Marukame Udon (Hawaii) - So Cheap! So Yum! So Good!

When my friends heard I was going to Oahu for the first time, they all recommended the same place. A Japanese udon bar located on one of two largest streets in downtown Waikiki, known as Marukame Udon. 

If you plan to come here, I would advise coming during non-peak hours like 7-9am, or 2-4pm or else you're likely to wait in line for 20-30 minutes. Granted, the line moves quite quickly because the turnover is extremely fast. This ain't no place for chit chat. This is a cafeteria-like environment where you eat and leave.

They have seven options to choose from and they range from $3.75 - $6.75 USD. It's a wicked deal and I would suggest trying out as many variations of these dishes as you can while you're in Honolulu. 

In orderly fashion, people line up, grab a 'cafeteria' tray and plate and select the udon they want. Then the udon maker will prepare the dish in (literally) a few seconds and hand it to you.

All of the udon is made fresh in front of your eyes so you'll never get bored waiting in line. It's like a free show. For foodies :P Every employee at Marukame has one specific job to do and they do it well. They have one guy that works almost every day and his job is just to boil the udon. That is probably the most difficult position in the restaurant so while it looks redundant and easy, I actually really admire his expertise.

After you get handed your udon, you will shimmy along the line and reach the tempura bar. Various battered goodies are up for grabs and they will add about $1.50 each to your overall bill depending on how much you load up here.

They have everything from fried chicken, tempura mushrooms, asparagus, pumpkin, hard boiled egg, to spam musubis and onigris.

 In total, Meta Knight and I ate here three times in seven days. I know.. this place was THAT good. On my first visit I got the Regular Cold Ontama Udon ($4.25) with Spam Musubi and Croquette. In total, my meal cost me about seven bucks. The onsen egg was friggin delicious and I couldn't get over the perfect al dente texture of the fresh udon. Bouncy with a bit of chew.

 Meta Knight could not resist the Marukame favourite, Niku Udon ($5.75) with Vegetable and Shrimp Tempura. Though the vegetable tempura looked huge, it was mostly onion so we avoided getting this on our future visits. It was also heavily battered so it didn't help us feel any healthier eating it.

 His broth was super flavourful and did not disappoint!

 The famous Hawaiian musubi. All it is, is a slice of spam on top of a white rice ball, wrapped in seaweed. To be honest the one here was definitely not that great. Passable, but definitely not better than the ones from Musubi Cafe Iyasume (I will have a future post on it).

 Second visit: Regular Kamaage Udon ($3.75) with Fried Chicken and Bean Curd Musubi. Kamaage udon is served hot in a wooden basket and is served with a hot Bukkake dipping sauce. The sauce is flavoured with green onion, tempura bits, grated ginger, and ground sesame.

 On the second visit, I chose the Kake Udon ($3.75) with onsen egg, tempura fish stick, and vegetable tempura (I forgot how displeased I was with the first one and got it again >.<). Made with just bonito flakes and seaweed, the Kake broth was clean and refreshing.

 On the third visit, Meta Knight loved the Kamaage Udon so much he got it again. This was his ultimate favourite by far because of the flavourful Bukkake dipping sauce.

I also followed his lead and tried the Kamaage Udon for the first time. I added an onsen egg to it as well and they put it in my dipping sauce. The dipping sauce was complex and the only way I can describe the flavour is just to say, umami... It had ultimate umami flavour.

And there you have it. Our three visits to Marukame Udon. I don't think I have to recommend it because action speaks louder than words. Three visits in a week? Yeah, it's pretty damn good.

Service Rating: 4/5

Food Rating: 5/5

Price: 5/5

Overall Rating: Hell Yeah 5/5!!

Happy Eating!

   so happy we found this place

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Cafe Mai Mai - My Favourite Pho Restaurant. NO MSG!

Often many people ask me what my favourite food in the world is. It's a really hard question to answer, but when I answer I think of the one food item I cannot live without. It's also the one food item I think about whenever I come back from a long vacation eating food from another culture. For me, it's noodle soup. It can be ramen, pho, chicken noodle soup, or fish ball seaweed soup. Any type of noodle in any type of broth is my absolute FAVOURITE type of food. <3

My friend Queen B recommended a restaurant called Cafe Mai Mai not too far from my home and she said their pho is spectacular. She also said they use absolutely no MSG and that once you taste the broth, you will understand.

