Yesterday, we went to the Shinto shrine next to the freeway to have Tiger and Piglet blessed. Because the kids are on Summer mode, which means sleeping at 2 am and waking up at 11 am, we didn't get there until lunchtime. Everyone was hungry so thank Kamisama, they had food available. The Mad Cow had regular shave ice, the Diva had nachos and Tiger sniffed at her chicken shave ice. There were no prices, just a donation jar. I wish they had prices instead because I always end up feeling like Buddha will be P.O.'d at me if I don't leave enough money so I end up over-donating. Put in $20 for the blessing and another $15 for the food. Mad Cow remarked when they left, "Mom, they only had $1 and $5 in the jars, yeah?"
Oh well, it must have brought me some good karma because when we got home, Oscar the Grouch agreed that we could go to that new place, Sushi San, for lunch. Well, karma and a 15% off coupon.
Sushi San is a new converyor belt sushi place on Kapiolani Boulevard, on the Makai side next to what used to be Pet's Discount Warehouse. I think it used to be a bank. Parking is behind the building, on Atkinson. It's the same place where that good shave ice place is.
The restaurant has booths and counters. All of the booths were filled and there were about 8 of us on the counter. It took them a while to realize that the sushi was not reaching Oscar, the Diva and the Professor even though they noticed it right away. The main sushi chef noticed right away but it seemed that he did not have the authority to move anything so we sat there waiting for someone to give him the okay. It took several minutes but the Mad Cow and I didn't care becuase we had already picked up a few plates. What empathy.
The only saving grace wat the wait time was filled by us trying to figure out how to work the water dispensers for tea. Beneath the sushi level there is a conveyor belt of large tea cups and packages of green tea. You get your own cup, put the tea bag in and fill it with hot water which is in a faucet right in front of you. Being the uh intelletually challenged people we are, we tried to turn the red knob which said DANGER and whacked on the faucet as if that would work. The Diva finally figured out that you put the cup under the faucet then push it into the red button to dispense the water. Duh. If you are going there with small kids, I would definitely get a booth because I can see a toddler grabbing for the red button or trying to play with it. Just see the lawsuits coming....
You can order off the menu or just take from the conveyor belt. While there were 3-4 sushi chefs all the time, there were only 2 servers in the place so you had to flag someone down if you wanted to order. They also were not very proactive like at Genki meaning nobody came up to ask if you wanted something even as you plaintively glanced at them trying to give them the "I don't eat fish" or "I need fruit punch" vibe. I wondered if they only spoke Japanese because they would refill our waters frequently without saying a word but then I heard them talking to each other at the cash register in perfect English. It was like buying shoes at Macy's where salespeople pounce on your like vultures on a carcass to buying shoes at Nordstrom where you are the hunter on the prowl for prey who can find Jimmy Choos in your size. .
The good thing is that after waiting for hours to place an order, the food was delivered almost immediately! The hot food was piping hot and the cold food was cold - events that do not happen usually at Genki.
There was a variety of items on the conveyor belt in all price ranges. The belt was full of items, as soon as a spot opened up, one of the chefs would prepare something to take the spot. It wasn't like some other places where the only things going round and round are non-perishable items like canned drinks or mochi. Nothing looked like it had been sitting there for hours, morphing from fresh to funky. I did notice the presence of bacon on a lot of items for my pork obsessed pals.
I think the chefs have a lot of creative license because there were a lot of items that were not on the menu and we could not identify. It would have been helpul if there was a sign or something telling you what the sushi was, including some of the maki-rolls which were intricately beautiful and looked yummy but we didn't eat because we had no idea what sat inside the rice. For example, something called the "Honeymoon Roll" seemed to have fried kabocha on top and bacon inside but we weren't sure so we didn't take any. There was nothing on the meny to explain what it consisted of.
Along with sushi, they offer donburi bowls, udon, tempura and dessert. The Mad Cow and I kept eying the plates of chewy chocolate chip cookies that went round and round, only to be joined by chocolate and red velvet cupcakes moments later.
