Located right outside of Waikiki is a local diner, with real local prices. This is the type of place that I hoped to be writing about when I first started this blog. Not diners, but just cheap places. After all, my blog is called, “cheap places to eat in Oahu Hawaii” I would hope that I could live up to the name at least sometimes. The truth of the matter is, there’s just not that many super duper cheap places to eat out here. And to make matters worst, the grocery stores are more expensive than dining out at times. Well, Rainbow Diner is exactly what I would expect from a diner, not good, cheap, and yes, very affordable.

There’s seating outside, under a shaded cover. I got in line and scanned the menu for something that would satisfy my morning breakfast appetite. Holly shit, are they for real, Loco Moco - $3.25, Toss Salad - $2.00, Hamburger - $1.55, BBQ Burger - $1.70,
Pancakes - $3.75. The list went on and on. I don’t think I saw anything over 7.00 and only a few items over $6.00. Blood rushed through my veins, my sweat pores started to dampen and,” I desperately wanted to make love to a schoolboy,” well not really, just thought I’d throw a quote from Dumb and Dumber but ya’ll get the point.

I got the Breakfast Special, two eggs cooked the way you like, choice of meat, with rice or white or wheat toast for $4.50. I picked the mahi mahi. Now, when I say it’s not good, maybe I’m over exaggerating, it was decent and then it got bad. Perhaps I picked the wrong thing to eat. Who has fish for breakfast, right? Everything was fried in heavy oil so after I was done eating I felt like my insides were heavily coated with lard. Who knows, maybe it’ll help speed up the digestion process.

Here’s a picture of the fish over eggs.

French Toast, $4.25. Again, this was decent. Ray said it was kinda like grilled bread with powdered sugar. Nonetheless, he ate it and it served it’s purpose by filling the empty hole in his belly.

Rainbow Diner is a very basic as can be diner. The whole time I was here I only saw local people. I want to say that I’ll never be back, but something about this place, the diner, locals, low prices and basic food reels me back in. Sometimes basic food is all I need and does the job. I said before, I rarely go to the same place twice unless it was just that good or just that cheap. Cheap humbles me. I’ll give this place one more chance before I check them off, but it won’t be for a while

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Rainbow Drive-Inn
3308 Kanaina Ave.
Honolulu HI 96815
(808) 96815

The first time I went to this place was with my long time friend from high school, Trinity. We came here with her son who is also my God child to catch up. I didn’t really pay attention to the food since I didn’t have a food blog back then. All I know is that it didn’t leave a lasting impression on me. Big City Diner is a local chain that gets pretty good reviews. I was a little shocked so I decided to give them another try.

Shane got a short stack of pancakes, $3.79. Everyone is different when it comes to pancakes and I’m starting with this line because I know a lot of people are not going to agree with me on this, but I don’t think there’s anything special about these pancakes. But like I said everyone is different when it comes to pancakes. Some like it fluffy, soggy, spongy, doughy, you get my point. These were a little on the doughy side. Shane thought they were a little undercooked. Ray however, liked these pancakes. He thought the doughiness gave them a subtle sweetness.

I got the The Really Loco, Loco Moco, $6.99. I haven’t had a loco moco yet, so I thought what better place to have a popular Hawaiian platter than at a popular Hawaiian diner? For those of you who aren’t aware of what a loco moco is, it’s white rice topped with a hamburger patty, sauteed onions, covered with gravy and then topped with an egg, cooked the way you like. Again, not impressed. When it comes to this dish, I think the flavor of the gravy will make it or brake it, since every bite will be smothered in gravy. In this case it broke it. The gravy tasted cheap, like the poor quality packaged gravy where all you do is add hot water. I say poor quality packaged kind because there are some packages that are pretty darn good. It seemed as if I didn’t eat this fast enough, it would start to solidify and get clumpy.

Here’s what it looked like half way through. Excuse the pepper. Some do salt, I do pepper. Notice the gravy to the side starting to get a little clumpy.

Ray ordered a side egg, scrambled, with his dish, $1.09. Really not much to say, it’s an egg.

This was Ray’s dish, Grilled Oatmeal Cakes, $7.49. Boy, I tell you Ray must of had a wild hair tickling his ass this day because he’s rarely this healthy. It’s suppose to be topped with honey and come with fruit. Now unless they cook the honey in with it because there was no honey to be found. Also the fruit was melons and a pineapple garnish. In all honesty, these cakes surprised me. I think I ended up liking them more than Ray did.

