After a long hard day at the water slides my friends and I drove around and around until we all finally decided on En Fuego Grill and Poke.

The inside was far from fine dining and since we were all in our bikinis and board shorts, it was perfect.

I ordered the Ahi Tofu Patty Salad, $5.50. I don’t know about you guys but after any water activity I just can’t eat anything heavy so I threw out the crispy won tons. The patty was delightfully dry, and I mean that in the best way; it’s still a tofu patty. The garden salad was bright and fresh and came with their house salad dressing that was super creamy and heavy. I only used very little of it. In my opinion they should invest in more than one salad dressing. Although I really enjoyed the patty, I don’t think it goes well with the salad. It was just an odd mix. The patty would crumble into pieces when I tried to break into it.

Shane ordered the Garlic Chicken Salad, $6.75. It was the same salad mix as before but with garlic chicken instead of the ahi tofu patty. Shane was hugely disappointed with his pick. He kept saying, I just ordered the wrong thing, so I had to taste it to see for myself. The chicken tasted a bit heavy and like the tofu patty it was a weird mix with the salad. Shane barely touched it and ended up getting some food on the way home.

The Beer Battered Fish and Chips, $8.50 was Ray’s pick. If I were in the mood for something fried I would of been really happy with this pick. Everything came hot and crispy. The fries weren’t super skinny and the fish was nice and meaty. Again, it came with the same house dressing that came with our salads. Pretty ridiculous, somebody needs to inform these people that this universal sauce is not so universal. I think the traditional tarter sauce would of done just fine.

Overall I think this place was worth the try but I think I’ll be moving on. If you do plan on coming here, I suggest you bring a little canister of your own sauce. Oh, by the way the water slides in Hawaii suck dirty dick cheese.

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En Fuego Grill & Poke
590 Farrington Hwy # 534
Kapolei, HI 96707

Get Directions(808) 674-8805

Oh the joys of another great find. It’s like finding a $20. in the pocket of an old pair of jeans. I’m a sucker for Thai food. It’s right up there with Indian and Vietnamese, so you can imagine my delight when I land upon a small Thai restaurant that is nice to my wallet and best buds with my taste buds.

So we walk into this place and it’s really long and narrow. Most of the seating is for two, as you can see, so don’t plan on having company parties here or anything. This place was quaint, charming, clean and fresh.

We started our meal off with these Summer Roll, $3.50. No that is not a miss print, they were really $3.50. So far, that’s the cheapest I’ve found on this island. As for taste, they were amazing. Just staring at the pictures now bring back fond memories of me eating them.

Next we have Spring Rolls, $5.95 for five rolls. Spring rolls are always a good choice. These crispy rice paper wrapped around ground pork and mixed vegetables. Plus, it came with a dipping sauce and garnish that you could actually eat. So after we were done I shredded greens and made a very tasty salad.

Up next we have Laab Beef Salad, $7.95 mixed with lime juice, rice flour, mint, parsley and onions served with cucumbers and cabbage. If your one of those people that love meat and not a lot of veggies, this is the salad Mother Nature intended for you. It had more meat than greens. For me it was slightly too salty, but I think for most it would be perfect. Besides that it was perfect in flavor, color, presentation, portion and price.

Another dish that is always a good choice is Curry Chicken, $6.95. I suggest the yellow curry like the one you see in the picture. This was chicken, sauteed with chili, coconut mild, potato and carrots. If you wanted shrimp it was only $1.00 more. One dollar more, for shrimp, I love it. I don’t recall if the rice came with it or not, but if it didn’t, I don’t reckon it would of cost more than $1.00. And yes I did say “reckon,” and no I’m not a hick or from Texas. Back to the curry, it was out of this world good. In my opinion you can always judge a good Thai Restaurant by it’s curry. If the curry is good, then chances are everything else will be good.

