Yesterday, Melissa posed a question to Twitterlulu about good fried chicken joints in Honolulu. Reid got Chef Sean (@pacificsoul) to make a batch of chicken today so I went down to check it out. I’d had the sweet tea, cornbread & his chili from the Honolulu Farmer’s Market before and it was okay, but I decided to give the food another shot. I found the truck near Emily St. on Kawaihao (see twitter for locations). The two guys manning the truck were really nice. There wasn’t a price next to the Buttermilk Fried Chicken plate—I guess it depended on how many pieces of chicken you wanted. I got the plate with two pieces ($9) – one for me & one for my sister.
It came with cole slaw, chili, & cornbread. Today’s chili was better than last time. =) The cole slaw was pretty good. I was really disappointed by the cornbread this time though. It was drowned in honey butter (?) & it had a REALLY strong floral note that I STILL can’t get out of my nose — I had two bites & my sister had one. We couldn’t eat it. =( I LOVE cornbread & don’t remember it being like this last time. It also had pieces of corn inside for those that are particular about texture (my niece Emi is not a fan). My sister’s comment on the chicken: ”it doesn’t have any taste.” I thought it had a nice crunch. I guess it could have used more ‘flava’, though it went well with the chili as it was.
I also ordered the special of the day: seafood gumbo ($11) There were nice pieces of shrimp & scallop and it was very flavorful. I ended up taking it home. The cornbread didn’t cut it, starch-wise, so I’m putting it over rice or pasta for dinner. So much for today’s lunch run for my sister. She had one bite of cornbread, two bites of chicken, & several spoonfuls of the gumbo — and sent me home with the rest. I’m sitting here thinking I should have stayed home & processed some of my Ma’o veggies for lunch. sigh.
The Soul Patrol has had some rave reviews on Yelp (even an entry by @emihart ). It’s gotten a recommendation from @onokinegrindz too, so my experience could be an anomaly. Check it out for yourself.
My sister & I still think the Pastele Shop’s fried chicken is one of the tastiest around town. If you do make the trek to Kalihi to try it, you might want to call before going down (or go early) – they don’t usually make very much. It’s a winner with the gandule rice. =)
::edit:: went down to pastele shop the same week after the soul patrol trek. noticed there was a different woman at the counter & new menu items…. chicken was different too… sis said it used to be a lot better before. ::sigh:: metromix gallery is out. looks like i need to give soul patrol another shot – friends w/ similar taste as mine checked it out too & said was ono… i still can’t get that cornbread sauce out of my head though. ::shudder::
::update:: ventured down to the restaurant in august to meet a few twitter peeps & the food was awesome! =) totally different from our unfortunate lunch truck experience… will def go back…
I think you need to give KJ’s another shot. And if it still doesn’t turn you on, try their miso chicken or furikake chicken. Yum.
By: scrivener on February 18, 2010
at 2:20 am