Truck.  Yes, it's super touristy but I did see a lot of locals there as well and it's far enough from Waikiki that has that "off-the-beaten" path feel to it.  It's literally a graffiti stained truck on the side of the road, you can't miss it if you're driving up to the North Shore.  Their menu consists of 4 things:  Shrimp Scampi, Hot and Spicy Shrimp, Lemon butter shrimp and a hot dog.  I opted to go for the most popular option of the shrimp scampi.  Since I was on the only one eating it, I went for the half portion option ($6.50).  This dish was 6 shrimp marinated in olive oil, TONS of fresh chopped garlic, and lemon butter and then served with a side of white rice and chunks of garlic on top.  Needless to say, your breath will totally reek afterwards.  The shrimp was extremely hot (they literally serve it to you right out of the pan/wok).  I almost burned my hand peeling the shell.  When I finally got them all peeled, I took a forkful with the rice.  It was definitely good and the shrimp was plump but I wasn't blown away by it.  Garlic shrimp is not a new concept nor is it that hard to make.  You can get it in most Chinese restaurants or even make it at home.  It was a nice snack and break from the drive and if I happened to be in the 'hood, I would totally stop by again but I don't know if it's really a must do.  I guess I might also be spoiled since I grew up in MD which is a big seafood state, so I guess if you're from the Midwest or somewhere where there's not a lot of fresh seafood, then this might be a more exciting adventure.

Opal Thai 6-197 C Kamehameha Hwy, Haleiwa, HI 96712

Since Deanna had graciously dealt with my shrimp truck excursion, I returned the favor and went on a hunt for this Thai food truck that she had read was the best Thai food on the island.  Since it was a food truck,  there wasn't an exact location and we drove around in circles looking for it and finally called it quits and pulled into a shopping mall to make a U turn out of town.  But as we pulled into the shopping mall we saw the sign for it!  Opal Thai was now a physical restaurant and no longer a food truck.  I honestly was a bit full from my shrimp snack so I was planning on just having something simple like a papaya or green salad.  But once we sat down the owner comes by and says "Have you had Thai food before?" - uh, yeah?  To which he then asked "Ok, name your 5 favorite dishes."  I started to get nervous and thought that he was quizzing us on our food prowess.  All we could rattle off was curry, pad thai, eggplant basil and I said whole fish.  He then takes the menu out of our hands and throws them across the room.  He then looks at us and asks if we have any food issues (Deanna mentioned that she was a vegetarian) and he says "Ok, got it" and then leaves.  No ordering, no telling us what we're having, no asking us any other questions.  Um ok.  At first I thought we were cool/special but then I watched as he did that to everyone else in the restaurant.  I think the restaurant only has about 5-6 dishes that day with some variation and the quiz was more to gauge what those variations would be for each table because as I looked around everyone was pretty much eating similar dishes.  Our first dish was fried tofu and basil.  Now, mind you it was about 100 degrees that day and the last thing I wanted was fried food but of course I can't say no to food when it's in front of me.  Despite the heat, the fried tofu was delicious.  It wasn't oily at all and you could tell that the basil was very fresh as well.  I was a bit nervous about having not ordered but so far so good. 

Next came our main entrees.  I got what essentially looked like shrimp pad thai.  Even though I wasn't in the mood for a heavy noodle dish, I totally devoured this entire dish.  It was fantastic.  It didn't have the heavy peanut-y taste that some pad thai have and I thought that the shrimp here was better, bigger and tastier than the shrimp truck.  It was probably one of the lightest pad thai dishes I've had, but I say that in a good way.  It wasn't overly oily, overly sauced or heavy.  For Deanna they made a veggie curry that I tried quickly and thought was flavorful and great as well.  It was full of local vegetables and had a nice heat to it.

After these 2 dishes (and the half order of shrimp I had earlier), I was totally ready to burst and was thankful that there wasn't a dessert option.  Since we didn't order I was a bit worried that he was going to charge us some crazy price but it turned out to be fairly reasonable at $25/pp with tax and tip and a drink.

