Roy’s Waikiki, 226 Lewers St., Honolulu, HI

Roy’s Waikiki

226 Lewers St., Honolulu, HI

Roy’s in Waikiki is located right near the action in the Waikiki beachwalk neighbourhood. First started in Hollywood, California in 1984, Roy soon decided to head back to his hometown to open a restaurant in 1988. Roy’s is now a successful gourmet chain with restaurants all over the Hawaiian Islands and the rest of the United States. Their Hawaiian menu features local ingredients and Asian Fusion flavours. It was perfect for our sushi craving and love for sake.

Roy’s Waikiki, 226 Lewers St., Honolulu, HI

We started off our meal with a bottle of Ginjo sake, imported from Japan, it was light, easy drinking. This particular sake was delicate and fragrant in flavour and more of the soft and sweet side of the flavour palate as opposed to full bodied, dry, heavier sakes I’ve tried. It was a nice refreshing way to start our meal. I’ve always preferred drinking sake ice cold as opposed to warm, especially in tropical places.

Juntao roll, Roy’s Waikiki, 226 Lewers St., Honolulu, HI

For our sushi craving, we ordered a couple of rolls. The Juntao roll was filled with tempura pork belly, cucumber, wasabi, aioli and dressed with some citrus ponzu gelee. They love ponzu sauce here on the Island, it’s present in many dishes and all the poke we have had was doused in the stuff. The pork belly was juicy in this roll, but there was only enough of it in each bite to tease our taste buds.

The Frying dragon roll, Roy’s Waikiki, 226 Lewers St., Honolulu, HI

Our favourite roll was the “Frying Dragon,” filled with unagi, avocado, miso butterfish, macadamia nuts, and spicy wasabi sauce. This roll was amazing, it was gorgeous on the plate and I loved the crunchy outer crust. The unagi was also salty and delicious and even though the roll was thick, the big slices of sushi rolls held together as we ate, no crumbling rice here.

The Frying Dragon roll, Roy’s Waikiki, 226 Lewers St., Honolulu, HI

Next up, I had to try some traditional Hawaiian poke. We ordered the traditional big eye ahi poke, it was mixed in with Maui onion, ogo, inamona, chili and sprinkled with Hawaiian salt. Poke is a traditional Hawaiian dish consisting of cubed raw fish, traditionally tuna dressed with sea salt, crushed inamona (a nut called candlenut in the walnut family), soy sauce, sesame oil and chili pepper. I’ve seen enough episodes of Top Chef to want to try this stuff. I had imagined it tasting like the sashimi salad we have in Vancouver, we were surprised to find that the poke was extremely salty. There were actually giant specs of Hawaiian salt that we spotted on the fish. The extreme saltiness in this dish definitely jolted our taste buds awake. Each bite left a lingering numbing feeling on our tongues as the Hawaiian salt melted away.

Poke, Roy’s Waikiki, 226 Lewers St., Honolulu, HI

Wanting to sample as many items on the menu as possible, we ordered Roy’s Beach Walk Trio which had three of the chef’s signature dishes: Hibachi grilled salmon, macadamia nut crusted white fish and the critically acclaimed misoyaki butterfish served with a side of rice.

Roy’s Beach Walk Trio, Roy’s Waikiki, 226 Lewers St., Honolulu, HI

We had heard rave reviews about the butterfish. When we told people we were eating at Roy’s, the misoyaki butterfish came up in conversation. We can see why, the butterfish was definitely the star of the trio. It had that incomparable ‘melt-in-your-mouth’ smooth, rich goodness to each bite. The fish was fragrant and beautiful in the dish, and tasted even better than it looked. The flavours were deep and seductive, salty, sweet with a hint of nuttiness. There is also a full order of the misoyaki butterfish offered on the menu too.

Misoyaki butterfish, Roy’s Waikiki, 226 Lewers St., Honolulu, HI

The hibachi grilled salmon was no competition for that epic butterfish. Used to eating lots of salmon in Vancouver, we were very picky about the fish so we found Roy’s rendition only average and verging on the dry side. The flavours were fresh but the dish definitely didn’t have that elusive “je ne se quoi” element that made the misoyaki butterfish so memorable.

Hibachi grilled salmon, Roy’s Waikiki, 226 Lewers St., Honolulu, HI

The macadamia nut crusted white fish was totally lacking a sauce. I love macadamia nuts or what they call here in Hawaii mac nuts. But I’ve found that restaurants don’t do much to dress up the nut, they just chop it up and sprinkle it on top of fish, pancakes or whatever else. The flavours of the mac nuts are incredible but this dish was missing something to melt the mac nut flavours into the white fish. The crispy crust on the white fish featured mac nuts but the crust did nothing to enhance the delicate flavours of the fish.

Macadamia nut crusted white fish, Roy’s Waikiki, 226 Lewers St., Honolulu, HI

Our server asked us three times whether or not we wanted dessert, the strange thing was, he kept asking us in the beginning of the meal. We found out this was because the desserts take up to 30 minutes to prepare, the pastries are probably made-to-order.

Pineapple upside down cake, Roy’s Waikiki, 226 Lewers St., Honolulu, HI

We chose the pineapple upside-down cake which turned out to be a gorgeous little golden cake with lots of sweet, caramelized pineapples and a buttery crust. It was the perfect sweet finish to a lovely meal.

