CUISINE ON A SHOESTRING
Kitchens in Kaka'ako, Kapalama offer variety

By Matthew Gray
Advertiser Restaurant Critic

This month we'll take a look at two places — one's a longtime player in the local-style food business, and the other is a new entry offering Filipino, Chinese and local flavors.

Karen's Kitchen

614 Cooke St.
5:30 a.m.-9 p.m. weekdays
5:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Saturdays
597-8195

Karen Yamaoka is the woman whose namesake restaurant has fed more than a million customers the past 12 years. At the beginning, a location on Cooke Street may have been challenging; now it's a well-trafficked thoroughfare that connects Kapi'olani Boulevard (to the north) and Ala Moana Boulevard(to the south).

At Karen's Kitchen on Cooke Street, customers can select prepared items or order dishes that are cooked quickly in the kitchen. Big sellers include the oxtail soup, baked spaghetti, lamb or hamburger curry, and 'ahi sautéed with garlic or baked with furikake. The menu changes daily at Karen's. Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

The $2.95 breakfast is a filling eye-opener, offering two eggs, a choice of luncheon meat or link sausage, white or fried rice, and toast. I'm told they do a bang-up breakfast business, packed to the rafters, but I must admit I never made it to Karen's on the small side of noon.

Many foods are kept hot at a steam-table area in front for quick and easy access; other items (steaks, etc.) require adept and swift hands back in the kitchen. I tried Karen's version of garlic chicken ($5.95) that arrived as three huge pieces, battered and fried to order, similar to the finest katsu, juicy and crunchy with a liberal dose of garlic mixed into the batter. It's served with a very tangy dipping sauce similar to ponzu.

The mushroom meatballs ($5.95) are yummy, served in a creamy mushroom sauce. Karen's stuffed chicken ($6.95), a comfort-food lover's favorite, feels like Thanksgiving when you cut into it, filled with moist bread stuffing and topped with lip-smacking brown gravy. Oxtail soup ($7.95) is a big seller here, as is the baked spaghetti ($4.95), lamb or hamburger curry ($4.95), and 'ahi ($5.95), either sautéed with garlic or baked with furikake.

When I asked Karen if she cooks at the restaurant, I was told she trained Emily Barba, a former housekeeper, "who's now a better cook than I am!" One night when I was there, I ran into Karen's nephew, Ivan, who's been an assistant bell captain at the Moana Surfrider for the "past hundred years," he said with a smile.

Ivan seemed to take a curious interest in me; perhaps because he couldn't see the table beneath the gargantuan feast of Karen's delights spread out on my table. "I heard the seafood-stuffed avocado ($7.95) is awesome, Ivan," I offered, and was told that Karen's friend on the Big Island sends butter avocados whenever he can, and Karen puts them on special. They are stuffed with crab, shrimp and scallops, bound in a bread stuffing and baked in the oven. I was drooling and pleading with him to have someone call me when the avocado special is available. It sounds like something worth driving for.

Karen's menu changes daily. Delightful staffers such as Desiree and Christina will make your visit to Karen's comfortable and enjoyable, whether you're dining in or taking away.

Mely's Kitchen

1314 N. King St.
8:30 a.m.-10 p.m. daily
841-3839

Here's a new place that popped into view on Valentine's Day, across the street from the Kapalama post office. Mely's Kitchen is housed in a location once called home to Pizza Hut, Jo-ni's and Cocina Filipina, among others. Their menu is kissed with a Filipino flavor that takes hold on all their food, including local and Chinese choices.

I tried a number of their dishes, beginning with Filipino specialties. Pork gisantes ($6.75) combines pork strips in a thick tomatoey sauce, with lots of sweet yellow bell peppers and green peas. It has a pleasant stewed texture. Chicken adobo ($6.75) was tender and subtly flavored, also because of being slow-cooked. Pancit bihon ($6.50) is a noodle stir-fry dish made with very thin rice noodles, carrot, green beans, cabbage, celery and strips of pork.

I was hankering for the chicken-fried steak ($6.75), wondering how it would match up to my Mainland memories of this country-style favorite, but instead I went for the chicken with black-bean sauce ($7.75), containing large pieces of white-meat chicken in a dark thick beany blackness, contrasted by crisp-tender onion wedges.

The miso butterfish ($9.99) was unavailable, so I opted for the miso salmon ($7.99) and loved its sweet moist flavor.

Be prepared for karaoke kookiness at Mely's Kitchen, because at any moment people can and do break into song.

Reach Matthew Gray at mgray@honoluluadvertiser.com.