Eggs 'n Things Waikiki, Oahu - The early bird gets an amazing brekkie!

Posted by Rating 8/10


The Hawaiian locales it turns out are passionate about breakfast. They love breakfast. And before heading to this locale favorite brekkie place, I was warned that they had line ups at 6am, and don't bother going after 10am as you won't get served before lunchtime.  Long lineups at 6AM?! Seriously?!  Thankfully, thanks to everyone not having adjusted to time changes (everyone was waking up at 5am because thier bodies thought they had slept in till noon), we were able to scrape ourselves out of bed, and hike down to line up around a respectable 7am in the morning.  Yes, there was ~30min line up to go up to the second floor where the brekkie tables are located.  The main floor is devoted to selling pancake mixes and homemade syrups.  A part of my brain grumpily thought they should really utilize the space better and use the main floor for resturant space instead of retail, and it would make it wheelchair accessible.

View of the second floor eating area from the lineup outside

After working our way up a set of narrow rickety and squeaky stairs, we lucked out and snagged some coveted seats on the open veranda overlooking the side street. Coveted because the rest of the seating is an unbelievable number of mish mashed mismatched chairs and tables crammed into all available space.  Customers will rub elbows with others in the warm and very very cozy space.  Service is fast and efficient, with regulars merely nodding their heads to indicate their usuals.  Staff miraculously navigate the chaotic and crowded resturant weaving in and out with large overloaded platters wafting drool inducing scents, while the sound of mechanical juicers whine in the background.

the DRINKS
While breakfast is the most important meal of the day, its also important to stay hydrated in tropical weather.  The plantation iced tea was a bit of a disappointment as it was essentially a extremely watered down ice tea with faint hints of pineapple juice.  The fresh guava juice, however, was a totally different story. Refreshing, tangy and sweet but not cloyingly so, I still find myself trying to find high quality ripe guavas to replicate that glass of juice back at home.

Plantation iced tea and fresh guava juice

Now, you can't go to any of the Hawaiian islands and not have thier famous macadamia nut pancakes (unless you're the unfortuante few who have allergies).  Eggs 'n Things version is fluffy and studded with a generous amount of roasted crushed creamy macadamia nut bits.  Thier pineapple pancakes though, were the best... super fluffy moist pancakes embedded with juicy super sweet fresh Hawaiian pineapple chunks.  I would have been content eatting them all day long. 

All pancakes made to order and served with choice of a huge scoop of whipped butter (yes, thats a scoop of butter in the picture) or so much whipped cream, its almost a guarantee you won't see your pancakes at all.  I initially thought another customer ordered a massive dessert meringue - turns out it was just about a foot deep of whip cream disguising his order of pancakes, with a decorative ladle of chocolate sauce drizzled on top.  If you're really craving a sugar rush, you can drown your pancakes with bottles of regular syrup, coconut syrup (yum!), or a guava based pinkish syrup conventiently placed on every table.

Now thats the way to start your morning!!

The breaded Ahi tuna steak served with eggs the way you like it was a thin piece of tender melt in your mouth tuna surrounded by a light and crispy bread crumb batter.  Omlettes are made to order and thier chefs somehow packed close to two cups of fillings inside a super thin omlette eggy goodness without the omlette being overly greasy or falling apart at the seams.  My omlette had bits of warm wilted spinach, caramelized onions, bacon chunks, mushrooms and cheese in every bite.. nomnomnom!

the VERDICT

A wonderfully busy, tasty mom-and-pop place to grab a bite of breakfast.  Quibble - Customers packed so tight you may get an elbow in the back or head while eating.. and an undercooked over easy egg - egg white was still raw, 8/10.  With fast and friendly service, amazing pancakes and well executed breakfast items, its no surprise this breakfast place is beloved by locales, and where people gladly start lining up at 6am in the morning for a tasty start to thier day.  Clientelle range from business, to beachbums and the odd tourist.  Stuffy food snobs need not go.  I'm just glad they didn't have parking, and most people walk to the resturant, because after all that delectable breakfast... we all needed to walk off some of it!

Eggs 'n Things

Address 343 Saratoga Road Honolulu, HI

Phone (808) 923-3447

Hours 6am-2pm, 5pm-10pm

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