Monday, January 25, 2016

Violet's Grill

Violet's Grill is located in the Kapalama Shopping Center on Dillingham in Honolulu, Hawaii.

This is another Hawaii spot that goes back a couple of generations. Violet's started in the 1950s serving a mix of Okinawan and Japanese dishes. Ownership has changed a couple of times over the years.

The inside has probably stayed largely the same over the years. Probably the same thing for the menu, featuring local favorites such as homemade hamburger steak, loco moco, and shoyu pork. The Okinawan breakfast menu has dishes like an Oriental Breakfast (fish, miso soup, tofu, tsukemono, rice, and egg) and oxtail soup.Tsukemono is Japanese pickled vegetables.





Breakfast and lunch specials are on the whiteboard in the back. Being in a fish mood, I got the Spicy Ahi Poke Donburi ($14.95) and made it a meal for a couple bucks extra. Complete meals come with soup or salad, choice of drink, and choice of dessert.



I started with the miso soup, which was pretty much your typical Japanese/Okinawan starter. Changing things up a bit, I also got a Lilikoi (passion fruit) drink that looked like water but tasted appropriately fruity.



The donburi itself was pretty good. Healthy portion of rice underneath all the fish.

Tsukemono next to the donburi


I opted for sherbet for dessert, while my parents got vanilla ice cream. Again, typical stuff and nothing to really write home about. Figured I'd stay with something refreshing at the end.




Two school-aged girls were the main server help on this experience. It took some effort to flag them down once we were done with our meal, and I'm sure they nearly forgot we had dessert. But hey, they did a lot more than what I was doing at that age (can you say lazy panda?).

Overall, I'd call this an average experience. 5.5/10

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