After an evening of revisits, we awoke the next morning with…well, no major plans other than doing a bunch of shopping. We had reservations for dinner and needed to get the usual…you know Lupicia, Hawaii Cookie Company, a couple of stuffs we needed for this trip, etc. We had thought of driving to a couple of places but ended up not using the car at all during our stay at the Ala Moana Hotel! We just had fun walking around.
We started off needing some caffeine to start the day. There are a couple of places really close, but instead, I wanted to walk the couple of blocks over to the corner of Kapiolani and Kalakaua. This is where the “main” location of Honolulu Coffee, which I used to have when my office was located in downtown. I hadn’t had their coffee in ages and I guess now they are a major chain!
Another reason I wanted to visit was that old timers like me will remember when this was the location of Coco’s Coffee House (before that it was Kau Kau Corner – but I’m not that old!), which closed and was replaced by the Hard Rock Cafe in 1987.
So, that’s what it kinda looks like now. We crossed on over and walked on in.
It’s a pretty nice space. It’s in a circular design, with a coffee roasting machine at the center.
At the front is where you place your order. The folks working are really friendly.
The Missus ordered a Peaberry Pour Over, I got a Cold Brew, and was a bit hungry, but didn’t want anything too sweet. The young man recommended the Elote Scone, toasted, with a friendly warning of “it might be too salty, though.” The drill goes this way, all basic coffee drinks and pastries are served at the counter. They call your name and you pick up your order. Cold Brew is specially made at this counter in the back by the area you can buy coffee beans.
You are given a number and they’ll deliver the pour over to your table.
Also, all the pastries for the chain in HNL are made here.
Of course my order was ready first.
The Cold Brew was ok, on the milder side. The scone was pretty good, not overly dense, nice chunks of corn, and not too sweet. I did not find it to be overly salty. Quite filling to be sure.
The Missus’s pour over was delivered on a tray with two cups on the side.
The Missus said it seem to lack “character”, She is also more into natural processed African beans and this was washed process and fairly mild.
Still, we liked the “vibe” of the place; think of it as a local version of a Starbucks Reserve Roastery.
**** The Honolulu Coffee Experience Center has closed
Honolulu Coffee Experience Center
1800 Kalakaua Ave.
Honolulu, HI 96815
After our coffee we headed up Kalakaua. I showed the Missus where we lived for a short time. It was a cheap apartment, I had to support my Mom by those days. It cracks me up that it is now a parking lot….probably makes more money than the apartment did?
I then took the Missus to Don Quijote because most other places weren’t open yet. Of course, you might remember it as Holiday Mart and then Daiei? Mega chain “Donki” owns many markets you might know, like Marukai, Times, Big Save, and even Gelson’s. Anyway, this location of Don Quijote is open 24 hours It’s huge; think of it like a huge Asian Grocery combined with Daiso on steroids. It kept the Missus busy for over an hour!
At which time we could head to Ala Moana to do our shopping. By the time we were done we decided to drop off our bags to our room and get some lunch. It was quite hot and we wanted to walk to lunch. I mentioned a place I’d read about on Kathy’s wonderful Onolicious Hawaii, with the interesting name of SXY Szechuan. It’s got an interesting location facing the parking lot on the second floor of the Kona Street side of Ala Moana, right where the ramp comes up from Piikoi. San Diego has been quite the wasteland for Sichuan in recent years and some Liang Cai and a veggie sounded good.
It was just after opening time for lunch; 11am and we were the first customers served.
The place isn’t very big, though it also wasn’t too busy on this day. There was only one other party eating during our entire meal.
We ordered two liang cai and some ong choy.
First up was the veggie. Man, this was so tender!
Even the stems! Great garlic tones; just enough salt and pepper, the Missus loved it.
We also got the Fuqi Fei Pian a favorite of hours.
This had a lot more slices of beef than tripe; but the tripe was so tender as was the beef, which in this case seemed to be brisket. The seasoning had decent spice, good ma-la (numbing hot) with a balance of sweet and sour flavors. It wasn’t overly salty and could have perhaps used more garlicky-pungent tones, but this was pretty good overall.
The last item was something I saw on Kathy’s post on SXY; the Pork Belly with Garlic.
Slices of pork belly wrapped around cucumber; looking at it, we were reminded of what we’d had Mountain House. There was a good amount of garlic, but the pork belly was too thick which really made it gummier than we like. While the cucumber did add a nice palate cleansing refreshing note, the overall flavor seemed a bit off balance. It needed more spicy, sweet, and savory. Funny thing, we dumped all the drippings from the Fuqi Fei Pian on the remainder of this dish and we enjoyed it much more. Still, the version at Mountain House is a step above this. Though, we did enjoy our meal. If we weren’t staying in a hotel and unafraid to have leftovers, we definitely would have ordered more.
Still, this was a nice meal, the spice really had an almost cooling effect on us as we walked back to our room.
SXY Szechuan (Ala Moana Center)
1450 Ala Moana Blvd.
Honolulu, HI 96814
We decided to have nice nap in air-conditioned comfort, then do a bit more shopping before heading off to dinner!
Thanks for stopping by!
Though it looked over-baked, the exterior wasn't flakey and crisp. The interior was on the doughy-bready-chewy side and the croissant, in my opinion really lacked butteriness. This was mediocre at best and was the same as what I'd had before from their stand. Well, at least they're consistent, right?
But the Missus cut into it and took a bite and made a face. She made me have a taste. The crust was doughy, gummy, and lacking in crispness. It was on the thick side. The filling was too sweet for my taste as well.
It was soft and doughy, lacking in that flaky-crispness that I enjoy. I'm not sure why they call this a "Butter Croissant" as sorely needed more butter flavor. The interior was a bit too "moist" for my taste as well. 
The bread was again nicely toasted, the cucumbers again refreshing, I wish it had more tomatoes and I appreciated the mint. There was a generous of labneh slathered on the toast, but it was just too puckery and sour for me to enjoy, the sour Zaatar just piled on, I'd have appreciated perhaps touch of sweetness and savory to balance things out a bit? As a whole, much too sour for me. My salivary glands are puckering up just looking at the photo!
Which meant that when I bit into it, flakey croissant shrapnel flew everywhere! Also, the ham had attained almost a bacon like texture during the heating process. The ham gave the croissant a good bit of saltness; though I would have enjoyed a straonger butter flavor. The interior was light and not overly doughy. This was not bad.
The rice was perfect, but the sauce was greasier and milder in poultry flavor than what we'd had earlier and the turkey meat was more chewy/tough as well. 