The Mad Cow was in nirvana because they had his favorite corn mayo which had disappeared from every other sushi menu in the area. Unfortunately, it was $2.80 a plate instead of $1.20 like it used to be at Genki. He had 4 plates, the equivalent of perhaps a 1/4 of a can of Green Giant, which totalled $11.20. Of course, this was not all he ate. He had hot dog sushi (a whole Redondos weiner per plate), chicken karaage (more than Genki but not as good) and tamago. The Diva stuck to her usual - shrimp tempura anything and red bean cake. The Professor ate avocado sushi (big slices of avocado), beef tataki sushi and steak sushi (the rare beef tataki cooked with a creme brulee torch and covered with teri sauce).
I was happy that they had a bunch of vegetarian options instead of having to stick to oshinko maki and inari. They had oyster mushroom sushi which was delicious. The oyster mushroom had been torched like the steak, placed on rice and topped with onions and a pink mayo based sauce. There was also button mushroom sushi on furikake rice topped with some sort of alfredo-tasting sauce. The only thing I didn't like about the button mushroom sushi is I had to dig out the little pieces of kamaboko inside. The Diva and I shared an order of Tofu Tempura which was hot and crispy. It didn't even need shoyu because it was so flavorful.
Oscar said the fish was very fresh but to him, it was just too pricey. I have to agree, eveything was at least double or more the prices at Genki. However, the quality of the ingredients was clearly very high.
We had a total of 28 plates (8 brown plates at @1.50 , 4 blue plates at $2.20, 8 yellow plates at $2.80 and 8 pink plates at $3.20) and 1 fruit punch. Our bill, with the 15% discount and without tip, was $95. Wow. Our usual bill when we all go to Genkis is less than half of that.
My conclusion is that if the kids want to eat sushi, we will haul them down to Genkis or to Safeway to buy a can of corn. However, if we are going to eat sushi on our lonesome, we will go to Sushi San (only if we have another coupon).
Their website is at http://www.sushisan.com/.
Monday, June 6, 2011
Shake Shake Shake
When the commercials began running on TV about the opening of Shakey's Pizza, I was so excited and could not wait to go there. For those of us of a certain age (who know every word to every KC and the Sunshine Band song), Shakey's on Keeaumoku Street was THE pizza place to go because once Chico's Pizza on Waialae Avenue (where City Mill is now for you youngsters) closed down, it was the only venue to grind on some mojo potatoes.
Come to think of it. I pretty much lived on Keeaumoku Street most of my senior year of high school and throughout college. No, I wasn't in bar girl apprenticeship but back in the day, Keeaumoku Street was much less uh adult-oriented than it is presently. Sure there were ethnic bars but they were way in the back of the parking lots with regular non-drinkie types of businesses in the front. Murmer the words "La Mancha" to anyone who can join AARP and watch them drift away to a land of sparkly tube tops, sushi roll hairdos, silky shirts and Angel Flight pants.
Being of the overachieving, student government clique, we only needed to go to class half a day in 12th grade (every nerdy braniac spends the summer in summer school) so we were free to roam off-campus once the lunch bell rang. My friends GL, TA, and KK would cram into my beige bandaid colored car and we'd go to Shakey's for the lunch buffet. If I remember correctly, it was all the pizza and salad you could eat for $5, a pitcher of soda for $2 and a plate of fried chicken and mojos for $7. We would stay there for hours or at least until I had to get everyone back to school. Since we were of the studious type, we never caused any trouble but would occasionally get into heated debates over what type of graduate degree was the most marketable.
Back then, Shakey's catchy slogan was "We serve fun at Shakeys, also pizza". This was apropos because the food really did seem like an afterthought and to be quite honest, I don't remember much about how the pizza tasted. I do remember feeling incredibly happy sitting there each day holding court with my friends. That is why, when it closed and Sorobol took it's place, I boycotted the place for a while. You know I have that local moke gene that demands that I wait in line for hours to eat at a new restaurant in town so this was quite a battle. I finally gave in when were invited to dinner by my cousin RY and his new wife from Korea. Well, that was the first and last time I went to Sorobol b/c I was totally grossed out by the sea cucumber in the stew spitting goo at us each time my cousin's wife took a bite.
