Just chillin' on a cloudy day
Can you
believe it’s cloudy?!?! I have had Honolulu weather displayed on my computer at
work every day for two years and it’s hardly ever cloudy, but today it’s
cloudy. Never mind, cloudy day in paradise, it’s still paradise. :)
There is not
much on the agenda for today, we are moving hotels, I had booked us into the
Sheraton Princess Kaiulani for our entire stay, but because we decided to leave
a day early chose to rough it for the night at the Sheraton Waikiki.
We headed
down for breakfast in the restaurant by the pool The Ocean Terrace, where I
enjoyed half a papaya with a wedge of lemon, and Mel had poached eggs with hash
brown and a slice of pineapple and of course, both of us enjoyed a cup or two
of delicious Kona coffee.
As soon as we had settled into our digs for the rest of the week, Mel realised she had left something behind in the other hotel, so we walked back to get it. Once retrieved we stopped for lunch at the Cheesecake Factory, you may be surprised to learn there is more on their menu than cheesecake, but boy is there a lot of cheesecake.
After our
thoroughly enjoyable meal at which we didn’t try any of the cheesecake,
although we promise to come back even if it was just for the cheesecake, it was
on to a shop Mel was keen to leave some of her money behind with.
During our
walk back to the hotel, we stopped at all the shops along the main road at
Waikiki, Macy’s for a new pair of swimmers, and another shop for some different
nail polish colours; with names like ‘Hawaiian Orchid’, ‘An Affair in Red
Square’ and ‘Nice Colour eh?’ it was hard not to buy them just for the names. We
finally made it back to our room to unload our purchases and get ready for
dinner. We had decided after our big lunch at the cheesecake factory we would
go light and head back to the Mai Tai bar for the Mahi-mahi I had last night -
oh, and a cocktail or two.
We made our
way back to the hotel via the beach and the Moana Surfrider Hotel where we sat
on the front veranda in the rocking chairs enjoying the ambiance on this fine
Hawaiian evening.
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Mel and I ate here for lunch twice during our stay in Waikiki. Mel had heard it was a great place to eat, and I am pleased to say, she heard right.
The first day we ate here, we had to wait for a table because we wanted to sit outside so we could watch the world go by on the busy Waikiki sidewalk, but had we wanted to sit inside we could have had a seat without having to wait. However, if you want to have dinner here, I suggest you come and line up well before you want to eat, as each night we walked past there was always a very long line of people waiting to go in. We took a seat at the bar and hadn’t even had time to order a drink when the receptionist summoned us back to be taken to our table.
I suggest you bring your appetite, as the meals are large and so delicious, that if you don’t have room in your belly you will make room, but then you won’t have any space left to sample the reason you came in the first place, the cheesecake. That’s what happened to Mel and me the first time we ate here, but we learnt our lesson on our next visit. Mind you, you always have the option of taking any ‘left over’s’ back to your hotel with you. We didn’t do this, however we did see a lot of people carrying out little boxes with ‘The Cheesecake Factory’ written on the side, full of what they couldn’t fit in at lunch.
There is an extensive menu to choose from; for my first meal, I tried the Orange chicken ($15.95 for the ‘diner’ size) – deep fried pieces of Chicken Breast covered in a pungent sweet and spicy orange sauce served with white rice and vegetables, lucky for me I only ordered the lunch size. With the bread served prior to the meal, even with the lunch size I couldn’t fit in a slice of cheesecake. I chose to wash my meal down with a delicious Majito – handcrafted with fresh mint and lime, there were a few flavours to chose from including pineapple and pomegranate, but I chose the classic with Cruzan Citrus Rum on the rocks – A Cuban favourite and now an Elke favourite. .
On my second visit, I had learnt my lesson and didn’t eat any of the bread offered before the meal, and I chose a lighter meal. The Luau Salad ($13.95) was perfect, with fresh slices of grilled chicken breast layered with mixed greens, cucumbers, green onions, red and yellow peppers, green beans carrots, mango and crisp wontons with macadamia nuts and sesame seed all tossed in the ‘Factory’ vinaigrette. This would have to be one of the best salads I have ever eaten and it left room for a slice of the original cheesecake. The one that started it all! The famous creamy cheesecake with a graham cracker crust and sour cream topping, yum, yum, yum!
Enjoy your meal. :)
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