Wow, a four day weekend! TC and I had a busy morning running errands and having lunch together from food bought at the service deli in Mitsuwa Marketplace. I ended up getting a container of edamame beans, one California roll and two packs of fried oysters. There was no place to sit, so we ended up sitting at the tables outside of the Starbucks around the corner. I used up an old giftcard I had to buy me a Frapp and TC an apple juice. It was nice and warm that day and we had just come from South Sun Beads on Aero Drive, one of my favorite new places to stoke my current obsession with earring making. After going home later that day , we ended up relaxing and later, after Bert arrived home, we went out to dinner to use up an Ono's cafe gift card we received as a Christmas gift. I had been to Ono's before, my most recent outing was last summer - here's a link to my old post. Maybe 3 or 4 years ago, Ono's was initially a wraps place that also served smoothies. I wasn't impressed back them. It has since been revamped by Edwin (a Pinoy brother), the owner/sometimes Chef and has opened up dinner service about a year ago. I guess you'd call this Asian fusion. I'd only been here for lunch 2-3 times, so we were curious about dinner...
It was about 7:15'ish when we arrived. According to the waitress, we had just missed the big dinner rush so now the servers were more relaxed instead of rushed. We were initially seated at an open table near the right hand side, near the front window. There were booths along the side. I noticed one was emptied out after the occupants left so we asked if we could be seated at the booth instead. The waitress obliged our request and we transferred our waters and items to the booth. Another selfish reason I wanted the booth was so that I could snap photos of the food without wierd stares from neighboring diners. And also, so our family could have privacy. The booths were pretty high. You coudn't see anyone's head over those booths unless you were Shaquille O'Neal or that gigantic Chinese dude who stuffed his arm down a dolphin's throat to retrieve an object, which saved it's life. We ordered an appetizer, the Mushroom Poppers ($10). Yeah, it sounds really lame, like Jalapeno Poppers but we wanted something different and something FRIED! For those of you who need to know, here's their online menu , which by the way, I noticed needs to be updated. Their prices are outdated.
These are mushrooms stuffed with salmon and cream cheese, which are breaded and fried. It's served with two kinds of roe (tobiko and masago), wasabi aioli and unagi sauce and topped with sprouts. 
It's also served witha side of papaya relish.
Not a great shot, here's a cross section of the mushroom popper:
All of our entrees came with miso soup. This was too salty. I only had a few spoons of it. Even if it wasn't salty, I was saving my appetite for my entree and for the dessert.
For starters, ordered the Pear Mushroom Salad ($11). I had to ask the waitress a few questions about this salad since I was curious about the preparation and some of the ingredients. The salad consisted of spring mix with sauteed button and shiitake mushrooms mixed with a balsamic reduction. The salad also had tiny bits of chopped tomatoes, thin slivers of pickled ginger (I had to ask about that) , slices of poached Asian Pear (which was poached in red wine - I asked!), candied walnuts, a raspberry miso vinaigrette and was topped with enoki mushrooms. There was a lot going on with this salad, I tell you. I liked how the bitter greens played off against the sweet yet earthy mushrooms. There was texture with the walnuts, the pickled ginger and the smooth Asian Pear slices which were hidden under the salad greens. I also enjoyed the slight tang from the dressing. Again, not being a dressing lover, this says a lot. I would order this salad again, or try to recreate this at home. It seems easy enough. 
Close up of salad:
I ordered the Kalbi Ribs plate ($17) which came with rice and Kimchee salad. That salad, by the way is about as far away as you could get from traditional kimchee, which is all right with me, but purists may not agree. The ribs were sliced very thinly. There were about 6 strips there and I ate 3 of them, saving the rest for lunch the next day. The "Kimchee" salad had spring greens with bits of cubed mango and tomatoes and onions. There was a bit of a slight sourness to it, like kimchee would have, but none of the pungent spiciness and heat normally associated with kimchee.
After my plate arrived, I realized I had ordered meat and it was a Friday. A no no for Catholics during Lent. I ate it anyways.
