Salad Creations reminds me of Subway because the whole process is like one big accembly line to the creation of your meal. You go in, pick your lettuce, choose what you want to throw in, add meat for a fee, pick a dressing, have them toss it all for you, pay and eat.

Today I decided to be a vegetarian and had the Chopped Veggie, $5.99. The menu said it came with romaine and iceberg lettuce, green bell peppers, red onions, mushrooms, artichoke hearts, corn, chickpeas, tomatoes, carrots, and croutons. As you can see, the salad came in ginormous steel bowl. I really enjoy eating out of a bowl, so I like this idea. However, as for the salad, it was pretty fucking boring. I think they try to give off the impression of being very genorous with the portions by giving a ton of lettuce and not much of anything else. I had to dig and push all the green stuff to the side just to get a bite of anything else, Also, I couldn’t find corn, mushrooms, or artichoke hearts anywhere in my salad. How do you forget three different items? The girl must of been new, or retarded.

If there had been less green stuff I think my salad could of been really enjoyable.

If having your salad tossed is really not your thing, no worries, to each his own. Just order a wrap. This is the Santa Fe Chicken Wrap, $7.99. It consisted of grilled chicken, cheddar cheese, tomatoes, red onions, and green bell peppers, romaine lettuce, hot sauce, croutons, and creamy ranch dressing. For a little bit extra you could make it a meal and have chips and a drink. I have no complaints with this one. I liked the size of the wrap and everything tasted fresh.

Overall I think I’m a fan. If you don’t mind a lot of lettuce then you’ll love this place. You get enough to share for around 8 bucks and they have dressings galore to choose from.

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Salad Creations 425 South Street, #104 Honolulu, HI 96813 (808) 349-3333

Located along the strip of Ala Moana Bombay is probably the first Indian restaurant that tourist encounter. When I first moved here I was thrilled to see an Indian restaurant so close to my home. However, after scanning their menu and checking out the prices I quickly turned around and headed straight out the door. A year later after becoming slightly numb with the bull shit prices around here I decided to give Bombay another shot.

The restaurant is nicely lit with dim lighting. To me this is probably the larger and nicer of the Indian restaurants on the island.

This is Gulab Jamun, $4.95. I saw it on the menu and quickly recognized it as one of my all time favorite Indian treats, grated carrot dessert flavored with rosewater and cardamom and enriched with pistachios and raisins. The thing with Indian desserts is that I could seriously eat all of it in one bite, no joke. It’s always very disappointing, which is exactly how I would describe this dessert. It was very greasy. If I pressed down on it with my spoon long enough, oil would ooze to the top. Along with that it was just overall boring and bland.

We ordered Garlic Nan to go along with our meal, $3.50.

Ray and I shared the Lamb Rogan Josh, $15.95. The menu says it’s tender peeces of boneless fresh lamb cooked in a yogurt based creamy curry sauce, enriched with a select blend of spices, chef’s special. My picture makes the meal look larger than it really was. The scoop of rice was puny, not even enough for one. The lamb was delicious, but for sixteen bucks I didn’t get much of it, just a lot of sauce in a bowl. It seemed more like soup than a dish, and even came with a spoon.

For our dessert I ordered the rice pudding, $3.95. Don’t let my amazing photo skills fool you, the pudding is way smaller than it appears in real life. This was just a close up shot. All of it could of easily fit on a medium size ladle. Like I said before, for some reason Indian dessert is always freaking tiny. Me, being a dessert whore, is a little bitter about this.

Bombay is definitely a place that doesn’t like to give you your money’s worth. The food is forgettable, service was pretty boring and portions are small.

