Lights, Camera, Action!

Here’s another chain that doesn’t get enough credit. The first Buca opened up only 14 years ago in an apartment basement in Minneapolis. Today there are 93 Bucas nationwide. That’s pretty fucking impressive. Luckily, Hawaii is home to 1 of the 93. Buca di Beppo of Hawaii is located in the Ward Entertainment Center right below Dave and Busters and Edward Cinema. I try to avoid this area in the evenings of Thursday, Friday and Saturday because the area is festering with annoying pubescent teens.

I forgot to take a picture of the inside for this blog. I’ve been to quite a few Bucas before and all of them have the same nostalgic Italian decor. Walls are cluttered with pictures and random flare. Table tops are covered with the traditional red and white table covers. Along with the dim lighting everything seems to flow nicely.

One reason why I love it here so much is because you have the option to order your dish as a small individual dish or a large family style dish. In the spirit of Italian culture everyone should order family style when dining here. It’s just so much fun to be able to eat what everyone else is eating and talk about it. Here we ordered a large linguine frutti di mare, aka, seafood linguine, $21.99. The large is $31.99. It was my favorite pasta noodle, linguine mixed with shrimp, mussels, clams, and calamari. Yum!

First I want to apologize for the shitty picture. You see, one of the troubles of going to a place with really nice lighting is taking a really nice picture. You see, I don’t have the expensive extras to go along with my fancy camera, so I have to decide, do I use the flash or do I not? Here I used the flash, it looks really bright and I apologize. When I can afford to buy a fancy flash and lens for the camera I will. Anyway, this is the Small Spicy Sausage and Mushroom Pizza, $14.99. It was yummy as always.

Now I know this place isn’t exactly cheap, but if you come here with a big or small group and order a few dishes it could be. There was 3 of us and we ordered two small dishes and there was left overs to be had. I don’t suggest coming here if you plan on being stingy and not sharing, unless you can afford to. Happy eating to you.

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Bucca Di Beppo
1030 Auahi Street #1
Honolulu, HI 96814
(808) 591-0800

Remember when we left A Taste of New York, well this is where we ended up at Cafe Laufer. After leaving A Taste of New York we were basically up for anything. We strolled the streets, scanning the menus tapped to the windows of each eatery. The cute European style decor of this place hooked us and we decided to stay for lunch.

Cafe Laufer is the kind of place where you want to say and have coffee all day but fail to do so only because you feel bad for taking up a whole table because the place is small and busy.

But this is the ideal place to take a long time friend to catch up or reminisce of the old days over some coffee, tea and a slice of cake.

Oh, decisions, decisions . . . I’ll take a tiramisu. It just seemed to fit the ambience so I went with it.

This looked better than it tasted. Don’t you hate it when that happens? Tiramisu could quite possibly be the best dessert ever when made properly. To be honest with you, I never made a tiramisu in my life but I probably have eaten more tiramisus than anyone should ever consume in their entire existence. With a palate as sensitive as mine, I’m quite sure what a good tiramisu should taste like. Tiramisu is made with ladyfingers that are kissed with a mixture of coffee, rum, and sugar. When you bite into it it should be light, but not too rich and a small hint of sweet, creamy, coffee and rum should linger on your tongue after each swallow. The ladyfingers tasted like small slices of the bottom of a dry cake. Also, I couldn’t taste any rum, which was the biggest disappointment for me. The cream was a little over the top and the whole thing was so dry. I’m not saying it was awful, I don’t think I ever had tiramisu that was so bad I didn’t eat. Let’s just say out of all the tiramisu I ever had, this makes it in the bottom 10. The slice cost me somewhere around $5.00.

This was my entree, Thai Satay Chicken Salad, $10.75. It was very tasty, but little bit too dry. I thought the white plate gave it a nice, clean finish.

Gourmet Sandwich, $9.85. All sandwiches are served with mayonnaise, lettuce, tomato and pickle. You pick your choice of filling, cheese, and bread. Ray got chicken salad filling, cheddar cheese, and french bread. He couldn’t have been happier with this plate. He said it was the perfect amount of food, they were generous with the chicken salad filling and everything was tasty.

