By now, most of you have probably heard about Beard Papa — and if you haven’t, let me explain:  Beard Papa is a chain of  pastry shops that basically specializes in cream puffs.  That’s it.

Simple.

So what’s up with the name?  Personally, I think  “Beard Papa” sounds like the name of a pimp.  But I digress.

Apparently, there is an explanation to the strange moniker – you can find that here, on the official Beard Papa webiste. It’s a flash animation, and it’s kind of cheesy, but..well, you can judge for yourself.

Okay, back to the story.  I was out driving around Aiea with a friend of mine, and we passed by one of the Beard Papa stores — this one, attached to a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf coffee shop, near Don Quijote.  We decided to stop in, and try some.

We bought three “regular” cream puffs, filled with a vanilla custard.

One of the unique things about this place is that they fill the cream puffs to order.  That is, they bake the pastries, and then fill them when you order them; to keep it fresh, they say.  So that you get the best product, they tell you.  Sounds logical.  Okay, I’ll buy that.  So my friend orders and pays for them (thanks for treating!), and we watch as the guy behind the counter picks up the empty puffs, and attaches them to a cream pump.  If you’ve ever seen those westerns where people pump water from a well, this device they use is similar to that.  Except it pumps custard instead of well water.

We head on over to the Coffee Bean side to sit down, and we pull them out of the package.  Each cream puff is individual wrapped in small paper pockets.  The puffs themselves looked good.  Golden brown pastry, lightly sprinkled with powdered sugar — firm to the touch, and quite aromatic.  There’s something wholesome and cozy about the smell of fresh pastry.

Some cream puffs, like the ones at Costco for example, are more pastry than filling.  Beard Papa’s is sort of the opposite of that.  These were all about the filling.  You bite into one of these things, you’re going right through the pastry, and into the good stuff.  The custard was light, and creamy.  Not too sweet, really.  And it wasn’t so light as to be watery, but it wasn’t so heavy as to be a pudding.  Very good.

The puff pastry itself was thin, it wasn’t what I would consider lightweight.  It was crunchy on the outside, and flaky on the inside, but substantial enough to contain the custard, and offer up it’s own textures and flavors.  Apparently it’s made up of Choux pastry, and a pie crust mix, which gives it the one-two combination of shell outside/flaky inside.

It did get a bit messy.  There was lots of custard in each puff, but that’s a good thing.  There’s nothing like buying a pastry and finding out you just got ripped off because there wasn’t enough filling.  Not a problem here.

And Beard Papa offers a bunch of different kinds of fillings, including Chocolate, Caramel, Green Tea, Strawberry, and Coffee.

We didn’t get to try any of those, but that just gives us an excuse to go back and get some.

Click Here to find a Beard Papa Hawaii near you.

The pizza, as a dish, is very basic.  A bread crust, sauce, and toppings.  That’s about it.  And, while zpizza doesn’t take variety to an extreme, some of the actual ingredients they offer are unique.  You can opt to have a wheat-gluten free crust, you can get Feta, or perhaps soy based cheese as a topping.  Instead of a animal meat, what if you want veggie burger crumbles and truffle oil on your pie?  Easily done.

Of course, they have the old standards.  Mushrooms, sausage, pepperoni, chicken, anchovies, bell peppers, olives, etc.

And like California Pizza Kitchen, zpizza offers a menu of pre-designed pizzas, that range from simple like the pepperoni and sausage combo, to a little more out of the ordinary, like the Mexican (w/lime chicken, avocado and cilantro), or the ZBQ (BBQ sauce and chicken, sweet corn and peppers).

But let me cut to the chase.

I went with a few friends on a Wednesday night — it was pretty empty.  Not a good sign, right?  Or maybe just a sign of the economic times.

We ordered a pepperoni and sausage, plus one of the pre-designed pizzas — The Napoli, topped with roasted garlic sauce, fresh Roma tomatoes, Parmesan/Mozzarella cheese, and fresh basil.

It didn’t take very long for the pizzas to come out, hot and fresh from the brick lined oven.  The first thing that surprised me was the size of the pie.  It turned out smaller than I thought it was going to be.  We ordered two large pizzas, and both of them were about 14 inches or maybe a little less in diameter, which wouldn’t have been so much of a problem if they were pan pizzas.  But we had thin-crust pizzas.  I wondered if it was going to be filling.

