For the last 2 months, I’ve had to travel to Honolulu, Hawaii 4 times. 10 years ago, I stayed at the Ala Moana Hotel so I decided to stay there again. Unfortunately, the entire hotel has been changed to a condo based hotel, remodeled and completely different from 10 years ago.

This hotel is located within walking distance from the new convention center and the Ala Moana shopping center. So if those 2 things are of interest to you, and you are just going to sleep in the room while you do business in Honolulu, then the location is perfect.

The pricing can vary from $90 (special rates from Expedia) to $170 (regular rates) depending on the deal you can get. There are 2 towers (Waikiki and Kona) and the rooms are basically a very small room with a bed (except the 1 bedroom suites) and only vary according to your view out the window. The Waikiki tower has balconies, the elevators are closer to the lobby, and the elevator stops directly on the 2nd floor where you can walk to the mall without having to come down to the lobby. However, usually the Kona tower rooms are cheaper (but not always).

Notice the chair against the bed

A few (not all) of the regular rooms are smaller than normal, as you can see above. Out of the 4 times, I got one of these small rooms once. The width is so tight that the chair at the desk will not come out far enough for you to be able to sit down. The bed will get in the way of the chair and it’s hard to even walk past it. It looks like the width was somehow made too short (either by accident or design) and you can see below that the closet door (when closed) covers the light switch panel. It doesn’t block the actual switch but you can see the design is very strange.

The closet door covering part of the light switch

This room size reminds me of a hotel I stayed in many years ago in Billund Denmark where the closet sized room was so small, the bathroom door opened out into the room because there was no room inside the bathroom for the door to open into. The entire room was about the size of a large walk in closet.

But I digress.

There’s a Chinese restaurant on the 3rd floor and The Plantation Cafe on the ground floor, but is only open to 10am, so if you’re like me and get up late, forget about getting brunch there.

That’s the bad news.

The good news is, the service is acceptable and problems that I had in the rooms were quickly solved and the rooms are clean and relatively new looking.

You also get free Internet in the room (cabled so bring your own WiFi), and there is WiFi in the lobby but you have to pay.

There’s a business center with computers, swimming pool, fitness center, electronic safe, refrigerator, hair dryer,  microwave oven, coffee maker, and iron (and board).  If you’re into HDTV, you’re out of luck but they do have basic cable, as well as TV checkout (which seems to be down a lot).

So if you’re in Honolulu for business, and need to be near the convention center and/or Ala Moana shopping center, and don’t really care about the view or size of your room, this might be the place for you. If you want to be right next to the beach or you’re on your honeymoon, this is definitely not the right one for you.

Ala Moana Hotel
410 Atkinson Drive
Honolulu, Hawaii 96814
808-955-4811
alamoanahotel.com

Many Angelenos know about the sushi Nazi at Sushi Nozawa in Studio City. What I wasn’t aware of  is that he and some investors have decided to open a chain of sushi restaurants called Sugarfish around Los Angeles. The idea that you can duplicate the “Trust Me” sushi at multiple locations is somewhat counter intuitive.

Nonetheless, we decided to try the Brentwood version of this experiment. The restaurant is located in a strip mall so parking is no problem. However, the actual restaurant is tiny and they do not take reservations so come early or plan on waiting a while to get in.

Although you can order sushi a la carte, basically, the menu consists of 3 items: Trust Me ($28.50), Trust Me Lite ($19.50) and The Nozawa ($35-$38).

Tuna Sashimi

All the 3 choices come with Tuna Sashimi which comes with the perfect sauce that makes the sashimi taste completely different from dipping it into regular soy sauce.

Nigiri sushi

As for the nigiri sushi, the rice is warm and is not packed tightly and is loose and will break apart. Traditionally, it’s proper to use your hands when eating nigiri sushi so that might be the best way to eat these nigiri sushi. However, the ponzu sauce makes it a little messy if you use your hand.

But I digress.

The point is, all the nigiri sushi are absolutely amazingly delicious. When they tell you it will melt in your mouth, it’s not an exaggeration. If you’re one of those people that don’t like chewy sushi like octopus, you’re in the right place.  Frankly, I don’t think this is strictly traditional nigiri sushi but if not, it’s better than that.

Traditional roll

They have kept the Nazi feeling here by having the waitress tell you to eat the plates right away before the nori (sea weed) becomes soft and telling you not to dip the sushi that has ponzu sauce into soy sauce. Hey! Don’t tell me how to eat my food. Okay, they’re right but I just don’t like being told what to do.

