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Everyone, please enjoy a virtual birthday Luau plate!

I just realized that The Tasty Island just made 1 year on June 8th. With that, in true Hawaiian fashion, we’re throwing a “baby” luau! A tradition that most families in Hawaii do on their child’s first birthday.

On that Luau plate above, from top left to bottom right is Squid Luau, Lomi Salmon, Poi, Big Island Smoked Pork, Kalua Pig, a small portion of a a Laulau, Chicken Long Rice, Okinawan Sweet Potato, Taro and a slice of Pineapple. All that’s missing is the Opihi, Raw Crab, Pipikaula Haupia and Kulolo.

I just want to send out a BIG, BIG MAHALO to everyone who’s visited, and especially those who have left so many kind comments. Lots of you have blogs of your own that I’m due to visit and reciprocate the gesture. It’s really hard to make time even to maintain this blog, but I’ll continue to share the aloha of great food, hopefully for many years to come.

Happy Birthday Tasty Island!

The Best Damn Enchiladas You’ve Ever Eaten, Period!

No, I didn’t proclaim those were the best damned enchiladas you or I have ever had. That’s actually what they’re titled on the menu. In the spirit of our wonderful previous experience at Los Chapparos, the crave for Mexican cuisine continues - this time of the “Tex” variety - over at Compadres in Ward Center.

Compadres Bar & Grill has been at Ward in the same location for as far back as I can remember. This place often bustles in the evening with locals for pauhana cocktails. It has a festive, roomy, open air ambiance, including an outdoor terrace and a view overlooking Ala Moana Beach Park.

Our lunch hour visit was on a Thursday. With that, there was a special of half-prices on all Enchilada menu items, which if I remember correctly by the sign, was effective Tuesday thru Thursday from 10am to 4pm.

With that, I ordered what they tout as pictured above, “The Best Damn Enchilada You’ve Ever Eaten, Period!”. A platter of two enchiladas – grilled fajita-marinated chicken breast, sauteed mushrooms, roasted red peppers, black olives, green onions, and cojita cheese folded in fresh corn tortillas and topped with fire-roasted fresh tomato salsa and guacamole. Served with fiesta rice, our “best outside of Mexico” refried beans and Compadres slaw. $16.95 menu price, but on special it was just $8.48.

Cross-cut of the “Best Damn Enchilada”
Like most Mexican dishes (in my opinion), the various components of the entire dish often become homogenized into one, but if I had to give a flavor profile of this “Best Damn Enchilada”, I’d say it reminded me of a “Mexicanized Pastele”. Mostly likely because of the pronounced Olive flavor. The red sauce had a nice tang and spice to it and complimented the enchilada well. The slaw was pretty good. The fiesta rice and refried beans were standard fare. Not bad, not great, but it worked. At half price, I certainly agreed to the dish. Not sure I’d feel the same if I had paid the full price.

Diner “number 2″ ordered Enchilada Dela Casa…

Enchilada Dela Casa

The “dos” version includes 2 tortillas, stuffed with shredded beef and (in this case, the other one was chicken), topped with a mixture of marinated vegetables and olives, with cheese melted over and smothered in a mild red sauce. $15.50 menu, half price special $7.75. While perhaps not ready to do the salsa in celebration of how good it was, he was satisfied with the dish.

Diners “number 3 and 4″ ordered the Chimichanga…

Chimichanga

A deep fried burrito – your choice of shredded beef or fresh cooked chicken, refried beans, then topped with tomatillo guacamole and ancho chile sauces.
Served with fiesta rice and Mexican salad. $12.95 menu price (no special on this item).

Above you can see the Chimichanga’s shredded beef. Diners #3 & 4 were satisfied. Enough that they both finished their entire plate. So that says it was good. Especially being that they’re two rather petite young ladies! You go girls! They really loved that guac’ and ancho chili sauces. Sure looks great. I should’ve asked them for a bite so I could describe exactly how they tasted. Maybe next time.

