An Adventure to King's Hawaiian Bakery & Restaurant

King's Hawaiian

King's Hawaiian Bakery & Restaurant
2808 Sepulveda Blvd
Torrance, CA 90505

I have a soft spot for Hawaii. I just love the place! The beautiful beaches, clear water, surf, friendly people... I'd live there if I could! *sigh* Alas, Cali beaches will never come close, but the next closest thing to being in Hawaii, is eating their local food.

King's Hawaiian is famous for their sweet Hawaiian rolls and bread often seen in supermarkets. I recently discovered that they had an actual bakery AND A RESTAURANT down in Torrance. Torrance isn't exactly close to where I live, but I made a special request to dine here for my birthday.

We started off our meal with a beautiful basket of their famous sweet rolls. There were only 4 of us, but the waitress brought out 10 of them - almost an entire dozen you'd buy in stores!

King's Hawaiian Luau Platter

LUAU PLATTER COMBINATION PLATE: My birthday linner (or dunch)! I'm always the type that likes to try a little bit of everything so this Luau Platter fit the bill perfectly. :)
   At the very top, there's Huli Huli Chicken, which I thought was a bit dry.
   In the middle row: Lomi Salmon, which was like a tasty Hawaiian version of salmon ceviche. Kalua Pork, which was a smoky Hawaiian pulled pork. I enjoyed it more than the Kalua Pork from Aloha Food Factory in Alhambra, which I found to be too smoky and salty. And Chicken Long Rice, which was like chicken noodle soup with vermicelli. I liked it and thought it tasted like homemade chicken broth.  
   In the bottom row: Potato Macaroni Salad - I'm not a fan of potato salad nor a fan of macaroni salad, but when you put them together, the sum is greater than each of its parts! Tasty! Lau Lau - It's basically pork cooked in a taro leaf. I really liked it. And of course, White Rice... a Hawaiian staple.

Now, onto the bakery! King's Hawaiian bakes up soooooo much more than just sweet rolls! They have various cookies, breads, danishes... the list goes on and on...

Paradise Cake and Carrot Cake

PARADISE CAKE: One of the items the bakery is known for is the Paradise Cake, which is layered guava, passion fruit, and lime chiffon cake with fruit glaze on the top.

Paradise Cake slice

We bought a slice to take home to enjoy. I liked the guava and passion fruit layers. There's so many different flavors going on that you can't get bored! It's not overly rich either, which is something I liked.

King's Hawaiian Pies

HAUPIA PIE: Since we came out of our way to this bakery, I wanted to make the most of this experience. I had wanted to try haupia pie when I was in Hawaii, but wasn't able to so I decided to buy a slice from King's Hawaiian.

Haupia Pie

Haupia pie is essentially a pie filled with a coconut milk filling. The first slice is always the most difficult to get out of the pan so it wasn't too pretty when the girl placed it in the box for us. It looked like a decadent treat, but it was surprisingly NOT sweet nor rich! The Paradise Cake was a sugarload compared to this pie. I don't know how authentic it is since I have nothing to compare it to, but I wouldn't mind ordering it again at other places to compare any differences.

King's Hawaiian Macadamia Nut Cookies

MACADAMIA NUT COOKIES: oOoooo... these cookies were yummy! They're like the crunchy Asian almond cookies I grew up loving, but made with macadamia nut! If anyone has a recipe, please share! :)

King's Hawaiian Muffins

MUFFINS: And finally, some muffins. Pumpkin, apple, and lemon... or was it pineapple? I actually don't remember what was ordered. My mom wanted these and selected the flavors. I just remembered they were rather unremarkable, ordinary muffins. There were a lot more interesting things to try at the bakery so I'll be passing on these in future visits.

Ah, King's Hawaiian... a taste of Hawaii a little closer to home (though, not close enough to go there regularly :x ). If I can't get to Hawaii, at least I have you. Or your bruddah, The Local Place, which is also on my list of places to try. :)