Hale Vietnam 1140 12th Ave., Honolulu, HI 96816

For dinner, we decided to do something very local and away from the Waikiki area.  Deanna had read about this Vietnamese place that was supposedly very good and very veggie friendly.  This was great since we were dining with her co-worker who was also a vegetarian and we didn't want to go through all the trouble of finding places in the city that only had 1-2 side veggie options.  We drive through what I guess is the suburbs of Honolulu (some of it was a bit shady) and get to this totally random Vietnamese place that's not really near anything. 

Now this was definitely a place that was frequented by locals so I was hopeful.  If you've read my blog before, you know my life long love for pho.  It's one of my favorite dishes and if done right is quite possibly one of the best things in the world.  But the key to the pho is a good stock/broth.  If that's not right, I don't care what the noodles are like or what the meat is like, it'll just suck.  I ordered the pho with raw meat and the summer rolls to start.  The summer rolls were totally fine, your usual Vietnamese rolls with shrimp, pork, noodles and lettuce.  They were a tad too big in size for me, but since I was also the only one eating it, it may have just felt like they were too big.  But on to the main dish, the pho.

As you can kind of see from this picture, it was pretty underwhelming (although full disclosure I had already taken a few bites before I took this picture).  The broth just didn't have enough flavor.  It was boarding on bland and also needed more cilantro and onion to it.  I've definitely had much much better pho but I've also had worse as well.  It just didn't do anything for me.  Deanna had gotten the veggie sour soup and Amber and his wife had gotten the vegetarian style pho (I really have no idea how that works) and while I didn't try anyone else's soups, they all kind of looked meh.  It was a bit disappointing that our meal wasn't great because it seemed to have so much promise with lots of locals in there, but I guess locals can also often be wrong.  Total bill for everything: $63

Hawaii Day 5 Visited 5/22/2013 4 and 4.5 Forks

Ahi Bowl and Pot   2443 Kuhio Ave., Honolulu, HI 96815 - 4.5 Forks

Even though this was a total hole in the wall place that was boarding on a bodega, I was completely and totally obsessed with my food here.  The space is broken out into Ruffage Natural Foods on one side and Ahi Bowl and Pot on the other.  Obviously Deanna went to the Ruffage section and I went to the Ahi Bowl section.  Since I became obsessed with poke on this trip, I was disappointed that we didn't have time on the Big Island to go to Da Poke Shack since Krush mentioned it was amazing, so I was looking forward to trying something similar on Oahu.  I had asked the people at the front desk of our hotel where to go and eat that wasn't a huge chain (i.e. Cheesecake Factory or California Pizza Kitchen - both of which were not that far from our hotel) and he looked at me like I was a crazy person.  After racking his brain for a bit, he finally mentioned this place and I was so glad he did because I would have never found it otherwise.  I was torn between all the different poke options.  I mean if I could have,  I would have literally just sat there for a few hours trying all different kinds of bowls.  They had your typical tuna version, but also a salmon version, spicy tuna salads, and eel and avocado bowls.  Heaven.  I opted for the tuna poke with avocado on brown rice ($11), which was also served with miso soup.  The tuna was super fresh, cut into perfect cubes and there was tons of it.  It was very lightly marinated and wasn't covered in sauce.  Combined with the brown rice, I just felt incredibly healthy and happy.  The only minor thing I didn't love about it were the pieces of crunchy seaweed.  It was fine but it didn't add much to the meal.  Given that I was only on Oahu for 4 days and there were so many other places to try, I didn't have time to go back, but if I lived near here, I would definitely make this a frequent pit stop.  

Duke's Waikki   2335 Kalakaua Ave., Ste 116, Honolulu, HI 96815 - 4 Forks

If there's any touristy place to check out while you're in Waikiki, most people will tell you to go to Duke's and they're right.  In the past, I usually abhorred uber touristy places but after a lot of traveling, sometimes you just want to be where all the other tourists are (rarely but sometimes, right?).  Luckily, this place is right on the beach with beautiful views of Diamond Head and the main strip of beach on Waikiki.  The place gets packed during sunset, so definitely plan to get there early.  You can either opt for the sit down dining room which often has a 45 minute wait or if you go to the bar it's first come first serve with more of a bar menu.  Deanna and I decided to be more casual, so we grabbed some drinks at the bar and waited for a seat to open up at the bar area. 

