Da Kitchen

I have been wanting to try this place out since the first time I saw their name on the building last year. Just the other week a friend had mentioned that he likes to go there to grab dinner. We were talking about how there was no Grace's in Market city anymore. This is where I would go to get a teri beef sandwich. Although if you ask me I think the Grace's on Beretania is better. There is an L&L in the spot Grace's vacated in MC. But any way we finally made an effort on Monday night to try out Da Kitchen, we were going to just get some take out. There were quite a few people dinning there but since there were open seats we decided to eat there.

The service was on the slower side but, we were not in any rush. The prices seemed a bit high but I already knew it would be. I got the shrimp tempura salad and the other plate was a chicken katsu. I liked the katsu it was crispy and the bonus is they served a nice thick katsu sauce. My tempura was okay. The salad had way too much cabbage for my taste. The salad was large I took home half of it. The dessert list looked interesting. If anything I would like to go back for a drinks, pupus, and finish the night off with a dessert. We had already planned on having lunch on Wednesday(today.) The trying it on Monday was to make sure we wanted to have lunch there.

Today we got there a bit after noon and had to wait for a table, there were three of us. Our table order was crispy korean chicken, teri beef sandwich, pastrami sandwich. This time I got a better look at the menu. My teri beef was ~$9-10, which came with a scoop of potato mac salad. I had tasted the mac salad the other night since the katsu came with mac. I did not plan on eating it. But to get a toss salad instead it was +$2.50. I think the french fries were $3 something. So knowing I would not finish my food if I ordered the substitutes and/ or add-on. I just go the teri beef sandwich as is.

The beef was a sweet teri. The meat was a good texture for a sandwich. I had a piece of the chicken and it was okay. I am curious of what their loco moco looks like. So maybe the next trip will be dessert and loco.

Bangkok Chef- Iwilei

We pass by on occasion when using Nimitz Highway. Seemed like a place to stop and try out. I knew one person who had tried it and he didn't give any negative comments about it.

Okay so all signs pointed to not eating here. Here is my list...

1. The sign in the window said something about stalls 900 for B.C.'s(I will from here on use B.C. to refer to the restaurant.) parking. We entered from the Alakawa street entrance, it might have been better to enter from the Lowe's side. Although there was probably a lot of space the parking area had an illusion of being small. We found a space without any problems, although the parking lot was full, not sure where all these people were.
2. It was close to 1pm well past mid lunch time. When we entered B.C. there was only two people in there at a table.
3. We were quickly greeted and told that they were only taking cash payments, since the credit card machine was broken. I mean who doesn't like collecting points on their card. I knew we had more than enough cash on had to pay for lunch, but when I turned to discuss it with Kent he said he had enough cash. It wasn't a matter of cash... So instead of trying to talk to Kent while the person was waiting for an answer I just said fine.
4. We were seated fairly far into the little establishment next to a plant. Honestly I dislike sitting next to a plant. I don't care if it is really or not. If I am not on a picnic, I don't need a plant next to me.
5. Glancing at the menu I didn't see anything that really jumped out at me. So I settled on a green curry, one of the things I usually am able to judge a place by. Kent got his normal Pad thai.
6. I inquired on what type of fish they used, which was catfish. No thanks on the catfish. I wasn't about to have shrimp at a place I didn't not know how the food was.
7. The Pad Thai came out right away. So I had some which I thought was okay. I'm really not a fan of pad thai, and every place makes it so differently. There was a long wait on my curry.
8. This was not help by the fact that other people were walking in. A couple that I guess knew the owners walked in with their starbuck's drinks and sat at the table next to us. They quickly got three or four plates of food in front of them. Seriously?? So all through our meal we had the constant chatter of another language next to us.
9. My curry arrived and I was just disappointed with it before even touching it. Initially the smell reminded me of cat pee. Okay one would wonder why would I even decide to try something that reminded me of pee. Honestly I do not know, maybe I was just hungry at that point.
10. As I looked at my plate I saw that the curry contained some type of white meat. So okay I though it has chicken... noooo I think it was pork I still don't know what it was.
11. There were green peas, the only curry I have seen green peas in is hamburger curry.
12. The eggplant was sliced in thin rounds. Yet they looked as if they were barely cooked. The only thing that I was hopeful about when I looked at the plate was the fresh basil leaves that I could see in the curry. And the serving of sticky rice was a generous portion.
13. There was way too much pork and bamboo shoots in the curry. I think the initial smell was probably a result of the bamboo shoots. I admit I am spoiled in that I grew up with fresh bamboo shoots. So I dislike eating canned ones. I've also noticed that some canned ones have a horrible stench.
14. The green peas still had that just out of the freezer flavor, not heated enough taste.
15. I am an eggplant snob. After eating eggplant from my Dad's green house that past few weeks, I had to force myself to eat the eggplant in this curry, which I think should have been cut thicker and cooked a tad bit longer.
16. The basil barely gave the dish the nice aroma that I enjoy from a green curry.
17. The lime leaves gave the curry a nice flavor, but I had one leave that looked like it was yellow... I don't need old drying leaf in my food.

I admit I was curious about the different flavored tapioca, but then I noticed them in the display when we were leaving. They were in a small plastic cup and the price seemed ridiculously expensive. So over all I do not need to go back there again. I am not even curious about the papaya salad.