Pineapple upside cake, Roy’s Waikiki, 226 Lewers St., Honolulu, HI

Roy’s Waikiki, 226 Lewers St., Honolulu, HI

Since Roy’s is located in the heart of downtown Waikiki, we got to enjoy a nice evening stroll along the beach walk.

Honolulu Night Market, 683 Auahi St., Honolulu, Hawaii

Honolulu Night Market

683 Auahi St., Honolulu, Hawaii

The Honolulu Night Market happens once a month, every third Saturday in the funky neighbourhood of Kaka’ako. There’s lots of free parking in a nearby lot at 555 South Street.

I found out about the Honolulu Night Market from Yelp Hawaii’s instagram page. The event is hosted by Street Grindz, a Hawaiian company representing the food trucks for the Islands. As my readers know, I absolutely love street food so I made it a point to check out the Honolulu Night Market and made sure to skip dinner to clear my appetite for street eats.

We could see the trucks and hear the music blasting at the Honolulu Night Market from blocks away. The party was already getting underway when we arrived and it was only 7 pm. Our first stop was my newest obsession: spam musubi. Hawaii’s Fried Musubi is the big purple truck that sells deep fried musubi with free sides of fried chicken. How could I resist? There is a full selection of musubi on the menu but I picked my favourite: spam. This was definitely a salty treat, the deep fried crust was crispy and salty and the spam in the middle was salty and mysterious, just the way I like it. What the heck is even in spam, really? The fried chicken drummettes were complimentary but were delicious!

We loved the Pig and the Lady Noodle Bar so much that we stopped here for their award-winning banh mi even though their stand boasted the longest line up and we had already tried their pho in the morning. The Pig and the Lady started out at the KCC Farmers’ Market but will soon be opening their bricks and mortar shop. I can only imagine the lineups at the shop.

The Pig and the Lady’s pho French dip banh mi is on Honolulu Magazine’s list of 100 things to eat. We had to try it. A great twist on the traditional Vietnamese sandwich, the crispy French baguettes were filled with a generous helping of 12 hour slow cooked beef brisket along with sauteed bean sprouts and onions and served with a steaming bowl of pho au jus. It was the best of all worlds, incredible, juicy, beef brisket, packed with explosive flavour and falling apart with tenderness, ready to be dipped in this rich, full-bodied pho broth that only enhanced the flavours of the meat. I have never tasted a sandwich that was so crammed full of flavour, each bite was better than the next.

For some more poke, we ordered some poke nachos that we munched on while we wandered the rest of the market. I love the contrast in textures of the crunchy chips against the silky poke. The mild flavoured chips also helped offset the super salty fish.

Our last food stop was the truck called Whatch Fillin.’ My bargain hunting boyfriend had to try this place. He was so intrigued by the fact that the pies this place was selling were only $3 each. While we were waiting in line, I noticed that Whatcha Fillin’ has been featured numerous times in local Hawaii media. I guess everyone else is also curious about this cheap and popular food truck. The truck offered mini pies filled with savoury and dessert ingredients.

We ordered the Jacobs, which was a chicken pot pie featuring chicken, carrots, potatoes, peas, green beans, onions and gravy. The little pies really were stuffed full of filling. We shared one but I think if I ate a whole one by myself, it would be enough for a small meal. The chicken in the pie was tasty and the gravy was rich and creamy. This was a real comfort food pie. The actual pies – there were two of them that were sandwiching the ingredients- were actually fluffy and not soggy at all.

For dessert we had the baby cakes which was filled with cheesecake and caramel. This totally appealed to my sweet tooth and love of cheesecake. The caramel in the cake were just melted caramel squares though. I could tell since one of them didn’t entirely melt and stuck to my teeth as I gobbled up the rest of the pie.

The Honolulu Night Market is not all about food, we got a strong sense of community and taste of the lively night life amongst locals in Honolulu while we wandered the market. Each monthly night market event features a theme, and this month’s theme was Fashion! To celebrate haute culture and style, a runway was set up and a fashion show featuring Neiman Marcus’ latest looks took place at the back of the market near the barn.

Inside the barn building were more local clothing and accessories vendors selling cool, one-of-a-kind items. I was reminded of the markets on Brick Lane in London, England.

There was also a skateboarding ramp where skaters tried out tricks.

For some tunes at the market, a live DJ was spinning on top of a big truck at one end of the market, break dancers and performance artists were hanging around the truck and interacting with people. There was even a juggler to entertain guests.

The night market takes place in an area on the island known as Kakaako, the hub of urban culture and trendy boutique restaurants. The place even has its own hash tag advertised on the walls of the buildings. The vibe is young, hip and energetic, I would come back to have brunch in the restaurants or just to wander around the boutique stores even if there wasn’t a night market going on. It’s always wonderful to see a community fueled by social media. Honolulu is much more into social media than other cities we have visited. San Diego for example has many cool restaurants but none of which truly engage their customers in social media, at least none of the restaurants we visited.

One useful booth was the hand washing booth, big tables with tanks of soap dispensers came in handy when our hands were sticky from street food.

The other cool thing about the Honolulu Night Market? There’s booze here! A fully stocked bar can be found at the back of the market, it was one of the booths with the biggest lineup.

As for seating, we found a little brick alleyway filled with round tables and chairs that we could lay out our feast on.

We had so much fun at the Honolulu Night Market and were so full afterwards. Check out the next market on November 16, 2013. The theme will be retail therapy, one of my favourite things.