We basically stalked these 2 poor Japanese tourists and swooped in before they could even finish paying their bill.  The bar menu has your typical bar food from wings, calamari, fries, burgers, pizzas, chicken sandwich and ribs.  We started with the caramelized beet salad ($8.95) which was pan roasted beets, arugula and goat cheese with candied mac nuts.  You'd think that a bar salad would be kind of gross, but honestly it was pretty good.  The beets were huge and delicious and the arugula was dressed with this really delicious mango vinaigrette.  Even though I was loving all the fish I had been eating on the island, I was having a serious hankering for a burger, and what better place to get a burger than at a bar? 

I opted for the Duke's cheddar burger which was Certified Angus Beef chuck on a sesame seed bun with melted aged cheddar and topped with shredded lettuce and tomato ($12.95).  There was also this really nice tangy Maui island dressing - it kind of tasted like a 1,000 island like dressing. But my favorite part of the dish were the waffle fries!! Who doesn't love a good crispy waffle fry?  The burger was really great and totally satisfied my craving for the night.  Deanna got the spinach and goat cheese pizza ($11.95) which also had a ton of sauteed red onions on it.  I didn't get to try it since I had my hands and mouth full with my burger but Deanna mentioned that it was great and really good. 

While I still stand by not being a huge of large chain restaurants in general, a place like Duke's does make me realize that there is totally a place and time for a these types of places.  Plus, there really aren't a lot of directly on the beach casual beach options, so don't be like me and judgy of a chain like Duke's because otherwise you'd totally miss out on a super fun time.  Total bill:  $24/pp with tax and tip.

Hawaii Day 4 5/21/2013 3.5 Forks

Big Island Brewhaus 64-1066 Mamalahoa Hwy, Kamuela, HI 96743

You'd think that in Hawaii there wouldn't be good Mexican food, but surprisingly I had gotten a few recommendations from friends that there was this one decent place in the middle of Big Island.  Deanna and I thought it was worth checking out and it turned out to actually be part of the Big Island Brewery which just happened to also offer tons of Mexican food inside as well.  As you can see, the menu is huge.  It has almost every kind of Mexican food you can think of: nachos, quesadillas, burritos, tacos, fajitas, chile relleno, and enchiladas with all sorts of ingredients (chicken, beef, pork, etc).  It was also incredibly veggie friendly with lots of tofu, veggie and fake meat options.  Deanna and I were starving and started with the a half order (love that they have a half order option) of the vegetarian nachos:  house made tortilla chips with black beans, topped with melted Monterey jack cheese, guacamole, sour cream, and fresh salsa ($6.50).  It completely and totally hit the spot.  The chips were nice and crisp (not soggy despite all the toppings on it) and the cheese was perfectly melted.  The problem was that I ate so much of it, that by the time my fish burrito came (I am in Hawaii so I felt like I had to still get fish) I took about 3 bites of it and couldn't eat anymore of it.  The burrito was made with the grilled fish of the day (ono) cheese, guacamole, shredded cabbage, Mexican rice and black beans and salsa ($10.95).  Everything was super fresh and the salsa was actually some of the freshest salsa I've had anywhere.  I ended up just wrapping up the majority of my burrito and having it for breakfast (I know that sounds kind of gross) the next day before I boarded my plane.  I was surprised at how well everything held up the next day and the tortilla shell was still very soft and moist.  I would definitely recommend this place if you're looking for a fun casual place that's away from the main tourist areas and something that's not Hawaiian food either.  I tried one of their custom brews and it was super strong and completely kicked my ass, so if you also like microbrews, it's a fun place to check out as well.   Total bill: $19/pp not including tip.