Large Pasta Salad, 6.95. This was perfect for Shane because I don’t know anyone that loves pasta salad more than he does.

Here’s another quick story for you. So I’m taking pictures of my food and the lady next to me goes, “what are you gonna do with all those pictures,” I pause, well, it was more like hesitated to tell her that I have this food blog because she was so cute and old and if she reads my blog she’ll find words on it like, biznatch, donkey dick, whore, ass rape, need I say more? But my hesitation made it look like I was conducting a top secret, food review and of course stirred up more curiosity from not only grandma but from the surrounding tables as well. I manage to spit out, ” I write for an online food site.” And of course being old and fragile she fails to hear what I had to say and goes, “huh?” Now Ray and Shane decide to take it upon themselves to answer for me and say, “she’s a food critic.” Of course the waitress happens to be walking by just as they say that. She shuffles to the back and I’m sure tells everyone a food critic is in the building. Also, all the tables around hear I’m a food critic, some poke their heads into the conversation and say, “what’s the site called again?” with pen and paper in hand. I hesitate again and then decided it’s my food blog, I’m gonna own it, “its called cheap places to eat in oahu Hawaii dot com.” Now the waitress comes over with more soda for Ray, ask if we need anything, if she can get us anything, you know really good service.

I have to say I kinda felt like I was a celebrity. Which is funny because I know in real life I’m totally not. But if I get good service or free food for it, two words, “fuck yeah.” You got that, need me to say it again? You bet your ass I’ll take free food, good service, VIP treatment, leftovers. That’s my dream, to hop from place to place like that Samantha Brown chick in Passport To . . . on the Travel Channel or Anthony Bourdain in No Reservations. So all my loyal fans out there, go, run, tell every business owner you know to send me some free coupons, gift certificates, cookies, in the mail. I will take it with open arms and I will use it or eat it. Then I will come back and report to you exactly how it went, even if I have to be brutally honest. What can I say, I don’t know how to lie.

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Cafe Laufer
3565 Wai’alae Avenue 107
Honolulu, HI 96816
(808) 7357717

Spaghettini is a fun pasta/pizza joint located right on the main strip of Haleiwa.

All seating is outside, under a shaded rooftop.

Pizza is on display behind a glass window and run about $3.50 per slice. The pasta menu is in picture so you can see what it looks like before you eat it. There’s a mini size about $8.00 and regular size for about $10.00. You also have the option to turn your pasta into a combo meal by adding a small salad and drink for $3.25.

My friend Ona got a slice of Cheese Pizza, $2.85.

Ray ordered a Pepperoni Sausage & Ham, $3.45. If you ask me the pizza here taste the way they look, pretty basic. But in all honesty, I’m not the one to comment on pizza because I am not a pizza whore. I know there’s a lot of pizza whores out there so feel free to leave a suggestion on the best pizza joint on this island. Pizza is bread, cheese and meat. Anyway you put that together is gonna be good. But if I had to have it more than twice a week I’ll slice my fucking throat.

This is my order. I told you I’m no whore when it comes to pizza. I know a lot of people will hate me for saying this, but I’m entitled to my opinion. Pizza is overrated. There I said it, get over it. I saw pasta on the menu. Pictures can be very tantalizing and I weighed my options. Pizza? Pasta? Pizza? Pasta? Pasta it is. I ordered Shrimp Alfredo Fettuccine a regular order for $10.65. There was a few things about this plate that I liked and didn’t like. I liked that it came with bread, I liked the added mushrooms, I loved the pine nuts sprinkled and parsley flakes on top. I didn’t like the amount of onions put into this dish. Don’t get me wrong, I love white onions, and they do add a hint of sweetness when cooked but it was a little over the top. I wish I would of taken a picture because towards the end of my meal was a few noodles and a whole lot of onion bathing in alfredo sauce. Overall, this dish didn’t do it for me. It’s not because of the onions. You know that feeling when you crave something and when you finally eat it, it wasn’t everything you hoped it would be, but your over it and don’t really crave it anymore. That is what this dish was for me. But, it’s a great place to hang out and get fast decent pasta and pizza.

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Spaghettini
66-200 Kamehameha Hwy
Haleiwa, HI 96712
(808) 637-0104