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!
The Missus enjoyed the poi, it was nice and thick but not too sour. The lomi salmon was interesting; the Missus liked it, but I think it's because it was mostly tomatoes, there was hardly any salmon in this.
Not sure why a place of this caliber would be serving surimi in one of their dishes. But whatever. We enjoyed the crisp "scorza", but the filling was too sour and salty. We really couldn't make out much. So, I guess having fake crab in this really didn't matter, eh?
The exterior was nice and crisp, but the calamari was super tough, the glaze salty which over-powered the entire dish.
The A-5 Wagyu was fine, if a bit overcooked, quite beefy in flavor. And you know me, if there's foie gras on the menu…… The foie gras was also a bit overcooked, but at least it wasn't what we call "dog food". It was pleasantly livery and sweet. I'm thinking it could have been elevated even higher with a nice glaze.
From the funky, savory salted crab, to the deeply fermented savory tones, to the pretty hot chilies, this was very spicy and refreshing. Even better than versions we've had here in San Diego! To make things even more fun, this was served with pork rinds!
Good lord. The fish was supposedly mahi mahi, overfried, not seasoned, and dry as heck. The tortillas were like cardboard. The purple cabbage slaw was flavored with ginger and the other had mango "salsa" which really needed some spice. It was all accompanied by a pool of pasty black beans, which at least was seasoned adequately.
With not too much of anything, I could try the biscuits and gravy. The gravy wasn't too salty or greasy, the texture was on the lighter side of things, but it wasn't bad. The egg was perfectly easy over, the yolk having no off flavors. The breakfast potatoes nice and crisp on the exterior, the breakfast sausage routine. This was good enough to bring back memories of old school – diner breakfasts I'd had in my younger days.
