Hawaii Restaurants~Koi and Sonny's Grill

*After reading about all Kat's Hawaii adventures, I just realized that I had a lot of Hawaii posts that I forgot to post. I'll be back home in Hawaii in a couple of months and still haven't gotten around to posting about the places I visited when I was back home in April.***

On one of my last days back in Hawaii, while Mike was at work, I went on a "food extravaganza" with a good college friend from back home. We checked out two restaurants, a shave ice shop, and a mochi/tofu shop all in a couple of hours.
We decided to stay on my side of the island and checked out placed in the Kalihi/Kapalama area. We chose the restaurants based on the numerous articles my mom had cut out of the newspaper about new restaurants. She had checked out "Koi" earlier in the year and said that she enjoyed the "chicken and portabello salad" and the "grilled steak" (which won an award at hte Flavors of Honolulu 2008).
The choices at Koi include items such as, "crab topped salmon," "steak and portabello salad," and the classics "hamburger steak w/ mushroom gravy" and "pork chops with garlic mashed potatoes." Positives about the place...the prices are pretty reasonable. The prices range from mini-plates $4.75-6.25, and regular plates $6.50-$8.00 and the staff was super friendly and helpful. While my friend and I were discussing what we were going to order, the counter lady heard me say that I cannot handle eating wasabi. She said, "I didn't want to jump into your conversation, but I don't like wasabi either, but it the sauce only have a mild wasabi flavor, and we can put it in the side for you."
We settled on the furikake mahimahi (seared island mahimahi crusted with Japanese seaweed served with a wasabi tartar sauce). It was delicious. My friend wanted to be healthy and order a mixed green salad, but I said that we had to try the mac salad because in my mind, a good mac salad means that the food probably tastes good.
Our next stop was "Sonny's Grill" which is your typical local plate lunch and breakfast joint. Again, the staff was super friendly (I started wondering if I have lived away from Hawaii too long, and that I forgot just how nice local people are).

We settled on the mixed bento called that was only $6.95 for a bento containing, grilled mahi, omelet, spam, teri beer, and puehulu steak.
Plate lunch prices ranged from: minis: $5.75-6.25, and regulars $6.00-$7.95.
The differences between the two restaurants was that I feel like Koi served a little bit more refined food. Sonny's was more of your typical plate lunch foods-two scoops rice, mac salad, and your choice of meat.


Koi
2028 Dillingham Bvd. (across the Blood Bank of Hawaii)
(808)845-4564
Hours: M-Sat: 10am-2pm

Sonny's Gril
717 N. King St.
(808)842-9919
Hours: M-F 7am-7pm; Sat-Sun:8am-2pm