I did have my Shakey's jones filled in Tokyo where they had really bizarre toppings like mayonnaise, corn and fish eggs and also in Little Tokyo in Los Angeles which was a normal Shakeys. But it just wasn't the same.
So, I did a happy happy joy joy dance when everyone in my family, tired of my ritualistic whining to go to Shakey's every weekend, finally agreed we would go to the new Shakeys in Waipahu for my birthday. If you read my blog, you know that heading anywhere west of Honolulu puts my twins in a panic (e.g. hiding in the car so they wouldn't get "jacked" when we went to Jollibee in Waipahu to buy chicken) so this was a major big deal. As always happens whenever we head to a 967 zip code, we got lost and took the LONG way down Farrington Highway which didn't help alleviate the fears of the Diva and the Professor who pointed out the "gang tagging" wherever visible on the drive there.
The buffet is offered from 11 to 3 on weekdays so we went on Memorial Day and got there about 12 noon. We expected it would be pack being the holiday and all but it was maybe 1/2 full. We joined a few other families who were also confused by the set up. Basically, there are three cashiers and right next to them is the buffet. So, you pay first, grab your plate and start pigging out. We ordered four adult buffets (@$14), one child buffet(@$7) and four drinks (@$2).
The buffet spread next to the cashier consisted of 6-8 different pizzas, 2 types of pasta (spaghetti and macaroni), 3 types of sauce (marinara, meat sauce and cheese sauce), garlic bread and mojo potatoes. On the opposite side of this was a salad bar with the usual stuff as well as potato salad, macaroni salad and jello. The line moved quickly since it wasn't very crowded but every local person over the age of 40 (and the Mad Cow) said the same thing when they got to the mojo potatoes, "NO CHICKEN????" So, we ordered a plate of chicken strips ($13).
There were only a few open tables in the dining room because a majority of the tables had reserved signs on them. Apparently, this is the new "go to" place for birthday parties and as we sat down, the big groups started rolling in. It seemed like perhaps they had overbooked because there were a lot of people standing up with a general look of confusion on their faces. Those of us with food took it upon ourselves to advise those without food that they needed to go up to the cashier and pay first to hit the buffet. We were lucky we had gotten there relatively early b/c when we left, they were not allowing anyone to purchase the buffet as there were no available seats.
There was a variety of pizza available ranging from a thick crust veggie with alfredo sauce, chicken with BBQ sauce on thin crust, and the usual pepperoni, meat lovers, combo and of course, the Shakey's Special. I am a big pan pizza crust lover but I didn't like the Shakey's thick crust, it was too doughy and there wasn't enough sauce to counteract the maximum breadiness. I thought about getting some marinara to dip the crust in but by then, the lines had gotten to the door long and I was too lazy. While my kids can kill off two Big New Yorkers without breathing, they were not impressed by the pizza at Shakey's at all, having maybe 2-3 slices each (and these were small buffet kine slices).
What they did enjoy most was the macaroni and cheese. That was the only item that seemed to be perpetually on each of the three kids' plates. We could have saved a bunch of money and a monku filled drive if we had stayed home and bought boxes of orange Kraft Mac and Cheese.
They all agreed that I was insane to have an obsession over the Mojo potatoes. They said it was like eating fries from the Foodland deli. Sadly, I admitted they were right.
The chicken strips were a big hit though. The plate of strips turned out to be a huge pizza pan platter of chicken and Mojos. I couldn't resist taking a bite (sorry Buddha) just to see if it triggered some kind of flashback but it just tasted like any other chicken strip that you can order anywhere else.
The salad bar was very clean and fresh though. They restocked it frequently and it wasn't a e-coli breeding ground as you usually experience at Pizza Hut.
