Forked Up

678 COMBO
678 HAWAII
1726 Kapiolani Blvd.
Phone number (808) 941-6678

It’s pretty hard for us to pick our favorite thing about 678 Hawaii — the quality of the meat? The dipping sauces? The super-attentive service? The shiny all-metal dishware? — so we’re going to just settle on everything. Order the 678 Combo, and you’ll get three kinds of meat, your choice of soup, plus two salads and about a million kinds of banchan (side dishes). It’s a complete meal from start to finish. And OK, we lied, we do have a favorite thing: If you take some leftovers home, the takeout box will be lined with a salad bed of green onions and soy sprouts. Now that’s classy.

BLUE CRAB CAKES
YARD HOUSE
226 Lewers St.
Phone number (808) 923-9273
Website yardhouse.com

You can probably find crab cakes at a lot of bars — they seem to pair well with booze — but Yard House takes the, uh, cake when it comes to this appetizer. The cakes are lightly breaded and also served with a mango, papaya and passion fruit sauce as a nice complement. While fried foods can be decadently delicious, sometimes they are a little much. These, though, aren’t too greasy and manage to strike a balance with the crab flavor. Each serving only comes with two crab cakes, so it makes a nice snack to have with a drink — or as a starter to the rest of Yard House’s menu. (Which is actually pretty extensive beyond the beer — who knew?)