Musubi & Bento Iyasume
Iyasume Musubi & Bento: A Hole in the Wall, not to be missed!
The one dining spot that we visited more than once on our trip was Musubi & Bento Iyasume, a small hole-in-the-wall take out place with several locations in Honolulu although the one closest to central Waikiki (or at least, the closest one we found) was across the street from Ross on Seaside Ave. This location is open from 7 am - 7:30 pm which made it a perfect breakfast stop for us and a perfect, pre-plane flight home stop as well.
Salmon bowl, Spam ume musubi & Ume onigiri bento
As the name suggests, Musubi & Bento Iyasume specializes in various forms of musubi & bentos. Musubis are protein (often spam) on top of rice, wrapped with a piece of nori (seaweed) and bentos are combination boxes of various savory treats--the one pictured has an ume (plum) onigiri, sausage (these tasted like little smokies), tonkatsu (breaded fried pork) & tamago (Japanese omelet). The shop also includes several bowls including the salmon bowl (cooked salmon flakes over rice) and various forms of onigiri (triangular rice "balls" stuffed with various fillings and wrapped in nori). For those of you not super familiar with ume, it's a type of plum-apricot that is common in Japanese cuisine and has a sour salty flavor and a bright fuchsia color. There are also shiso onigiri or spam-shiso musubis which contain shiso, a Japanese herb related to the mint/basil family but a little bitter when cooked. I really loved the spam-ume & spam-shiso musubis as they helped to balance out the saltiness of the straight spam on rice of a classic musubi. For those of you bacon & egg lovers in the morning, there are also these beauties:
Bacon, tomago, spam musubi
Aloha Harmony Tea House
If you love tea and don't really want to settle for Lipton on your trip, I'd recommend a stop by Aloha Harmony Tea House in the Embassy Suites. The storefront is actually on Kalia Road and they also open at 7am, which is a plus if you're coming from the mainland and are not quite adjusted to the time change on the first day of your trip.
My tea supply for the trip with plenty to take home!
I really like green tea and since there was hot water on demand & a tea pot in our hotel room, I ended up picking up two really nice teas--jasmine pearls & first love, which is a blooming green tea. Rather than getting the 3oz packs, I asked for just 1 oz of each (there are loose-leaf tea bins) and had more than enough for a pot of tea each day & some to take home. It's somewhat pricey, but, frankly, good tea is pricey & it was less expensive and better than going to a fine dining establishment for tea. Really cool to find this place across the street from the beach.
Magoo's Burger (Food Truck) -- Diamond Head
I'm not a hiker. But, somehow I decided that hiking Diamond Head was a good idea. We didn't know that we decided to do the hike on the same day as the Waikiki Beach triathlon, meaning an extra half mile walk from the bus stop, but hey, what's an extra half a mile walk...uphill...just to get to the park entrance (we took a cab home). I did make it to the top and back down to the park where I was in desperate need of refreshment. Luckily the bright yellow Magoo's Burger food truck was there waiting with shaved ice.
Rainbow shaved ice
We decided to share a rainbow (strawberry, coconut, pineapple) shaved ice ($3.50) and the sweet, icy goodness totally hit the spot as we sat on a shady bench in the park before heading back to Waikiki. If you're not into the rainbow, you can also choose two flavors of syrup on the shaved ice for the same price. I am sure there is better shaved ice on the island, but honestly, location is everything, and this was amazing and refreshing--a great post-hike treat.
Marukame Udon
Another place that was cheap and delicious was Marukame Udon. Note--this place is highly ranked on yelp and pretty inexpensive so if you're going in the evening, expect a wait. We went in the evening, decided the line was too long and went back the next morning where we walked through the line:
Ontama Bukkake Udon with Green Onion, Tempura Flakes, Tempura Shrimp & Asparagus
This place is a cafeteria style restaurant where a chef behind the counter will get your udon then you proceed through various tempura & musubi offerings before arriving at the cashier. My husband got the Kake Udon, which is the most basic udon bowl, noodles with traditional broth and a spam musubi, but I decided to go with the Ontama Bukkake Udon which has the bukkake (salty, savory, probably soy based) sauce and a soft boiled egg on top. The soft boiled egg is an amazing addition to the bowl that makes it full of creamy goodness. The tempura was delicious and well done, although the asparagus was a little chewy. Still, overall, a great start to the day.
House Without a Key (Cocktails)
House Without a Key is both a restaurant and a bar lounge, but is also a great place to catch some Hawaiian music and have a fantastic mai tai. In the summer, the sun is too far west to catch the sunset there, but it's still a great time. I wasn't sure that I wanted to do dinner at the restaurant so I had my husband call ahead to make sure that just doing drinks & pupus (appetizers) was okay. The restaurant hostess who answered the phone was so nice--she let us know about the sunset view being obscured in summer, but also about the Hawaiian music & hula dancer, that cocktails were out on the patio, and we should arrive by 5:30pm if we wanted to be seated for the music/ dancer. It was perfect advice. We got a seat right by the music/ hula dancer:
House without a Key: Live Music & Hula Dancer
And, we also had some great drinks, including the signature Mai Tai which I highly recommend:
House Without a Key Mai Tai
There are other places to get cheaper drinks on the island, but for tasty drinks, tasty appetizers (we had the coconut shrimp which was yum -- and they serve a bowl of potato chips to all drink tables), and a great show in a very laid back environment, I'd highly recommend House Without a Key.
So, that's the Honolulu (Waikiki) wrap-up. I think I'll start a series on my own food next (after all, I can't eat out ALL the time, especially after Hawaii) so stay tuned for that. Aloha!
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