Since my first visit, I've been back maybe 7 times and I bring absolutely everyone I know to my now favourite pho restaurant. This is the #2 Small ($7.95) and it contains rare beef slices (which gets cooked in the hot broth), tendon, tripe, and beef balls. You'll notice the broth is a bit darker in colour than the traditional ones we're used to eating. It's darker because the owners need to use more beef meat and bones in their broth to make up for the lack of MSG. What you'll get is a richer, more flavourful, yet cleaner broth.

Your typical bean sprouts, basil leaf, and green pepper.

I can't explain how delicious the broth is (just like Queen B), you literally have to taste it for yourself to understand what I'm talking about.

Cafe Mai Mai also has a stamp card so if you eat 9 bowls, you get the 10th one free. What I love is that you also have the option of donating you 10th bowl back to them so they can donate the proceeds to the Canadian Cancer Society. I absolutely adore that idea and I think more local businesses should also adapt that. What an incredible way to promote giving back.

While I've tried their Vietnamese Coffee multiple times, I'm not a coffee connoisseur so I can't say whether this place has the best coffee or not.

For an amateur coffee drinker like myself, it tastes mighty delicious to me!

I also love eating the pho with their homemade chili sauce so I ended up buying one jar to take home for eight dollars. It's legit chili oil guys. So goooood.

Service Rating: 4/5
Food Rating: 5/5
Price: $-$$

Overall Rating: 5/5

Happy Eating!


                 Kirby eating noodles. How fitting!

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Gyo-O (Revisit) - My No.1 Fav Japanese Restaurant in Richmond

Whenever I have a friend visiting Vancouver, or Richmond more like, I always take them to Gyo-O. It's the closest thing we have to Kintaro or Guu in Richmond and they have some might delicious seafood dons.

Lil B and I came after an intense workout session so we were STARVING and craving meat. We got a Chicken Kaarage to share. It was meaty and worked really well with the Shichimi salt.

With my recommendation (and the hilariously dirty name), Lil B just had to choose the Mentaiko Bukkake Udon with Egg.  

Once you pop the egg, it becomes and ooey gooey mess of a sauce. The fishy fragrant roe is also a perfect compliment to the dish and adds another level of flavour. If you like Carbonara or yolky sauces, this dish is for you!

I've been to Gyo-O a billion times (visit #1, visit #2 , visit #3) and sadly I feel like they've been skimping on their ingredients more and more each time. The Seafood Tonkotsu Ramen is where I see the most difference because I only got a couple of clams, squid rings, and one small shrimp this time.

I've frequented Gyo-O for over 5 years now and it still remains one of my favourite Japanese restaurants in Richmond. If you ever give it a try, leave a comment and let me know what you think!

Service Rating: 4/5
Food Rating: 4/5
Price: $-$$

Overall Rating: 4/5

Happy Eating!


   whenever someone wants to go to Gyo-O

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Taishoken Ramen - Dippin' Ramen

Rae, Fon, and I are Tacofino virgins and Lil Sis was determined to pop our taco cherries on Monday. Sadly, the universe was against us and we found out it was closed since it was 'Easter Monday'. :(

We walked around and urbanspooned all the surrounding restaurants and ended up at Taishoken Ramen. I've always wanted to come here and try their 'dippin' ramen' aka Tsukemen Ramen.

The place seats about 25 people which isn't a lot. We had to wait roughly 20 minutes before our table of five can get a table.

All of us ordered the Original Tsukemen Ramen ($11.75) which came with a plate of hot or cold noodles, soft boiled egg, and a side bowl of deep concentrated broth.

The broth is extremely rich and fat which is great for dipping your noodles in before slurping them up. The flavour clings on to the noodles to give you a delicious bite every time. Also, they put a hot stone in your broth to keep it piping hot during your meal.

All in all, I thought it was a fun and interesting meal! I like playing with my food so it's always fun to do some extra work while eating (am I right, hot pot lovers?) :). I will definitely return in the summer when I want something cool and tasty for lunch.

Service Rating: 3/5
Food Rating: 3/5
Price: $$

Overall Rating: 3/5

Happy Eating!


       playing with my food like..

