Hawaii BBQ [23.5]

Today I sampled some Hawiian BBQ on the east Ave at 50th st. They told me the house special was the chicken-katsu/spicy-chicken combo with a fried egg sitting atop some fried rice. So naturally I had to try it out. Similar to teriyaki, the spicy chicken and rice were average for a lunch time meal on the Ave. The thing that impressed me however was the Katsu. Big pieces on dark meat chicken thigh coated in a deliciuos crispy breading was seriously the best chicken katsu I've ever had. Very fried chickenish if I do say so. It raised the taste score from a 5 to a 7 based on the katsu alone.

The portion size was great, a heaping mound of food piled high to fill me well for $6.50. I usaully like a meal of this stature for under 6 bucks, but you definitely get more than you pay for here giving them a 7.5 on value.

The intangibles here set them apart though and I will tell you why. Not only did they do their best to decorate the place with Hawaiin artifacts and paintings, they even had updated team posters for the University of Hawaii football program. That showed me that were real hawaiins. Plus all the other people that come in there looked fairly hawiian which made me think this place was authentic.
-And then, the difference maker. They had a poster up of the 2004 UW seniors on the football team. Since I was in the picture (#32) I pointed myself out to everyone in the restaurant, got a little giddy, and then talked to the man running the place who knew all the Samoan guys on the team real well. This just made me feel special which gave them a 9 on intangibles.

Overall a great experience and although I still don't know the difference between teriyaki and hawaiian BBQ, the 23.5 they put up left a pretty good taste in my mouth.

Taste: 7
Value: 7.5
Intangibles: 9

Total Score: 23.5 out of 30