I tried the pepperoni and sausage first.  The first thing I noticed was that the mozzarella cheese was real and fresh.  It had a nice, deep, but mild cheese flavor, something you just don’t get with pre-grated/packaged cheese.  It wasn’t oily or waxy like you might find on other pizzas.  The pepperoni and sausage distribution was nice and even.  Very tasty as well.  And the crust was just right.  A little crispy at the edges, and soft and chewy near the middle without being gummy, or doughy.

A very good pizza overall.

The Napoli was a surprise, because I don’t like tomatoes.  I can do ketchup, tomato sauce, etc.  I don’t like fresh or raw tomatoes.  All things being considered, the tomatoes that were on the pizza were baked, but they looked fresh.  I decided to be adventurous, and try a slice.

I expected to get that fruity, raw taste, and a mushy texture when I bit in, but surprise of surprises, it turned out to be none of that.  Instead, it was damned delicious.  And it’s not so much that the tomato flavor was baked out of the tomato slices; rather, it was like the rest of the pizza was baked INTO the tomatoes.  So you ended up having a tasty garlic/pesto flavor in the tomatoes, which turned out to be just firm enough not to be mushy, and that complimented the crust and the cheese.  It was really very good.

I was curious whether or not “better” ingredients would really make a difference when it came to the final product.  After all,  I think Papa John’s and their slogan of “Better Ingredients, Better Pizza” is a scam, cause their pizza is crap.  But so far, I have to say that better ingredients do make for a better product.

The pizzas at zpizza were very good.

The problem for me is the price.

One large pizza will average about $21+, depending on the type, or what you want to add on to it.  For a pie that less than 14″ in diameter, I think that is a lot.  My advice is to go with a bunch of other people and spread the cost.

However, if you’re not into getting a whole pizza, you can buy by the slice!  Yes, a pizza place where you can buy pizza by the slice, for about $2.50 a pop.  And I know Sbarro’s sells by the slice as well, but that’s another joint that makes my bowels turn inside out, so they don’t count.

Overall the zpizza expereince was good.  They’ve got a great selection of pizza, as well as salads, and sandwiches (which I hope to evaluate at a later time.) the place was clean, and the wait help friendly.  If you’re in town, give it a try, and let me know what you think.

Check out zpizza’s menu here.

At it’s core, the burger is really elementary.  But the beauty of the design is that it’s expandable.  You can upgrade it.  You can add “patches” to your burger.  It’s possible to make it Burger 2.0, if you will.

That’s the premise behind The Counter, a new burger joint located in Kahala Mall, across from Chili’s.

It’s all about choice, at The Counter.  Like most burger joints, you’re ordering off of a menu, but that menu is packed with options.  From burger size, bun types, and of course toppings.  Toppings, toppings, toppings.  From old standards like American Cheese, to stuff that I would consider “way out there” like hard boiled eggs, or pineapple.

You can check out a menu here.

I visited The Counter one night last week, with some friends.  We had heard that it can get crowded, so one of my friends who lives nearby did some early evening recon.  The sitrep confirmed the rumors, and I set out early to get our names on a waiting list.

When I arrived, it was banging.  The restaurant itself was full, from floor, to bar.  And there was a substantial queue of people lining the sidewalk outside.  I put in for a party of four, and I was told the wait could be anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour.  To me, that’s kind of a long wait.  Tricky part is, they don’t give you a buzzer, and they don’t take your phone number (at least not during my visit), so you have to stay close.

So, I pick a spot up against a wall, and wait.  Time goes on, my friends arrive…

…And halfway through out wait, we get a surprise.

Daniel Dae Kim, he of LOST fame (he plays Jin on the show) pops out of the front door of the restaurant, with a tray, loaded with orders of sweet potato french fries.  With a wave and a smile, he started handing them out to those who were waiting for their tables, and thanked everyone for coming.

The interesting part of that encounter was no one really seemed to notice who he was.  He was just some dude handing out free food.  Which is kind of cool, I guess.  Maybe nobody cared, maybe he likes it that way.  Maybe that’s why he’s decided  that he wants to stick around after Lost is done shooting.  So much so that he partnered with chef and restaurateur DK Kodama (the guy owns D.K.’s Steakhouse down in Waikiki, as well as Sansei, Hiroshi’s,  Tapas, and Vino) to open The Counter.

