Location: 42nd and Belmont
Number of carts: 15
Types of Food: Veggie, Seafood, Korean, Norwegian, Ice Cream, Coffee, American, Mac and Cheese, Fried Chicken, etc.
Covered: yes
http://www.goodfoodherebelmont.com/

Tucked just off of 39th Ave, I mean, Ceasar Chavez Ave, lies the Good Food Here pod. This aptly-named pod boasts a maze of carts, many of which do indeed serve good food. (Seeing as I’ve only been there once, I didn’t eat at all of them, but we can always assume there’s a dud in the mix when you have anywhere over 5 carts.) Anyway.

The pod is pretty jam packed with options and in the middle is a covered portico with picnic tables surrounded by foliage. There’s an ATM and the vegetarian cart redeems itself by serving booze. It’s also crowded. On a Wednesday there was a steady flow of traffic and as Stan pointed out “way more hotties” than the previous cart pods. Over all, it’s a little overwhelming, but definitely a decent place to eat a meal.

As for food, I had heard rumor of the Viking Soul Food cart (who knew Vikings had souls?) and it being really, really good, so I went for a Lefse. Lefse’s are Norwegian potato pancakes, super thin, and then filled with all sorts of stuff. I had a special wrap that included chicken, collard greens, tomatoes and garlic-something. There was lots of garlic. As with any food that gets hyped up before I try it I had overly high standards, I was by no means blown away by my meal. It tasted really good, but for $8.50 (including a water cup and the credit card fee) left me a little unsatisfied. Next time, I’d go with the meatball and add some chips or something.

Veggie Reuben from Divine Cafe

Jared went to Divine Cafe and got a veggie Reuben that looked damn good for being, ya know, vegetarian. He also came back with Tofu tots, which while they looked amazing, actually tasted much like cardboard. I’m not sure if they purveyors of this cart know that potatoes are actually vegetarian and they could make regular tots just as easily that would have been filled more with delicious potato instead of what was basically air.

Kafta from Aybla

Stan went to the Mediterranean cart, Aybla Grill, as did our friend Kelly and at $5 a pop, both seemed stoked on their purchases. The cart that I’m mostly likely to go back for though is Namu, a combo Korean/Hawaiian spot. Most of the menu is plate lunches and from the pictures they looked damn good. Then when our friend Laura Lynn showed up with the vegan combo and it actually looked good, well, I’m sold on at least trying it. So that said, I’ll certainly return to Good Food Here.

Vegan Combo from Nabu

A Pizza Scholls- Not open for lunch

Aqui- Not technically on Hawthorne, but close enough.We should make this happen soon.

Arista- Lunch only served on Saturday

Bar of the Gods- Not Open for lunch

Belly Timber- Not Open for Lunch

Big Bertha’s Gyros- Honestly have never even noticed this place, on the list

Bombay Cricket Club- Not open for lunch (delicious but a bit overpriced and usually a wait for dinner)

Cafe Castanga- I hope they don’t serve lunch cause it looks expensive

Chance of Rain Cafe- Techinically on 32nd

Claudia’s- Kind of scary looking, but sticks out like a sore thumb. We’ll make it eventually

Evoe- Pretty sure this isn’t open anymore. We’ve tried to go a couple times and it’s “closed for renovations” or something

Gold Dust Meridian- Doesn’t open until 2, although Happy Hour starts at opening and is relatively bitchin.

Greater Trumps: Actually on 37th

Imbibe- Not open for lunch

Jam on Hawthorne- We’ve actually been here once. Some good breakfast/lunch options but a little pricey for lunch. We’ll go back eventually though.

Jarra’s- Doesn’t open until 2

Johnny B’s- I totally suggest this every day and Jared says no. Jerk.

Jolly Roger- Jared is scared and it’s techinically on 12th. I had Nachos here once. They were mediocre.

Jumping Frog- Never even noticed it. On the list.

La Palapa- We went here once awhile ago. It was bad and expensive so I don’t know if we’ll bother going back.

Mulligan’s- Another scary looking place we’ll brave eventually

Murray’s Pizza Pub- Scary looking and totally undesirable

Perierra Crêperie (Food Cart)- waiting for summer

Potato Champion- Not open for lunch

Pyro Pizza- It’s a cart, so next summer!

