Lunch: Garlic Shrimp Plate at Blue Water Shrimp & Seafood

Passed by this place a few times during break and after work. One day, I had originally planned to grab food from the downstairs convenience store but they had closed up for lunch, so I detoured over.

They have photos of their plates all over the wall, along with a menu at the front post, as well as menus for you to grab.

I couldn’t decide between the ribeye or shrimp, but ended up ordering the shrimp (to go) instead. There’s a choice between six or nine pieces of shrimp, I chose six since I didn’t think I would eat all of them within my break.

Garlic shrimp, those cravings I swear

Six (6) Piece Garlic Shrimp Plate:

They asked how I wanted my shrimp, I asked for mild, yet it was a bit spicy as I ate. Yeah, no can handle. Along with the pieces of shrimp, my plate came with furikake on white rice, corn on the cob, a slice of pineapple, a slice of lemon, and toss salad, instead of potato.

Like most places, you gotta peel the shrimp yourselves. Luckily, they provide a plastic fork and knife to help with it. Overall, the shrimp was pretty good, it wasn’t too garlicky like some other places I’ve tried. They even had the good tasting corn, if you really like corn, you’ll understand what I’m talking about. Ha-ha.

With this place being in Waikiki and on Hilton property, the shrimp plate cost about $14.00, if you don’t get discount. Credit cards are accepted. They also have drinks and fruits for sale.

There have tables and chairs in and outside, very limited though and their outdoor tables have umbrellas.

I would definitely order the garlic plate from them again, but being on a budget and with that price tag, not that often!

Yelp Review Link | TripAdvisor Review Link

Breakfast, Sure Shot Cafe

At first I was just looking for a place to have dinner and this place showed up… lol

Checked the photos, it all looked really good.

The morning we visited for breakfast, we almost missed the location. It’s the Village Market in Makiki, a small hole in the wall cafe. Parking – in the same lot as Village Market. I had told Jeremy that it was a breakfast place, but he thought breakfast plates, no no no. Sandwiches, soups, fruits, cereal, bagels, toast.

There’s a counter top filled with plates of pastries for your choosing, with glass plates (if you choose to dine in) or bags (if you’re on the go). Really think the pastries should be in a case, and not exposed so much. It was really dark inside, which made me wonder how some of the older guys could read their morning paper.

Decided on the smokey bagel and latte.

Smokey bagel and latte

Waited at one of the open tables by their window.

Love their Sure Shot Cafe mug, the latte, not so much. The smokey bagel on the other hand was really good but something that could be made in any kitchen, right?

Come back? Maybe if I was in the area craving what they have, other than that, not any time soon.

Photos can be deceiving.

Yelp Review Link | TripAdvisor Review Link

First Time + Dinner for Two, Hot Pot Heaven

WARNING: Your bag, clothes and you yourself will smell like hot pot after leaving. Be prepared.

We were in the Manoa area and wanted to avoid the traffic westbound, Jeremy looked for places to eat for dinner and found this one. He thought I’d like to try here since he knows how much I enjoy Ichiriki.

Drove to McCully Shopping Center, the parking lot wasn’t as packed as I thought it would be and we found a stall easy. Located ground level behind Taco Bell. By the time we got there, they were just opening the restaurant for dinner (5:00 p.m.). There was only one other party and we were seated quickly.

They have electric cooktops and gave us small booklets for choosing which broths we wanted. I was still indecisive by the time the waiter came back to take our orders and asked for his suggestion–mushroom. We also ordered beef, about eight slices per plate.

After, we headed to the fridges to pick the other ingredients we wanted to add in. We didn’t know my mushroom broth came with actual mushrooms in it; the waiter had to tell us and we ended up putting the enoki mushroom plate back in the fridge, ha ha. Similar to sushi places (Genki, Kuru Kuru) each plate is colored differently (red, yellow, green, purple) indicating the different prices.

What we got: choy sum, onion, tofu, cabbage–we ended up not opening/using it and our waiter came by to take it away for us. Might not sound like a lot, but their portions are huge and too much for us.They provided a plate of white rice and rice scooper.

Hawaiian and Mushroom broth

I thought his had a bitter taste to it and a broth that after a while you’d just get tired of having it. He brought up that it tasted like a Hawaiian dish, we couldn’t put our finger on it. Mine, very mushroomy, lol and he would have preferred mines to his. Broth was buy one, second half off.

The workers were pretty good coming around taking the trash away, refilling our waters, etc.

In reviews, we saw the mention of free mochi ice cream. I guess it depends on who’s helping you since we had to ask for ours. It could be just me, but they have certain flavors for the day? We were given blueberry and green tea mochi ice cream:

Blueberry and green tea mochi ice cream

At the time when our waiter gave to us, we didn’t catch the second flavor so we took bites into both to see which one we liked more.

Boyfriends! If you know your girlfriend likes ice cream and you’re both sampling the ice cream, make sure to take small bites! Yeah, he ended up taking a big bite from the mochi ice cream I claimed. Girlfriends, if he does that, take his piece and take a BIGGER bite, regardless if you like the flavor or not. Lesson learned. I’m not a fan of green tea so I suffered for the moment ha ha.

We can only compare this place to Ichiriki, and after getting the bill, cheaper for two. We’ll probably be back, trying to figure out the best combinations to our taste.

Yelp Review Link | TripAdvisor Review Link