The Whole Kit n Kaboodle

Kit Yiu’s foray into the culinary world started tearfully — while cutting onions. Working as a server in an Italian-Japanese restaurant 22 years ago, Kit made friends with the chef who brought Kit into the kitchen and immersed him in cooking.

Now, seven days a week, Kit and his crew serve up his own healthy and tasty recipes. The eclectic, family-friendly Kit n Kitchen has two locations and specializes in European dishes with an Asian twist, like spaghetti with enoki mushrooms.

After perusing the menu, feel free to pick up crayons and let your inner artist play on the paper-topped table or admire the wall of Coca-Cola memorabilia Kit and his customers have been collecting for two decades.

When craving protein, Steak and Eggs ($13.95) is the obvious choice. “We do rib eye because it’s much more tender and juicy,” says Kit. A perfect bite is achieved when the velvety yolks of eggs cooked sunny side up mingle with the steak’s smoky succulence. Take it to the next level with a dip into the sauce that accompanies the steak.

“Chimichurri is originally from Argentina,” says Kit of the vibrant-tasting sauce made from fresh parsley. “It goes excellent with steak.”

The unique flavor of the sauce and the fact that not all restaurants serve it brings customers back to Kit n Kitchen. Take a bottle home and slather to your heart’s content. A 16-ounce bottle is $5.95. Equally appetizing is the olive pimento shoyu sauce with flecks of peppers, olives and a light miso-shoyu base.

If you’re hooked on a taste of the sea, cast your gaze on Seafood Pasta ($11.95). While the pasta dish looks decadent, its creamy, made-from-scratch sauce gets its flavor from milk rather than rich cream. “It’s tasty, but not heavy,” says Kit. Large shrimp, New Zealand mussels and rings of calamari swim on top of al dente noodles and broccoli florets.

Pizza lovers will be struck with amore for Italian Farmhouse Pizza ($11.95), which gets a lift from its thin crust. “We make our own pizza crust,” says Kit. The hand-tossed dough gets a fling in the kitchen before it’s topped with cheese, tangy sundried tomatoes, pepperoni and crisp tender broccoli — fresh, unencumbered ingredients.

The two aforementioned daylight specials, served from 11 a.m. till 2 p.m. (and later at the Pearl City location), are served with a choice of vegetable tomato soup or garden salad. If you had any bad childhood experiences with canned tomato soup, Kit’s homemade rendition will rehabilitate you. The simple soup delivers a dose of flavor as well as lycopene — the antioxidant found in tomatoes. The garden salad offers a variety of veggies with nutty sesame miso or ginger dressing.

Sitting down to hot comfort food in the eatery’s cozy setting is guaranteed to relax you, but if you can’t make the trip, the University street location delivers. Call for more details.

Kit n Kitchen

UNIVERSITY
1010 University Ave.
942-7622
Open daily, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. and 5-11 p.m.

PEARL CITY
1029 Makolu St.
294-5888
Open daily, 11 am.-10 pm.