Oh mall food, where do I began. I’ve never been a fan of most mall food because most of the time it’s just seems as though it’s a clutter of fast food, poor in quality with really horrible service all within an overcrowded food court. Unless of course it’s a restaurant all on it’s own and, well, that’s a different story. We were turned on to Gourmet Express by a close friend of ours, who chooses to remain anonymous, Amber. She said it wasn’t really expensive, the portions were pretty big and it was surprisingly good. Also, they have vegetarian items, which is a good thing since she’s one of those people. While shopping at Kahala Mall one day Ray and I happen to stumble upon Gourmet Express and decided to give it a whirl.

It’s Christmas time at Kahala Mall so pick a seat around their festively large tree.

I didn’t mind the mall food court on this side of the mall because it didn’t give me that mall food court vibe. As you can see although all the tables are taken up there’s not a lot of hyperactive energy going on. Did I mention it was Christmas time?

Since we weren’t ridiculously hungry we decided to share something. I know I mentioned this before but I highly recommend sharing. Ray and I do it almost every time. It prevents us from overeating and allows us to try anything on the menu without worrying about how expensive it is since we save money on the extra meal we can splurge on anything we want so long as we agree on it. On this day we decided on a Quesadilla. Ray goes, “We’re gonna get a Chicken Quesadilla. Is there a difference on the Chicken or Checken.” And the lady behinds the counter goes, “Huh?” looks up at the sign and goes, “Oh, it’s just spelt wrong.” I have one word for you, Retards. They have to be. I mean if both of them were spelled, “checken,” well then that’s a different story. I spell words wrong all the time but the first one was correctly spelled so how is it that they couldn’t manage to correctly spell the second one. I mean, really it’s right there in front of them. It baffles me. This person had to be highly confused and in a moment of despair decided to play the odds game. At least this way one of them would be correct. Great, now I’m a little worried about the turnout of my food.

Here it is, Checken Pesto Quesadilla, $6.99. As you can see the presentation is pretty basic. Our quesadilla came in four cut pieces in a styrofoam container inside a plastic bag with a small side of salsa. You can see Rays arm to the side so hopefully you guys can have an idea of how nice the portions were.

The quesadillas were fully packed with chicken, cheese, pesto sauce, tomatoes and even corn. Wow, it was really good. The pesto sauce was mixed with olive oil so even though it seemed a little greasy it was the good grease. The chicken didn’t once taste fatty or too dry. I told Ray I wouldn’t question this dish the least bit if it were served at a gourmet restaurant on a fancy plate with lovely garnish and a lovely price to match. The salsa was nothing spectacular, tasted like the can stuff you get at the grocery stores.

This might not look very enticing but I opened up the last bit of my quesadilla so you guys have an idea of what’s on the inside. No surprises.

There you have it folks. I was happy, Ray was happy and we have Amber to thank for it and now you do too. Thanks Amber, now just go over there, show them which chicken is correct and everyone will be happy.

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Gourmet Express
4211 Waialae Ave
Honolulu, HI 96816
(808) 732-7700

Calling all pizza whores! Calling all pizza whores! There’s a ton of you sluts out there and you know who you are. I’ve struck gold. It’s time for you to drop what your doing and spread it wide open, your mouth that is. I’ve been living on this bountiful island for 8 months now and have been to a good handful of pizza joints. Off the top of my head, Antonio’s NY Pizzeria, Bostons North End Pizza Bakery, Spaghettini, Round Table, Buca Di Beppo, California Pizza Kitchen and Costco. Is Costco a pizza joint? No, but they probably put out more pizza than all of them combined, being in the bulk industry and all. In my professional opinion L.A. Pizza Rina makes the pizza pie that’s supreme of them all.

The inside is a pretty basic joint. See that lady in the red, she was our waitress and I think her husband was the cook in the back wearing red as well. I don’t know if they were the owners or not, but I’m quite certain they were Chinese. All I’m saying is that the Chinese are taking over everything, even pizza joints in Hawaii.

We decided to share a spaghetti with 2 meat balls , $7.00. and a pizza pie. The spaghetti came with garlic bread. First, I want to apologize for the picture. The sensor on my canon was off so I had to make due. Fortunately I went to Canon and got it fixed yesterday. As we all know, spaghetti isn’t rocket science, yet, so many places still manage to fuck it up. This wasn’t one of them. If I had to rate it I would give it a 8/10. The taste was right on. The sauce tasted really sweet, not like they added sugar to it, but like the tomatoes were really sweet and fresh. I loved the way it tasted. However, if your like my little sister, and freak out at the sight of grease, then order a salad, or sub instead. You can’t really tell by the picture because the camera wouldn’t focus, but there was an unnecessary amount of grease that came with the spaghetti. The meat balls were nothing special.

I know this garlic bread looks boring, but I enjoyed it. I know most of you will disagree with me when I say this but I think most places spread way too much garlic butter on bread these days. The bread comes out salty and soggy soaked with fat. Yuck! This way nicely toasted and buttered.

Drum roll please . . .

And here is the moment you all been waiting for. I’m not a pizza whore, but just looking at this picture brings back fond memories of me pulling the stringy cheese off the end of the pizza, tilting my head back, spreading my mouth wide open as I slowly lowering the cheese, sacrificing it to the hungry Goddess. She is pleased, no heart burn for me today. This picture doesn’t serve it justice. the cheese was hot and perfectly melted. It was the kind where every bite left you connected with a string of cheese that led from your mouth to the end of the pizza.

My only complaint is that the toppings were scarce. Oh, by the way we ordered a Two Topping Medium Pizza, 14″ for $13.00. There was like 3 pieces of meat on each slice, but the pieces of meat, oh boy! I mean, just look at the meat on the pizza, that’s what real sausage on pizza should look like, not the puny little slices, but nice hearty chunks.

There you have it, another great find. Lunch cost us 8 bucks each and we had two slices left over. If I had to do it again, I would add an extra topping of sausage and mushroom for .60 cents each. That would of been fucking amazing and I would of been complete.

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L.A. Pizza Rina
1425 South King Street
Honolulu, HI 96814
(808) 941-6634