Honolulu, Hawaii - Day 3

Getting towards the middle of our vacation in Hawaiian paradise! The sky started to cloud up with some bouts of showers but it was still nice and balmy outside. By this time, my mosquito bites were growing in size and irritated the heck out of me so W decided that we take it easy today and do some simple sightseeing nearby.

We started off the day with lunch at Nico's. As the name suggested, it was located right on pier 38 in Honolulu Harbor.

Nico’s Pier 38

1133 North Nimitz Hwy, Honolulu

I learned about this place when I was watching Diners, Drive-ins and Dives on the Food Network! Guy Fieri visited this location for his TV show so I put Nico's on my radar ever since.

Since the restaurant is located right in an industrial, fishing pier area there is somewhat of a water view.

Nico's is a casual eatery where you browse the menu at the cashier, make your order, and then you find a table to wait for your food to arrive. They also have their own fish market beside the restaurant. If one prefers, people can buy fresh seafood to cook at home or get take-out items like poke, soups, and snacks.

It wasn't very busy when we had lunch there but I think they would be bustling around happy hour during the evening since they have a large bar area.

Grilled Ahi Tuna Sandwich ($12.95) – served on French baguette with spicy wasabi aioli, tomato, arugula

Back to the food! We ordered 3 items to share starting with the grilled ahi tuna sandwich. There was nothing wow about it but I gotta say that everything on the bun was nice and fresh. The wasabi aioli gave the otherwise bland tuna steak a bit of zing. 

Seared Ahi Poke Salad ($10.95) – tuna cubes, seasoned with soy sauce and sesame oil, flash seared and set upon ‘Nalo greens with plum vinaigrette dressing

I thought the salad was better than the sandwich. Aside from the fresh greens, the cubed tuna was marinated and quickly seared which gave a nice warm and cool contrast. The dressing was savoury and tangy; a nice meal to wake up the palate.

Bouillabaisse – herbed tomato soup with tuna and mussels

The soup was my choice and I loved it! The soup had just the right tartness from the tomatoes while there a was a slight taste of the salty ocean from the heaping chunks of tuna and large meaty flesh of the mussels. Since W does not like eating mussels, I got to eat them all too! Yay!

For our sightseeing activity of the day, we drove up to the Nu'uanu Pali Lookout. It wasn't the best of days to visit. It started to rain and the low lying clouds covered up the eastern horizon. However, the views of the windward side of Oahu and the Koolau mountain range were still breathtaking.

Since the weather wasn't too awesome, we stayed close to the city after leaving Pali lookout. For dinner, we headed back to our hotel for their seafood buffet. Unfortunately, the photos I took didn't turn out very well. I was also very irritated with my dozens of mosquito bites so I was pretty distracted and wasn't feeling particularly excited about the buffet overall. The live mermaid show inside the 3-storey tall aquarium in the restaurant was pretty cool though!

Well, it sucked that the rain and the mosquito bites put a damper on my mood but tomorrow's another day...another day in Hawaii!! 

Honolulu, Hawaii - Day 2

Day 2 was a busy day for us. We had a lot of things planned! But first things first, a delicious breakfast to start the day!

Eggs n’ Things - Waikiki Beach Eggspress

2464 Kalakaua Avenue, Honolulu

Eggs n' Things is a popular place for breakfast and brunch. There happened to be one located a couple steps away from our hotel! Score! This particular one is a quick and convenient sit-down style fast food version instead of a traditional restaurant.

We had to line-up outside, study the menu while waiting in line, and when we reached the front, an employee took our order and gave us a buzzer to place at our table (which vibrated to let us know our food was ready). After placing our order, we lined up again to pay at the cashier and then waited again for the next available table inside. When we sat down at our table, we enjoyed the views of Waikiki Beach while waiting for the server to bring out our food.

Spinach, bacon and cheese omlette with pancakes ($11.95) - made with 3 fresh local eggs, with choice of cheddar, mozzarella or pepper jack cheese

As always, W and I chose what we wanted to eat and then we shared it together. W ordered the omelette which came with a stack of pancakes. The omlette and pancakes were not bad but they weren't very exciting either haha... 

Hawaiian Loco Moco ($12.25)

When I looked at the menu, I immediately knew I wanted to get the Loco Moco. Come on, it's a Hawaiian staple dish! The Eggs n' Things version had a ground beef patty on top of white rice, with sauteed mushrooms, onions, carrots, a gravy sauce and 2 sunnyside-up eggs. It was a pretty heavy dish for the morning but it was a delicious savoury medley of beef, rice, and eggs. The loco moco felt very heartwarming and homey.

Plantation Iced Tea ($4.25) – iced tea with pineapple juice

I also had the Plantation Iced Tea to drink. It was sweet and refreshing; perfect for a warm sunny day!

When we finished breakfast, we hopped in our convertible Mustang (top down, of course!) and drove to the Byodo-In Temple located within the Valley of the Temples Memorial Park. Look at the backdrop behind the temple! Stunning and awe-inspiring mountains!

The park was peaceful and serene. And walking towards the temple really felt like I was suddenly in Japan rather than in tropical Hawaii! We walked leisurely around the temple grounds and a small bamboo forest. If you do visit here, be sure to spray lots and lots of mosquito repellent. I didn't feel it at the time but I was attacked by a swarm of hungry mosquitoes here ~_~ I had about 2 dozen bites all over my arms and legs. So, y'know, you've been warned!

It was really hot and muggy in the afternoon so we decided to hit up a beach. What better way to relax and cool off?! We drove east and made many pit stops at places that caught our attention. Finally, we arrived at Waimanalo Beach! The soft sand, white sea foam and the turquoise water all together were so beautiful! I could just sit there for a long time listening to the waves crashing against the sand but alas, it was getting close to evening and we had to nurse our empty stomachs.