Pineapple Fried Rice with Chicken, $6.95, stir-fried with rice, egg, peas, carrots, pineapple and cashew nuts. I was really surprised at how good this fried rice was. The cashews was a nice surprised and the pineapple was fresh, not the can stuff. Everything just worked well together. One of the tastiest fried rice I’ve had in a while.

There you have it, another great find. I love this place and will most definitely be back. As for the dessert, they do have it and by the time we had finished our lunch we had no room for dessert. This is yet another reason to order dessert as an appetizer, that way there will always be room.

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Thai Cuisine
(Across the street from walmart) 700 Keeaumoku Street
Honolulu, HI 96814

The Contemporary Museum is the only museum in Hawaii committed solely to contemporary art since 1940. It’s educational, entertaining, affordable, interactive and a perfect way to spend the afternoon. I came here with a group of friends. It cost $5.00 each to get in and parking was free. When we arrived the cafe was full and had a 45 minute wait so we decided to put our name on the waiting list and go through the gallery first. I was impressed with all the interactive art that was offered. After what seemed to be one hour we headed to the cafe for some grub. I was mentally prepared to spend a little more since I was at a museum but pleasantly surprised to find that lunch here was quite affordable.

There is seating both inside and outside

We started off with two Spinach & Artichoke Dips, $7.00 each. It came with slices of warm pita bread. I loved it, thought it was really tasty and wished everyone had their own bowl, or at least I wished I had my own bowl. Shane is the one who is crazy about spinach & artichoke dip, especially the one from California Pizza Kitchen. Every time we go there he orders one thing and one thing only, spinach and artichoke dip. He said this one doesn’t compare. I beg to differ but, he has more experience in this dish than I do.

We also got Hummus & Pita, $6.00. It was served with warm pita bread, tomatoes, red onions, cucumbers, feta cheese & kalamata olives. I have nothing bad to say about this dish. It’s pretty hard to fuck up hummus and fresh vegetables. Not that I really know how to make hummus. I guess the real work comes in presentation and to me it looked yummy and that it was. Everything tasted fresh and the bread was warm to the touch.

Sara ordered the Portabella Mushroom Burger, $10.50, baked portabella mushroom on a kaiser bun dressed with sun dried tomato pesto, basil pesto, lettuce, tomato, & gorgonzola cheese. It was accompanied with some more hummus and chips. This dish was delicious. The mushroom was cooked to perfection and seasoned just right.

Huumm, I wonder who ordered a sandwich? Could it be Ray the whore of most sandwiches. Yes Ray ordered this sandwich, the Cuban Style Ham & Turkey Sandwich, $11.00. It came with fresh turkey, black forest ham, pickles, mayo, lettuce and tomato all on a soft baguette. Ray said the bread was much too hard, so hard that he started eating the insides and left the bread for dead. He also said that it was a petite sandwich that didn’t serve his hunger justice.

This dish too came with chips and hummus.

And here is my dish. I was quite content with my pick, Shrimp Roasted Shallot & Tarragon Salad, $12.00. The tarragon dressing was lite, slightly sweet and oh so good. The sauteed onions were a little over done but the shrimp was grilled to perfection.

When we got to the cafe we were one of the last 3 tables. It took about 45 minutes to get our food after we had already ordered it. This sucked because we had already waited 45 minutes just to get sat. My friend, Ona actually cancelled her Turkey Avocado Wrap because she was tired of waiting and irritated that all of us had gotten our food already. The service wasn’t bad, it was the waiting when it wasn’t busy that annoyed the hell out of us. By the time we got our food we were the only ones there. It just didn’t make any sense. But I do want to say that we were the last table and they were probably just getting ready to close down lunch. After we ate we went for a walk around the garden. Here are some pictures I took.

Pretty cool place right? All I have to say is, today was a good day. My experience here was whimsical.

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The Contemporary Museum Cafe
2411Makiki Heights Drive
Honolulu, HI 96822
(808) 532-3362