After our usual morning swim, we cruised the streets of Kailua for some serious grub. I’m not picky, my rule of thumb is as long as I’ve never been before, I’m down for the cause, the hunger cause that is. None of us really had much of an opinion, so after no debate we ended up at New Chinese Garden Restaurant.

I wouldn’t expect anything less than red and golden colors at a Chinese restaurant.

Ray likes noodles so when I saw Shanghai Noodles, a noodle dish that I wasn’t familiar with I had no choice but to find out. First I asked the waitress what the Shanghai noodles were like. There was an obvious language barrier there so she held out her pen and said, “big, big.” Alright, I’m assuming that Shanghai noodles are round and as thick as her pen. Sweet, sounds good, we’ll take one of those. It cost $5.75 and came with cabbage, fungus, and really small pieces of pork. We didn’t realize it came with meat until halfway through the plate since the pork pieces were so small. We weren’t expecting any meat so I guess some is better than none. The noodles were a little mushy and it just tasted like everything was slapped together, microwaved, and brought out for our consumption and their profit.

I picked Combination Seafood with Mixed Vegetables on a Sizzling Platter, $8.50. Again, this dish was yet another disappointment. It didn’t taste old, but rather like it was made with no effort or care whatsoever. I mean, really, does this look like a sizzling platter to anyone? No sizzle at all. It was extremely dry for a Chinese dish, no gravy to be found, not even when we cleared the plate was there gravy.

Of course Chinese food just wouldn’t be the same without steamed white rice, .90 cents. These days Ray and I manage to share one bowl.

Overall I was not impressed with this place. Needless to say, I’m not coming back. Now, I don’t want to give off the impression that I had a horrible experience here. I was just disappointed. There’s far too many better places I have been and still yet to go.

View Larger Map

New Chinese Garden Restaurant
426 Uluniu Street
Kailua, HI
(808) 261-9345

By now you should know this is a blog about cheap and not so cheap places to eat and not eat in Oahu Hawaii. P.F. Chang’s is at the borderline. I have this love hate relationship with this place. Although it’s a chain, I don’t mind coming here because it’s a fun place to dine. The inside of P.F Chang’s are always dressed up real nice, service is ehh, food is ehhh and prices are ehhh. Well, I guess the main reason to come here is for its ambiance.

I think one great reason why P.F. Chang’s has managed to stay afloat is because there’s no other chain like it. It’s the only big Asian chain that is well known, stylish, fun to dress up for, o.k. if you don’t and not as expensive as fine dinning, but still a nice place to dine. The inside of this one is like an fusion between 70’s and Asian if you ask me.

There’s some outside seating as well.

Another thing that P.F. Chang’s does differently is have the server make this sauce at the table upon greeting you. For as many times as I’ve been to one of these places I still don’t know how I feel about that. Actually, the fact that I’ve been to one of these so many times and still don’t know how I feel about it probably means I would prefer it if they didn’t. The scenario, I imagine is pretty much the same at every table. The server greets you, “hi, how’s everyone doing? My name is Mary Jane, I’ll be your server today. How do you like your sauce, spicy, medium or mild?” And this gives everyone at the table something to converse on, “ohh, I like it spicy, how do you like it? I like it mild. I like it medium. I can’t handle spicy.” Blah, blah blah. Then the server will create a mixture of hot sauce, hot mustard and soy sauce in the center ramekin. The vinegar and hot oil are never used. Everyone stares in awe like the waiter is some big sushi chef. Every once in a while someone idiot will yell out, “ohhh, will you add some hot oil to mine,” or something of that nature. And the server goes, “sure” but she’s really thinking, “Bitch, are you fucking retarded, it’s just sauce, fucking add the shit yourself.” And just so you know, the mixture is usually the same every time, regardless of whether you said hot, medium or mild. All I’m saying is, yeah I get why they do it, it’s fun and different, but I could make my own sauce, spank you very much. It’s not the way I want it and I never see anyone use it. Not to mention, now that we have this amazing sauce, we’re expecting you to give us something to dip it in? Oh, what, you mean there’s nothing. The sauce you just made is for nothing. So that was basically a waist of my time and a complete waste of yours. Sweet. Anyway, lets move on.

