Have you heard of plate lunches from Hawaii? A bit of a gut bomb, but incredibly popular in the Aloha Islands. 808 Grinds features Hawaiian cuisine – specifically plate lunches – found at their Downtown Food Cart at the corner of SW 9th and Washington (open mainly for lunch, Monday – Friday, 11AM to 3PM), their Gigantic Brewery Food cart at 5226 SE 26th Avenue (open Monday – Saturday, 11AM to 9PM) and also at their Cafe location at 10100 SW Park Way (Monday – Saturday, 10:30AM to 8:30PM).
When the days are cold and a bit dreary, I sometimes crave these plate lunches because they are super comforting and remind me of sunshine and rainbow days of vacations past in Hawaii. This post is also an extra nod to the ladies at my dinner table this past Wednesday who brought this up!
For a plate lunch, you choose a protein and then the “plate” (more like this super heavy container because they are quite generous…) comes also with a scoop each of rice and mac salad for the sides. This is the Loco Moco, a handmade, all-beef patty grilled, topped with a fried egg, and smothered in gravy. This is my usual order – for me its enough for lunch and dinner, despite the lunch in its name (after all I haven’t been burning thousands of calories surfing all morning unlike). I would imagine in this current season this would be a great way to end a day on the white snowy powder in the mountains.
If you are indecisive, they have a few combos where you can choose two proteins to try – such as here below the Shoyu Chicken (chicken slow-cooked for hours in a garlic-ginger-soy marinade) with the Kahlua Pork (Hawaiian-Style pulled pork served naked) in the Da Combo. The third chicken protein you can choose is the fried chicken (boneless, skinless thigh pieces marinated, battered and fried). So, get two chickens (Chicken Combo), or one of the chickens with the pork (Da Combo or 808 Combo). Or order the Trifecta and get all three – the two chickens and the pork.
Have you had a Hawaiian plate lunch before, have you visited 808 Grinds or where do you get your Hawaiian food fix?
I give you permission to listen to Bing Crosby’s Mele Kalikimaka now.