As it got more crowded, the sauce hit the fan and they began to run out of pizza on the buffet. People were waiting about 5-10 minutes for pizza which didn't bother the kids because they were only eating macaroni and chicken anyway. The Professor stood in line for a minute and decided that it wasn't worth the wait. I was surprised though at how patient people were in line waiting for mediocre food. I guess if you throw a spotlight on anything, it will look ono.
As usual, the kids ate without chewing and were ready to hit the arcade which is in a small room next to the dining room. With so many families coming in, it would have made sense to have a clear wall so you could see the goings on in the arcade room instead of a solid room. So, if you wanted to watch your kids, you could not remain seated but would have to stand by one of the two small entryways or go into the room yourselves. Kind of defeats the purpose of dumping the kids while maintaining some semblance of concerned parenting. The kids returned within seconds, saying that most of the games were not working.
Overall, my feeling is if you don't want to wait in line for chicken at Jollibee, drive to the next mall and go to Shakey's for lunch. Especially now that the prices have dropped to $10 for adults and $5 for kids. I don't think we will make another trek there from town though since we have the Magoo's Pizza Truck next to Moiliili McDs.
I didn't take many photos but there are some great ones and a wonderful review on this blog:
http://tastyislandhawaii.com/blog/2010/03/24/first-bite-shakeys-pizza-parlor-in-waipahu/
Come to think of it. I pretty much lived on Keeaumoku Street most of my senior year of high school and throughout college. No, I wasn't in bar girl apprenticeship but back in the day, Keeaumoku Street was much less uh adult-oriented than it is presently. Sure there were ethnic bars but they were way in the back of the parking lots with regular non-drinkie types of businesses in the front. Murmer the words "La Mancha" to anyone who can join AARP and watch them drift away to a land of sparkly tube tops, sushi roll hairdos, silky shirts and Angel Flight pants.
Being of the overachieving, student government clique, we only needed to go to class half a day in 12th grade (every nerdy braniac spends the summer in summer school) so we were free to roam off-campus once the lunch bell rang. My friends GL, TA, and KK would cram into my beige bandaid colored car and we'd go to Shakey's for the lunch buffet. If I remember correctly, it was all the pizza and salad you could eat for $5, a pitcher of soda for $2 and a plate of fried chicken and mojos for $7. We would stay there for hours or at least until I had to get everyone back to school. Since we were of the studious type, we never caused any trouble but would occasionally get into heated debates over what type of graduate degree was the most marketable.
Back then, Shakey's catchy slogan was "We serve fun at Shakeys, also pizza". This was apropos because the food really did seem like an afterthought and to be quite honest, I don't remember much about how the pizza tasted. I do remember feeling incredibly happy sitting there each day holding court with my friends. That is why, when it closed and Sorobol took it's place, I boycotted the place for a while. You know I have that local moke gene that demands that I wait in line for hours to eat at a new restaurant in town so this was quite a battle. I finally gave in when were invited to dinner by my cousin RY and his new wife from Korea. Well, that was the first and last time I went to Sorobol b/c I was totally grossed out by the sea cucumber in the stew spitting goo at us each time my cousin's wife took a bite.
I did have my Shakey's jones filled in Tokyo where they had really bizarre toppings like mayonnaise, corn and fish eggs and also in Little Tokyo in Los Angeles which was a normal Shakeys. But it just wasn't the same.
So, I did a happy happy joy joy dance when everyone in my family, tired of my ritualistic whining to go to Shakey's every weekend, finally agreed we would go to the new Shakeys in Waipahu for my birthday. If you read my blog, you know that heading anywhere west of Honolulu puts my twins in a panic (e.g. hiding in the car so they wouldn't get "jacked" when we went to Jollibee in Waipahu to buy chicken) so this was a major big deal. As always happens whenever we head to a 967 zip code, we got lost and took the LONG way down Farrington Highway which didn't help alleviate the fears of the Diva and the Professor who pointed out the "gang tagging" wherever visible on the drive there.
