After spending a nice couple of nights in town, we were back in Ewa Beach. The Missus wanted to do Her morning swim, so we decided to head on out to Ko Olina. We hadn't been in years. It was a Sunday morning so we went pretty early. We easily found parking near Lagoon 4. The Missus did Her swim while I went and strolled the four lagoons.
You know, I don't think I've been here since the Aulani opened? Geez, all the huge resorts.
For some reason, I got major Mission Bay vibes Kohola Lagoon, except the water looked beautiful and didn't smell like kukae!
Heading back to the car we noticed that the parking lot had filled up! Good things we got here early!
After freshening up back in Ewa, the Missus was craving some Oxtail Soup. The Alley, in Aiea Bowl opens at 10 on weekends and the Missus really enjoy our last visit there back in 2019. So we headed on over.
Man, the place sure has expanded the eating area since we last visited. And now, get so many signs and instructions…..
The young folks working were so nice and friendly. And we were seated behind the lanes.
We ordered our "usual" here, the Oxtail Soup (of course) and the Tasty Chicken.
The Tasty Chicken arrived quite quickly.
We really like the way they do brown rice here; nice texture, nutty flavor. As for the chicken, well, it was different from what we'd had here on previous visits. The batter was hard and crunchy, not light and crisp like we'd had before. The glaze was much sweeter; much like the overly sweet K(orean) F(ried) C(hicken), which I can get anywhere in San Diego. While not bad, it was not what we'd enjoyed before.
We were happy to see the "tower" arrive soon after.
As we deconstructed the "tower" we knew something was amiss as the usual beefy-anise fragrance was missing. In fact, looking at the broth, we noticed that it looked quite "thin".
My goodness, this was pretty bad; the soup lacked richness, it tasted like salty "shoyu-water". The thin broth was terrible.
The Oxtail had a nice texture, very tender, but it also seemed to have all the flavor cooked out of it, like it had been boiled in water for ages. This was so bland! What the heck is going on here?
This was quite a disappointing meal, which was too bad. After all, this had been our favorite Oxtail Soup spot on Oahu. It was sad, since we'd had decent grindz at old favorites like 8 Fat Fat 8 and Kim Chee II during this trip.
The Alley Restaurant at Aiea Bowl
99-115 Aiea Heights Dr, Ste 310
Aiea, HI 96701
What a bummer…..