This is an overdue post, but that’s what’s on my agenda today, writing post that are long overdue. Today’s post is on Star Bucks. I don’t go to Star Bucks too often, but when I do it’s usually for a sweet treat.

I ordered the Rock Slide Brownie, $2.50. Looks delicious right, that’s because it was. I loved ever bite.

I also got my hands on a piece of the Mint Brownie, $2.25. It reminded me of Andies Mints and tasted very much like it too. I love Andes Mints so I was very pleased with it.

Also, if you guys are every in Barns and Noble, they not only serve Star bucks coffee there, but you can also get a sweet treat from the Cheesecake Factory.

You know you want one.

For directions to Barns and Noble click below
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Barns and Noble
4211 Waialae Ave
Honolulu, HI 96816

Get Directions(808) 737-3323

Before you judge me on going to another corporate chain, give this place a try if you have not already. California Pizza Kitchen has to be one of my favorite corporate chain restaurants. From what I’ve seen, there’s five California Pizza Kitchens in Oahu: Waikiki, Kahala Mall, Ala Moana Mall, Aiea and Kailua. I’ve been to all but one and every time the food is great. This one is located at Kahala Mall.

It’s not the best picture, but you get the point.

We were asked if we wanted bread after ordering, which we all did. The bread was really nothing special, just plain white bread at room temperature on a white plate with butter. My mom use to give me sandwiches with sugar and butter when I was a little girl and that’s the only way I’ll have plain white bread now, with butter and white granulated sugar. Oh, how buttery sweetness can transform boring to spectacular.

Now I know this place isn’t really cheap, but if you want to eat out all the time, as I do, you really need to find ways to be nicer to your wallet. Ray and I do this by sharing. When we come here we share an appetizer, usually this Avocado Club Egg Rolls and we’ll get one other dish to share. It’s always enough and doesn’t break us. If you like avocado, chicken and bacon, you’ll want to try these. Avocado, chicken, and bacon just go so well together, and in these rolls you can taste each flavor so distinctly. Ray and I love these things, we could eat 8 plates each and be content.

Don’t you want to reach through the screen and grab one? My only conpaint is that we only got four pieces for $9.99, which really is two small rolls cut in half. That blows. That’s really expensive and a rip off. Why, do they have to be so good?

This time we decided to share a pizza. This one is the Wild Mushroom Pizza with cremini, shiitake, portobello, white mushrooms, fontina, mozzarella cheeses, coated with a wild mushroom pesto sauce and garnished with chopped Italian parsley, $12.99. It was available with chicken as well, but instead of that we got sausage. It was plenty and really good. We had one slice left over, which we volunteered Shane to consume.

Yeah, I know, this is a horrible picture. In my previous posts I mentioned that Shane is crazy about the Spinach and Artichoke Dip, $9.99 at CPK. Every time we come here he goes through the menu and then closes it only to order what we all knew he came here for. I had to take a picture as fast as I could since Shane wanted to devour this dish the second it landed on the table. Patience Shanie, patience.

This is suppose to be the Chocolate Souffle Cake ala mode $9.99. I hate it when restaurants loosely names their dishes just because it sounds catchy. Does this look like a souffle to anyone? It looks deflated, like a round chocolate brownie. A proper souffle is enriched with egg yolks and then folded over with whisked egg whites, baked and served in a proper ramekin. When the egg whites expand during baking, it causes the souffle to puff up. A proper souffle should be light, fluffy puffy. The word souffle is the past particle of the French verb souffler which means “to blow up” or more loosely “puff up” — an apt description of what happens to this combination of custard and egg whites.

Here are some pictures of what a proper souffle should look like.

Anyhow, it was still good.

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California Pizza Kitchen
4211 Waialae Avenue
Honolulu, HI 96816
(808) 737-9446

I have to wake up at the butt crack of dawn in the mornings to move the car before I get a ticket or before it gets towed. So instead of reparking it and going back to sleep, Ray and I decide to start our day off with a smoothie from Jamba Juice.

I know a lot of you don’t really care about Jamba Juice, or any other major chain places, but this isn’t really about Jamba, it’s about the new Acai Cups they have. If you’ve been following my blog, then you already know that I’m a sucker for acai bowls, or in this case, cups. So when Jamba Juice joined the band wagon and decided to come out with one of their own I had no choice but to
give them a fair try.

While this is the winner when it comes to prices, only $4.50, it didn’t do it for me when it came it satisfaction. There’s just something special about acai smoothies in a bowl. In a cup, with fruit and granola it just seems more like a wanna be parfait. While the fruit was good, the granola was more like bits of cardboard. It was so bland that I would have preferred the cup without the granolas than with. There was no honey. When will places learns that acai bowls, cups, will never reach their full potential unless they are generously coated with nector from mother nature, yes, owey goey honey. I went up to the counter and asked for some and they didn’t have any. Fortunately, Star Bucks does and where there’s a Jamba Juice there’s tends to be a Star Bucks, since Jamba is owned by Star Bucks. Actually it was not my idea, but the employee of Jamba, “people go get honey packets next door all the time.” Sweet, don’t mind if I do. I walked next door up to the counter and asked for some honey. They gave it free of charge, with a smile. Yet another way to jack Star Bucks and not hate on them.

Get Directions

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Jamba Juice
625 Kapahulu Ave Honolulu, HI 96815
(808) 734-4177