Right after our shenanigans at Pali Lookout, we decided to go to a local hotspot called Boots & Kimo right off Hekili St in Kailua. Boots & Kimo were recommended to us by numerous friends before our trip. All of them seemed to roll their eyes as they muttered under breath, “Boots & Kimo pancake hmmmmm” and/or “Boots & Kimo Pulehu short ribs hmmmmm”. Followed by the generic statement that seemed to be only for this restaurant "You guys need to go there REAL early! You might end up eating breakfast at lunch! There's always a line there because theres only six tables inside." As we drove in through Hekili St looking for the restaurant, we immediately saw "THE LINE"... It actually wasn't that bad as the time was around 730am.
The sight of this really got us excited! The restaurant has only been open for about 15 mins and there were already people lining up. So we parked the car quickly across the street, and darted across to fall in line. The aroma of cooked meat and pancake was wafting through the door as people kept going in and out. This kept us occupied as we waited for another 30 mins. When the hostess brought us inside, we were suprised that it looked like a hole in a wall shack. It seemed that it has not been renovated for years, all the pictures, news paper clippings were brown and tattered. The tables and seats looked like it has been abused, mended with duct tape, and then abused further. Not to mention that it was also REALLY TIGHT/ clausterphobic in there. The waitress seemed to walk sideways as she navigated through the seats and six tables while taking orders, and bringing food/beverage. So our expectation went WAY down!!! But it dawned on us that despite these glaring facts, people were still lining up for at least 30 mins! It means that their food is just that DAMN awesome! So we eagerly ordered one famous Pulehu short ribs and one fabulous Banana Pancake Macadamia Sauce which came quickly to our stomach's delight.
The lightly salted Pulehu short ribs was cooked to perfection, just the right tenderness (not too soft and not too firm) and very juicy. The meat tasted very clean but beefy, it taste like organic beef! The 2 eggs were the perfect compliment as it evened out the saltiness of the short ribs.
And then we had the Banana Pancake with Macadamia sauce. The pancake itself was also cooked to perfection! Unlike most pancake that are very dry, their pancake was very moist inside and was generously drenched with the Macadamia sauce. I don't have much of a sweet tooth (michelle does) and normally I just have a couple of bites of what ever we're having for desert, but THIS was different! The sauce had just the right sweetness to it, so we just kept eating it cause it never satisfied our sweetness threshold! Every bite that we took was soaked in macadamia sauce, and the banana inside evened out the sweetness of the sauce. As we were finishing our meal the waitress mentioned to us that they were closing down their restaurant next week for a couple months to open a bigger venue down the street. Boy were we lucky! After that GLORIOUS meal, we became believers!
Check out Part 3 of 5!
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