There’s been a spate of new restaurants opening, and while I’m giving them a little breathing room to settle in, I checked out two familiar places making return appearances.
Months ago I was writing about a trendy bar and lamenting the loss of Shinsho Tei, one of the few remaining bars with old-school local flavah and all da pidgin and home-style cooking involved.
Like Hungry Lion, Huckleberry Farms, TCBY and Mrs. Field Cookies, I thought Shinsho Tei was gone for good last year when Walgreen started rehabilitating its corner of Nuuanu Avenue and School Street.
Well, Shinsho Tei is back in its same spot, and it looks as if it had simply been lifted into the air and plunked down as is with bar, cozy booths, dingy carpet and $1 karaoke, as if it had never been gone and renovated.
Even the windows are curtained as before to lend an air of mystery to the place. If you want to know what’s going on, you have to open the door and peer into the inky interior.
It’s a little intimidating to walk into a dark, crowded and noisy bar, and when I arrived — straight from a fashion show, dressed in boho white with pink-bowed Valentino bag — I was greeted by a customer at the bar who said, “Girly, are you in the right place? You kind of look like you don’t belong here.”
“Really? What makes you think so?”
“Look around you.”
He ended up keeping me company until my friend arrived. That’s how it is here. People are curious and friendly, and the place is homey enough for people to get to know each other, even if shouting over the karaoke.
I didn’t even realize how much I had been shouting and singing along — loudly, with no alcohol — until it came my time to karaoke and my voice was strained.
But I was in a good mood after a meal of old favorite dishes like pupu-style rib eye ($15) and basic pan-fried ahi (market price) sprinkled with salt and pepper. Ahi tends to dry out quickly when cooked, but here it’s never overdone until it reaches that rubbery state.
Beans are stir-fried many ways, but I was drawn to the deluxe combo of lup cheong, Spam and dried shrimp ($14). The short menu includes several dishes that are addictively salty for the beer-swilling crowd. Some people order no more than a generous platter of bacon ($11).
If you don’t usually care for the blandness of tofu, you might change your mind when it’s fried with chives and drenched with a secret sauce with the heat of Sriracha ($10).
I also inquired about the vegetable platter ($7), only to be told, “To tell you the truth, nobody ever ordered that.”
(In case you wanted to know about the fate of the 140-year-old banyan tree once at the center of Hungry Lion, it’s also still there, now out in the open and protected by a heavy gate.)
Triple One is one of the few eateries in Honolulu that touted Malaysian and Singaporean dishes, and those who missed its Maunakea Marketplace presence will be relieved that it has resurfaced on Pensacola Street, just past the freeway underpass, makai-bound.
What’s more, the couple that runs the eatery is passing rent savings on to customers so that a satisfying won ton beef and noodle soup that was once a low $4.50 is now $4, and a signature dish of Singapore laksa — a rich seafood and coconut curry soup — is now $7.25 instead of $7.50.
The downside is that they don’t speak much English so can’t answer many questions. And, where once there were a lot of tables awaiting a hungry diner in the marketplace, the new site is geared for takeout, so people who will benefit most are those who live nearby, or who drive fast.
I made a trial run with the won ton soup, with Hong Kong-size dumplings, and it was still hot with the thin noodles still sturdy by the time I made it to my Kakaako office.
The cake noodles are the most amazing, light, crisp and airy and not the spongy, dense mass served throughout Chinatown. You can get the cake noodles topped with seafood ($8.50) or duck and char siu ($8.50).
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Nadine Kam’s restaurant reviews are conducted anonymously and paid for by the Star-Advertiser. Reach her at nkam@staradvertiser.com.
