Sabrina's

Several people have told us about this cute little restaurant near Saint Louis Heights.  They raved about the food.  I was a little skeptical.  In my younger days I worked as a cook at two Italian restaurants and have eaten many tasty Italian dinners.  A lot of Hawaii's Italian restaurants are good but they're not always great.

Sabrina's location at the corner of Waialae Avenue and Saint Louis Drive is loaded with restaurants.  Many of them open up and then close after a few months.  The other night it was getting late and we didn't have much to eat at home.  My girlfriend suggested we try Sabrina's.

We sat down and there were just two other tables with customers.  That made me wonder more about the food.  On the other hand, it was 9 p.m., past dinnertime for most people.   A nice lady with an Italian accent gave us menus and told us about the specials. 

We looked over the menu and chose a salad and Sabrina's Dream.  While we waited for our food, a couple near us raved about the cheesecake they had for dessert.  The other table was a group of Japanese people.  As they ate their food they said "Oishi" - (that means delicious) several times.

The salad had with an Italian dressing and thinly sliced ham, we finished that up in no time.  Sabrina's Dream was a pasta dish with pesto sauce.  That pesto sauce was good... in fact it was Oishi!

We learned that our waitress was Sabrina herself.  She told us a brief story about how she and her husband once lived in Rome, Italy.  They dreamed of moving to Hawaii and decided to come here and open an authentic Italian restaurant.  In my opinion they have succeeded.  We have friends coming into town this weekend and we'll be taking them to Sabrina's.

By the way, Sabrina's is one of the more affordable restaurants we've eaten at lately.  Dinners cost about $15-$25.  Sabrina's doesn't have a liquor license, it's okay to bring your own wine or beer.

Enjoy Sabrina's!  Note: some other people have complained about Sabrina's - primarily very slow service on occasion.  Maybe we lucked out visiting the restaurant on a slow night.

Update 3/3/08

Last night we went back to Sabrina's around 6:30 p.m., this time with guests.  There were three tables with customers when we arrived.  Again, we could hear people talking about how delicious their meals were.  We started off with two salads shared between the four of us.  Then we ordered dinners including "Sabrina's Dream,"  veal, filet mignon and... a pasta dish called D'Amitricana (or something like that).  We all thought the food was fabulous.  Then we had dessert!  The tiramisu and the lilikoi cheesecake were simply delicious. 

Sabrina and her assistant waited on us.  This time the restaurant nearly filled up and it did take awhile for our food to arrive.  We spent about 2 1/2 hours at Sabrina's.  Lucky we weren't starving when we got there.  Sabrina let us know how our dinners were coming along and explained that her husband is the only cook in the kitchen.  We had a great time.

I guess the bottom line for Sabrina's is that patrons should not expect to eat quickly and be on their way.  This restaurant is more the type of place to bring good friends and family and have a nice evening talking and eating.

Sabrina's phone number is (808) 739-0220.  Sabrina's is located at 3036 Waialae Avenue, Honolulu HI.

Mike Bates is in the Hawaii real estate business, selling property throughout Hawaii with an emphasis on Oahu homes.

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