Sapphire Hotel- No lunch

Brite Spot: I suggested it today, Jared shuttered

Swickley’s Homeplate: While I think this place looks amazing, Jared keeps saying “I don’t want to get sick” Pussy

Thai Thai- Since we have a place called Thai Thai a black from the office, we haven’t brought ourselves to try this one cause it just seems silly. Someday we will figure out if they are the same or not though

Urban Onion- never noticed it but maybe we’ll look

Vege Thai- On a street of really good Asian options, this place is basically a last resort. I am hoping the fact I’ve been there before makes it so I don’t have to go there for lunch

Vertigo Pub- Not open for lunch

There are a few more on the outskirts and side streets, but I think this is a solid list. If any of the “scary” ones are actually good let me know, or if you see any blatantly missing.

Never fear loyal Lunch on Hawthorne readers, we haven’t given up on our mission. No, Jared and I just went on vacation! Being the dedicated blogger I am, I obviously took photos of every meal I ate, and am taking this opportunity to post a some-what unrelated Hawaii food super post! Overall, our Hawaii food experience was a good one, although some of the meals fell a bit flat. I was surprised at the availability of Jared (veggie) Food; we only hit one place where he literally couldn’t eat anything. That’s not to say the overall meals weren’t meaty, in fact several places boasted menu items such as “Beef with Tofu” and of course, everything came with a big pile of white rice. Here’s the breakdown.

When we got into the Honolulu it was well after midnight, which worked out because we only had to pay for one night’s parking at the hotel. It limited our food options, but luckily Mac 24-7 was nearby, and the guy at the hotel suggested it saying it was featured on some Food Network show (I was sold.) It’s actually the restaurant for some upscale hotel, and accordingly was a bit pricey. But the food was really good, and the decor even better.

Pork Sandwich

Mac and Cheese

Our first breakfast of the trip was at Wailana coffee house. I picked it out off the Internet cause it sounded cheap, easy and fast, and it was at least two of the above. As it turned out, it may as well have been Denny’s and the food was incredibly underwhelming. They did have a coconut syrup for the waffles that Jared seemed to very much enjoy though.

Sugar waffle

Scottish Bangers

Though I was very diligent about taking photos, I failed hard on writing down the names of the places we ate at. But I am pretty sure that the little Urban Spoon icon I found is indeed the place these photos were taken at, though not necessarily the right location (there are 6 of them.) It was your basic strip-mall Hawaiian place with a menu full of plate lunches. Pretty cheap, plenty fast, and the mini portion of Chicken Katsu was more than I could eat. Jared got a tofu stir fry, which just them having was a plus.

Chicken Katsu

Veggie Stir fry

When I am on vacation I am slightly less cheap than in normal life, so even though I knew the spinning Top of Waikiki would be totally expensive, when it was recommended to us I figured, why not. Well, it certainly was expensive. Even the cheapest plates were over $20, but that’s cool. I was more bummed on the fact the food was mediocre at best. My shrimp carbonara had WAY too much rosemary, which totally overwhelmed the shrimp, and while Jared enjoyed the one veggie dish on the menu, it was more of an appetizer than an entree, even though it was decent sized. Really the only thing I got excited about eating here was the mango bread that came out before the meals, and of course, the view.

glorified Caprese salad

Shrimp Carbonara

We made our way up to the Big Island for a couple days with a plan to drive all the way around it. Our first stop was Puka Puka Kitchen in Hilo. It was a little hole-in-the-wall place with printed-out email forwards under the glass on the 3 tables and a selection of sandwiches and plate lunches. I feel like it should have been awesome and I probably suffered from a poor job ordering, because my chicken curry was weird at best. It tasted like curry, but was more like a soup and the garlic rice it came with just confused me. Jared got a falafel, which definitely looked better. But I learned by lesson (sort of): When in Hawaii, order the damn plate lunch if they have it.

falafel

chicken curry

Around mid afternoon, thanks to my mediocre curry, we were getting hungry again, so we pulled off in some random down with a name that sounded like every other random town name to eat (it wasn’t the one listed, but hell if I know what it was and this was a chain.) We ended up at Blane’s Drive Inn (apparently almost all the places in Hawaii spell -in like that.) The food wasn’t amazing, but omg was it cheap. My ahi sandwich came about $4.50 with mac salad and Jared’s grilled cheese was under $3. Honestly for those prices, my only requirment is edible, and it certainly was, if not actually enjoyable in it simplicity.

Grilled cheese

Ahi Sandwich

Vegetarian combo

Macadamia shrimp and beef sate combo

I found U-Top-It thanks to my awesome google skills (I searched “best restaurants kona”). They only serve breakfast and lunch and luckily, we were in the market for breakfast. They have a broad menu, but I was most intrigued by the “pancrepes,” basically super thin pancakes, served either flat and topped or rolled with filling. As it turned out, there were pretty damn amazing and the coffee here was also really good. The bad news is they were ridiculously understaffed (one waitress for the whole place) so even though we got there well before the breakfast rush, it was slow to say the least. But definitely worth it.