Merriman's 65-1227 Opelo Rd., Kamuela, HI 96743

Compared to the other Hawaiian islands, the Big Island is super quiet and most of the nicer restaurants are located inside the large resorts.  Probably the only higher end non-resort restaurant is Merriman's which is located in Waimea.  After a long day of driving, Deanna and I wanted a nice relaxing dinner but the problem was that most places on the island close pretty early for dinner.  We were able to get a last minute 9pm reservation at Merriman's but that was the last seating they had for the night so we had to high tail back to Waimea 20 minutes after getting back to our hotel.   When we entered the restaurant, it definitely had a more serious, high end feel to it.  The crowd here was more formal (everyone was dressed up and there's no way you could go here in flip flops and shorts) and older.   The menu was on the higher end with entrees ranging in the $30-40 price point.  I was torn between the mixed plate which consisted of a sampling of the ahi tuna, mahi mahi, and the filet mignon ($49) or just the ahi tuna.  I ended up going for the wok charred ahi ($39) since it was more affordable and I wanted to have a full plate of a good fish vs. a few bites of a lot of things.  We also ordered the fresh island corn sauteed in basil butter ($8) for the table.  I really really loved the tuna.  It was perfectly rare in the middle (sashimi grade) and it literally melted in my mouth.  I also enjoyed the white rice and "forbidden" black rice and shredded cabbage and corn it was served with.  I felt super healthy after finishing this dish.  Although after thinking about it, $39 for less than a pound of tuna is totally crazy.  However, I was disappointed with the fresh island corn in basil butter.  I thought I was going to be blown away by its freshness since it's fresh picked on the island and deliciousness of basil flavored butter.   But it was just ok.  I mean it was fine, but I didn't want to leap out of my chair in love with it.  There weren't a lot of veggie options on the menu, so they kindly made Deanna a veggie lasagna but she felt like it wasn't that great.  There wasn't any pasta, the layers were made out of zucchini and it was covered in marinara sauce.  I feel like since it was late and they don't typically make it, it just wasn't a strong suit for them.  We ended the meal with the pineapple flan ($12) which I thought was way too sweet and we barely finished it.  By the time we were done with our meal, they were clearly clearing the restaurant and ready to go home.  I checked my watch and it was only 10:15pm.  In NYC, the place would have been packed and bustling.  I guess that's the difference between island and city life.  All in all, I really liked my tuna dish but did think it was a bit overpriced and the atmosphere was a bit stuffy for Hawaii.  Maybe since it wasn't by the water, it didn't really have this fun island feel to it.  But I will say that the quality of the food was most definitely top notch and if you are looking for something a bit more formal, besides the restaurants inside the Four Seasons or Fairmont, this is probably your best bet.  Total bill:  $120 for two with tax and tip. 

Hawaii Day 3 Visited 5/20/2013 4 Forks

Lemongrass Express -  Waikoloa Beach Dr Kings Marketplace Food Ct, Waikoloa, HI 96738

Usually when I'm on vacation, I like to go to places that more of the locals hit up and less of the big chains or touristy places.  So after our massages, Deanna and I asked the lady at the spa for any good local recommendations that were near our hotel.  To be honest, there aren't a ton of restaurants on the Big Island in general but she was able to rattle off a few options.  The closest one she mentioned was in the nearby shopping center, Queens Marketplace.  Since we were pressed on time, we decided to give it a try, even though it looked like it was more of an expressversion of the original restaurant.

When we arrived at the mall, I didn't fully realize that it was literally inside a mall food court.  The other places inside the food court was a Subway Sandwiches and an ice cream parlor.  I'm usually not a fan of mall food courts so I was definitely a bit weary of this place.  But to their credit, Lemongrass had 3 tables and high top that seated 5-6 people, so it wasn't literally a food court to-go type of place.   Although I do love Thai and Vietnamese food, I was really more in the mood for Hawaiian style food, but they did try to fuse Hawaiian influences with their dishes.  They have your usual pad thai, curries, pho, and green papaya salads.  Luckily for their lunch specials, they had an ahi poke special ($12).  It was cubes of tuna marinated in soy and ginger and served with crispy wonton, pickled vegetables on top of rice.  While it's not a traditional poke, it was still delicious!  It had the right amount of heat and it was extremely flavorful.  It's not as clean tasting as a regular poke but the pickled vegetables and spicy flavoring was a nice touch and the white rice just made it more filling.  I cleaned my entire plate.  The one thing that was a bit off-putting was that when I cleaned my plate, you could see all the oil from the sauces on my plate.

