Da Kitchen

Da Kitchen is located on Isenberg Street in Honolulu, Hawaii (near Puck's Alley and the University of Hawaii at Manoa).

Just thought this was cool to take a picture of

My father and I arrived five minutes before 11 a.m. for lunch. While waiting for the place to open, a few more people showed up.

Specials for June 20, 2011

We came for one thing: the signature Fried Spam Musubi ($4.95). Not knowing what we were getting ourselves into, my father got a garden burger ($7.50) and I got a Maui garden salad with their papaya seed dressing ($8.25).

Fried spam musubi (signature menu item)

Maui Garden Salad w/Papaya Seed Dressing

Garden Burger

A ton of food here folks. I guess my eyes were way too big for my stomach.

Personally, the fried spam musubi was not that great. It was just too big and too oily for me. I do appreciate the crunchy exterior (this is how fried items should be) and the properly cooked rice, but I probably won't order this again.

The salad was nice and refreshing. Fresh veggies here. I liked the papaya seed dressing; good sweetness and a little tang here. But again, not too much to write home about.

I liked the flavors of the actual garden burger, along with the texture of the brown rice in the patty. But for $7.50, the garden burger was quite pedestrian-looking. The macaroni salad lacked the peppery bite I wanted, and overloaded on the hard-boiled eggs.

Da Kitchen has a pretty good reputation; the people really started piling in while we were there. But both my father and I did not care much for this place. Perhaps we should have ordered different menu items, but we were not impressed with the food. The decor could have been a little better overall as well, and a bit more lighting would have been nice. 3/10