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.,…

Ninnikuya

Take a look at the sign, Ninnikuya is known as the Garlic Restaurant.  And oh is this good stuff - if you like garlic!

Dinner at Ninnikuya

We shared a spinach salad for starters.  In the salad there was cooked garlic and it tasted great.  Dinner was a ribeye steak served sizzling on a platter with large chunks of garlic.  We cut pieces of the steak and chunks of garlic and the taste was just fantastic.  A side order of garlic-fried rice balanced out the meal.

Each time I've been to Ninnikuya, everything I ate had garlic in it.  I think nearly everything on the menu has garlic.  The desserts are non-garlic foods, but you can have some garlic sauce added to your ice cream if you're in the mood.  Oh, and if you get gas easily, bring some…

The Surf Room at The Royal Hawaiian Hotel

The Surf Room is an oceanside restaurant with a full menu.  On Friday nights there's also a seafood buffet.  We visited the Surf Room recently and tried the buffet.

If you're not a seafood lover, don't worry.  The buffet has a wide variety of foods.  On the evening of our visit, the seafood selections included crab, shrimp, sashimi and oysters.  Other main courses were chicken, pasta and prime rib.  There were several different salads that were tasty and healthy. 

We talked with the waiter and learned that the menu changes frequently.  We looked at the array of desserts and tried hard to just take what we could eat.  That night we enjoyed pumpkin mousse, bread pudding, haupia cake and a pastry with green tea…

Keo's Thai Cuisine

This popular restaurant has been on Oahu since 1981. Keo's used to be at the corner of Date Street and Kapahulu Avenue, where a Starbucks is now located.  In 1997 the restaurant moved to Waikiki at 2028 Kuhio Avenue, where it intersects with Kuamoo Street.

Parking is by valet service.  In this area, street parking is in short supply and it will save you some hassles to use the valet. 

If you're planning for an early dinner, checkout the Dining Out section in Sunday's Honolulu Advertiser for early bird coupons.

We ate at Keo's during the holidays on a weekend evening.  The service was good and Keo personally greeted customers. 

We ordered the panang curry, cashew chicken and pad thai noodles.  We also ordered sticky rice for…