For TC, she had the safe (for tonight at least) Teriyaki Chicken with Rice and Asian Slaw ($12). It was a lot of food and we saved the other half for lunch as well. She also have a few pieces of my kalbi ribs. She liked gnawing the meat, fat and connective tissue around the cross cut bones. 
Bert had the Macadamia nut encrusted Salmon with Thai Black Rice and a side of Asian Slaw ($17). The salmon was topped with a banana sauce. IWhen we saw the description in the menu, I thought it was Mafran or Jufran. We tasted it, we could tell it was not banana ketchup after all so we asked the waitress why the sauce was red. The answer? Fresh bananas pureed with raspberries. Aaaaaah. The rice was molden in a cup and placed upside down on the oblong plate with the salmon resting atop the mound. The salmon was also zigzagged with wasabi aioli and topped with fresh cut chives. The Asian slaw was green and red cabbage slivers with diced tomatoes and dried cranberries. 
A close up of that macadamia nut salmon:
We shared a smoothie - the Island Princess which was a strawberry, banana, passionfruit and mango slushy ($4.25)! Delicious!
Here's the upholstery on our high backed booths. Not sure of this is real or mock writing. 
Our dessert were the Malasadas ($5). There were ten of them and we chose half cinnamon and half sugar. These were like cakey doughnut balls (ha). I liked the sugar ones better while Bert was the cinnamon fan. These were made fresh to order and took about 5-8 minutes. They arrived piping hot and with a bit of a crisp exterior. So good! I like that they are bite size. Real malasadas are big ole honkin' things. When we were in Hilo, I could barely finish half! These wer just right.
Cross section of Malasada:
One thing we liked about dinner at Ono's was the attentive service from our waitress. She was quite helpful with our menu selection and made sure to get answers to my questions. She was cheerful and didn't seem annoyed by our questions about the entree ingredients. A true mark of great service! Another thing I liked was the size of their water glasses (see below)! Most places give big-ass glasses which seems like a waste to me. I hardly ever take more than 5 sips during dinner. Even when we bring out daughter, she gets a huge gallon of water as well. I hardly drink water when eating. I don't see how people could finish giant glasses of water. Doesn't that take up more space when you could be eating food? God, now I sound like a pig! But seriously, we're not camels here, a small cup will do, so thank you Ono's for not wasting water!
Here are TC's Mini Uglies (from Ugly Doll, courtesy of last year's Comic Con)...This one is Moxie:
and here is Moxy with Toodee!
It was about 7:15'ish when we arrived. According to the waitress, we had just missed the big dinner rush so now the servers were more relaxed instead of rushed. We were initially seated at an open table near the right hand side, near the front window. There were booths along the side. I noticed one was emptied out after the occupants left so we asked if we could be seated at the booth instead. The waitress obliged our request and we transferred our waters and items to the booth. Another selfish reason I wanted the booth was so that I could snap photos of the food without wierd stares from neighboring diners. And also, so our family could have privacy. The booths were pretty high. You coudn't see anyone's head over those booths unless you were Shaquille O'Neal or that gigantic Chinese dude who stuffed his arm down a dolphin's throat to retrieve an object, which saved it's life. We ordered an appetizer, the Mushroom Poppers ($10). Yeah, it sounds really lame, like Jalapeno Poppers but we wanted something different and something FRIED! For those of you who need to know, here's their online menu , which by the way, I noticed needs to be updated. Their prices are outdated.
These are mushrooms stuffed with salmon and cream cheese, which are breaded and fried. It's served with two kinds of roe (tobiko and masago), wasabi aioli and unagi sauce and topped with sprouts. 
It's also served witha side of papaya relish.
Not a great shot, here's a cross section of the mushroom popper:
All of our entrees came with miso soup. This was too salty. I only had a few spoons of it. Even if it wasn't salty, I was saving my appetite for my entree and for the dessert.
