Lunch Special at Nabeya Maido

A friend of mine wanted to take me out for my birthday this week, and let me choose the place since it was my birthday. Without a second thought I chose Nabeya Maido because I was craving Japanese style nabe and it's close to the office.

There are two things that I love about Nabeya Maido - 1) the Maido Nabe broth, and 2) the $9.90 lunch special.

Maido's $9.90 Lunch Special consists of a omakase (house-chosen) platter of protein, veggies, udon, and your choice of broth.  

$9.90 lunch special

Nabeya Maido's top selling broth is their "Maido Nabe" which is a clear, shoyu-based broth with a touch of garlic and pepper.  If you look closely, you can see the ultra thin slices of garlic. But don't worry, the garlic flavor is not heavy and it won't be seeping out of your pores later in the day.

Maido Broth

The two of us shared one Lunch Special, and an assortment of ala carte items.  During happy hour (opening until 5:30 PM), ala carte items are 20% off.

Lunch special + ala carte items

Cooking nabe is easy - just wait for the broth to come to a boil, then place your ingredients into the pot.  Make sure your protein is fully cooked before removing it from the pot.

Also available at your table are a handful of dipping sauces (e.g. ponzu, shoyu).  Frankly, the soup has so much flavor that I didn't use any dipping sauces!  

At the end of your meal, our server asked if we wanted to take home the leftover soup.  Of course I'm going to take them up on their offer, because I can make another meal out of it using veggies, chicken, and noodles that I have at home. 

The $9.90 lunch special is available on weekdays and weekends from the time they open (11 AM on weekdays, 10:30 AM on weekends) until they sell out.  They only make 10 sets on the weekdays and 15 sets on the weekends, so you need to come in early if you want to take advantage of the special.  If they're all out of the special, you will still get 20% off their menu until 5:30 PM.

Nabeya Maido

2919 Kapiolani Blvd

(808) 739-7739

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Healthy & Tasty Fare at Pono Plates

I recently had lunch with a friend at Pono Plates, which opened in Pearl City earlier this year. 

Pono Plates focuses on serving customers healthy, tasty options that are heart-healthy, gluten-free, diabetic-friendly, vegetarian-friendly, and/or paleo-friendly.

Sweet Potato Pork Adobo

Garlic Chicken with Sweet Potato Fries

Panko Crusted Taro Cakes

I had the taro cakes (vegetarian-, heart- & diabetic-friendly), and it was super delicious!  The taro cakes were nice and crispy on the outside, but soft and tender on the inside.  They were seasoned well, and the accompanying dressing was the perfect complement.

The garlic chicken (treat-friendly) is actually served spicy, but because our kids were going to eat it, the employee taking our order said she could request the spicy sauce to be left off.  The chicken was so tasty.  The garlic sauce really shined, and was not too overpowering. 

My friend said the adobo was okay - the vinegar taste was a little too strong for her liking.

Service was good, and I really enjoyed the food.  Healthy food can look beautiful (love the colors of all the different foods that were in each dish) and be very delicious!

I'd definitely order the taro cakes and garlic chicken again!


Pono Plates
1140 Kuala St Suite 104
Pearl City, HI  96782
(808) 455-5655

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