Diner “number 3″, the birthday girl ordered the Vegetarian Enchilada…

Vegetarian Enchilada (sorry about the blurry picture)

A fresh spinach tortilla filled with fresh seasonal vegetables, guacamole, Monterey Jack cheese, and cilantro, covered with green sauce and topped with salsa fresca. $11.75 menu price, $5.85 half off special. Birthday girl was happy. She finished the entire dish.

The “Mexican” component of the green salad provided with each entree was this bottle of salsa-like dressing (I don’t know the actual name of it)…

There was so much sauce already provided on each dish, that nobody used the dressing on their salad.

Because he had just had Mexican the night before, Diner “number 5″ opted out of the theme and ordered the All American Burger…

All American Burger

Eight-ounces of fresh ground beef, broiled to order, and garnished with a tomato slice, Bermuda onion, and lettuce. $10.95 menu price. He said the grilled patty itself was juicy and flavorful. His only complaint was the tiny “cheap” bun they used, kinda’ like a half-ton 4×4 truck rolling on spare tires. lol. For over $10 a burger, they really need to improve on their bun selection. Those thick-cut fries were excellent. Tender inside, crispy outside. I tried a few.

As with most Mexican restaurants, complimentary bottomless salsa and tortilla chips were provided immediately upon seating…

Everyone really loved the salsa and chips here. So much that we almost ate too much before our meal. Aren’t we all guilty of doing that? Admit it! lol The salsa had nice body to it, with a good-size dice of the tomatoes and just the right viscosity; not watery, not too thick. Just enough to adhere to the tortilla. Pepper level was mild-medium hot. The fresh tortilla chips were thick and extra crispy.

That was just nipping the bud of what’s available at Compadres. Click on this link to their view the entire (PDF) menu.

Portions were perfectly suited to our lunchtime appetite. Enough that everyone was able to mostly finish their plate without feeling underfed or overstuffed. We were overall well satisfied with the food and quick, attentive service.

Free parking is conveniently located in the structure located just steps away from the front door.

Compadres Bar & Grill
WARD CENTRE, HONOLULU
1200 Ala Moana Boulevard Honolulu, HI 96814
Phone:(80 591-8307, FAX: (80 593-2901
www.compadresrestaurants.com/ward

Tasty Island Rating:

Ono

Onion Bagel Roast Beef Sandwich

Bagels… gotta’ love ‘em! Any type (plain, egg, onion, poppy seeds, blueberry, etc.), split in half, with a generous layer of (plain or flavored) cream cheese spread on each side, then ‘nuked’ to soften the cheese and bagel. One of those rare, perfect marriages of culinary delight.

Yesterday for lunch we visited Lox of Bagels, located on Sand Island Access Rd., where I ordered a Roast Beef Bagel Sandwich prepared the following way: a house-made toasted Onion Bagel, split and filled with a heaping layer of roast beef, Alfalfa sprouts, Manoa lettuce, tomato, red onion, mustard and mayo’, with a dill wedge on the side for $5.25. This my friends is purely a quality-over-quantity affair.

And how was it? Absolutely delicious. The chewy texture combined with the flavorful and toasty crust of the bagel with all that onions speckled on it was the perfect compliment to the heaping layer of roast beef and fresh vegetables. Speaking of quantity, it’s just right. Just enough that I could only eat half the sandwich in one sitting, waiting for that “second wind” to complete the other half about an hour later. And I was content. The dill pickle wedge was the perfect accompaniment. Along with roast beef, other sandwich offerings include ham, tuna, salami, pastrami, chicken salad and smoked turkey. All $5.25 each. You can also add cheese - cheddar, mozzarella, provolone or swiss - for 50 cents.

As you might expect from a dedicated bagel shop, Lox of Bagels is quite diverse in their offerings.