Berry Pancrepe

sausage, green onion and potato pancrepe

Lava Tube

grilled cheese with onion rings

mahi mahi fish and chips

Just outside Hilo we stopped for dinner, our final real meal on the Big Island. We ended up at a shopping complex that happened to have a Pizza Hut, where Jared really wanted to eat. I had to be persuasive to get him to go to Lemongrass instead, which was a Thai/Vietnamese/Chinese fusion type place and appearance-wise, very much something you’d expect at a strip mall. But the food was cheap and good, so that made up for the lack of ambiance. Only complaint: Jared’s “curry” was not actually curry at all, but he still said it tasted good. “Spicy, but not too spicy,” right Jared?

Shanghai rice noodles

Chef's Special tofu curry

Back in Honolulu we opted for some good ol’ Mexican food on our final night. I again googled “best Mexican food Waikiki” and came up with this place. I made Jared sit outside, because it was damn warm and we enjoyed a few margaritas each. I was a little bummed it wasn’t happy hour, as they apparently have $2.50 margaritas then, but whatever, I paid $6.75 for my top-shelf blue marg and liked it. They had a few veggie burrito options, which made Jared happy, the chips literally came in a bucket and with this amazing pineapple habenero salsa, and mahi mahi makes a mean fish taco. Definitely a great final dinner for a great trip. But wait…there’s more!

Thumbs Up Burrito

Mahi Mahi tacos

Our flight wasn’t until the afternoon we we were finally able to make it Rainbow Drive In, a place that came highly recommended by everyone we talked to. Of course, Jared literally could not eat a single thing on the menu, so he got to sit and watch me enjoy my breakfast special: rice, eggs and pork cutlets with gravy. He informed me there was literally nothing healthy about what I was eating, but damn, it was good and what the hell, I was on vacation!

Breakfast special

Today we cheated on Hawthorne Blvd and crossed the bridge to eat at an old favorite, Vegetarian House. One thing that I have noticed by eating at a bunch of new places is that most are not really that great for lunch. But rather than just complain that they aren’t, I figured I should explain exactly what I am looking for in a lunch spot.

1. Cheap. One of the things that is awesome about eating lunch out is lunch specials. The midday meal is often less expensive than eating out for dinner, or even breakfast, so ideally, the restaurants serving lunch should recognize that. To put a value on it, I want to pay less than $10 per person for everything (this is Portland!)

2. Fast. Obviously walk up and order type places are the best for grabbing a quick bite. Sit down restaurants are not out of the question, but we should be seated quickly, waited on quickly, and ideally have the bill dropped off before we finish eating.

3. Variety. An ideal lunch spot has different options. I love lunch buffets (such as Vegetarian House) for this very reason, and I am sorry to report Hawthorne is somewhat lacking in this department. The Indian buffet formerly on the corner of 39th moved to Belmont, and then stopped being a lunch buffet, and aside from that, I don’t know of any. If anyone has suggestions, please, let me know!

4. Quality. It should taste good. Obviously.

As you can see, I have simple needs. And sometimes I just want to go to the lunch buffet at Vegetarian House, the total package. Here’s the details.

http://www.vegetarianhouse.com/

22 NW 4th Ave

Date of Visit: October 16, 2009

Price for 2 (with tip) $16

Veggie Options: Um, it’s called Vegetarian House. The carnivore in me wishes they served meat, but you can enjoy looking at dead chickens hanging in the window of the place next door.

Speed: It’s a damn buffet so it’s up to you.

The selections on the buffet vary, but you can always expect spring rolls, mixed veggies, tempura veggies, low mein and friend rice. There are usually two more entrees (some are definitely better than others) and then a various soup of the day. My only real advice would be hit this earlier, rather than later, as the quality definitely deteriorates over time. It’s open for 11- 2:30 and costs $6.50 per person including tea.

1) Why are you doing this? Are you trying to get free food?

The first part of this question is answered here, but basically, we want to eat lunch at every restaurant on Hawthorne because it’s a fun project and nothing else. Everyone wants a free lunch, but as you may have heard, there is no such thing. So no, we are not trying to get free food.

2) Who is paying for this?

We are. Jared and I alternate who pays each day, because splitting the check is such a pain in the ass, but we pay for each and every meal ourselves. I’ve joked that this certainly prove how much money we waste on lunch, but we are going to eat out every day either way, so why not?

3) Are you fat?

This is the most entertaining response to having a food blog. But no, I’m not particularly fat, even though I do eat lunch EVERY DAY.