It also came with a side of toast.

The best part of eating here is being able to check it off the list and moving on to bigger and better things. Sorry if it sounds like I’m bashing them, I’m not. It just didn’t do anything for me, but that doesn’t mean it was bad. I think the oak cakes actually being good was the highlight of this meal. I didn’t come in with high expectations because, well, it’s a diner. In my professional opinion, Big City Diner is a Hawaiian version of IHOP.

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Big City Diner
1060 Auahi ST.
Honolulu, HI 96814
(808) 591-8891

Our friends are Auntie Pasto’s whores. It seems like they’re there almost every other week. Last week Sara’s sister came over from the big island and where did they go for dinner? Auntie Pasto’s of course. After my first visit here I can see why. A group of us made it out here one night and we all agree, Auntie Pasto’s is the shit.

I was a little surprised at how nice the place was. The candles and dim lights gave this place a charm and glow that makes you feel very welcomed.

Now if you do plan on getting an appetizer you must get the Mozzarella Marinara, $7.00. It’s mozzarella cheese wrapped in fresh crepes and tomato sauce. Basically a little bit of cheesy heaven in your mouth. I’m not even a fan of cheese, if you ask me, when it comes to cheese, less is more, or in most cases I’d rather do without. But this Mozzarella Marinara thing, oh, it’s different, a league of her own, I kid you not. Justin and Sara were like, “try it, it’s good.” As soon as I cut into it, hot melted cheese oozes out like hot lava. I secretly wanted to take the dish all to myself and run and eat while I ran so when I was caught I would turn around with an empty plate in hand and a mouth full of cheese, but instead I decided to be mature about this and took another, rather large bite.

This is the Madeline Salad, $6.25. This salad was sensational. It has a light sweetness that does summer saults on your tongue. My complaint is that it was so small and that within minutes of us finally finding each other I felt alone, abandon and scared wondering what just happen. Are you really gone? How can you be gone already when we just met?
Really, the salad wasn’t much bigger than this, I took one large bite and then realized I had to take a picture. It’s a good salad to start with, but what about those people who don’t start with salad but have it as an entree? There’s no way this could fill anyone up. I guess it’s a good thing this wasn’t my entree.

Sara got a Hail Caesar, $5.50. Again it wasn’t that big, and we took a bite before we realized we had to take a picture.

I was so happy to see a nice array of choices to choose from on the dessert menu. I was torn, tiramisu or creme brulee? It’s been a while since I had really good creme brulee, so creme brulee it was and of course I had to have it as my appetizer, why torture myself and wait till after dinner? Sometimes patience is just stupid. It was everything I had hoped for and so much more. The creme brulee cost $5.00 and even though it was worth every penny it was so not enough. Even Ray was in love with it and he’s not a fan of custard at all. Everyone agreed, it wasn’t enough, more, we need more.

Here’s my main course Creamy Pesto, $9.75. It’s extra green because I added some spinach to it for no extra charge. The waiter waiter goes,”you could have it any way you want.” Yum. It was good, but I would have traded it for the creme brulee in a heart beat.

Shane and Justin got this plate, Gnocchi (nee-okkee) $11.00. It really looked a lot better than the picture looks. Potato dumplings served with meat, mushrooms or a creamy pesto sauce. I think this is with the meat sauce, but no guarantees. Shane had Justin order for him and I don’t live with Justin so I can’t ask him.

This was Sara’s dish and I liked this one better than mine so I kept secretly taking bites of hers. She never notice because she’s a lush and loves red wine. Fried Eggplant & Gorgonzola $9.50.

It’s hard for Ray to pass up good pizza. This is the Margarite, Neapolitan-style, 10.95. I love that they sprinkled basil all over this thing. It was good, but I don’t think it was Oh My God, good.

So time for dessert. If it were up to me I would have picked the tiramisu but it’s not always about me. This was a group decision and we decided upon the Cannoli, $4.00. Here I am modeling the cannoli. I know this picture makes it look like a pile of white shit, but I swear it didn’t look like that in person. Along with the cannoli we orderd another creme brulee.

I gotta say, with all the places I still have yet to visit, I will definitely make it back here. Our friends had friend who worked here so when we got our tab, all five crafts of wine, all the dessert and a few other dishes were left off so it made our dining experience even more satisfying. I don’t know how anyone can’t love this place.

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Auntie Pasto’s Restaurant
1099 S. Beretania St.
Honolulu, HI 96814