Name: Tom's Place
Address: (808) 537-9065
Address: 325 Coral St, Honolulu (Kakaako) Prices: $4.50 to $5.50
Hours: 6:00am to 3:30 pm (M-F) Weekends 7 to 2.
Macaroni Salad Alternative? Yes
Specialties: Garlic Chicken?!, Chicken Pot Pie, Beef Stew, Pies.
And I sez:
They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Something similar
can also be said about eating. A friend, CH, told me that Tom's Place
in Kakaako was a "can't miss"- a place having the most consistently
good plate lunches in his opinion. CH, he of rotund build is not
to be taken lightly.
He eats out alot (Breakfast, lunch and dinner) and has quite a bit of experience
with "greasy spoon" bargains- CH values quantity over quality.
Tom's, which used to be known as Granny Kay's, has quite a
following in Kakaako. On this day I went with RK, second only to
CH in take-out eating. While there, we talked to some others in line as
well as people at the tables. Most were either ordering the beef stew or
the garlic chicken. RK and I opted for the garlic chicken. Tom's
offers a toss salad alternative with a choice of 2 dressings. Like many
other places, they also offer kim chee at no extra cost.
The rice, and toss salad were nice- now about that garlic chicken......
If you are on a reduced salt diet, watch out. Plate lunches as a whole are
not real salt-free anyway.
So when you have a situation like this garlic chicken where the salt over-powers
the garlic you really wonder how much is on that plate. Add the kim chee
which is salty like the chicken and you probably have a pretty high sodium
content. The chicken was actualty quite tender. Also had a chance to try
their chicken pot pie and laulau on different occasions- pretty salty too.
In all fairness I'm sure they have some dishes that are not quite as salty,
this is another one of those cases where it's probably a good idea to ask
which dish has less salt. Will try again later and will update this page.
Garlic Chicken w/ toss, & Kim Chee
But then again, some people do like salty food- I don't happen to like
salty surprises. Like I said earlier, the place is pretty busy and it seemed
like many of the people were regulars. Different strokes for different folks.
Where Toms really excels is in their pasteries- pies, cookies, breadpudding,
all real good stuff! The chocolate pudding pie is to "kill"
for, the fruit pies are tasty, the breadpudding is one of the best I've
tasted.
"Wow! Salty like Li Hing Mui ", says RK
(But I like it!)
The ratings:
Food: 
3/4 ....(Pies, cookies, etc. bump it up)
Service: (Friendly and efficient- like "Cheers")
Atmosphere: (Couple of inside and outside tables)
Value: (Man, the pies are a deal!!!!)
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