Teddy's Bigger Burgers - Waikiki

On a friend's recommendation, we just had to try Teddy's Bigger Burgers. Being opposite the zoo in Waikiki, it wasn't too hard to locate and when we stepped in, there were burger-lovers abound.

Teddy's bigger burgers

Having eyed the menu, there was a decent selection of burgers. The Big Burger (5oz), Bigger Burger (7oz), Biggest Burger (9oz) and the Monster Double Burger (10oz, 14oz or a massive 18oz). There were also chicken burgers, fish burgers, vege burgers and Turkey burgers.


Having been owned by the food portions in Hawaii thus far, we went conservative. I opted for just the Big Burger whereas my partner chose the Bigger Burger with Garlic fried and cheese sauce.

burgers

The burgers came on a soft potato bun, powdery on top. The meat was huge and juicy (but not necessarily beef tastiness) and the cheese which was melted on top was very yumminess. Needless to say - no, we didn't finish our burgers. It was pretty massive. There were some people who braved the monster double burgers in the shop. I have no idea how they do it!

Ratings:
Food - 7/10
Service - 6/10
Ambiance - 6/10
Value for money - 7/10
Overall - 26/40

Teddy's Bigger Burgers (Waikiki branch)
134 Kapahulu Ave
Honolulu, HI 96815
Tel: 808-926-3444

Ramen Nakamura - Oahu

It was raining in Waikiki (a place that supposedly never rains). Not only was it raining, it was simply pouring, thunderstorming, and whilst on a "sunset cruise" where we were completely soaked, we even managed to see TWO water sprouts (ie. water tornadoes). On such a wet soggy night, what better to eat than ramen?

In our previous wanders around our hotel area, we eyed this ramen store which had LINES waiting outside. So it must be awesome, right? Hence, in we go (the lines are gone because as usual, we're having a randomly late dinner).

Inside, we see a new "signing" wall of famous people who have visited. I don't think I recognised them... but most were in japanese.

My hubby orders an ox tail ramen with a side of gyoza. The soup isn't really anything special - just a salt-based one. But the Ox Tail is pretty good. Beefy flavour, meat which falls off the bone. They recommend for the super flaky off the bone beef to be dipped in a ginger mixture which kind of adds a medicinal nature to the dish. The gyoza was also just normal.

ox tail ramen

gyoza

I opted for a Hakata Tonkatsu ramen. Maybe I've been super spoilt by super thick, tasty porky soup from Ryo's Ramen and Gumshara but... this kind of just didn't do it for me. Sure it was tasty, but it was no where near thick or fatty enough. It just like a diluted version :(

Hakata Tonkatsu ramen

In all, it was an OK ramen joint. Ramen itself was average, the soup was average, but the ox-tail is pretty good. Not really sure why there was so much popularity for the place - my theory is, maybe there's just an overabundance of japanese tourists in Waikiki :P

Ratings:
Food - 6.5/10
Service - 7/10
Ambiance - 7/10
Value for money - 6.5/10
Overall - 27/40

Ramen Nakamura
2141 Kalakaua Ave
Honolulu, HI 96815
Tel: (808) 922 7960

Giovanni Pastrami - Oahu

After the shockingly huge amount of food we experienced the previous night at BLT, we thought we had learnt our lesson ... but... at brunch the next day, it was obvious that we didn't learn well enough.

We stumbled across Giovanni Pastrami at around 2pm. My partner ordered a burger (a mini burger to be exact), and I ordered scrambled eggs with hash. My partner also decided to order an appetiser of nachos to share (it was like $5 so it had to be small... right?).

The nachos came out first. And it was like... HUGE. A full serving by Australian standards. It probably didn't have enough beef or beans in it, but it was nice and crisp and cheese and relatively tasty. By about half of this dish, my partner and I were both... umm... full ?

nachos (small)

Then came cheese pizza. Fresh from the oven, still sizzling hot melted cheese as it came out. Apparently, these are complementary when you dine in happy hour. We got TWO slices each (and these are BIG slices). They were actually extremely yummy - stringy melted cheese, tomato paste was just the right portion and the base was nice and chewy. I probably ate like 1 of these.

complementary cheese pizza

My partner's "mini" burger ended up being a quad of mini burgers. Four burgers accompanied by a generous serving of fries which were crispy and golden brown. The burgers were simply a beef patty, melted cheese, all on a potato bun. Not bad at all.

mini burgers with fries

Then finally, my scrambled eggs came out. Mushrooms, spanish onions and a dablle of bacon with a super awesome patty of hash. The has was delicious but I think I would have preferred my scrambled eggs a little less done. This came accompanied with a bagel and cream cheese and jam. The bagel was freshly hot, nicely chewy but unfortunately, I could barely eat any of it :(

scrambled eggs with potato hash

bagel with cream and jam

So this is our left-overs. Hectic huh? Could have been a full meal left. We managed to doggy bag it and ate it for a midnight snack LOL.

our leftovers :P

Ratings:

Food - 7/10
Service - 7.5/10
Ambiance - 7/10
Value for money - 7.5/10
Overall - 29/40

Giovanni Pastrami
227 Lewers Street
Honalulu, HI 96815
Tel: (808) 923 2100

BLT - Oahu

For our first dinner in Hawaii (this is after 36hours of being awake or so), we decided to dine locally and just hop down at the restaurant in our hotel. The restaurant was called BLT which luckily, didn't just serve bacon, lettuce and tomato. BLT actually stands for Bistro Laurent Tourondel and it's an AMAZING steak house.

