Restaurante Benazuza - Cancun *.

😻  Hola from Cancun!! 😻 

A quick update from Cancun for Restaurante Benazuza. I'd highly recommend this restaurant because the environment, service and food quality were top notch! We're going on excursions every day so it's been really fun packed! Jet ski is one of them!

😻  Jet ski pic from earlier in the week! 😻 

Loved my experience at Restaurante Benazuza located at The Pyramid in Cancun. 

Service was excellent and we all had a great time dining here.

We had a cocktail bar with 2 bartenders serving us prior to our main course - it was fun trying the different types of cocktails (one even in a jelly-form!). We moved onto the dining room where we reserved the private room for our group. We had 6 servers in total!! Everyone was very attentive.
The menu for the night was as follows:

COCKTAIL BAR

1. Old fashioned cocktail

2. Pina colada - infused pineapple with rum

3. Shot: mascala (tequila) smoked mango strawberry - tastes like smoked bacon!





APPETIZERS
4. Popcorn - not just your regular popcorn, it tastes like crunchy candy!

5. Patchapower - fermented pineapple with beer/ vodka lime infused foam

6. Pig tacos - carnita - pasta mushroom sauce
7. Fish and Chips - caramelized pork skin / dehydrated potatoes
8. Strawberry with liquor infused mint

9. Beets with pork skin and kimchi sauce

10. Taco salmon

11. "Sea paper" - seaweed with shrimp

12. Taco with hibiscus

13. Tasktacan Chips with pork

14. "Bao" with pork - it tastes like Cantonese Cha Siu Bao!

15. Tortilla soup - Oaxaca Chile and cheese

16. Cucumber stuffed with grouper, beets and coriander foam

MAINS
17. Turbot fish salad bacon Italian dressing and mango sauce

18. Turkey , Mayan Chiles sauce, hard boiled egg




DESSERT
19. Tetaquis-cucumber slush caramelized Apple with celery

20. Chia dessert - cookie biscuits lime marine

21. Truffle balls - mini coconut cream and rum
22. Liquor candy on the map of Puerto Vallarta - tequila shot with honey

Shoutout to P for recording all these detailed menu items!! :D


😻  They gave me a rose at the end of the night! 😻 




😻 Thanks for the lovely dining experience! 😻 

Benazuza

$$$  Mexican, Cocktail Bars

Blvd. Kukulkan S/N
77500 Cancún, Quintana Roo
Mexico

Banán - Waikiki, Honolulu *.

Banán - one of my favourite dessert places out of all the ones we've tried in Honolulu! 
After a long day of outdoor activities, this is the perfect place to go to for a healthy snack.
It's located on the main Waikiki strip.

I'm so glad P was craving desserts or else we would've never stopped here. 

😻 Here's P choosing which one to get! 😻

The store front is tucked away in a little alley where people park their surf boards - it is great for photo ops by the way!

I'd recommend:





* THE ORIGINAL (5/5)

Comes with papaya, pineapple, strawberries, puffed quinoa, shaved coconut and honey. I really liked the flavour of the banana soft serve! I feel like the original is always the best go-to for trying new things. Glad I ordered this! A healthy choice if you're craving something nice and cold by the beach :)

Banán

$  Ice Cream & Frozen Yogurt, Food Trucks

2301 Kalakaua Ave
Honolulu, HI 96815
United States

Marukame Udon - Waikiki, Hawaii *.

Marukame Udon was so delicious! We visited here 3 times during our trip to Hawaii! If you're looking for quick eats, I'd recommend this place - but visit during odd hours, the queue gets really long during prime time (12pm-1pm and 5pm-7pm). At first we're were both like.. we should try to eat at other places instead of coming here again.. but omg.. it's too good!!





😻 Queuing! 






😻 Chefs hard at work! Everyone was very friendly :)


When you're queuing for your order, note that all items needs to be purchased in the pick up line prior to finding a table. They have a notice up mentioning not to reserve seats. Tables free up really quickly :)


I'd recommend: 




* NIKUTAMA (5/5)

This udon comes with beef and onsen egg (runny egg). I usually request for more soup because it's more tasty! The broth is sweet and full of flavour. I'd suggest adding more Tenkasu  toppings (tempura crumbs) for more texture.

P recommends:




* CURRY UDON (5/5)

This is a mild Japanese curry with shredded beef and onions. Not spicy at all! It is a sweet curry with a thicker broth. My fiance prefers a stronger tasting udon - I enjoyed this too!

(Fair to say that this is just a girl's preference vs a guy's preference in udon flavours here :P)

Marukame Udon

$  Japanese, Noodles

2310 Kuhio Ave
Honolulu, HI 96815
United States

Goofy Cafe & Dine - Waikiki, Hawaii *.

