Crissy K.'s Profile

Excellent church with solid teachings and very caring staff pastors, as well as a friendly congregation. Everyone makes you feel welcome as soon as you arrive, and dining/coffee options available after services provide ample opportunities for fellowship.

The sermons are well planned and grounded in scripture (you'd think that goes without saying, but if you've churched around, you know this isn't the case everywhere) but are not at all slow or boring. Likewise, the worship that starts and ends service is lively and heartfelt.

Because services are available at a variety of times, including Friday nights and three services on Sunday morning, you can pretty much always make it to hear a particular week's message, even if you couldn't make it to the service of your choice due to a conflict. Plus, even if you're home bound (i.e., by illness), you can watch all services live online! Super helpful.

Definitely worth the drive out to the windward side every week by this townie!

Everyone has had such wonderful things to say about the food service here, the sheer amount of information can be overwhelming . . . so here's the main point: Do NOT miss the garlic seared toro. Many other things at Gaku are good, but this is truly melt-in-your-mouth, smoky fabulousness. If you enjoy good fish, period, you will not be disappointed.

YAY for Morning Glass selling their goods in Kaka'ako! In addition to their caffeinated beverages, the coffee corner also serves up MG's signature cookies and scones. Deliciousness abounds. The coffee is tasty and strong as is, but every once in a while, I'm also tempted by the sweet frothiness of an iced latte flavored by Morning Glass' homemade vanilla syrup (the cinnamon isn't available at R/D).

Erica, the barista, is super sweet, and, as Ray L points out, very coffee-savvy. I love that she's come over to this location in addition to working the Manoa cafe.

The bookstore side of R/D offers a wide variety of foodie literature you'd have difficulty finding anywhere else on island, including everyone's favorite new food journal, Lucky Peach. A lot of the books are expensive (suggested retail price), but they're always worth taking a look at.

So what's not to love about an independent cafe that serves quality coffee at a decent price, with a smile? The fact that they don't open on Mondays, that's what. I mean, I get that Erica needs a day off once in a while, but Monday is the one day out of the week where most of us need the most caffeine.

A welcome addition to my work 'hood!

Umm, what HAPPENED to this location? On a recent visit, rice was super mushy and full of excess water. That could explain why there was absolutely no crowd at peak lunch hour. If you can't even master the rice, you have no business calling yourself a sushi place.

Let me just start by saying that I love that this place tries to support local agriculture -- even the milk is local, which isn't as easy to do these days as it used to be when we had more commercial dairies . . . but that's about where the love stops for me with Beach Bum Cafe.

I had heard so many esteemed foodies rave about this place that I went out of my way to grab some coffee there one day during lunch. First of all, it's not easy to get to if you don't work downtown: It's tucked inside the building that also contains Longs and Ross, just off Fort Street Mall.

Once you get there, it seems like a joke that the place is called "Beach Bum": The fluorescent lighting (and don't get me wrong, I love fluorescent lighting -- just not in a cafe) and small, oddly-cornered space make for a strange, totally non-beach-like ambiance. It didn't feel beachy or homey or comfortable in any way. Also, as Topher B. mentions, the prices are very un-bum-like: I paid about $6 for an iced latte!

Yes, you read that correctly: SIX DOLLARS. (This may explain why the place was pretty much empty when my co-worker and I got there, despite all the critical acclaim.)

I may have been OK with the price if the coffee been great. But my latte had a funky aftertaste to it, and I know it's not the milk because I drink that same milk at my house . . . unless the milk was spoiled. Either that or the espresso just didn't taste very good. There isn't much to an iced latte, so it's hard to figure out where it really went wrong.

In terms of service, while the two people working there seemed very nice, I felt a lot of pressure to just pick a brew and order.

Overall, I just didn't get a great vibe or a quality product from this place and wouldn't go out of my way to return. For independent (i.e., non-Starbucks) coffee places, I'd rather have Morning Glass.

LOVE them. They are absolutely the best in terms of customer service and quality of work. Our Pomeranian is old and blind and thus very nervous and skittish, but Amy and her colleagues are able to put Chloe so much at ease that she was napping when I picked her up from a recent appointment! All the staff are super nice, and I always look forward to their cheerful faces -- not to mention the adorable bows and bandanas on Chloe, in addition to her perfect haircut -- when I go back to pick her up after an appointment. Highly recommended!

Seriously the best froyo on the island, hands down. I love the texture and the flavor of both the original and blood orange flavors: not too sweet, not too tart -- just perfect. Pinkberry has excellent quality fresh fruit toppings, as well: They won't even offer mango if they can't get a good batch, which is why they haven't had it lately. I am in love with the fruit parfait.

I love that you can get a free "ice pack" if you won't be eating your froyo right away (i.e., if you're taking it to your departing gate). They'll put some ice in a plastic bag for you and pack your container neatly in a shopping bag. Cute and handy.