The buffet is offered from 11 to 3 on weekdays so we went on Memorial Day and got there about 12 noon. We expected it would be pack being the holiday and all but it was maybe 1/2 full. We joined a few other families who were also confused by the set up. Basically, there are three cashiers and right next to them is the buffet. So, you pay first, grab your plate and start pigging out. We ordered four adult buffets (@$14), one child buffet(@$7) and four drinks (@$2).
The buffet spread next to the cashier consisted of 6-8 different pizzas, 2 types of pasta (spaghetti and macaroni), 3 types of sauce (marinara, meat sauce and cheese sauce), garlic bread and mojo potatoes. On the opposite side of this was a salad bar with the usual stuff as well as potato salad, macaroni salad and jello. The line moved quickly since it wasn't very crowded but every local person over the age of 40 (and the Mad Cow) said the same thing when they got to the mojo potatoes, "NO CHICKEN????" So, we ordered a plate of chicken strips ($13).
There were only a few open tables in the dining room because a majority of the tables had reserved signs on them. Apparently, this is the new "go to" place for birthday parties and as we sat down, the big groups started rolling in. It seemed like perhaps they had overbooked because there were a lot of people standing up with a general look of confusion on their faces. Those of us with food took it upon ourselves to advise those without food that they needed to go up to the cashier and pay first to hit the buffet. We were lucky we had gotten there relatively early b/c when we left, they were not allowing anyone to purchase the buffet as there were no available seats.
There was a variety of pizza available ranging from a thick crust veggie with alfredo sauce, chicken with BBQ sauce on thin crust, and the usual pepperoni, meat lovers, combo and of course, the Shakey's Special. I am a big pan pizza crust lover but I didn't like the Shakey's thick crust, it was too doughy and there wasn't enough sauce to counteract the maximum breadiness. I thought about getting some marinara to dip the crust in but by then, the lines had gotten to the door long and I was too lazy. While my kids can kill off two Big New Yorkers without breathing, they were not impressed by the pizza at Shakey's at all, having maybe 2-3 slices each (and these were small buffet kine slices).
What they did enjoy most was the macaroni and cheese. That was the only item that seemed to be perpetually on each of the three kids' plates. We could have saved a bunch of money and a monku filled drive if we had stayed home and bought boxes of orange Kraft Mac and Cheese.
They all agreed that I was insane to have an obsession over the Mojo potatoes. They said it was like eating fries from the Foodland deli. Sadly, I admitted they were right.
The chicken strips were a big hit though. The plate of strips turned out to be a huge pizza pan platter of chicken and Mojos. I couldn't resist taking a bite (sorry Buddha) just to see if it triggered some kind of flashback but it just tasted like any other chicken strip that you can order anywhere else.
The salad bar was very clean and fresh though. They restocked it frequently and it wasn't a e-coli breeding ground as you usually experience at Pizza Hut.
As it got more crowded, the sauce hit the fan and they began to run out of pizza on the buffet. People were waiting about 5-10 minutes for pizza which didn't bother the kids because they were only eating macaroni and chicken anyway. The Professor stood in line for a minute and decided that it wasn't worth the wait. I was surprised though at how patient people were in line waiting for mediocre food. I guess if you throw a spotlight on anything, it will look ono.
As usual, the kids ate without chewing and were ready to hit the arcade which is in a small room next to the dining room. With so many families coming in, it would have made sense to have a clear wall so you could see the goings on in the arcade room instead of a solid room. So, if you wanted to watch your kids, you could not remain seated but would have to stand by one of the two small entryways or go into the room yourselves. Kind of defeats the purpose of dumping the kids while maintaining some semblance of concerned parenting. The kids returned within seconds, saying that most of the games were not working.
Overall, my feeling is if you don't want to wait in line for chicken at Jollibee, drive to the next mall and go to Shakey's for lunch. Especially now that the prices have dropped to $10 for adults and $5 for kids. I don't think we will make another trek there from town though since we have the Magoo's Pizza Truck next to Moiliili McDs.
I didn't take many photos but there are some great ones and a wonderful review on this blog:
http://tastyislandhawaii.com/blog/2010/03/24/first-bite-shakeys-pizza-parlor-in-waipahu/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)