For starters, ordered the Pear Mushroom Salad ($11). I had to ask the waitress a few questions about this salad since I was curious about the preparation and some of the ingredients. The salad consisted of spring mix with sauteed button and shiitake mushrooms mixed with a balsamic reduction. The salad also had tiny bits of chopped tomatoes, thin slivers of pickled ginger (I had to ask about that) , slices of poached Asian Pear (which was poached in red wine - I asked!), candied walnuts, a raspberry miso vinaigrette and was topped with enoki mushrooms. There was a lot going on with this salad, I tell you. I liked how the bitter greens played off against the sweet yet earthy mushrooms. There was texture with the walnuts, the pickled ginger and the smooth Asian Pear slices which were hidden under the salad greens. I also enjoyed the slight tang from the dressing. Again, not being a dressing lover, this says a lot. I would order this salad again, or try to recreate this at home. It seems easy enough. 
Close up of salad:
I ordered the Kalbi Ribs plate ($17) which came with rice and Kimchee salad. That salad, by the way is about as far away as you could get from traditional kimchee, which is all right with me, but purists may not agree. The ribs were sliced very thinly. There were about 6 strips there and I ate 3 of them, saving the rest for lunch the next day. The "Kimchee" salad had spring greens with bits of cubed mango and tomatoes and onions. There was a bit of a slight sourness to it, like kimchee would have, but none of the pungent spiciness and heat normally associated with kimchee.
After my plate arrived, I realized I had ordered meat and it was a Friday. A no no for Catholics during Lent. I ate it anyways.
For TC, she had the safe (for tonight at least) Teriyaki Chicken with Rice and Asian Slaw ($12). It was a lot of food and we saved the other half for lunch as well. She also have a few pieces of my kalbi ribs. She liked gnawing the meat, fat and connective tissue around the cross cut bones. 
Bert had the Macadamia nut encrusted Salmon with Thai Black Rice and a side of Asian Slaw ($17). The salmon was topped with a banana sauce. IWhen we saw the description in the menu, I thought it was Mafran or Jufran. We tasted it, we could tell it was not banana ketchup after all so we asked the waitress why the sauce was red. The answer? Fresh bananas pureed with raspberries. Aaaaaah. The rice was molden in a cup and placed upside down on the oblong plate with the salmon resting atop the mound. The salmon was also zigzagged with wasabi aioli and topped with fresh cut chives. The Asian slaw was green and red cabbage slivers with diced tomatoes and dried cranberries. 
A close up of that macadamia nut salmon:
We shared a smoothie - the Island Princess which was a strawberry, banana, passionfruit and mango slushy ($4.25)! Delicious!
Here's the upholstery on our high backed booths. Not sure of this is real or mock writing. 
Our dessert were the Malasadas ($5). There were ten of them and we chose half cinnamon and half sugar. These were like cakey doughnut balls (ha). I liked the sugar ones better while Bert was the cinnamon fan. These were made fresh to order and took about 5-8 minutes. They arrived piping hot and with a bit of a crisp exterior. So good! I like that they are bite size. Real malasadas are big ole honkin' things. When we were in Hilo, I could barely finish half! These wer just right.
Cross section of Malasada:
One thing we liked about dinner at Ono's was the attentive service from our waitress. She was quite helpful with our menu selection and made sure to get answers to my questions. She was cheerful and didn't seem annoyed by our questions about the entree ingredients. A true mark of great service! Another thing I liked was the size of their water glasses (see below)! Most places give big-ass glasses which seems like a waste to me. I hardly ever take more than 5 sips during dinner. Even when we bring out daughter, she gets a huge gallon of water as well. I hardly drink water when eating. I don't see how people could finish giant glasses of water. Doesn't that take up more space when you could be eating food? God, now I sound like a pig! But seriously, we're not camels here, a small cup will do, so thank you Ono's for not wasting water!
Here are TC's Mini Uglies (from Ugly Doll, courtesy of last year's Comic Con)...This one is Moxie:
and here is Moxy with Toodee!
These were $5 and you can hang them from your belt loop or use it as a key chain. TC hung these on her mini purse. So cute!
2 comments:
Huff, huff, huff...so many new posts that I can't even keep up! This type of new style malasadas are different from the light and airy version I grew up eating. this style is very close to an andagi, and you probably ate one from Tex's on the Big Island...too dense, and cake-like. I prefer the version from Leonard's or even Homemaid Bakery.
hi kirk
we had the malasada from the farmers market in hilo
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