Wait a minute, didn't you just write about this place? Well yes I did but it was about our dinner there 4 days ago and it's a new week and I forgot to mention their great foccacia bread with an olive oil, egg, garlic and onion dip for the bread soooo.... We met C for lunch especially since the Mrs was torn between the Gumbo and Mentaiko pasta and since the Gumbo was only served at dinner, she just HAD to return! And since we're still on staycation, I started with an Aviation Garden ($11) with Aviation gin, local grape tomatoes, white balsamic and shiso. I'm a big gin and shiso fan so this drink was perfect for me almost like an herbal gin tonic... though the sugar rim did leave my lips a bit red.
The Mrs chose the Botanical Blues ($12) with Tyku Black Daiginjo sake, house made blueberry syrup and shiso. Another very refreshing cocktail!
C had to go back to work so she nixed the cocktails... though some of ours may have accidentally spilled into her mouth... We then started with the Fried Calamari ($9) with garlic black pepper sauce. Perfectly fried calamari rings on top of fried okra and shishito peppers with a sauce reminiscent of the taste of a good salt and pepper shrimp at a good Chinese restaurant. I would reorder this in a heartbeat!
I then ordered a glass of Costa de Oro Santa Barbara Pinot Noir ($11) for my Loco Moco ($18) with two round slices of homemade meatloaf over vegetable fried rice covered with two sunny side eggs. The light gravy, almost like a cream gravy was served alongside the rice. If it has sunny side eggs, it's already ahead in my book and the "meatloaf" was more like a Portuguese sausage loaf so this dish had those breakfast flavors goin' on big time!
C had the "Sukiyaki Pork Sandwich" ($18) with a local egg and a truffle soy dashi. The egg was cooked in a "well" cut out from the bread so it was meant to be consumed open faced style.
While the Mrs finally indulged in the Mentaiko Pasta ($18) with a poached Kaneshiro Farms egg that you broke into the pasta with mustard rimming the pasta bowl. I liked my dish but this was the clear winnah, winnah, Mentaiko pasta dinnah! Oops, lunch! Almost like an Asian pasta carbonara with saltiness from the mentaiko, bits of bacon (perhaps pancetta) and that glorious poached egg!
The girls still had a little room so they sampled the Wailea Meyer Lemon Meringue Brulee ($9) which we also sampled 4 days earlier but the Mrs is a creature of habit.
And the dessert special, a Chocolate Banana Cream Pie ($9) served with homemade chocolate chip cookies.
Counting our first visit, we sampled 9 of the 10 house cocktails and I didn't want to give that 10th cocktail any complexes so I sampled it as my dessert, the To Peat Or Not To Peat ($12) with Laphroaig 10yr scotch and orange, lemon and fees bitters. Very smoky, very peaty. Our server said that's the only cocktail she didn't care for... I said "I'm on staycation, all drinks are good"!
I still want to sample their burger and the tonkatsu sandwich along with a whole bowl of mentaiko pasta just for myself but since our staycation is winding down, that'll have to wait for another day...
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