The great thing about Thai/Vietnamese food is that they usually have good veggie options.  Deanna got the a tofu/veggie noodle dish that I didn't taste but she mentioned that it was great.  All in all, I gotta say that I was very pleasantly surprised by this meal.  Who knew that good food actually could exist in a food court?  Apparently the locals did.  I did notice that the only people in there were locals, so I guess this should teach me a lesson to not be so judgy. :)

Hawaii - Day 2 Visited 5/19/2013 3 Forks

Cafe Pesto 308 Kamehameha Ave #101, Hilo, HI 96720

Deanna and I decided to hit the road on Sunday and drive to the volcanoes near Hilo, which were about 2 hours away from our hotel.  By the time we stopped at several look out points and waterfalls, we didn't get to Hilo until 3pm.  Hilo is the exact opposite of the resort area of where we were staying.  It's much more local and not really catered to tourists.  We did find Cafe Pesto right off the main drag and decided to stop for lunch.  The menu is pretty typical cafe food of soups, sandwiches, pastas and pizzas.  The inside is pretty cute though and had a nice island feel to it.

Since I was in Hawaii, I wanted to try as much fish as I could here so I opted for the Ono (also known as Wahoo) Fish sandwich ($16).  The waitress asked me how I liked my fish, so I said medium rare and I thought it was going to be thick like a tuna steak sandwich.  But instead, it was just a thinly grilled piece of white fish.  The fish was still tasty and fresh tasting but I don't understand why they would ask me how I like my fish, when white fish is generally just grilled until it's cooked.  I don't believe they would serve rare white fish.  The sandwich also came with a potato salad - which turned out to be mashed purple potato.  It was good but when I read potato salad, I was envisioning the typical mayo based salad but this was literally just cold mashed potatoes.  Deanna got a pasta ($16) that I didn't try but she said was totally fine and hit the spot. All in all, there wasn't anything amazing about the place but it was the right spot at the right time in the right place (there's really not much going on in Hilo).  The total bill was $23/pp including tax and tip.

Norio's Japanese Restaurant - Fairmont Orchid, 1 N Kaniku Dr, Kohala Coast, HI 96743

If you haven't been to Hawaii before, you should know that there are tons and tons of sushi places.  It's almost like you're in Japan but it makes sense with all the fresh fish they have and all the Japanese influence on the culture there.  So I was excited when the group dinner was at Norio's - it was supposed to be one of the better sushi places on the island.  It's inside the Fairmont and it was definitely priced as if it was in the Fairmont.   It was a huge group of us eating there so we shared a bunch of different plates.  We started with a sushi appetizer which was totally fine.  Honestly, I prefer sashimi or rolls to actual sushi because I usually think there's too much rice in sushi.  But the fish was fresh and flavor was simple as sushi should be.  Our table ordered last, so as we waited for our food, we tried the other table's leftovers.  One of the dishes was the crispy Macadamia nut coated asparagus ($8).  The asparagus was nicely cooked with a great crunch and the macadamia nut crust gave it a nice local flare to it.  For my main dish, I split a bunch of rolls with the CEO of the company (that was a bit awkward).  I ordered 4 rolls since I figured 2 per person isn't too much to ask for.  We got the Red Dragon Roll ($24), Spicy Hamachi Roll ($13), Spicy Scallop Roll ($14) and the Rainbow Roll ($22).  The dragon roll and rainbow roll were both priced ridiculously at over $20 but I will say that they have a LOT of pieces and they were very big as well.  The Red Dragon Roll consisted of shrimp tempura, avocado, green onion, tobiko, and sweet mustard aioli and wrapped in raw big eye tuna.  I generally don't like tempura rolls and this one didn't really convince me that it's worth the money.  The roll was totally fine (and very filling) but to me, it's just not sushi if there's something cooked in it.  Next I tried the hamachi roll and this was disappointing.  It was served with habanero masago, spicy aioli, sesame seed oil and kaiware.   The habanero and spicy aioloi made the roll beyond spicy and you couldn't even taste the fish at all.  Mark and I both commented on how crazy hot this roll was and to me that detracts from the actual fish.  The spicy scallop was roll came with chopped up scallop, green onions, tobiko, cucumber and kaiware.  The roll was good but again nothing to write home about.  Strangely enough the star of the platter was the rainbow roll.  I usually find rainbow rolls kind of a cop out because it's just a California roll with fish on top.  But for some reason I just decided to go for it.  The avocado in this roll was amazing and so creamy and delicious.  The roll was huge and probably would have filled up one person if they ate it on its own.   My main gripe with all these rolls was that they were so poorly executed.  Many times, the roll just completely fell apart once I picked it up with my chopsticks.  It felt like the rice wasn't of sushi quality because it it didn't seem to have that stickiness that the rice needs to bind everything together.  I really had a hard time finishing my portion of the sushi, but like a good trooper I powered through it but thought that I was going to throw up at the end.