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Kongee Dinesty (Richmond) - Not Just Congee

Recently, I was lucky enough to be invited to a try out the menu of a new Chinese restaurant that just opened up in Richmond (on Capstan Way, next to Manzo and Capstone). 

It's called Kongee Dinesty and it is playing on the fact that they specialize and serve congee in the morning (8am-5pm) while at night they switch to more traditional Cantonese dishes.

The owner of this establishment has really put her heart and soul into this restaurant. She's been working on this project for over a year and finally her dream is starting to come true. From the design of the faucet in the washroom, to the specific ingredients used in each dish, she has her hand in everything.

Similar to Western restaurants in downtown, they have the open kitchen concept which I really appreciate. It honestly takes a lot of courage to have everything out on display because you're providing customers full visibility. Only restaurants with nothing to hide will opt for a concept like this.

Their congee master cooking up some liver and pork congee for us.

For dinner, they have many seafood options, most of which are market price.

Their breakfast menu consists of primarily congee. For $8.95, you get a big bowl of congee, a side of your choice which can also be upgraded for a buck twenty five more.

To me, their lunch menu seems the most unique. Think Deer Garden or Cattle Cafe but with congee. You choose a base (I'd totally go for the black pepper base), two types of meats, a drink (black sesame soy milk?? Hell ya!), and unlimited garnishes. The owner even said you can ask the server for more garnishes if you want them mid way through too!

We all shared the Liver and Pork Congee and yeah... it was delicious. I normally don't love the taste of liver but they somehow got that weird taste out of it and made it pretty enjoyable. The pork too was also of really good quality.

If you're from Hong Kong, you would recognize these two Chinese Donuts. I don't know what it's called in English but the front one is sweet and the back one is salty (made with fermented soy bean).

 Chef making the chinese donuts by hand.

 This is the god almighty. The traditional, light, fluffy, freshly fried, chinese donut. It goes great with congee and tasted exceptionally good straight from the fryer.

If you have gone to a Chinese wedding or a really special dinner at a Chinese 'Seafood' Restaurant before, this may look familiar to you. In Cantonese it's called "Dong Gua Zhong" which means Melon Soup. You have to order this one day in advance because they have to carve out a gigantic winter melon, boil it for 6 hours with a billion other ingredients like chicken feet, ham, scallops, shrimp, crab, chicken, and stock so everything melds together.

The soup was beyond delicious and the flavours were really bright.This soup is quite a treat because it takes an incredible amount of effort to make.

Eight Treasure Duck was next on our list. This also has to be ordered one day in advance because they have to stuff a whole duck.

I love love love this dish! If you ever want a saucey, meat heavy, sinful dish, this eight treasure duck is the way to go. I can't recommend this enough.

Here comes the star of the show. This Russian King Crab comes in at about 7.5 lbs and is slightly different in taste and texture to the regular Alaskan King Crab. They served it to us two different ways: Steamed with garlic and onion (best way in my opinion), and deep fried with spicy salt and garlic.

The steamed version was glorious and the crab was juicy as hell. The texture of this Russian crab was slightly softer and less buoyant than the Alaskan one which is good for people who don't like to chew a lot. I like the bouncy chewy kind so I prefer the Alaskan.

The 'knuckles' of the crab were deep fried in spicy garlic and salt.

If you like the molten egg yolk buns from dim sum, you'll like this Prawn in Salty Egg Yolk dish. The prawns were super plump and went really well with the salty egg yolk sauce.

Because I was so full I didn't fully try the Honey Beef with Peppers in Birds Nest. The beef was really tender though.

The owner said she normally detests eating Sweet and Sour Pork outside at other restaurants. However, she wanted to serve it in her restaurant and she wanted to do it differently. She wanted to use quality meats (in her case, she uses Pork Cheek which is definitely of higher quality), and less batter to keep the dish healthy and unique. I have to agree with her. It was absolutely delicious.

We ended off the dinner with Red Bean Soup and Almond Tea.

I'll be returning to Kongee Dinesty for their unique breakfast congees and chinese donuts. My mom in particular is super intrigued by the 'choose your own' congee so I can't wait to come back to give it a try.

Happy Eating!


                      our dinner felt like this ;)

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