But I digress.

We waited a total of about an hour and twenty minutes.  Quite a long time for a party of four, but when we finally got seated, one of the wait staff remarked that the food would be worth it.

We were presented with clipboards and menus.  Using the world’s tiniest pencil, I began to contruct my burger, checking off the various options:

2/3lbs patty (that weight is “before cooking”..and, I was hungry) Danish Blue Cheese, mushrooms, sauteed onions, and garlic aioli sauce, on a regular bun.  Simple.

By the time we got in, the place had cleared out a bit, so it didn’t take long for our food to arrive.

The first thing I noticed was that instead of being wide, the burger I got was high.  Not so high that you couldn’t bite into it, but still what I would consider tall.  The bun was nice and firm, without being hard, or doughy (I hate that), and cut easily into two.  Inside, the meat was a nice pink in the center, and well done near the perimeter, with just a touch of “crusting” .  I bit into it, and well…

It was really good.  No,  it was excellent.  The toppings were portioned just right.  Blue Cheese has a strong flavor to it.  Pungent, and tangy in most cases, but  here, it didn’t overpower the beef patty at all.  It was creamy, and smooth.  You could really taste the meat.   It was juicy and flavorful. The mushrooms provided a nice, mellow earthy undertone, and everything came together like it should.  This was a great example of why the burger is great food.  A simple concept, capable of providing very complex , layered flavors and textures.

I also ordered some fries with my burger; and you dont’ really expect much out of fries.   They’re fries.  Just deep fried potato strips.  But the ones they serve at The Counter are really good.  They’ve got some kind of salt/seasoning thing going on that makes them savory, and they’re fried up just right so that they’re crunchy on the outside, a little fluffy on the inside.  Just right. (These are not the sweet potato fries I mentioned earlier.  I’m talking about the regular fries here…)

And that’s the theme of the food at this place, just right.  It’s not over done, it’s certainly not crap.  It’s just right.  And so far, it turns out, it’s just damn good.

Now, pricing.  The sticking point.  Look, the prices are reasonable.  It’s a premium product, and you’re going to pay for it, if you order there.  Expect to spend at least $10 on a burger, maybe up to $15 if you’re going to pimp it out.  Sides are another $3.50-$6.50, and drinks is where they jack you.  $2.50 for a soft drink.  More if you’re doing alcohol.

So the verdict is in.  I liked it a lot.  I’ll be back there, despite the wait, and the price, and that’s saying quite a bit, for myself.

And do yourself a favor, and check out the menus, if you haven’t already.  Pretty crazy, and creative stuff they have.

Also, a side note:  They serve Loco Moco.  In fact, it’s the only restaurant in the entire chain that does.  I hear it’s pretty good too.

The Counter Kahala

4211 Waialae Avenue E-1
Honolulu HI 96816

808 739 5100

While the place was empty (blame it on the economy), the lunch menu wasn’t.  Everything you find on the dinner menu, you can find on the lunch menu.  Now that I think about it, maybe it’s the same menu.  But in any case, you get the full complement of entrees, from steaks and seafood, to salads, burgers and a good variety of pastas.

I opted for the Monterey Burger, and just like the name implies, it came topped with a healthy portion of Monetery Jack cheese.  The burger itself was fine.  I like my burger pink on the inside, not too red, so I ordered it “medium well” at the recommendation of the bartender.  She was wrong.  It came out well done, a little flat, and completely cooked through the center.  Not bad, but you’re not going to get much flavor through the patty when you cook the hell out of it like that.  The ingredient of note, though was the mushrooms.  Piled high, the bad boys really make the whole thing work.  I’m pretty sure they’re just regular button mushrooms sauteed in butter, but they were fricking good.  The burger bun was excellent — it was bun in size and shape, but more like a roll, with a light, but firm crust, just south of chewy, on the top and bottom.  I like this type of bun, because no matter what you slather on it, or how juicy the patty is, it won’t disintegrate.  But seeing as my burger was devoid of any juiciness, I wasn’t going to have that problem.