All in all, the dinner was totally fine but I wouldn't say that it's even close to some of the best sushi I've had in NYC.  I find most of the sushi places in New York to be much better than Norio's but maybe of all the places on the Big Island, it is the best place to get sushi.  Total bill for the entire group of people $2,100!

Photo Credit: Yelp

Hawaii - Day 1 Visited 5/18/2013 3 Forks

Sunset Luau at the Waikoloa Beach Marriott- 69-275 Waikoloa Beach Drive, Waikoloa 

Ahhh - Hawaii.  How I love thee.  It's seriously one of the most beautiful and relaxing places in the world.  Of all the times I've been there, I've actually never been to a traditional luau.  I've always thought that they were kind of touristy and pricey.  And you know what? They are totally touristy and pricey but you should check it out at least once in your life.  Luckily, Deanna's company paid for and organized the whole thing, which was great because they were able to get us seats right up front so that we could see everything.  The back drop of the luau is beautiful as it's on the beach behind the Marriott and you could see the gorgeous sunset as you were enjoying your drinks (open bar was included in the price of admission).  

The luau starts with kind of a sad appetizer.  They give you this plastic plate with a half pineapple and some cold coconut shrimp with sweet and sour sauce.  I was a bit underwhelmed and was hoping this wasn't a sign of things to come.  Well, let's be honest, luau food is a bit like wedding food in that it's really hard to make food for hundreds of people and make it taste good.  You're really there for the experience and to say that you went and not necessarily for the quality of food.  Before the show started, they announced that they would be unearthing the suckling pig that had been underground for the past day baking.  I thought it was going to be a full pig that they pull out, but it turned out that it was large chunks of cut up pork already, so that was a bit disappointing (although for shock factor they do have the head in there).  I've seen full pig roasts in the Dominican Republic and in Asia before so it wasn't a huge deal that I didn't see it. 

Afterwards, you are led to the buffet portion of the night.  Honestly, it's your typical buffet with lots of green salad options (pretty fresh veggies), mayo based salads (think pasta and potato salad), teriyaki chicken (pretty dry), purple potato, fried rice, grilled vegetables, and the pork that they unearthed.  All of it was just kind of eh.  The best thing that I did eat was the poke (which was my favorite traditional Hawaiian food on the trip) but it was interesting that they hid it on another table away from all the other food.  I would have never found it if I didn't keep walking around the buffet area.   Poke is essentially cubes of raw tuna marinated in soy, ginger, garlic and other herbs.  It's refreshing and amazing and it's all I wanted to eat on the whole trip.  After we ate, they started the luau show and it was as expected.  Lots of hip shaking, hula dancing, yelling, and fire twirlling.   While the food didn't knock me over, the overall experience was worth 3 forks because it really is very Hawaiian and you know what? I am a tourist, so why not do touristy things every once in a while?  The cost was covered by Savo but I read somewhere they it's about $100/pp - so definitely pricey and I probably wouldn't have paid that much for it knowing how mediocre the food is, but if you can get a better deal than that, then it might be worth it. 

 Photo Credit: Yelp