Buy Frozen Meat to Go at These Honolulu Restaurants
Restaurants such as Pagoda and 53 By the Sea pivot to food markets, offering not only prepared meals, but also ingredients to pick up for at-home cooking.
53 by the sea’s market steak package includes five 10-ounce ribeyes, corn chowder, mashed potatoes, a vegetable mix and other sides for $160.
Photo: Courtesy of 53 by the sea
As social distancing became the new normal, restaurants began making big shifts: from dining in to taking out, curbside pickups and deliveries. Many started selling bottles along with their takeout meals. Pagoda Floating Restaurant brought meals to sell in Downtown Honolulu. Now, along with its plate lunches and family dinners, it’s offering packs of frozen meat to all of us who have suddenly stepped up our home cooking in a time when grocery store meat cases are often empty by late afternoon.
Each $45 box contains 10 pounds of bone-in chicken thighs, 5 pounds of 80/20 (80% lean beef, 20% fat) ground beef and 3 pounds of teriyaki-marinated sliced pork. Order by 10 a.m. for curbside pickup from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the restaurant, or 11:30 a.m. in front of the Cades Schutte building on Bishop Street downtown. You can also add a 50-pound bag of Hinode rice. Charley's Taxi will deliver the frozen items for a flat-rate, when you call Charley directly.
Pagoda general manager John Teruya says they’re looking to expand to include vegetables from local vendors and farmers markets. The idea is to help not only customers, but also the companies who distribute food including Y. Hata, and Hawai‘i’s producers who were impacted when restaurants shut down dine-in services. “If they don’t order enough food from the farmer, then the farmer is not going to grow food,” Teruya says. “So we all have to do our part to ensure that the cycle continues.”
SEE ALSO: Support Hawai‘i’s Farmers and Get Produce Delivered to Your Door
53 By the Sea is also selling meat, eggs and vegetables along with its side dishes. The current to-go menu features vacuum-sealed 10-ounce prime rib-eye steaks for $14 each, $8 for Jidori chicken breast and a full rack of Colorado lamb for $64, along with frozen packages of lobster bisque, mashed potatoes and bags of Ho Farms cherry tomatoes and long beans. A full dinner with six ‘ahi steaks, corn chowder, saffron Jasmine rice, vegetables, Waipoli green salad mix, dressing, bread and liliko‘i butter is $120.
Pagoda restaurant: Order by 10 a.m. Monday through Friday for pickup 11 a.m.–2 p.m. at 1525 Rycroft St., or 11:30 a.m. at 1000 Bishop St. (808) 948-8356, pre-order through pagodahawaii.com
53 By the Sea: 9:30 a.m.–7 p.m. daily. Lunch pickup is 11 a.m.–3 p.m., Dinner pickup is 3–7 p.m. 53 Ahui St., (808) 536-5353, 53bythesea.com
