If you love food and you live in Honolulu or you visit Honolulu in June, you should not miss the Flavors of Honolulu annual festival, a three-day event that takes place at the Honolulu Civic Center Grounds, across from the Mission Houses Museum in downtown Honolulu.

Yesterday, June 28, 2008, was my second visit to the Flavors of Honolulu. My first one was a year ago in June 2007. Honestly said, I was a bit disappointed by this year’s presentation. When I arrived at the festival I noticed that fewer restaurants participated in the event compared to last year. Last year there were more than 20 Oahu restaurants participating in the event, including the health food store Down to Earth, which had a very delicious veggie lasagna and mango cheesecake, Dave and Busters, Greek Corner, featuring delicious hummus and baklava and many more.

At this year’s festival there were only 13 local restaurants. As a person who loves Greek food, I wanted to eat something Greek. So I started with a falafel dish from the Da Spot Restaurant. This was the worst falafel with flat bread I have ever eaten! It was very bitter and covered with a sour-tasting tahini sauce. I was very disappointed! Da Spot Restaurant also featured a chicken and lamb dish, which I did not try because the meat looked too dark. So I did not dare to risk.

After my first disappointed experience I decided to try a veggie crepe from the Le Crepe Café. This time I knew I would not be disappointed because I knew their crepes from before. Le Crepe Café is a recent addition in the collection of Honolulu restaurants. It is not a typical café. It is a small booth in the Waikiki Food Court. They have mastered the knowledge in preparing delicious sweet and non-sweet crepes.

Le Crepe Café was surely my Flavors of Honolulu favorite and for other people as well. You could see long lines all the time of people waiting for their strawberry-banana-chocolate crepe. After I first ordered my veggie spinach crepe, I returned for another one of those strawberry-banana-chocolate crepes, which was a good top-off of the day.

Anyway, after I tasted Le Crepe Café’s food I felt I could still eat some more. My next stop was in front of the Planet Hollywood booth. I tried the Pasta Primavera. It was a delicious pasta with broccoli and cheese sauce dish. Next to the Planet Hollywood booth there was the Senor Grog’s Mexican Restaurant. I had never heard of it before, but the long line in front of it triggered me to try their food, so got a portion of Crispy Chicken Tacos, which were pretty good as well.

After all these dishes I had tried I was already ready for dessert. Then I stopped by the Bali by the Sea booth and got Tiramisu with Kona Coffee Anglaise. Hmmm yummy! You can see the picture below. And since I was already in a dessert mood I had to top it off with a strawberry-banana-chocolate crepe I told you about!

Other participating restaurants at the festival were Cream Pot, Village Steak and Seafood, Ichiriki Japanese Nabe Restaurant, India Café, Koi, Laverne’s Catering and Restaurant, Mangea!, and Mark’s Specialties.