By the time we got to the restaurant, it was 9pm. And there were still no seats. So we sat in the bar area (where you can order the full menu anyway). We got a couple of complementary starters. One was their famous 'popovers'.

The popovers were HUGE bready things. These were quite light and airy fairy inside whilst been super crunchy on the outside. The texture is more chewiness and glutenousy. The big 'fist' looking side where it "pops-over" is lightly covered in melted Gruyere cheese (which unfortunately, we could hardly taste).

popovers

We also got toasted Ciabatta with chicken liver pate. The ciabatta was normal ish... but the chicken liver pate was very quite yum. It was savory and salty and smooth and super rich. Luckily, it wasn't over powering but rather, complimented the bread (be it the Ciabatta or the Pop-over) quite well.

toasted ciabatta with chicken liver pate

We decided to order one entree, two mains and a side dish between the 2 of us. Sounds normal eh? we couldn't be more wrong.

We told the waiter that the food can come out whenever and alas, the steaks came out first. We ordered the rib eye (14 oz) and the American wagyu skirt (10 oz). The wagyu was recommended by the waiter and it was OMG melt-in-your-mouth goodness. It was nicely charred on the outside, awesomely pink and tender on the inside. The fat encapsulated in the meat created this succulent beef aroma which just lingers in your mouth. We were also advised to dip the meat in the chimichurri sauce which is a garlic and parsley sauce. Extremely deliciousness!

wagyu skirt 10 oz

The other steak we ordered was the rib eye (14 oz). If I ate this steak, I'd think that this was awesome. It was tender, very beefy tasting and really really humongous. However, when compared with the wagyu, it was a little less succulent. It had more beefy taste though!

rib eye 14oz

chimichurri and bearnaise sauce

By the time we got through half our steaks, we were both fully stuffed. The ahi tuna tartare came our not long after that. Big block of chopped up raw tuna sitting on a bed of avocado and lightly doused in a soy-lime dressing. This was accompanied by a potato crisp lattice. The tuna and the dressing was delicious when eaten with the potato crisp. It would have been even more appetising if the avocado was ripe but unfortunately, it was hard and raw.

ahi tuna tartare, avocado, soy-lime dressing

After this came out, we simple had to call the waiter over and tell him to cancel the side of potato gratin (even though it sounded amazing). We simply couldn't fit it. I didn't even have enough room for dessert!

After getting the bill, we were treated with complimentary mocha chocolate chip brownie bites. These were soooooo good! Crunchily baked on the outside, gooey bittersweet goodness on the inside. Even though I was so full, I swear I could eat like a dozen of these!

mocha chocolate chip brownies

In all honesty, BLT is simply AMAZING. Melt-in-your-mouth beef with flavours that just linger in your mouth for ages and ages. I'm salivating just thinking back to the meal!

Ratings:

Food - 9/10
Service - 7/10
Ambiance - 8/10
Value for money - 8/10
Overall - 32/40

BLT Honalulu
223 Saratoga Road
Honalulu, HI 96815
Tel: (808) 683 7440

Yard House - Oahu

Lots had happened in the past month.
I managed to get off work for 3 weeks. Got hitched. Flew to the other side of the world for my honeymoon. Then unfortunately, got stuck in work again :(

Nonetheless, the trip was amazingly awesome - especially the food, atleast, once we figured out how to order (i.e. I'll have a 'tiny' or a 'mini' version please).

Our first destination was Oahu, Hawaii. We experienced a 40 hour Sunday (ie. we left at 7pm Sydney time and got to Hawaii at 9am the same day) and as a first meal, we decided to take my friend's recommendation of the 'Yard House'.

The Yard House

Particularly, she recommended the truffle fries. And so, we had to order truffle fries. It was amazingly thin and crispy, perfectly deep fried fries topped with parmesan and herbs. You could taste the truffle oil that the fries were in too. It was pretty deliciousness!

truffle fries

My now hubby said that he was absolutely starving. Yet, he ordered an appetiser only. Appetiser of huge chicken wings tossed in buffalo sauce with a nice ranch dipping on the side. It was slightly spicy, saucy yet not overly oily (like the ones at Hooters) and very much tasty. And there was such a HUGE plate!!! it was zomg!

buffalo wings

I opted for a lunch special. Whilst there was a variety of option to choose from, I decided I wanted a bbq chicken pizza with a french onion soup. The pizza was doughy and didn't have the most topping... but it was nice and soup and chewy. The french onion soup was extremely flavoursome with some soggy bread and melted cheese on top.

bbq chicken pizza with french onion soup

So it's like a sports bar so service is not hot flash (and yet, we still have to tip 15%). The food was pretty damn good for bar food and the servings (especially appetisers) was massive! It was just a taste into what food in America was going to be like :)

Ratings:
Food - 7/10
Service - 6/10
Ambiance - 7/10
Value for money - 7/10
Overall - 29/40

The Yard House
226 Lewers Street
Honolulu, HI 96815,
United States
Tel: (808) 923-9273

ALOHA!

We shall be AWOL in the US of A for a little while - but I can assure you, the food here is in EPIC proportions. Will post about it all soon!!! :)