My only complaint: Why is the only location IN THE AIRPORT, meaning you can only get it if you work there or if you have a boarding pass? Come on, Pinkberry: Open up more locations!

Admittedly, we ended up here by accident. My husband and I had plans to go to Cafe Kaila for lunch . . . but we were hungry and easily discouraged by the long line. We noticed that Papa's Burgers had some open tables and thought we would give it a shot -- and are we ever glad we did!

Of course we had to try "real" burgers and fries. The burgers are made from 100% Big Island grass fed beef. The ground beef itself maybe wasn't seasoned through and through as well as it could have been, but, perhaps more importantly, it's cooked with a nice char that gives it flavor and crispness at the edges. Plus, with all the flavors added by the extra ingredients, if the beef had been seasoned more, it's possible that it would have been too much, all things considered. The barbecue sauce on my husband's bacon cheeseburger was delicate and un-messy, and the bacon was tasty, crispy and attractive (not wilty/overly fatty). My baja burger was also surprisingly not messy, despite the somewhat extensive list of ingredients: It did contain avocado and sour cream, as promised, but just enough to provide flavor and not so much that it spilled all over the place. I liked that the lettuce was chopped so that it wouldn't slip out with every bite, and I REALLY appreciated that the staff warned me ahead of time that the chipotle sauce would be hot (it was) and suggested that I get it on the side. Perfect.

To my slight disappointment, the fries weren't crispy (those are usually the best), but this is perhaps due to the cut. They weren't sloppily limp, either, so that was OK. Plus, it's hard to be mad about that when the aioli complimented them so well.

In the true spirit of Market City eateries (what IS it about that place?!), the people who work at Papa's Burgers are super nice. Like really, really nice. They cheerfully deconstruct the menu for you, proactively pointing out personal and fan favorites, and check on you several times during your meal to make sure you're happy. This is highly unusual for a burger joint with just a tip jar; nay, it's unusual period these days.

Also, I totally cannot let this go . . . They have a burger emoticon. It is so cute. (It really only works in color, though, so I won't reproduce it here.)

We'll definitely be back!

Solidly good food at a decent price and friendly service, conveniently located at the edge of downtown/Chinatown.

I ordered the blarney burger on an overheard tip and was very pleased with both its appearance and taste. The Guiness and white cheddar cheese was amazing to look at, and they gave me just enough where it added a lot of flavor but not too much cheese "thickness" (you know what I mean). I am still tasting the complexity of spices from my hamburger patty over an hour later. This probably doesn't bode well for my esophagus; hopefully I just have something stuck in my teeth.

Not that I am by any means endorsing having a beer in the middle of the work day, but Murphy's makes it easy enough to do that, too, and nobody will bat an eyelash if you do. Neither waitress nor patron judges you here, which is pretty awesome. Maybe it's the air of acceptance and tolerance that paves way for a complete lack of ridiculous boorishness during the day; either way, I have never witnessed any unruly behavior at lunch hour.

Parking is convenient and also affordable at nearby Marin Tower, though spaces are really small and I always end up having to park next to a truck or SUV that hogs the line. At least it's covered. If you work downtown, good for you, you can probably walk.

Definitely a favorite!

If location were everything, then EAT would definitely get a higher rating. It's at the Gentry Pacific Design Center in Iwilei, right before the City Mill turn-off on Nimitz. Tons of free parking. Lots of room to eat, both "inside" and out.

BUT . . . the place is called EAT, not PARK.

EAT has a hard act to follow, being that they used to be Matters of Taste. Matters of Taste had great, quality food and a really nice staff. So how does EAT measure up?

I ordered a specialty burger called "Da-Wonderfall" and subbed a turkey patty for the ground beef. The turkey patty was white, spongy and tasteless, almost exactly like the "chicken breast" at Subway -- not all that appealing. This did not go well with the not-so-smokey smoked cheddar, which kind of slipped and slid with the caramelized onions. The thin slices of fuji apples helped to somewhat salvage the texture of this odd mix. I'm not really sure why it was called Da-Wonderfall at all, except that it was kind of falling apart.

I'd read good things about the sugar spice bacon and thought that surely a taste was warranted for anything with such an intriguing name. The concept was there -- an interesting blend of sweet and savory -- but something definitely lacked in execution, particular in the crispness department.

In terms of service, I feel bad picking on the cashier, but my whole experience there was just awkward. First of all, the young girl seemed like she was hardly paying attention to my order. Then, while the next person ordered, she pretty much had a full-blown, hands-waving meltdown and had to flee the register. Personal crisis? Drugs? Who knows, but it was really odd and definitely not the kind of lasting impression you want to leave with customers. (I later saw her wiping her face, including her nose, on her work shirt.)

But, all that said, I can see where this place has potential. It's not awful, and I would definitely be willing to give it another shot, especially to try one of the non-burger dishes and/or coffee.