My Birthday

I had a fabulous 27th birthday weekend! We ate so well it has taken me until today to recover and blog! 

Friday night, we went to Roy's Waikiki (see pictures from previous post). Yummy Yummy in our Tummies!! We had heard nothing but rave reviews about Roy's, so needless to say we were PSYCHED about finally trying it out! There is a Roy's in Baltimore, but we had never dined there. When we arrived, they sat us right away - this place was WAY bigger than I had thought - the hostess stand is outside by the steps, you walk through a sliding door to a seating area with sofas and tables, pass the bathrooms (with two great surfer paintings that I want), and face the kitchen, where you see all of their fresh cuisines on the line, which instantly made me hungrier!

We had a nice booth along the back wall of the restaurant, which allowed me to check out everyone else's dinners as I walked by. Someone came RIGHT over to fill our water glasses, and our waiter was right behind him. He told us about the menu - and how it is constantly changing, except for their signature dishes, so that it is always a new experience for return visitors. Tony ordered the Pre Fixe menu and I ordered the Shellfish Combo.

Tony's meal started with an appetizer that we shared - 2 pieces of seared Ahi, a Chicken Spring Roll, and a Rib. All very yummy! The Ahi tasted super fresh, and we both really enjoyed it. The meat on the rib practically fell off the bone with the touch of my fork. Brought back memories of when I would only eat Spare Ribs at Mr. Chan's Chinese Restaurant as a kid... but this was oh so much better!

Next, our meals came out - Tony ordered the Macadamia Nut Crusted Shutome (which is a swordfish) with roasted potatoes and asparagus, and my Shellfish Combo came with 2 Scallops, 2 Shrimp, and a Lobster Tail, over mashed potatoes.  Everything was DELICIOUS!! The mashed potatoes were perfect! The shrimp tasted slightly overcooked, but still good. I think next time I am going to get the Scallops wrapped in Prosciutto - because the scallops were my favorite part. Tony REALLY enjoyed his shutome.

After we finished our entrees, the dessert that came with Tony's Pre Fixe menu arrived - the "Roy's Melting Hot Chocolate Soufflé." Mmmmmmmmmmmm! It came with Vanilla bean ice cream - I love when you can see the beans! We put a fork in the souffle and out poured the oozy chocolate center! YUM YUM YUM! I only wish there was slightly more ice cream, because I like a spoon of ice cream with every chocolaty bite!

After dinner we were to full to go anywhere else, so we walked along the beach, before returning home to prepare for Saturday! We watched TV until 12am, so that Tony could wish me Happy Birthday (even though the celebration had started at 5 hours before on the East Coast). 

Saturday morning, Tony woke me up with breakfast in bed (that we took to the living room to eat). After we ate, we headed out to the beach to float in the lagoon on our rafts. After getting a birthday tan, we headed home to eat a quick lunch, before heading to the Na Ho'ola Spa at the Hyatt Regency. 

The Hyatt Regency is walking distance from home, so this was very convenient. We walked into the Hyatt, and took the elevator up to the 5th floor. When the doors opened, it looked like we were arriving to Heaven - BRIGHT sunlight shining in through the window. We wrapped around the corner where we were greeted by a few ladies. They checked us in, and showed us to our locker rooms - the men's was right near where we checked in, but the women's was upstairs. We changed into our robes and our slippers (flip flops), and met back downstairs in the relaxation room.

The relaxation room had a few lounge chairs with nice thick cushions, and a few other wicker chairs with the same nice cushions. The chairs faced a LARGE windowed wall with the curtains drawn, but the heat was still coming through. There were nice books all about Hawaii on the tables. 

After just a few minutes our masseurs greeted us and took us back to our therapy room. We each slipped under the sheets of our massage tables, which were nice, warm and cozy.

My massage was A-MAZ-ING! As many of you know, I have a bad neck from an accident in 2007, and desperately needed this! After our 50 minutes was up, I did not want to get up - but Tony was ready to go! He liked his massage, but had a hard time relaxing with someone touching him. 

After leaving the spa, Tony was craving shaved ice, so we walked towards the Waikiki Marketplace. We went to Island Freeze.

Look at the size of this thing!

It wasn't the greatest shaved ice, in fact Tony didn't like it at all. We tried! We returned home to relax. We hadn't planned anything for that night, but decided to go to dinner at BLT Steak (Bistro Laurent Tourondel,) which we have both been wanting to try. Our reservation was for 8:30pm, but they were waiting for a few tables to get up - so we waited for 15 minutes.

As soon as they had us seated, the manager rushed over with all sorts of appetizers, apologizing over and over for the wait! We weren't even bothered by the wait, but I thought it was awesome they way the restaurant responded. Usually when you are seated, they bring over chicken pate, but we got that, PLUS little cheesey breadsticks, a fresh meat platter (the proscuitto was yum-o), and some pickled vegetables. 

To start, I ordered fresh oysters on the half shell (Tony forced me to order them, because he knew I was craving them) - they are surprisingly hard to find on the island - probably because they are imported from the mainland. They were all pretty salty tasting, but still hit the spot. 

 They brought over their popovers, with fresh sea salt and butter - these suckers were gigantic! 

I ordered the 8oz filet, Medium Rare, and when I went to cut into this bad-boy the whole thing jiggled like jello! It was so tender, and cooked JUST RIGHT! Tony ordered the Rib Eye, which as expected, had a lot of fat running through it - looked like a little too much, with all that he had left behind! We shared the Potatoes Gratin and the Macaroni and Cheese. I would highly recommend the steaks, but skip these to particular sides. After we were completely stuffed from everything we had eaten, they brought over the dessert menu, which none of us could even fathom. But to our surprise, they brought over dessert for my birthday anyway... AND it had my name on it :)

But we couldn't even finish these!!

The raspberry candle holder was my favorite part of dessert, well next to having my name written on the plate!!

I had a really great birthday weekend! On Sunday, I worked my first serving shift alone, with no casualties, so overall perfect weekend!

Thank you for all of the birthday wishes!! 

Love & Aloha!