Little Village Noodle House (Honolulu) 2

The family had Mother’s Day lunch at the Little Village Noodle House in downtown Honolulu, to take advantage of their special set menu -- $260 for 10 people.

I’ve had good experiences there in the past, so I figured why not, despite the fact that I’d much rather order off the menu. Still, their special set menu sounded pretty good:

Ginger Soy Watercress Salad, Wild Mushroom Chicken Soup, Peking Duck with Steamed Bun, Sizzling Tender Teri Rib Eye Steak, Honey Walnut Shrimp (something I’d order anyway), Stir-Fried Shrimp and Scallop over a bed of Spinach, Popular Orange Chicken, Chef Chan Special Fried Rice, and Sweet Tofu Dessert.

The dishes were all delicious, and there was enough left-over to make one take-home plate. My mother-in-law didn’t care for the food and wanted noodles, so we got her a separate dish of beef chow fun. I also ordered a take-out serving of their garlic eggplant (one of my favorites.

I have to apologize here for the pink hue in all of the pictures. We were off in a little room and the overhead lights included some red ones. I had to manipulate the pictures a bit with my photo software, but here they are anyway:

Ginger Soy Watercress Salad

Wild Mushroom Chicken Soup

Peking Duck with Steamed Bun

Peking Duck (sans skin)

Sizzling Tender Teri Rib Eye Steak

Honey Walnut Shrimp

Shrimp and Scallop Over Bed of Spinach



Popular Orange Chicken



Chef Chan Special Fried Rice

Sweet Tofu Dessert

Little Village Noodle House: 1113 Smith St. in downtown Honolulu. (808) 545-3008.

Sidewalk Cafe (Las Vegas) 2

This was my second visit to the Sidewalk Café in Bally's Las Vegas, and I approached with just a little trepidation. Why? The line was so long. Well, it turns out the reason for the long line was that there were two large parties of Russian tourists waiting for their tables.

When the 22 of them were taken in, the hostess told me to come along. She got them situated in several booths, then took me to my table. The funny thing is, another Russian couple soon sat next to me. There must have been a tour group staying at the hotel.

Sidewalk Cafe has a breakfast buffet, which I skipped after checking it out. Aside from a quite ordinary run-of-the-mill omelet station, everything looked ... well, quite ordinary. Y'know, scrambled eggs, breakfast meats, potatoes, common pastries, unexciting fresh fruit (the usual melons), plus you had to pay extra for an "upgrade" ($2 to add coffee, $3 to add juice). What? You mean a beverage is NOT included in a breakfast buffet? What's that all about?

So I ordered Eggs Benedict. That didn't go well. The egg yolks were 95% set, without the highly desired runny yolk quotient, the hollandaise sauce was over-lemony and a little too tart for my taste. Then, a big bugaboo with me – the English muffins were soft without even a modicum of crunchy toasted tips. The accompanying hash browns were either too mushy, or overly crunchy ... nothing in the desirable middle. Strike 1.

Not even the coffee hit the spot; it was too weak for me. Strike 2. But ... BUT, I have to say that the apple juice was good. I wonder what brand's carton they poured it out of.

Finally, the waitress forgot to deduct the Total Rewards member discount. Sure, it was only a buck, but that's not the point. If not for the eagle-eyed cashier, that below-average breakfast would have cost a dollar more. Strike 3.

That's it for me!

Sidewalk Cafe: Bally's Las Vegas, 3645 S. Las Vegas Blvd. (702) 739-4111.

Carlos' n Charlie's World Famoso Mexican Grill and Fiesta (Las Vegas)

 

Located in the Flamingo Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip, Carlos' n Charlie's World Famoso Mexican Grill and Fiesta is a fun place to have a south-of-the-border meal. It's actually a cantina – noisy and festive, with all kind of stuff going on.

The evening I had dinner there, I was entranced by the colored-lights disco ball and shapely dancers on the bar top and in the aisles. Lots of funky stuff dangles from the ceiling ... motorcycle and football helmets, boxing gloves, upside-down mini-cars, tennis racquets, skis, and hats of all kinds.