Ichiriki
510 Piikoi Street, Honolulu

Heading back into Honolulu, I suggested we try a Japanese restaurant that specializes in 'nabe' (food cooked in hot pots filled with savoury broth) called Ichiriki. I noticed this place when I was doing research for the vacation and it was recommended by a magazine but I didn't realize it was immensely popular! We waited probably 45 minutes for a table... Other than the food, I would say reservations are highly recommended as well!

Miso Chanko nabe for 2 

Miso flavoured soup stock, served with Chinese cabbage, enoki mushrooms, tofu, kuzukiri, abura age, chives, gobo yam, beef or pork slices, homemade Tsukune pork/chicken meatballs in a bamboo holder, and rice

At Ichiriki, there are pre-set meals like the one we chose or you could select your own combinations from the menu. There’s also sukiyaki, happy hour appetizers, and extras to add to your meal. 

What was unique about our hot pot set was that the "pot" was actually a paper bowl set inside a mesh basket! Of course, the paper was coated with some sort of food-safe, non-flammable material so the fire wouldn't burn it to ashes.

The ingredients were fresh and plentiful for the 2 of us while the miso broth was incredibly rich, thick and flavourful. AMAZING. It was fun to scoop out our own meatballs too!

When we finished the meats and veggies, the waitress brought us ramen noodles to cook in the leftover concentrated miso broth (or more like a thick miso sauce by then!). There was a selection of udon, red bean rice, or ramen noodles but we picked the ramen. By this time, we were stuffed to the max.

This Japanese nabe dinner was so so satisfying. A great marker to end the night!

Honolulu, Hawaii - Day 1

Our first official full day in Honolulu, Hawaii!!!! This was the view from our hotel room and it was phenomenal!! We overlooked Kuhio beach park and the vast expansiveness of the Pacific Ocean. It was awesome!

McDonald’s

2476 Kalakaua Avenue, Honolulu


For our first breakfast, we decided to head to the McDonald's across the street from our hotel to try the "famous" breakfast only available in Hawaii. This particular McD's was open 24 hours a day so that was pretty convenient for us hungry travelers when we arrived really late the previous night due to a delayed flight.

Back to breakfast. When people think of a local food specialty of Hawaii, what do people think? Loco moco? Pineapple? How about Spam? Yup! One of the well-known items of Hawaii is the ubiquitous Spam and rice. At McD's, you can find it on their deluxe local big breakfast platter. 

Deluxe local big breakfast – Spam, Portuguese sausage, scrambled eggs with rice, packet of soy sauce for seasoning, orange juice

It also came with a couple slices of Portuguese sausages. W and I shared this for breakfast and it was just enough for the two of us. That's a pretty hefty portion of rice you know. Aside from the eggs not being the fluffy scrambled eggs that I wanted (what else do you expect from McD's?), everything else was the way you'd expect it to be: salty, meaty goodness paired with plain, tummy filling starch.

Marukame Udon

2310 Kuhio Avenue, Honolulu

After breakfast and a breathtaking (literally and figuratively) hike up Diamond Head, we headed back down to the city for lunch. A couple of our friends recommended Marukame Udon for their fresh, handmade, authentic udon noodles.

Marukame is famous for their Sanuki style udon noodles. Sanuki is a region of the Kagawa prefecture in Japan known for producing their signature chewy, toothsome, al dente noodles. I think, on any given day, the line-up to eat here goes out the door. There's also a window at the front to let you see the noodle-making and cooking process.

The restaurant actually employs a cafeteria-style ordering system in which you walk along a counter and go through the following:

Step 1: order your choice of udon (employees will take your order and cook it on the spot)

Step 2: add your choice of tempura or musubi (each type is differed by price; self-serve style)

Step 3: add your own sauces and condiments to your liking; also self-serve style (tempura sauces, chili flakes, wasabi, tempura crumbs, green onions)

Zaru Udon – cold udon served with a side of cold dipping sauce

It seemed pretty logical to eat something cool on a hot sunny day so that is why I chose the Zaru udon. For my sides, I had tempura prawn, asparagus, Kabocha squash, and a piece of deep fried chicken.

Ontama Bukkake Udon – bukkake sauce topped with a soft poached egg

W had the Ontama Bukkake udon which was a bowl of noodles bathed in a savoury and sweet-ish sauce and topped with an incredibly silky soft poached egg. Breaking the egg yolk into the sauce added extra depth and helped the sauce adhere to the smooth noodles. YUM! For his sides, he selected a tempura prawn, Kabocha squash, and mushrooms on a skewer.

Waiting in the line up was definitely worth it as the noodles were everything I expected. The sides were actually a bit of a let down but the fresh, toothsome udon, the Ontama egg, and sauces more than made up for it.

Cheesecake Factory

2301 Kalakaua Avenue, Honolulu

For dinner that day, we decided to get take-out from The Cheesecake Factory. There was no way we were going to wait 2 hours for a table inside. That's crazy!! From ordering to cooking to retrieving our food, it only took 30 minutes. I felt so smug when we walked away with our dinner passing through the huge crowd of hungry, waiting patrons HAH!

I forgot to take pictures of our meal that night but this was what we ordered.

Garlic Noodles ($15.50) – spaghettini, fresh asparagus, shiitake mushrooms, oven roasted tomatoes and parmesan in a delicious garlic sauce

Seared Tuna Tataki Salad ($18.50) – fresh ahi tuna lightly seared rare with avocado, wasabi pesto, tomato and mixed greens, tossed with shallot vinaigrette 

From taking in the view up the top of Diamond Head to taking a dip in the crisp blue waters at Kuhio beach, while filling up with tasty, satisfying food along the way, I'd say our first day in Honolulu was a blast!