Amina Pizzeria, 1694 Kalakaua Ave Honolulu HI 96826

Last night when it came time for dinner I pulled up the Yelp website and checked to see what restaurants around me were affordable and well rated.  There are at least a dozen well rated Asian restaurants near me with a good mix of Korean and Japanese with a few Chinese places.  Looking at the list I realized I wasn’t in the mood for any of those and I ended up going to Amina Pizzeria. 

It’s a tiny, only 4 tables, hole-in-the-wall local Italian place.  It’s the sort of place where most of the orders are carryout and the soda comes in cans.  The spaghetti and meat sauce I ordered was good and the garlic bread that came with it was excellent.  I’ll probably go there again when I’m in the mood to try a pizza or calzone.

You can call and place an order at 808-949-3584.  The prices are very reasonable.  I spent 10.95 on the spaghetti plate with a soda.

Chelsea's Kitchen - Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, AZ

In the long layover I have before my plan leaves for Honolulu I met my Paupau and step-grandmother, Mary, for lunch.

We went to a restaurant in the Phoenix airport called Chelsea's Kitchen.  Paupau and I had cheeseburgers while Mary had the soup of the day, a tomato chicken soup.  The fries that came with my burger had a very nice seasoning salt.  The food was all good and the service prompt.  It was no more expensive than I've come to expect for good food in an airport.

Before I went Mary got a picture of me alone and a picture of me with Paupau.

Red Lantern, Rolling Meadows, IL

This restaurant is located in a strip mall at 1655 Algonquin Rd, Rolling Meadows, IL 60008. The phone number is (847) 439-3380.

This is an Asian/Chinese sit down restaurant. There was a large lazy susan in the middle of the table, so that it is easy to share food around the table. Not being Asian we were given the menus in English. Appetizers were avocado spring rolls and crab rangoons. Both of which were quite tasty. I ordered the Orange Beef, which was easily big enough for two people. I enjoyed it very much. For desert I ordered the crispy banana rolls. This is a pair of bananas wrapped like an egg roll and fried with honey drizzled over all. This tasted good, though the banana was rather mushy. It was best eaten like a normal egg roll.

Unlike the last several places we’ve been, the prices are much more reasonable.

Stoney River, Deer Park, IL

This restaurant is located at 20504 North Rand Rd, Deer Park, IL 60010. The phone number is (847) 719-1596.
We arrived shortly before 6 o’clock and were shown to a side room. It had three large round tables down the middle and booths around the sides. The wall between this room and the bar helped to cut down the noise, which was appreciated since it allowed us to talk across the table.

Ambiance:
The lights were set at a restful level and the customers looked to be dressed in business casual or a bit nicer.

Service:
The waitress was attentive, regularly coming past the table to check to see that we had everything we needed. There were a few points that could have been improved on; she put the desert silverware in the center of the table where it was a little hard to reach. Overall the service was good.

Food:
This is a restaurant that specializes in steak, and it shows. I had an excellent steak, and Jim said that the prime rib he got was one of the best he’s ever had. They have other dishes, like the salmon that Frank got, which are also good.

After everyone had ordered baskets of fried biscuits with sweet butter were brought. These were so good that I had to consciously resist the urge to eat the entire basketful.

Each steak came with an order of potatoes, which could be changed to a vegetable for a small charge. There were around eight options on the potatoes including baked potato, baked sweet potato, fries, mashed potatoes with caramelized onions, and au gratin potatoes. There were a number of vegetable options. All of the potato options tried tasted good. I had the fries and felt that they were nothing special, but they were pretty good fries. The au gratin potatoes were interesting. They were made with parmesan rather than cheddar, and came out looking like a grayish white brick. Apparently it was a good tasting brick, but Jim said the shape and color made it look rather like a urinal cake. Outside of that unfortunate visual the food was excellent and looked good.

We also got an order of asparagus with the meal. It was a generous serving of cooked asparagus. It was good, though not anything extraordinary.

Desert was a dish with a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream between two large cookies made of almond slices. It was sweet and not too heavy, making it an excellent desert.

Price:
Prices are rather on the high side. The cuts of meat are good cuts of meat well prepared, which the prices reflect. The other dishes were reasonably priced for their size.

