Umami on the Prowl: Fooda Deli

Lunch Adventure (v. 6.25) was to the Remington College Building at the corner of Hotel and Bishop.  There's an upper walkway and a lower courtyard for storefronts that, over time, have housed more and more restaurants, so that it's now basically a two story food court with maybe a dozen restaurants, including our friends at Aloha Island Grill.  One of the newer ones is Fooda Deli.  It's been open for six months, but it's very difficult to see because it's on the lower level (makai side) without a good sight line from the street.  Which is too bad, because the menu is interesting, and the prices reasonable.

There are plenty of set plates, but making your own mix is probably the way to go.  Two choices from the list for $6 or three choices for $7.49, plus white or brown rice and soup.  So Umami went for three choices ('natch!):  Spicy Ahi Poke, Spicy Eggplant, and Smoke Chicken Leg.

So here's what you get for $7.49.  The soup changes daily, on Friday it's called vegetable soup, but it looks like and has the consistency of Chinese soup,and tastes like Korean seaweed soup.  Not bad, but not that exciting either.  The smoked chicken leg, however, was surprisingly moist, which leads me to believe that it's not smoked so much as smoke-flavored.  Regardless, it was a generous quarter, skin on (yes!) piece of chicken.  Very tasty.  The spicy ahi poke was pretty decent, but was more sweet than spicy, with perhaps a bit too much mayonaise.  Consensus was that the shoyu poke might have been better choice . . . we'll try that next time.  Finally, the spicy eggplant was tender and actually a little spicy.  All in all, a good lunch for the price.  Umami will be back!


Fooda Deli
Remington College Building (lower level, makai)
1111 Bishop Street
Honolulu, Hawaii  96813