Oh, and there's a headless Holstein cow with one helluva swollen udder dangling over the bar. Did somebody ask for Ketchup? Here comes a guy with 15 bottles. Did a just-married couple walk in the door? They escort them with appropriate music and ceremony (loud, to say the least) to their table. But enough of that.

What about the food? They have (deep breath) sopas, enchiladas, tacos, nachos salsa ceviche, salads, fajitas, tortillas, burritos, chimichangas, quesadillas, carne asada, BBQ ribs/chicken/shrimp, sandwiches, burgers, beef and seafood. Not to mention, a fully stocked bar featuring Mexican liquor and beer. 

As for me, I ordered simply enough, starting with their Baja Bean Soup. Let me tell you, if you just came in from the cold, this is the starter you need to warm you up. It is spicy. And it's tasty, warming you up from your lips over your tongue, down your throat, and settling in your stomach after carving a semi-fiery path along the way. Black beans, chicken, chilies, corn, zucchini and some unknown veggies make it so.

For the main portion of my meal, I again went simple: Charlie's Tacos. Three of them, full of carne asada, chicken and chorizos sautéed in pico de gallo with shredded lettuce in folded soft corn tortillas. The tacos are accompanied by a spicy salsa verde, sour cream, and Ranchero Beans. Fall-apart juicy messy, the tacos hit the spot. in and of themselves, they weren't very spicy.

My waiter, Jose Luis, warned me about the salsa verde. He didn't have to, as it was very hot, but not oppressively so. It was a good dinner. Too bad they don't serve desserts.

Just as I was about to leave, the start of "YMCA!" by the Village People came blaring through the packed restaurant and bar. Now, everyone knows the arm dance and everyone USUALLY does it when the appropriate time comes. So I waited, and waited, and when they reached "Y-M-C-A!" I swung into action, doing the famous arm dance! Me and ... NOBODY ELSE! So I stopped, looked around sheepishly, and noticed that not only did nobody do it with me, nobody noticed I had just made a fool of myself.

And that's when I paid my bill and silently made my escape.

Carlos’ n Charlie’s World Famoso Mexican Grill and Fiesta: Flamingo Hotel 3555 S. Las Vegas Blvd. (702) 733-3302.

Bravo Restaurant (Aiea)

It’s been a few years since I wrote about Bravo, an Italian restaurant situated beneath Anna Miller’s on the Farrington-Kaonohi corner of Pearlridge Shopping Center. It’s a fun place, with young service people at the helm.

 

If you’re in the area and have a hankering for Italian food, this is a good place to go, especially for their highly affordable lunch specials with smaller, yet filling portions. That’s where the wife and I went the other day for a late lunch. Late lunch means hearty appetite, and believe me, we were completely filled to the gills.

As usual, they started us off with mega-yummy little mini garlic-buttered bread buns, perfect for dipping into the entrée marinara sauce (if you eat ‘em all up, they’ll give you more on request.

The wife had eggplant parmesan, and I had a sandwich. Her marinara sauce was a bit spicy for her; actually, it was more tomato-y than spicy, so halfway through our meals, we switched plates.

My Italian Club Sandwich was very substantial – prosciutto ham, salami, turkey, mozzarella cheese, and pesto mayo sauce. Delicioso! It was accompanied by a pickle and pasta salad. I had a choice of the pasta or French fries, but I can get fries anywhere, so the pasta salad sounded like a good choice to me.

It was a good choice; the rotini pasta was perfectly al dente, the broccoli and the carrot and sweet pepper slivers were not raw and overly crunchy, and the shredded parmigiano reggiano added just the right amount of saltiness and cheesy tang.

I tell you … it’s one of the best Italian restaurants in Hawaii.

Bravo Restaurant: 98-115 Kaonohi St. (808) 487-5544.

On Vacation

The Place for My Taste blogging staff is on vacation.

The blog will reopen on May 1, 2013.

Hamada of Tokyo Flamingo (Las Vegas)

This was my second time dining at Hamada of Tokyo's Flamingo Hotel restaurant.