Seasons 52, Schaumburg, IL

This restaurant at 1770 E Higgins Road, Schaumburg, IL 60173. The phone number is (847) 517-5252. Seasons 52 has a seasonal menu, which naturally changes four times a year, and a weekly list of specials. None of the items on the menu is more than 475 calories. It also has a wine list and full bar.

We arrived at 4:45 and, after a gathering in the piano bar we were taken to the Chef's table. This is a table seating up to ten people that has a decorative wall between it and the main dining room.

Ambiance:
The restaurant and bar are dark wood. The diners were mostly wearing casual to business casual clothing. The noise level at the Chef's table was very comfortable level for conversation. In the main dining room it was somewhat louder, though not too bad for a group smaller than eight.

Service:
The server came by at regular intervals. She checked whether we needed anything without being pushy about it. They weren't perfect but the server looked like she was doing her best. The most noticeable example of imperfection was when one of the eight sets of silverware didn't make it to the table with the entrees.

Food:
Since we were at the Chef's table a small free appetizer was presented by the chef. This was goat cheese on artichoke heart with wild arugula and half a grape tomato. This was quite tasty.

For appetizers the Baked Stuffed Mushrooms and the Ripe Plum Tomato Flatbread. The flatbread was crispy and pleasantly seasoned with garlic and cheese. It reminded me of a fancy thin crust pizza. The mushrooms were stuffed with crab meat and had a shrimp to cap the mushroom and nearly the whole plate was covered with Parmesan cheese. Each mushroom was in its own well on the plate.

I ordered a spicy black bean soup to arrive before dinner, which it did. It was a decent black bean soup, though nothing extraordinary.

I got the Cedar Plank Salmon for dinner. It came with whole roasted carrots, asparagus, and red potatoes. The salmon was good and the vegetables were excellent. They didn't need any further seasoning.

The deserts come in shot glasses. I got the Meyer Lemon Cake. A deliciously lemony desert with whipped cream on top.

Price: The dinners were reasonably priced. So were the soup and the deserts, deserts were $2.50. The appetizer was somewhat less reasonable, though not unreasonable.

McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Restaurant, Schaumburg, IL

This location is no longer listed on the McCormick & Schmick's site, and appeared to be closed when I drove past on 4/30/11.


This restaurant is at 1140 East Higgins Road in Schaumburg, IL. The phone number is 847-517-116.

The atmosphere in the restaurant was nice, relatively quiet and relaxed. The dress tended towards business casual or casual for the other diners I saw.

We arrived at 5 pm, the restaurant was quiet and the server checked on us regularly. As the evening wore on and the restaurant got moderately busy the server quit checking regularly, and became less attentive when he did check in. Towards the end of the evening he became confused over the coffee order, bringing an extra decaf instead of the list of coffee drinks with Frau Angelico that was requested. He also messed up the bill when it came time to split it. He accidentally put one of our deserts on a different bill. He corrected it when the error was pointed out and tried to pass it over with a comment about how difficult it is to split up a bill. It is true that this can be difficult, particularly if the server doesn't properly attach the order to the seat as looked to have happened in this case.

I ordered the California Roll as an appetizer and the Sea Scallops with Mushroom and Asparagus Risotto for the entree. The California Roll came out on a dish with wasabi, pickled ginger, a spicy red sauce, and a very small bowl of soy sauce. It is good that it came with the spices because the roll itself was pretty tasteless. Unfortunately, it didn't come with a dish to mix the sauces in.

There is a story to go with the Scallops with Risotto. I had intended to order the Scallops sauteed with tomatoes, mushrooms, and crostini. When I was ordering I pointed to the Scallops sauteed and said I'd like the Sea Scallops with tomato and mushroom. The waiter said, "The Risotto?" and I made the mistake of saying yes. So I got the Sea Scallops with Mushroom and Asparagus Risotto. A side note, pay attention when you order as the waiter might confuse a less expensive dish with a more expensive dish. The scallops were tasty and so was the risotto. There was something strewn over the risotto. It seemed to be toasted sprouts. They didn't add anything to the dish as far as I was concerned.

All in all, I suggest not going here. The service was mediocre. The food was good, but not extraordinary. The only thing it really has going for it is a better wine list than Red Lobster and a fancier selection than either Dover Straits or Red Lobster.