All in all, a pretty good burger.  It came with fries, which were nicely done, and for $10, a pretty good deal.  Service was good — my bartender was attentive and friendly, and she didn’t talk my face off, like some bartenders tend to, which I appreciate.  It’s hard to eat, when someone is telling you their life story.  But I digress.

Dave and Busters is located in the Ward Cinema 16 complex, right across the movie theatres.  You can’t miss it.  Entrees run from $10 to about $24.  There are three dining options:  The main dining room, the bar, and the there’s some seating in the arcade upstairs, which they call the Million Dollar Midway.  Open for lunch at 11am.

The restaurant is located in Mapunapuna right in the same complex where the 99 Ranch Market used to be, the Mapunapuna Ethnic Village.  There are a couple of signs on the street that will point you in the right direction when you enter the area.  Just remember it’s on the Diamond Head side of the complex.

The restaurant itself is an interesting mix of bar and steakhouse.  Think of Stuart Anderson/Black Angus on one side, and your favorite sports/karaoke bar on the other side, and that’s what Henry Loui’s looks like.  There is a fair amount of seating on both sides, bigger booths and tables being on the steakhouse side.  There are a few large screen tv’s, and the lighting is low, and spotty.

Apparently this place is knows for it’s ribs.  “Best Suckin’ Ribs in town”, they claim.

But there’s other notable fare.  A good mix of steaks, and seafood appear on the menu — from prime rib, to the old standards, new york steak, lobster and shrimp.   There’s also a good mix of sandwiches, and one burger, which you can dress up in a variety of ways.  Nothing out of the ordinary or extravagant.  The menu is simple.  What you see is what you get.

Our party went in a few different directions.  Most had combos of prime rib and seafood.  One had ribs.  I opted for the French Dip Sandwich.

This particular one claimed to have Prime Rib in it.  I’ve seen these before, and to say that you have Prime Rib in your sandwich, is a bold statement.  When I think Prime Rib, I’m thinking tender, juicy meat, cut thick, seasoned and prepared well, and slow cooked to perfection.  That’s setting the bar pretty high for a sandwich.

The place wasn’t banging, so we didn’t have to wait too long for our food to arrive.  Everyone’s food looked good.   From what I could see, that is.  I mean, it was dark, but not so dark that I  had to bust out the Night Vision Goggles to see what I was eating.  More light would have been good, though.

The French Dip sandwich came with  a light, warm Au Jus.  Tasty without being too salty.  It also came with seasoned french fries.  It looked like they’d been double fried — you know, fried once and then again to heat them up — because they had a real crispy “shell” on them, while retaining the fluffy insides.  Very good.  Also came with a carrot stick, and pickle.

The sandwich itself was well constructed.  The bread was a baguette type roll, with a firm, pliable, light brown crust that didn’t flake, and a nice, buoyant, chewy, inside that was thankfully not doughy or rubbery.  Also Very Good.

Now, the meat.  Prime Rib?  I’d have to say yes, but it wasn’t the kind you get as an entree.   Of course you can’t expect that, and even if they did slide it in between bread, that wouldn’t make a good sandwich.    It was actually well done, not raw, or red…a tad dry, but flavorful with just the right amount of fat around the edges, and when you put it to the Au Jus, it came together nicely.  Overall, a very good sandwich.

And, for $10.95, not a bad deal.  The portions were very good, from meat to french fries. Would have liked to try a creamy horseradish spread with it.  That might have put it over the top.  But I walked away very satisfied.

As for the others, the general consensus was the the food was good, the prices were decent, and the service was fine.  As for thre ribs?  The ribs were “good”.  Were they the best?  Nobody was ready to make that statement.  But if you get the chance, you should try it for yourself.

The experience was good enough to encourage me to come back and try some other stuff sometime.

Henri Loui Resturaunt

(808) 833-3728

2850 Paa St, Honolulu, HI 96819

Cuisine:  Steak, Seafood, some Local Food.

Price Range for Entree : $10-$30

Parking:  Parking Lot (I heard it gets real crowded at Lunch Time, though.  Keep that in mind)

Opens at 11:00am and closes at 2am most days.

Reservations:  Yes, you can call to make reservations.

Other:  Sports/Karaoke Bar right next to dining room.