What’s very surprising is the service. They bring the plates as the sushi is prepared so that some people in your party will get their sushi first, which is unusual. Personally, I have no problem with that. What I have a problem with is that the server did not ask if I needed more green tea even once on 3 separate trips. This is exactly the opposite of what happened to me at Mori Sushi where they basically stalked you constantly filling and re-filling your green tea.

On one of my 3 trips there, we didn’t even get a menu for about 10 minutes, even though people were being served next to us.  Any competent server at Denny’s would be better. On top of that, a bottle of beer was dropped by the waitress at the table near us and splashed everywhere. I watched the entire event from the start and the way she was serving the bottle tells me that this waitress has never served beer before, let alone know what to do when it is dropped to the floor.

Don’t get me wrong. I wouldn’t categorize the service here as “bad,” but certainly questionable for a Nazi place where they tell you how and when to eat.

I could be completely wrong but it appears that the servers are completely inexperienced. Perhaps, this is a way to save money. If so, this is a really bad business decision and might be the only reason for this place not succeeding in the long run.

And no, the green tea is not free.

Whatever is going on with the service, that’s about the only fault I can find in this place. The food is certainly unquestionably good, and affordable for the excellent quality.

I’ve already been here 3 times now and plan on returning again soon.

Sugarfish Brentwood
11640 W. San Vicente Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90049
310-820-4477
sugarfishsushi.com

After getting a new black couch, I realized that every little piece of lint, hair, dandruff, and Cheetos dust shows up like DNA under black light. During Black Friday, I decided to look around and found a good deal on Best Buy online for a Dyson DC31 Animal hair “hand-held” (quotes intended) vacuum cleaner.

Dyson DC31

This version is normally $270 but during Black Friday, it was about $220 with tax. I have the regular full sized Dyson vacuum cleaner and I really like it’s performance so I decided to get this blind, without looking at it at the store first.

When I took it out of the box, I was a little surprised at the size. I was expecting something a little closer to the old hand-held vacuum I used to have from Black & Decker, or even the free one from Oreck with a cord. To get an idea of how big this is, the picture above shows the device and the height is over a foot and weighs 3.3 pounds. So if you’re weak, this vacuum is not for you. It’s like a big gun with a red trigger.

The two features that I wanted for a handheld vacuum were bagless and cordless (with rechargeable battery), which this unit has.

You can see the brush that rotates in the head in a close-up view below.

Close-up of brush

This unit is made for people with pets so it’s really strong and will pick up anything and everything. There’s no doubt about the strength of this unit and because of the bagless design, it’s easy to clean with nothing to replace. The lever for dumping the dirt is shown below in close-up. This level causes the bottom of the collector area to open like a door and allows you to dump the dirt and dust. Sometimes the crap inside gets stuck and it can be a little bit of work to get it all out.

Release lever for the dirt

The only consideration for this unit is the size and weight. I would strongly recommend that you go to the brick and mortar store and pick it up yourself to determine if it’s too big for you or not. It might be too heavy for older people so probably don’t buy this for your grandmother. For younger folk, it’s a good workout for your arm and I recommend it over anything else I’ve seen so far.

One of my favorite dishes is Veal Piccata, so when I was told about a good Italian restaurant in Honolulu, I decided to try it out. It’s located inside the Ala Moana shopping center, so it’s very convenient if you’re already shopping there.

Veal Piccata

The atmosphere here is casual but not in a bad way. I like the setup, although in some areas, the tables seemed to be too close together.

I didn’t even read the entire menu, and went straight for the Veal Piccata. I’ve had Veal Piccata at many Italian restaurants around the country and the world. Unfortunately, I must report that although this one was cooked properly, the sauce was only average at best. I cannot recommend it for somebody that really is into it like me.

Worse that the Veal, the service was terrible. During dinner, the waitress did not come back to ask me if I needed anything. Not even once. I find this to be below acceptable levels of service.

All in all, between the average Veal and bad service, I’ll have to skip this place next time I’m here.

Ala Moana
1450 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 1259
Honolulu, HI 96814
808-942-3446
assaggiohi.com

Previously, I wrote a quick review of this sushi roll place, but wanted to add a little more information. Although this place specializes in all kinds of rolls, you can order regular nigiri sushi here. But what you get is the largest, thickest piece of raw fish you may have seen anywhere.

Salmon nigiri

In my wildest dreams, I never thought that I would ever complain about sushi having too much raw fish, but I must say that these pieces were too thick and too large. There is such a thing as too much of a good thing. If it was cut thinner, it might have been okay but it was just too ridiculously big. Some may like it, but I didn’t.

