Every grocery store worth its salt now offers ready-to-go food items made fresh daily in-house.

Among them, locally owned Foodland set up a steak-plate counter in its sister-concept Food Pantry in Waikiki at 2370 Kuhio Ave. that’s popular among not just visitors, but local folks. Such intel can be gleaned via online sites like Yelp.com.

One of the questions Foodland officials, including corporate chef Keoni Chang, asked themselves back in 2010 before launching operations was whether the steak plate trend had peaked and was waning, Chang said.

Market research showed otherwise and revealed an opportunity for them to ratchet up the game.

The goal was to provide a better "experience" for the customer, Chang said, that could "really, solidly rival going to a steakhouse," he said.

He joked about forcing himself to go to BLT Steak and Ruth’s Chris Steak House for some of that market research.

Better cuts of meat and additional options for customers would provide that better experience, but it also should be fun, they agreed. They also offer desserts, for instance.

The Food Pantry Kuhio location was chosen because of its heavy foot traffic, and the steak it serves is USDA Premium Choice Certified Angus Beef.

"We grill the beef in big pieces, and we don’t slice it until we make your plate," he said. "We cook it medium-rare-plus so that you have a warm, pink center and it’s not all overcooked," with all the juices having drained out in to a warming dish, like at other plate lunch places.

Typically steakhouses will offer sauces such as an Argentine chimichurri, a demi-glace and a bearnaise, Chang said.

While he has a hand in all things culinary at the company, Foodland’s sauces were whimsically named by Chairwoman-CEO Jenai Wall, he said.

Teriyaki is called mysTERI, chimichurri goes by love my chimmy choos, kim chee sauce is called chee’s hot, yee haw is the name for the horseradish sauce and, as the butter and garlic topping advises, butter not kiss me. (The fashion-conscious will get the reference to shoe designer Jimmy Choo in the chimichurri name.)

Steak plates are $8.99, but other options at lower prices include a steak salad, steak sandwich and steak chili bowl and chicken plate. Steak by the pound is offered at $11.99.

While not the full operation, Foodland offers HI Steaks Express service Thursdays at its Pearl City store and, starting Oct. 13, on Sundays at the Kailua store, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at both locations. The Kailua store previously offered steak on Tuesdays.

The steaks are grilled outside — nothing like aromatic advertising — and served in-store.

Chang, meanwhile, is fresh off a first-runner-up finish in the 2013 Discover Duck Chef Recipe contest by Maple Leaf Farms of Indiana. His Duck & Lemongrass Skewers with Hoisin Peanut Dipping Sauce won him $3,000.

Not resting on his laurels, he is preparing recipes for what he hopes will be his second Supermarket Chef Showdown on the mainland.

His Deconstructed Ahi California Roll won the "Indulgent" category the first day of the competition and the overall championship the next day.

However, just because he was crowned the winner last year doesn’t gain him automatic entry this time around, he said. Hopeful contestants must submit their recipes, which are reviewed by a panel for possible entry into the competition.

———
Reach Erika Engle at 529-4303, erika@staradvertiser.com, or on Twitter as @erikaengle.