We start off with these crab won tons served with a spicy plum sauce for $5.95. I use to make these everyday at our family restaurant so just being able to eat them with out any of my labor involved made these fritters even more special. It came with 5 pieces. The sauce for me was salty. I would of preferred the traditional sweet and sour sauce.

Just so you know, this is probably the easiest thing to make if you have a deep fryer. It’s a mixture of mainly cream cheese and minced crab meat.

What ever happen to the days when you could expect rice to accommodate your order? At P.F. Chang’s they still uphold that tradition. Not only that but you get a choice of white or brown rice. I always pick brown since I don’t get to eat it much.

We shared a Combination Chow Mein, $10.95. It was tasty. Ray could of done without the bean sprouts and celery. He said vegetables should never be bigger than the meat. I guess that’s a good point, not because I like meat, but I don’t like big chunks of vegetables. However, the size of the celery didn’t bother me. If you prefer your chow mein with some kind of sauce or gravy, then request it or order something else. This chow mein was dry.

Overall my response is still, ehh. The flavor, like it’s decor is very contemporary. It’s Chinese food but modern American-Chinese. They lack true authentic flavor. P.F. Chang’s is like Panda Express Food in a really nice restaurant. Sometimes Panda Express isn’t so bad, at least it wasn’t this day. By the way did you hear Bill Gates, now the second richest man in the world, bought 1 million shares in P.F. Chang’s stock. If he believes in their food, well then so do I.

Lies, all lies!

View Larger Map

P.F. Chang’s
1288 Ala Moana Blvd.
Honolulu, HI 96814
(808) 596-4710

“Big Boy makes you say ohhh boy!!!” Well not really, but that’s their catchy slogan. The first Big Boy started in 1936 by Bob Wian in Glendale California. Today there are over 455 Big Boys Restaurants throughout the United States and Canada. If hamburgers and diners with an unconventional flare humbles you then Bobs Big Boy might be the place to rekindle old memories.

The place is a total diner inside. I like the big overhead lighting and the big windows that let in an ample supply of natural light.

I started out with a small green salad. It came with one slice of tomato and one cucumber slice, the rest was Romain Lettuce. Not to mention, it was the top part of the tomato, so I had to cut around it just to eat it. I substituted the fries that came with my sandwich for this salad.

I ordered the Mushroom Melt, $8.95. It came with portobello mushrooms, peppers and melted swiss cheese all on toasted, sliced bread. Oh, also, it was flavored with a marinara sauce. I was happy with this dish but I think it would of tasted so much better with a different type of bread. This boring white sandwich bread wasn’t doing it for me.

Shane ordered the French Dip, $8.25. It came with lean sliced roast beef on a hoagie bun and served with au jus. All sandwiches came with fries. Shane said it was, “one of the boriest sandwiches he has ever encounterd.” The size of the sandwich was a little disappointing and the taste had no wow factor. It would have made a good snack if made at home but not a meal. I didn’t taste it, but it did look pretty boring.

His sandwich also came with toast. I don’t get it, who wants to eat bread after a sandwich?

Country Fried Steak and Eggs, $9.49. Ray couldn’t have been happier with this dish. I tried it and yes it was awesome. The gravy was perfect and the country fried steak was fried to perfection and the hash browns were golden and crispy. I liked his dish more than mine but refrain from taking too many bites because he liked it so much.

Overall, I hate to say it, but this place was good enough, definitely better than what I expected. As most of you already know, I’m not a fan of diners. To me, they scream cheap, poor quality food for people that don’t know any better or don’t care but this place proved me wrong. Oh, Boy! But just so you know, service sucks.

View Larger Map

Bobs Big Boy
2828 PAA Street
Honolulu, HI 96819
(808) 833-8440