Papa Ole’s Kitchen
You should be hungry when you go to Papa Ole’s Kitchen in Hauula. Really hungry. Regular portions are large.
It is food as an expression of aloha, like when you go visit your uncle’s house and are not allowed to leave without a really full opu. Indeed, “everybody calls me ‘Unko,’” said owner Cedric Kanoa.
Regulars also rave about the beef stew, thick-cut short ribs, kalbi, garlic chicken and Supreme Pancakes with Papa Ole’s made-from-scratch macadamia nut sauce.
The restaurant’s biggest-selling plate is the Big “J’s” Special ($16), named after a customer, Josh from Wahiawa, Kanoa said. “That’s all he ordered; he wanted a combination of pulehu ribs and shrimp.”
Prices range from $2.25 for a grilled cheese sandwich or $3.50 for a hamburger ($4 makes it “deluxe”), up to the “Big Boy” plates, $19.75 or $22, served with three scoops of rice and two scoops of macaroni salad or a double portion of tossed salad.
Papa Ole’s also takes some local favorites up a notch. You can get a regular loco moco ($10) or mini ($6.75), but the Loco Aina Special ($11) comes with sauteed mushrooms and onions, a choice of gravy and three eggs.
Can’t decide? Get a mixed plate for $12.50 or $13.50, or simply place a side order for any of the meats or starches.
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Hauula Kai Shopping Center, 54-316 Kamehameha Highway; 293-2292. Breakfast, lunch, dinner (closed Wednesdays, closes at 3 p.m. Tuesdays.) Cash only. $-$$
Penny’s Drive In
Who’s Penny?
Nobody. Virginia Vance launched a lunch wagon in 1965 without a penny to her name, so that’s what she called her new business, which was financed with a $5,000 bank loan. Those pennies added up, though, and the brick-and-mortar location opened in 1980.
Her customers primarily have been workers from the Sand Island industrial area, and some have been coming since the beginning. Three generations of customers now count Penny’s among their regular stops.
Most of the dishes at Penny’s are from Virginia’s recipes, though son Sam has added quite a few of his own.
Best-sellers include corned beef hash, curry stew, beef stew, roast beef, roast pork — “simple kind of food,” she said. The meatloaf also is popular. Of Sam’s recipes, his favorites include garlic chicken, garlic ahi and pork with eggplant.
Also: Penny’s fried rice is delicious.
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205 Sand Island Access Road; 845-6503. Breakfast, lunch (closed weekends). $-$$
Jersey Mike’s Subs
The first Hawaii franchise of this New Jersey-based chain has landed in the isles this year, with a sammie-building style and ingredients unlike what you’re used to seeing at sub shops.
Wheat and white sandwich rolls are baked in each store. The white rolls have a texture that is right for a proper cheesesteak but which also adds substance to cold subs. Full-size rolls for “giant” sandwiches are about 15 inches long; a regular is about half that.
Meats and cheeses are sliced to order. Sandwiches can be ordered hot or cold, or turned into a salad, called a Sub-in-a-Tub.
Order your sandwich “Mike’s Way” to get onions, lettuce, tomatoes, “the juice” (oil and vinegar), oregano and salt. Add banana peppers, pickles, mayonnaise or a tangy and spicy cherry pepper relish at no extra cost. The only additional charges are for extra meat and avocado.
Top-sellers are the Italian, with provolone, ham, capocollo (spicy Italian cured meat), salami and pepperoni; and the Big Kahuna Cheese Steak, with grilled onions and peppers, mushrooms and jalapenos. There are two other beef-based cheesesteaks and six chicken cheesesteak choices.
Six sandwiches on the menu are available only in Hawaii, including barbecue pulled chicken, teriyaki beef and a cheeseburger sub.
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Hawaii Kai Towne Center, 333 Keahole St.; 395-8880. Lunch, dinner. $-$$
Earl Sandwich
To be taken seriously, any sandwich with heft from good meats, cheeses and other fillings should be constructed on equally respectable bread. No wimpy, as-if-spun-from-air rolls or slices, please.
The serious approach is exactly the craft sandwich experience EARL seeks to give customers.
EARL is not named after its owner, whose name is Justin Parvizimotlagh. The restaurant’s name stands for Eat A Real Lunch.
Parvizimotlagh and his crew prepare all the meats daily as well as different dressings for just about every sandwich. These run from the bacon jam and housemade pickle for the Turkey Jam Sam, to the fennel-onion marmalade and chimichurri for the French dip.
Alphabetically, the meaty sandwiches are beer-braised brisket, Cubano, French dip, Italian, Meatball Melt and Turkey Jam Sam. The vegetarian sammie is called Fun Goat, for its inclusion of goat cheese. A vegan roasted beet sandwich is made with sunflower tzatziki sauce.
The French dip with homemade jus ($12.50), front and center on the chalkboard menu, is a top seller. Just as popular is the Italian ($14), with ham, capocollo, pepperoni, pork belly, fresh mozzarella and vegetable toppings.
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1137 11th Ave., Kaimuki; 200-4354. Lunch. $-$$
Aloha Tofu Town to Go
Since 1950, Aloha Tofu Factory has made tofu and related food products that are widely available at grocery stores, and in 2015 the company opened a lunchtime storefront at Dole Cannery.
Now it has launched a Wednesday pop-up, offering to-go items at Shingon Shu Hawaii, a temple on Sheridan Street near Keeaumoku Street.
The temple offered the company space in its parking lot to sell vegetarian tofu katsu donburi ($7), a not-necessarily-vegetarian bento special ($9) and other popular items, such as oboro-dofu ($2) and okara cookies ($3.50).
The vegetarian katsudon’s featured protein is tofu, breaded and fried tonkatsu style. Oboro-dofu is a softer tofu, offered in a single-serve pack that comes with a spoon and a shoyu packet.
Okara, soybean pulp left from the tofu-making process, is widely used in traditional Japanese dishes, but its inclusion in cookies is sort of a creative American reflection of the “mottainai” or “don’t be wasteful” mindset so prevalent in Japanese culture.
Company President Paul Uyehara said the aim of the farmers market-style setup is to offer something different for lunch. “Younger people are becoming more aware of their health, what they eat, and becoming vegetarian by choice,” he said, while the older generation tends to like the portable okazu-ya approach.
Shingon Shu has a small parking lot, and there is some street parking. Otherwise, tag team it with someone so one can drive and the other can run in for the food.
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Shingon Shu Hawaii, 915 Sheridan St. (Wednesdays only). $