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Bombay Indian Restaurant
1778 Ala Moana Blvd
Honlulu, HI 96815

Get Directions(808) 942-3990

Drum roll please. The winner for the Soup Nazi Award goes to . . . . . . . . . . . . The Green Door Cafe. The first time I got to experience her service was last year when her business was located in China Town. After the Chinese New Year parade we walked into the Green Door, because every other business around was jam packed. She was standing outside, not ready to greet us but ready to send us away, “are you guys sure you want to eat here? You didn’t see all the food stands out there?” We tell her we’re sure so she reluctantly seats us. When we finally decide what we want to eat, I politely say, “o.k. were ready to order,” as she walks by. She walks right past me like she didn’t even hear me. I’m thinking, maybe she didn’t hear me. Her tiny restaurantz is packed. At the time there were maybe 6 tables; it was a small place. I look around and realize that every table, but one or two, is in need of something, ready to order, water, napkins, wanting to pay, etc. and she is at the door in what looks like pajama pants, nonchalantly talking to someone at the door. When she’s done conversing she walks past me again, by this time we’re totally ready to order so I say a bit louder this time, “we’re ready to order.” She looks at me, and keeps on walking. Ray and Shane just laugh at me. Wow, she really was just ignoring me. So, when we finally get around to ordering, she tells us, “no, that’s not what you want, I’ll give you the fish instead.” Doesn’t ask, but tells us we don’t want what we just ordered and we’re getting the fish instead. Okay, I guess we’re getting the fish. This lady is my hero. I’m telling you the lady that owns this restaurant is famous for her brusque manorism. Another table comes in and there’s no place to seat so she takes them to our table and seat them there without asking either party if it was alright. Luckily they we’re good company. Anyhow, the food was just as incredible this time as it was back then. We actually wanted to eat at the Olive Tree this night but it was packed so we walked next door to the Green Door Cafe instead.

The new location is a lot bigger.

After skimming the menu, I was ready to order but notice the sign at the counter, “self service please order your food here,”

And right next to that sign was the infamous Soup Nazi. It was like she was too good to get up and walk to the tables and serve people. I got up to give her my order and she was seriously eating her food as she took my order, didn’t even hesitate to stop. She just kept on shoveling food in her mouth and chewing, my hero in action. I was mesmerized. While waiting for our food, we couldn’t take our eyes off of her. She took everyone’s order the same way, didn’t skip a beat, kept right on chewing.

Ordering the flat bread here is a MUST, $1.50 each. It ties in the meal perfectly and goes with everything. I comes out fresh and hot. I haven’t been able to find bread like it anywhere else on the island.

This is the Organic Mushroom Chicken and Black Pepper with Garlic Wine Sauce, $13.75. I know it looks a bit overloaded with black pepper but it didn’t taste that way at all. The mushrooms were delectable and the dish as a whole was just superb. I loved, loved it.

Who’s not a curry fan? Everybody who loves curry right? The Malaysian Chicken Curry here is complete with flavor; a truly exceptional dish. The only thing that could of made it better was the flat bread. I filled my flat bread up with curry and folded it over like a taco, orgasmic, like a love explosion in my mouth.

The Green Door Cafe is the kind of place where dealing with the service is worth the food because no matter what you order it’s guaranteed to be phenomenal. If your not a fan of Eastern Food come for the service. I’m not gonna guarantee you’ll see Soup Nazi in action but it’s possible. After my first experience at The Green Door I shared my story with a few friends and they had a story to shoot right back at me. I also mentioned her once before in one of my recent post on Cafe VIII 1/2 and I got this comment back from Ken,

“Regarding Green Door in China Town, well, the same owner opened up shop in Kahala Mall. That lady is on another level! Were to start with my dining experiment there…
(1) Some places don’t have a liquor license, right? That’s usually cool, I actually prefer it so I can bring my own. Green Door hits you with a $3/head corkage fee, yet they don’t have a liquor license…WTF
(2) God forbid it is a busy night cause that owner refuses to hire any extra help. The whole time she was running the show and boy did she seem pissed off. A smile now and then goes a long way.
Lastley,
(3) I get a hardcore elbow to the back of the head as she is rushing in between tables, NO APOLOGIES!!!

However, the food was good… go figure.”

She’s infamous I tell ya. Fuck the food, come for the service.

After our first experience with the soup nazi we were so flabbergasted that our friend Shane had to take a photo with her.

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Green Door Cafe
1145 Maunakea St
Honolulu, HI 96817

Get Directions(808) 533-0606