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

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

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