Hawaii - general thoughts part 1

Back home after nearly two weeks in Hawaii there is time to reflect on some of our experiences.

Hotel

We stayed at the Queen Kapiolani Hotel in Kapahulu Road, Waikiki. Our room was on the 18th floor providing a good view from the balcony of Diamond Head and also of part of the sea. The room was a good size with a small kitchenette providing additional flexibility in meal choices. After two months in the UK we appreciated having a refrigerator in our room and also having air conditioning. As in most of the hotels in which we stayed in the UK the bed covering was a quilt, however this covering provided the choice of only using the sheet part of the cover if preferred. The big bonus was having shower taps which were easy to use and also having the shower in a low bath compared with some of the high sided baths we had encountered elsewhere. A safety rail, however, would have been useful. Free wifi when we wanted to use it was also appreciated. We had a number of meals in the restaurant and the food was generally good though the continental breakfast offered was limited so I only made that mistake once. The hot breakfast option appeared to provide a number of choices. The bar area was near the pool and our group usually met there in the evenings for drinks. In the foyer was a cafe which, I am told, sold reasonable coffee. It certainly sold good ice cream which we enjoyed most days. The travel office in the foyer was also useful when we needed to book sight seeing tours. The hotel was at the end of the Waikiki shopping strip but was not far from the beach and a short distance from the park where the cricket was played. It was therefore a convenient location. The staff were helpful and friendly. Being opposite the zoo we could sometimes observe elephants and flamingos from our balcony and could certainly hear a variety of animal sounds.

Food
The first thing we noticed about food in Hawaii is that the serves are big. Chips are served with most meals but they are what we would call French fries, not thick chips that we are used to. Salad is available as an extra and not necessarily as part of the main meal.

Our first encounter with food in Hawaii was not encouraging as we had ordered fish and chips at Tikis Grill and Bar. The fish was chewy and not pleasant to eat. Other people we know have eaten there and said that they enjoyed the food but they did not have the fish. We did not go back to try anything else. However we did enjoy meals at a number of other restaurants.

There is a wide selection of Asian food available including the House of Wong which serves good Chinese food. The Seafood Village was another Chinese restaurant that we visited and if you go there make sure you try the prawns and glazed walnuts. The Pa'ina Lanai Food Court is another place worth visiting. We had lunch one day at Pearl's Korean BBQ where we shared succulent barbecued chicken with rice, sweet corn and a spinach related vegetable. It was delicious. On our last night in Hawaii we ate dinner from Ezogiku and enjoyed chicken terriaki with rice and pumpkin and bean tempura plus gyoza (dumplings).

Two restaurants recommended to us were Eggs 'n Things and the Cheesecake Factory. At both of these restaurant there are often queues so it is a good idea to arrive early.

At Eggs 'n Things we both had an omelette then shared pancakes with a choice of syrups.

At the Cheesecake Factory Robin had Carolina Pulled Pork Burger with salad while I had a 'small' four cheese pasta. I watched plates with dessert, especially cheesecake, being taken to other tables. The cheesecake looked delicious but the serves were too big for one, especially after a main meal, so I did not try any.

One night we had dinner at Jimmy Buffett's Restaurant & Bar, while one morning we enjoyed breakfast at LuLu's seated at a bench looking out over the sea.

The verandah of the Halekulani Hotel in Kalia Road was the location for a special afternoon tea for the ladies on the tour.

Buffets providing a selection of food were provided at the Queen Kapiolani Hotel on our Meet and Greet evening and at the final team dinner. We also had a buffet dinner at the luau at Paradise Beach.

We therefore encountered a wide range of food during our stay in Hawaii.