Several eateries in Hawaiʻi just made Yelp's “Top 100 Places to Eat in the U.S.,” with Adela’s Country Eatery on Oʻahu coming in at No. 7 for a consecutive year in the Top 10.
HPR was there early one morning in 2022 while Adela Visitacion was in the kitchen busy preparing their signature noodles.
The takeout-only spot is well known for its sustainable and colorful noodles made with ʻulu (breadfruit), sweet potato, kalo (taro), moringa and even avocado. When you visit the shop, you'll see a sea of green, purple and yellow.
The noodles are prepared in two machines from Japan. They hum away in the background, mixing breadfruit and flour.
"If I feel that it's not well blended or well mixed, then I can run it again. So it's just depending on the feel of the dough. So these machines do everything for me," she told HPR in 2022. "After kneading the dough and all that, we let it rest in the rack for at least 15 minutes or so for the gluten to develop."
The restaurant sells packaged noodles, along with made-to-order plate lunches and desserts.
We also talked with Richard Chan, affectionately known as Uncle Richard. He is Adela’s marketing man and the link to local farmers. That day a box of breadfruit was sitting at the front door.
"We don't reinvent noodles. I just want it closest to a good piece of noodle, pasta — to me it's the texture," he said.
When Adela's came in at No. 5 in 2023, Elizabeth Chan, the head of business development, said the restaurant was "absolutely thrilled."
"What we understood from Yelp is that it's partially customer nominations. So to have such an excellent and supportive base of customers, we've been so blessed to have that," Chan said.
Also in the Top 10 for a second year is Broken Mouth in Los Angeles, a Korean-Hawaiian restaurant whose chef-owner hails from Kaimukī. Broken Mouth was No. 1 in 2023 and No. 6 in 2024.
More Hawaiʻi restaurants on the Yelp list for 2024: Porky's Kauaʻi at No. 15, O'Kims Korean Kitchen at No. 58, and Onoya Ramen at No. 95.
This story aired on The Conversation on Jan. 31, 2024. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1. Sophia McCullough adapted this story for the web.
