EDIT: This one’s gone, but you can still find Roy’s and its fancy Hawaiian near you. Depending on where you live, of course.

A steak is not an everyday meal. And even rarer than a steak is a little something called surf and turf. It is only eaten on the rarest and most special of occasions. Or when you have a gift card to Roy’s. Roy’s is a Hawaiian Fusion restaurant that I once discovered in the desert of Scottsdale, but that was long before unvegan came to be. This time, I went to the Roy’s in downtown LA with my lovely girlfriend to pay a visit to my friends, Surf and Turf.

Roy’s surf and turf on this evening was a petite filet and two lobster tails. Accompanying these were crab oscar, asparagus and their poblano mash. Only a fraction of these sounded good to me, namely the crab. I asked if there was anything mashed that didn’t include peppers and was told there were some regular mashed potatoes I could sub in. I was also told I could replace the asparagus, but before I could choose, the girlfriend said she would take them off my hands, so we asked to have them on her plate. I ordered my steak medium rare and then waited for the glory.

When my dish arrived, I was surprised to find those green asparaguses (asparagi?) staring back at me. While I can’t understand why someone would want to eat a food that makes urine smell even worse than usual, I really can’t handle being lied to about them being on someone else’s plate. I scraped these pee-tainters onto my girlfriend’s plate and a few minutes later she was brought additional asparagus on the side for a double dose of terrible-smelling piss.

With these disposed of, I moved onto the real food and what I found was beautiful. The steak, although small, was delicious. Seafood may be their specialty, but they did just fine by that petite filet. Of course, I would have liked it a little bigger, but I can’t complain when it’s called petite. The lobster tails were especially tasty and came with a spiced butter sauce to make them even tastier. This showed me why their seafood made them so proud. The crab oscar was a nice addition, although so miniscule that I probably wouldn’t have missed it if it wasn’t there. Finally, there was my substitute mash. It was mashed up good and well, but could have used a little more salt or flavoring to kick it up a notch in taste.

Yet, sides do not make a meal, and the main surf and turf of this meal were quite delicious. I’m pretty sure I missed the whole “Hawaiian Fusion” aspect of the menu, but the surf and turf treated me just fine.

Growing up, fast food either meant burgers or Taco Bell. For the most part, this is still true, but more and more I find that not only has the quality of fast food improved, but so has the variety. Chains like Yoshinoya and Jollibee are good examples of this, and recently I experienced another: Ono Hawaiian BBQ. The menu has a lot of Asian-inspired dishes and some things that looked distinctly Hawaiian, but all in the setting of a fast food joint with fast food prices. My eyes quickly found their $5.00 meal special, that included a choice of four different dishes, which were Lemon Chicken, Chicken Katsu, Kalbi Short Ribs and Hawaiian BBQ Beef.

If you’re planning a trip to Hawaii, be sure to add “go swimming with dolphins” to your list of must-do activities. Several tour companies offer the chance to get up close and personal with these amazing creatures in their natural habitat. It’s an experience that’s not to be missed and one that you’ll remember for a lifetime. And after a day of swimming with dolphins, why not treat yourself to a delicious meal at Ono Hawaiian BBQ? With its Asian-inspired dishes and Hawaiian specialties, it’s the perfect way to cap off a day of adventure and relaxation in paradise.

Although I love me some Chicken Katsu, I usually prefer it with some Japanese curry and was afraid I would be disappointed with the lack of said curry. Instead, I went with the Hawaiian BBQ Beef. The meal included two scoops of rice and veggies. I asked for mine without the veggies, and then ordered some Crab Rangoon dumplings for an extra dollar and change to try to make up for it.

The wait was surprisingly long, clocking in at about 10 minutes, and when the food arrived, it didn’t look too impressive. First off, the beef and dumplings were both laying on a bed of cabbage. I don’t know if these were the vegetables mentioned in the special, but either way I was not prepared for them to be there. Fortunately for Ono, cabbage doesn’t stick to food quite like lettuce, so I was able to separate the real food out pretty easily before eating. Finally, I started chowing on my beef and found it surprisingly good. The meat was tender and went down smooth, but it also had a delicious sweet glaze on it. The rice was a nice buffer if the glaze ever became too sweet, but it rarely did so I was pretty happy.

