Good to Grill, Not So Good for Breakfast

Ever since we saw the huge sign advertising breakfast in the window of Good to Grill in the Kapahulu Safeway mini-mall, we wanted to go. The selection sounded intriguing and onolicious - prime rib hash, eggs benedict, kobe beef loco moco - but getting down there in time was not going to happen as our usual Saturday schedule involves Oscar the Grouch driving the Mad Cow to bowling at 8:30 and the rest of us passed out in bed until 10:30 when we realize we have to get the Professor to writing class by 11:00 and our usual Sunday schedule involves all three kids dumped at Grammy and Papa's house in Manoa, Oscar doing taxes and me passed out with 80 pounds of Tiger lying on me (most times drooling in her sleep). We would always drive past (well, 4 of 5 of us anyway) and say, "Let's go there this weekend for breakfast."

We got our chance during Spring Break when due to some miracle, everyone was actually awake before noon on a non-school day. Not that anyone offered to go with me to pick up food so I headed down there by myself (don't tell my Mom that I left the kids under the care of the dogs). The place was packed - not with crazed folks with kids but with actual grown-ups who looked like they had jobs! The breakfast menu was extensive and there was something for everyone.

I ordered the following:

Eggs benedict with smoked ham for me (ham was for the kids but ended up with the dogs)

Kobe beef loco moco with eggs over easy for the Professor

Prime rib hash and eggs over easy for the Diva

Bacon and scrambled eggs for the Mad Cow

Chocolate pancakes for everyone

Banana foster belgian waffle for everyone

Yes, I know that is a lot of food for normal people but that's the norm for us. The sides on the egg dishes were breakfast potato, toast or white or brown rice. I had potato and everyone else had white rice.

They said it would take about 15-20 minutes so I went to Safeway to kill time. As usual, my 15 minutes lasted about 30 minutes since it included a trip to Starbucks (yes, I know Seattle's Best is not corporate and I should support them but their dark blend is still not caffinated enough to spark the plugs in my brain).

I was kind of irked to see a sign at Good to Grill as I made my way back entitling me to a free drink or coffee for every breakfast entree purchased. The cashier never mentioned this to me and there was no sign saying this inside of the place. I mean, I had just dropped over $50 for breakfast and it would have been nice to have at least had the opportunity to turn down the free drinks.

The food was ready so I drove home. Kids were all starving by then but apparently, they weren't starving enough since the consensus was that we will not go there for breakfast again. The overall feeling was that our usual breakfasts from St. Louis Drive-Inn or Rainbows were much tastier and a whole lot cheaper than our Good to Grill meal.

We were all surprised that there were only three thin strips of bacon in Mad Cow's breakfast. He gobbled them up quickly, ate the eggs and was still hungry. He did not eat any of the rice which he said was "too hard". Indeed, it did not seem that the rice was freshly made in the morning but had been made the night before. I ended up using it to make fried rice for lunch. I had to make another breakfast for him with a few more strips of bacon and another egg to fill him up. I would have expected this from the Professor but not from the Mad Cow who is not a big breakfast eater.

The Professor was also disappointed with his kobe beef loco moco. His egg was far from being over easy - it was a hockey puck of rubbery hardness. Even his yolk was tough as leather. He ended up setting it on the side because it was inedible. He did not like the kobe burger which was burned and had also been overcooked. He said it tasted like "regular hamburger". The request for gravy all over had gone unheeded and he lamented the lack of the brown stuff on his rice. It was less loco moco than hamburger steak plate with a thimble-full of gravy. Maybe that is why the photo of it did not come out.

If you are expecting good old mushy hash, do not order the prime rib hash and egg. The Diva's over easy egg was also very over hard. She gave her egg to Rayni and Tiger. Rayni did not eat it, just sniffed it after it bounced into her bowl. Tiger took her portion of egg outside and buried it. The hash was not what anyone expected - it was simply amall cubes of fatty and gristly prime rib combined with the breakfast potatoes. Seriously - that was it! It looked like something you'd make with the leftovers from a dinner when you had nothing else to eat in the house. Really really unpleasant stuff. And the rice was, well, the same as the other two.

As for my eggs benedict, I also had two hockey puck eggs and incredibly salty hollandaise sauce. The kids did not want to even try the ham which also went to the dogs. So my expensive breakfast was pretty much potatoes on two English muffins.

Not all was bad news. The Banana Foster pancake was a bit hit with lots of very fresh bananas and a crispy waffle. There was also a spread of some sort consisting of cinnamon and cream cheese along with the maple syrup. I think we all liked that spread the best of everything.

The chocolate pancake was also good. Three big pancakes, fluffy and hot. Not rubbery like the eggs. The pancake came with maple and chocolate syrup. Every bite was full of melty chocolate chips which was a sweet surprise after the eggy disasters.

So, will we go there again for breakfast? Only if we are having a waffle attack and they pay me back for the 6 free coffees they owe me.