The star attraction, the bagels, are available in over 20 varieties. The usual suspects are there, plus some interesting others such as Banana Walnut (yum), Jalapeno, Taro, “Hawaiian” and guava. My favorite has always been the onion bagel, which is what I opted for on my sandwich above. You can select any variety for your sandwich order. Bagels alone are $.95 each, $5.40 for a half dozen and $10.80 for a baker’s dozen (13).

They have a variety of cream cheese spreads that are pre-prepared in containers in a self-serve refrigerator near the front counter. These flavored spreads include plain, honey, cinnamon walnut, spinach herb, chive, strawberry, guava, lox, garden vegetable, Japaleno-Cheddar, cucumber onion dill and bacon-scallion. Available in 2 oz. or 8 oz. sizes between $1.25 to $5.50 each.

The lox spread has the salmon incorporated into the cream cheese. If you prefer a true New York style “Lox and Bagel”, they have what’s called “The Manhattan, which uses whole slices of smoked Salmon (Lox) and I think onions and capers. Well it should. It’s kinda’ pricey at $7.75.

A popular time to go there is during breakfast (they open at 5am M-F), where you can get a tasty (hey I like that word!) Bagel Breakfast Sandwich that includes a buttered bagel split in half and filled with eggs, with or without other additions of cheese, bacon or ham. Someone needs to suggest they put Portuguese Sausage on that list! At $2.30 tp 3.95 respectively, that’s a pretty good deal. I’ve had these before and let me tell you, it really fills you up and energizes you for that long work day ahead!

They also have bagel pizzas and melts. Here’s the Pepperoni and Cheese…

Pizza Bagel: Onion Bagel topped with tomato sauce, mozzarella and slices of pepperoni, $3.25 (for both halves).

My friend who ordered that gave it a “thumbs up”. He also ordered this quite unique twist here, simply called the Bagel Dog!…

Bagel Dog

$2.75 gets you one these absolutely awesome dogs. A jumbo all-beef Oscar Mayer wiener, wrapped in a toasty, chewy bagel bun.. come on! Don’t tell me that doesn’t sound good! It’s awesome! He gave me a good-sized sample to try and I absolutely loved it. Lox of Bagels needs to set up a cart at the UH football games and sell these. Guaranz’ they’d sell out. Bring in a Matson container full of ‘em. I’ll eat every one. lol

OK, enough with that Bagel Dog. It’s making me hungry.

Their other specialty are the Bagel “Puffs”, which are flavored bagels shaped like a manapua instead of a doughnut. There’s a Cinnamon Raisin puff with cream cheese filling @ $85 cents each, or specialty puffs (chocolate or peanut butter) @ 1.20 each. They even have one with Azuki beans. There’s also a bagel danish.

Lastly there’s Auntie Sunny’s Bagel Chips. Basically toasted, crispy slices (chips) of bagels (usually made from the previous days leftovers), flavored with cinnamon sugar, buttery garlic or Parmesan Garlic. $5.25-$5.75 for a generous-sized bag. Great snack!

They also have salads, including chicken, Mediterranean, Mandarin Chicken and fresh fruit. They used to have soups, but they crossed it off the menu. Guess those weren’t popular.

Being an early riser, they fittingly offer a list of coffee drinks, including Espresso, Red Eye and Cafe Latte to name a few, in single or double sizes. You can also add flavored shots.

Lox of Bagels is located on the far left end corner in a strip mall at the end of the main drag of Sand Island Access Rd… The shop itself is rather small, making it mostly a take-out affair, with just a few small tables inside.

Next time you’re hungry for a different kind of sandwich for breakfast or lunch, or if you simply love bagels, swing by and check out Lox of Bagels. Highly recommended.

LOX OF BAGELS
Sand Island Center
111 Sand Island Access Road
Honolulu, Hawaii 96819
Tel: (80 845-2855 Fax: (80 845-8679
Mon-Fri: 5:00am to 3:00pm
Sat: 6:30am to 2pm Sun: closed

Winnahz!

**Also see this story**