Goofy Cafe & Dine is one of the restaurants that were highly recommended on Japanese variety shows. We came here to check out the hype! The food was really good and our servers were very attentive and friendly but what made the experience drop to a 3/5 is because of how we saw the host treat another table of diners. I also agree with previous yelpers for this restaurant because I found it really weird how the host wanted people to stand at the side and not "block the windows" when the menu is at the windows.. lol





Story time: 
There was a family of 10 who were waiting for a table. They decided to split their large group to 5 and 5 to make it easier to get a table since there was a long queue at the time. Two tables that could fit 5 people cleared up so the family walked in. Once the host realized that the family split into groups of 5 and 5, he told the group that he will not serve them. He had basically asked them to leave the restaurant. Of course, the dad in the family of 10 got very angry and started demanding the host for an explanation for why he would not serve his family - by which, at that time, there were more tables who left (meaning more spots for this family to be seated). There was some #worldstarhiphop shenanigans going on and everyone at the restaurant was pretty much wide-eyed at this point because we had no idea why the host wouldn't serve their group. They weren't about to close or anything. Perhaps the host wanted to watch the Friday fireworks lol. Anyways - I think the host had OCD (refer back to the "do not block our windows even though the menu is there" policy above).


TLDR: The host rejected a family of 10 without an explanation.





Now back to the food:

I loved the my choice of the loco moco! 

DRINKS: Local beer and lemonade (Don't order the lemonade, it tastes so watery)

We ordered:





* BIG ISLAND LOCO MOCO (4/5)
(Ground beef patty, 2 local eggs, homemade gravy & brown rice)

I loved this!! The only improvement I'd suggest is that the brown rice be cooked to a softer texture. It was a little rough with the rest of the combination. I loved the flavour though - I'd recommend this!

* PORTUGUESE SAUSAGE/KALUA PIG (3/5)

On a hot plate! P ordered this - we would like it more if the Kalua pig was less dry! The sauce and sides were delicious, but the main deal was the pig :( Poor thing - I feel like P always choose the less yummy things because he's more "adventurous".

Anyways! That was a long review.. I'm done :D

Goofy Cafe & Dine

$$  Cafes, Breakfast & Brunch, Diners

1831 Ala Moana Blvd
Honolulu, HI 96815
United States

Heavenly - Waikiki, Hawaii *.

😻  First day of February! 😻  

Waikiki, Hawaii

I've heard lots of great reviews about Heavenly so my P and I decided to check this place out ourselves! 
This is the very place where we experienced the local 'take it easy' term. We were waiting in line to get in the restaurant with one girl waiting in front of us 

We've also watched variety shows where people have visited this place. Mainly Japanese variety shows so that's why their menu has both Japanese and English on it (smart advertising).

The interior is very nicely decorated a warm, homey beach-vibe. There was an emphasis on the ingredients because most items that were indicated on the menu were locally grown.





Here's my experience for breakfast:

We ordered - 





* ACAI BOWL (4/5)
(Served with Big Island Bee honey & Hawaiian granola)

This was deeelish!! The only thing I'd like to see more is the granola - I would've given this dish a 5/5 if there were more crunchy bits! I'd recommend this if you want to cool off eating something healthy :) 





* LOCAL EGGS BENEDICT (4/5)
(Homemade hollandaise sauce with lilikoi butter, poached local eggs served with Okinawa purple potato & fresh local salad. Wheat muffin.)

My fiance ordered this one and I'm glad he did! The hollandaise sauce was done so well! It was creamy, smooth and the flavour was not overpowering the other foods. What surprised me was the Okinawa purple potato - it tasted very sweet and refreshing! I was hoping we would get more portions of this :)


----------------------------------------------------


We came back for dinner because we loved our breakfast experience. We ordered:




* KAUAI GARLIC SHRIMP (5/5)

Loved everything about this dish! The sides included locally grown corn, brown rice and kale salad. The shrimps were marinated nicely and was deep fried so you can also eat its shell! So yummy!





* LOCAL PORK  BIG ISLAND GINGER SAUTE (2/5)

My fiance ordered this one and I tried some of it - despite it being highly recommended, it doesn't live up to our expectations because the pork came out a bit dry. We should've gotten the loco moco instead!! The table beside us ordered it and it looked so good :(

😻 Here's my picture from our breakfast sesh! 😻 

Heavenly

$$  Breakfast & Brunch, Juice Bars & Smoothies, Hawaiian

342 Seaside Ave
Honolulu, HI 96815
United States

Sandy’s Sandwiches - Haleiwa, Hawaii *.

P and I visited North Shore and stopped by at Sandy's Sandwiches. 
We loved it! This was a healthy choice and it also tasted delicious. 
It was especially nice because the waves were good for surfing that day so we got to see surfers while eating on the beach side. Better than watching TV haha

Sandy's Sandwiches is actually located in the middle of no where. We really had to nail down which location she was going to park her food truck because it's on the road side. Be careful when you're trying to visit the other food trucks near by! The road she parks on is off of a highway so cars move pretty fast going into this area.

I'd suggest if you were to visit this location, to visit the near by Haleiwa town, where you can pick up a bunch of North Shore related souvenirs.

We ordered:

* TURKEY & BRIE sandwich (5/5)
+ Added avocado

Sandy (I think it was her) added a lot of ingredients and packed it up to make our money's worth for this sandwich. Ingredients tasted fresh and delicious with just the right amount of flavouring.

We enjoyed nomm-ing on our sandwiches while sitting on the beach side :)

Sandy’s Sandwiches

$$  Food Trucks, Sandwiches

59-414 Kam Hwy
Haleiwa, HI 96712
United States