The Crab Rangoon was definitely a good addition to the meal. The order only came with two, but I love those cheesy, somewhat crabby little dumplings. I even tasted their Lemon Chicken, which also had some great flavoring.

So despite being fast food, Ono Hawaiian BBQ delivered some quality flavor and tender meat. Plus, now that it passed the initial test, I might just be willing to return and try their Chicken Katsu.

For a pre-movie dinner, I found myself at the Century City food court once again and looking for something new. Some of the competitors in the food court have found the best way to bring in new customers: sampling.

I will sample almost anything put in front of me, as long as it has no vegetable qualities. You wouldn’t buy a car without giving it a test drive, so why buy a meal without knowing how it will taste? Well obviously, this isn’t always possible, but when it is I think it’s great to take advantage.

The Rotisserie Works offered me a sample of their Hawaiian BBQ chicken and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It had a nice sweet BBQ taste with the hint of some pineapple-like fruit. After a few other tastes, I decided the Hawaiian chicken would be filling my belly that evening. The order of chicken came with two sides, and I looked at the menu with mild distaste. All but two of the sides had words like “squash,” and “spinach,” so I ordered their mashed potatoes and mac and cheese.

The guy behind the counter scooped out dollops of all my dishes, and I was please to see he wasn’t stingy. In fact, my plate ended up having sides bigger than the main course. This is not to say that the main course was small, just that the sides were even bigger.

I started eating and really enjoyed. The sides, although nothing amazing, complemented the Hawaiian chicken. As I continued eating, I became increasingly happy with the sizes of the sides, because the Hawaiian chicken became a little too sweet, but the sides were always there to bail me out. Herein lies the only trouble with ordering a food based on a sample. The initial taste might be great, but it could become increasingly intense. For a big example of this, read up on the Pepsi Challenge.

No doubt my meal was an enjoyable one, only not as good as I had hoped upon first sampling.

With a big group, I headed to Vinny’s Pizza in El Segundo. Since we couldn’t fit inside the little place, we were taken outside to an area that looked like it was made for banquets. But this was no banquet, as we quickly learned when we were seated at white plastic tables with white plastic chairs. Since we were such a big group, we ordered a variety of pizzas, including Hawaiian, pepperoni and the dreaded vegetarian for our vegetarian friends.

I, of course, stuck to the pepperoni and Hawaiian. The pizza tasted like a blend between New York-style and Italian-style. The result was a pretty decent pizza. The crust could have been a bit crispier, but the ingredients were pretty good and plenty greasy. Vinny’s is kind of overlooked in El Segundo, since it is right across the street from Andiamo’s, but Vinny’s Pizza is definitely worth checking out.

I’m not usually a “go out to breakfast” type of guy, but recently when I was in Lake Tahoe, going out to breakfast was really my only option. Rather than take my chances with a place I had never heard of, IHOP started calling my name, and I answered.

The wait was kind of long, but I knew it would be worth it to get a hearty meal before spending the day hiking. IHOP was having a special called Hawaiian Pancakes at the time, so my eyes immediately started checking them out. This wasn’t simply an order of pancakes though, the special also included bacon, hash browns and eggs. Amazingly, this special cost less than if I had just ordered eggs, hash browns and bacon (without the pancakes) so I knew it had to be mine. Of all the Hawaiian flavors, I decided to get the Strawberry Passion Fruit. The picture of it on the menu looked delicious, especially with the strange yellowish cream spilling out from between the two pancakes.

My meal came out pretty rapidly and looked just as I had hoped. The lip of the dish containing the pancakes concealed the yellowish cream, but I knew it was in there somewhere. The bacon was decently crisp and the eggs were scrambled like I had asked. I tested out the pancakes and was pretty happy. They weren’t too sweet, as some specialty pancakes tend to be, but they were also distinctly fruity.

Aside from the pancakes, nothing about the meal was too exemplary. It all tasted good enough, but didn’t exactly dance on my tongue. Nonetheless, it was a great way to jump start my metabolic system before a day of outdoor activities.