11629 Santa Monica Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90025
(310) 996-2366
calrollfactory.com

After trying out Redbox, I decided to try Netflix on the PS3, which streams movies directly to your HDTV for only $7.99 (streaming only with no DVDs by mail). Using the PS3 to sign up turned out to be a little harder than I expected. First, I got the error below:

Not a good start

Restarting didn’t fix anything so I deleted Netflix, and re-installed it with the same results. The only way I was able to fix it was to go to the Netflix website from my computer and sign-up, then delete and re-install the app on the PS3 and try again. I did finally manage to get things working but if a techno geek like me had some problems, I hate to see what would happen when the typical grandma tries this. I guess she wouldn’t have a PS3 anyway.

Once I got everything setup, I noticed that a lot of the movies available on DVD (via snail mail) are not available for streaming. But right now, they have a one month free trial period so it’s a good time to try it out.

My main concern was the quality of the stream. To my surprise, the video starts to stream in a few seconds and although not full HD quality, it is very good. The quality is about as good as what I got on my Tivo via Amazon Unbox, except that version had to download the entire movie first before viewing. My HDTV says it’s in 1080p mode but I think that’s the PS3 upgrading the video to that resolution.

When the video first starts, there’s a slight resolution deterioration, but after a few seconds, the resolution will improve to an acceptable level. Once in a while, there’s some color artifacts, especially when the scene is very dark, but for the most part, movies look fine. If you are in love with your Blu-ray high resolution movies on your 70″ screen, you might have a problem. Otherwise, you’re good.

The biggest problem is the lack of brand new movies. But they do have a long list of older movies, including a lot of classics that you may have missed. There’s plenty of content to check out, especially if you’re trying to do it in the one month free trial period.

Also, don’t forget you can still stream movies to your computer at home or at work, as well as to your iPhone.

On one of my outings to old town Pasadena, I decided to try out Kabuki for their sushi. This place kind of as a party atmosphere and their menu proves that with a long list of sake and other alcoholic beverages. I’ve never been here before but this is now a big chain. I have been to the original one on Foothill in Pasadena many years ago but this one is a newer branch.

For my sushi, I decided to go the easy route and got the Omakase Deluxe for $17 as shown below. “Omakase” in Japanese means that they choose what you get but according to the menu, I think it’s always the same.

Omakase Deluxe

The sushi is prepared properly and is fresh. You get a lot for your  money and is definitely a bargain, especially in old town Pasadena. The menu also includes ramen, soba and a lot of other goodies to try out. Unfortunately, hot green tea is not free here but the food is still pretty good.

All in all, if you want to drink, and have some good sushi, this is a good pick.

88 W. Colorado Blvd. #103, Pasadena, CA 91105
(626) 568-9310
kabukirestaurants.com

When the Kinect was shown at E3 last year, I thought it was a stupid ripoff of the Wii. Now, I take back everything bad I said about it. If you’re a perv, looking to grope without getting arrested, this hack is for you.

While in Hawaii, I decided to try out a chain sushi place called Genki Sushi. This place has the conveyor belt system like they have at the Frying Fish in Los Angeles. In case you’re not familiar with this system, the conveyor belt moves around the restaurant bringing pre-made sushi plates around to the customers. This place is clean and new looking, and often very busy because of the low prices.

Genki Sushi conveyor belt

Unfortunately, that’s about the end of the good news. There’s a reason why the prices are so low. The sushi “chefs” are basically minimum wage type workers who have been trained to use some type of mold they used to create square pieces of rice. As you can see below, not only are the pieces tiny, the rice falls apart because they are not created by pressing them into the hand like a real sushi chef would.

Ika Sushi - $1.50

Also, as with other conveyor belt sushi places, it’s not a good idea to pick up the ones from the belt because it’s often not fresh. It’s smarter to order a specific piece from the waitress so you get one made fresh. As a matter of fact, the saw some on the belt that looked like it was dried out and old. Yuck.

After trying a few different ones with no luck, I came across the Natto Sushi (shown below) that was tasty and made in an acceptable way. Hey, how can they screw this up, right?

As for service, because it was so busy, service was sub-par. Nobody came to see if I needed more tea or anything else for that matter. The only person helping me was the guy sitting next to me at the counter. But what do you expect for these low prices?

Natto Sushi - $1.50

All in all, if you are not a picky sushi eater (unlike me), and want to save money, and don’t mind the crowds, and happen to be in Honolulu, you might try this place. Otherwise, skip it.

Genki Sushi
Ala Moana Center
1450 Ala Moana Blvd.#2096
Honolulu, HI 96814
(808) 942-9102
genkisushiusa.com