Sam Choy’s Breakfast, Lunch, Crab & Big Aloha Brewery munchies review

by Kris   ⋅   February 6, 2007   ⋅   Comment now   ⋅    RSS

Sam Choy is a big man so his restaurant portions are for big men. Super hefty entrées and heaping piles of country wedge fries await you at Sam Choy’s Breakfast, Lunch, Crab & Big Aloha Brewery, located right next to that infamous tourist trap Hilo Hatties. And oh man you can’t miss it; it’s a giant corrugated steel-sided warehouse with the bright neon sign.

Chris had the Island Catch of the Day sandwich, which was a generous slab of mahimahi (dorado) on a round bun with some tartar sauce on the side. There were a lot of onions. In pidgin (locals slang) you’d say “ho brah, Sam Choy’s geev choke kine onions!” I had the fried ahi poke wrap which is an extra large burrito packed to the brim with shoyu fried rice, lettuce, creamy mayonaisse-y sauce and Choy’s specialty, fried ahi poke. Absolutely dee-lish or “broke da mout’”! Some people prefer their poke raw, because when it’s batter fried it loses a bit of its firmness and has a soft pork-like texture sans stringiness, like you’re eating a chile verde burrito or something.

If you know what poke is, you probably either love it or don’t. It is pronounced “poh-kay”. It is (at its most basic) raw ahi tuna cubes coated with sesame oil and shoyu (soy sauce) and tossed with raw onions, green onions, chili pepper, limu kohu (Hawaiian red seaweed that is a pretty purple color) and traditionally ‘inamona or ground roasted kukui nut (although if you aren’t eating homemade poke, this last ingredient would most likely be deleted due to tourists’ propensity for diarrhea).

Macadamia Nut Pie was our choice for dessert, but if you still have room for it, there are many tasty treats to choose from. They even have a display in the front of the restaurant in case you are unsure what a haupia malasada is (well, it’s a Portuguese pão doce or fried dough with Hawaiian coconut milk pudding in the center of course). Okay, back to the pie. It was good, it was sweet, but it was much like a soft version pecan pie with mac nut substitutes. (The best mac nut pie ever was ironically in Arizona at a PF Chang’s. Go figure.) There was a great amount of nuts throughout the pie and sprinkled all over the plate (and I mean all over, like even the rim was covered!). There was tons of whipped cream, chocolate and caramel sauce drizzle, but I think the maraschino cherry cheapened it for me a little bit, but I got over it. The best thing about this pie is that it is served warm, à la mode or without.

The major appeal of Sam Choy’s Breakfast, Lunch, Crab & Big Aloha Brewery is the open stainless steel kitchen where you can watch the sous chefs get bossed around (just kidding, but they are frantically zipping around) and the seating area right inside an actual dissected boat appropriately named the bambucha (big fattie gigantic), because you will definitely get a bambucha butt if you keep eating here.

Be forewarned, maybe because this is a microbrewery and has an ocean theme, the restrooms are a little gross; kind of reminded me of a beach bathroom, yikes! The hostess actually walked in before me to spritz the walls down with bleach solution, so I’m not sure if that’s a good or bad sign. Service is a bit iffy, some waiters seem to be buttering the guests up for a big tip while others were pretty nice. Most are college students. The older hostess was a bit strange, almost a bit anti-tourist, but I just played along since I was rockin’ my blatent ABC store shirt, lol. It wasn’t quite the atmosphere I was expecting from a place with Sam Choy’s name on it, who is a bright, happy-go-lucky man of almost Santa Claus joviality.

Sam Choy is the big man with the big smile and his cuisine will give you not only a big smile, but a big belly as well.

Sam Choy’s Breakfast, Lunch, Crab & Big Aloha Brewery [SEAFOOD][$$$]
(808)545-7979 - 580 N. Nimitz Highway - Honolulu,Hawaii

HOURS:
Breakfast: M-F 7-10:30am, Sat & Sun: 7-11:30am
Breakfast Buffet: Sat & Sun: 9-12 noon
Lunch: M-Th 10:30am-3pm, Fri 10:30am-4pm, Sat & Sun 11:30am-4pm
Dinner: Sun-Th 5-9:30pm, Fri & Sat 5-10pm
Big Aloha Brewery open daily for drinks and pupus (appetizers) from 10:30am to closing.

About the Author:

Kris Kobayashi-Nelson is an avid food adventurist who has tried everything from jellyfish to sea cucumber to chicken gizzards. She loved liver and onions with ketchup and cayenne pepper ice cream as a kid.