I actually thought it was their only location, until I discovered their Flamingo Boulevard restaurant, east of the Las Vegas Strip. I usually go to that one now.

As is usual with Japanese restaurants, they start you off with a salad, generally one with a very vinegary dressing, and a bowl of miso soup. Sometimes the miso soup is very weak, but in the case of Hamada, the flavor is perfect.

This time around, I ordered a three entree combo – shrimp and vegetable tempura with daikon dashi dipping sauce, calamari tempura with spicy cocktail sauce, and scallops on sticks with a crunchy coating and a tonkatsu-type sauce.

All were delicious, except the tempura batter was not crispy ... my only negative comment. A three-entree combo doesn't sound like a lot, but believe me, there was enough there for my wife and me. 'Cept I was there alone this time.

The wait staff was very attentive and made sure I had enough hot green tea in my cup at all times. Don't you just love it when the Japanese staff members all welcome you when you enter, then thank you when you leave?

Hamada of Tokyo: Flamingo Hotel, 3555 S. Las Vegas Blvd. (702) 733-3302.

Longhi’s (Honolulu)

The family celebrated Easter Sunday with a special brunch at Longhi’s in Ala Moana Center, a restaurant I’ve been to a few times, but not recently, so I was looking forward to it.

Longhi’s is an open-air restaurant with beautiful views of Ala Moana Beach Park and the ocean. The restaurant is nicely ventilated (perhaps overly so) with large ceiling fans that unfortunately can cool off one’s food too fast. It’s also a bit chilly if one’s sensitive to the cold. And, because it’s open-air, I spotted a few little Zebra Doves traipsing around on the floor hunting for crumbs.

I’d made my reservations online a few weeks ahead of Easter Sunday, and received a call back the next day to confirm. The woman who contacted me said they were going to have a buffet priced at about $25, which I found exceedingly economical. However, when we got there, we discovered they had no buffet; instead, they offered special breakfast, brunch and dinner menus.

No matter. I would rather order off a menu anyway, but I wish they wouldn’t have told me they were going to have a buffet. 

Because I ordered a regular meal and not a breakfast entrée, they started me off with a nice mini Caesar’s salad. Excellent. If I had three of them, I’d have eaten all. The wife ordered a breakfast, so they brought her a fruit berry cup instead – raspberries, blueberries and blackberries – not her favorites because of the seeds. Oh well.

 

Her entrée was a beautiful plate of Lobster Eggs Benedict with a side of potatoes. Instead of usual English muffin, the lobster and poached eggs were served on slices of French baguette bread before being smothered in Hollandaise. One of her eggs was overdone, without much runny yolk – not the way I like it, but for her, I guess it was okay because she usually eats the whites around the yolks anyway.

 

I had the Scallops and Shrimp Longhi, described on the menu as “Plump gulf shrimp or scallops sautéed in white wine and lemon finished with diced tomatoes and basil. Served over garlic toast.” Did that mean you got shrimp OR scallops? I mentioned shrimp AND  scallops when I placed my order, so that’s what I got.

The lemony sauce was absolutely delicious and came “pre-sopped” on the garlic bread that soaked it up, just as I would have done; at least this way it was a bit more classy than having me mop up my plate to get to every bit of the yummy sauce.

Now … I did have a problem with my meal. The side of mixed vegetables was cold on my plate. Very fresh and tasty, to be sure, but not hot. And that spoiled the entrée just a bit, I think.

The waiter came by with a dessert tray – haupia pie, pecan pie, a decadent two-layer chocolate cake, strawberry shortcake, and one more that I can’t remember. None of my five favorite desserts (tiramisu, key lime pie, apple pie, crème brûlée, or bread pudding), unfortunately.

But that’s okay. The strawberry shortcake was very light, not too sweet, creamy where it was supposed to be, and juicy where it was supposed to be.

Hints: Make reservations if you can (online is easiest), and make sure you allow plenty of time, especially when it’s busy on special holidays/occasions.

Longhi’s: Ala Moana Center, 1450 Ala Moana Blvd., #3001. (808) 947-9899.