La Cucina Ristorante Italiana

I finally did it! I finally went to La Cucina! After reading Grant Shindo's review of the place, I knew I had to go one day, and what better time to go than my birthday! Ahhh, yes I am now two decades old...time sure flies when you are in school.

Anyway, my family, Gavin, and I had a reservation on a Monday night at 5:30pm. Of course we pre-ordered the famous osso buco dish upon making a reservation here, as fellow Yelpers had recommended. Also, as a word of caution, be prepared to be at this restaurant for at least an hour and a half. There is one waitress/hostess, and one chef. However, this is my ideal dining situation because I feel like a good dining experience consists of great conversation and tasty dishes. No one should be in a rush. That being said, our entire experience took about 1 and a half hours.

Upon being seated, our herb/olive oil/balsamic vinegar dip was already waiting on the table with filled water glasses. Our waitress brought us our complimentary, fresh-baked bread. It was the absolute BEST complimentary bread I have eaten before, but it was warm, crispy, and fluffy. I had to have some serious willpower to not eat more than I should because I knew my osso buco would be coming soon enough.

My family and I decided to try the Crostini al Porcini and the Caprese for appetizers.

Crostini al Poricini [$8.00] 

Caprese [$8.00]

The crostini was definitely the popular appetizer of the night, I am pretty sure every table ordered it! Just as expected it was amazing, the mushrooms were so succulent and complimented the crostini nicely. The caprese was also very good, but I probably wouldn't get it again.

For the main meals we got the osso buco (veal shank), ravioli aragosta (lobster ravioli with vodka sauce), aio oio (spaghetti with garlic, parsley, olive oil, anchovies, chili flakes, capers), trenette norcina (homemade italian sausage, onions, mushrooms).

Osso Buco [$26.00]

Aio Oio [$12.00]

Ravioli Aragosta 

Trenette Norcina

I cannot remember the prices of the ravioli and the trenette norcina, and there isn't an updated menu on the internet, so my apologies! However, I know they were between $15 and $20. The osso buco was as amazing as everyone had said, definitely worth it and would highly recommend it to anyone that can afford it. The aio oio is definitely the thing to get if you are on a budget. It is probably the cheapest main dish on the menu, but it packed with lots of flavor. Simple but delicious. The ravioli sauce was great for dipping the complimentary bread in..mmm... The homemade sausage in the trenette norcina was amazing, and I don't even like sausage! Overall, we got a good variety of dishes. All homemade from scratch.

Because it was my birthday, my mom arranged for them to have a little birthday candle atop their famous creme brulee cheesecake! It was amazing! We also got their tiramisu which was also amazing. I am not necessarily a fan of cheesecake or tiramisu, but both desserts really impressed me and I had to stop myself from eating it all. The torched sugar on top of the cheesecake perfectly replicated the texture of real creme brulee.

Creme Brulee Cheesecake [$8.00]

Tiramisu [$8.00]

I apologize that the pictures DO NOT do this place justice. The dim lighting made for poor pictures, but you can get the idea of my experience. If you can afford this place, I highly recommend it. Prices are kind of high, but it is definitely fair. I loved it, my family loved it, and we will definitely be coming back. Thank you so much to La Cucina for making my birthday memorable for all of us.

Roy's Restaurant

So, this past Friday was my boyfriend and my three year anniversary! Yay! I told my boyfriend that I wanted him to plan our big date night because I am usually the one to decide where we eat and what we do. He decided to keep everything a surprise (just as like I like), and the night ended up being magical!

He picked me up with a white bouquet of flowers waiting in the car for me, and we drove to Waikiki. We parked at the Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center and walked from there. There could have been so many places that we could have gone from there. At that point, I was thinking, "Are we going to Ruth's Chris?" But then we walked right pass, and then that's when I knew....WE'RE GOING TO ROY'S!

Living in Hawaii, Roy's is one of those big name restaurants that you hear people going to on dates but I have never actually been to it because we never go to such extravagant places for dates. If I have ever been to Roy's before, I don't remember. So this was pretty much my first time going.

Anyway, we walked up to the hostess and Gavin told her that we had a reservation.  We got moved to a seating area inside while our table was being prepared for us. After about one or two minutes, we were guided to our table which had purple, blue, and white ribbons on it! The ribbons were special for us since Gavin had notified them ahead of time that we were celebrating an anniversary. As soon as we sat down our waiter rushed to get us water and complimentary chili/garlic/sesame edamame. We probably got like one or two more refills after we cleaned off the first bowl, and what made it better was that it was free!

The ambiance of this restaurant is actually more casual than I imagined, probably because it is located in Waikiki and everyone is in resort clothes. There were also a lot of children. Not as romantic as I would have imagined, but it was still amazing. The only downside was that we were seated next to a table of 12 Japanese tourists that had been drinking a little too much. Anyway, we decided to order the shinsato pork and local beef potstickers for our appetizer.

Shinsato Pork and Local Beef Potstickers

These were amazing! I am usually not a super fan of potstickers, just because they are usually really oily...but these were amazing! We split it half-half exactly! I would usually just let Gavin have three and I would take two, but this time I wanted to be equal. The meat inside was so tender, the flavor literally gushes from the gyoza skin as seen as your teeth pierces the crispy exterior.

For our main meal, I decided to get the smoked duck breast, citrus marmalade, bok choy, and this triangular bread pudding creation. I have no idea what it was. The outside had a crispiness to it and the inside was like soft bread pudding. I got my duck medium-rare, and it was perfect. The excitement of dipping the fatty bird into the citrus marmalade was so overwhelming.

Gavin got the macadamia nut crusted shutome, which is a white fish. It had a Maine lobster sauce and another buttery sauce for variety. It was also very good! The chef recommended it prepared medium, so that's what we got. The shutome was incredibly moist, and the macadamia nut flavor shined through just enough.

Macadamia Nut Crusted Shutome

So the ONE requirement I gave Gavin was to choose a place that gives complimentary anniversary dessert. You know, the kind where they write the message on the plate? We had never gone to a place like that, so I knew that this would be the perfect occasion to go to a place like that. We ended up ordering the Roy's Classic Melting Hot Chocolate Souffle because that's what they are known for.

Roy's Classic Melting Hot Chocolate Souffle 

The only thing I was sad about was the fact that none of my cross-section pictures of the souffle came out nice because of the dim lighting!

Just when I thought I wasn't going to get my free dessert, BAM! It came out of the kitchen! 

A dense chocolate cake with raspberry sauce, topped with a raspberry and a blackberry, and a message written in chocolate. Best of all, it was free!

Our meal came out to to about $83, plus tip. Not bad if you ask me, considering we had fine service and a gourmet meal. Our glasses never even got to half full because the busser was constantly refilling them. The night meal was perfect, especially with such fine company. Thank you so much Gavin for the most romantic night ever!