Dining Out: Nico's Pier 38

Photo from Nico's website, grilled ahi sandwich

On Friday the male half of this couple wanted to have fish for lunch.  He wanted to go to Nico's Pier 38.  The female half of this couple said, "have you been to Uncle's?"  He says, "I've never been there, let's try it."  She says, "How about La Tour since the last time we went it was closed due to the tsunami warning.   Since all three restaurants are very close to each other, we decide to try La Tour.  La Tour is a POPULAR lunch spot apparently.  The parking lot was already full (and Lowe's next door hasn't even opened yet!).  As we waited in the line of cars for parking, someone opened the door to La Tour and the line was to the door.  We said, "next time" and were on our way to Uncle's.

We got to Uncle's, grabbed a table, then noticed the prices went up, a lot!  After a couple of minutes perusing the menu, we decided since Nico's was right next door to Uncle's we'd walk over there.  Wow, the line!  Nico's is a very popular place..reasonably priced, but be careful...if the menu doesn't say "Fresh" next to the dish, the fish may be "previously frozen" or at least taste that way.

Photo from Nico's website, fresh catch plate.

There was a band playing Hawaiian music, so there were no tables open and diners weren't leaving.  Seating is open air, most of it's covered and there are a few cement tables with cement benches and umbrellas across the driveway along the water.

We tried the Grilled Ahi Sandwich which was ok, tasted like previously frozen fish.  We also tried the fresh catch which was Swordfish in a creamy caper sauce, this was very good.   Check out the photo above from Nico's website...the fish wasn't even that big, it was skinner, a bit longer, but we sure didn't get that much.  The french fries were ok...we've had better at other restaurants.    The photo to the left is also from Nico's website and again, the fish wasn't even that big.  We also got our plate with a scoop of brown rice.

All in all, Nico's is a good place to try.  If you're trying this place, go either early or later, we got there at their peak lunch hour...so we waited a while for our food.  The $9.95 we paid for the fresh catch plate was worth it.  If you're visiting Hawaii, this is a nice place to get a local plate...but we don't recommend some of the other non-seafood items.  We've tried the loco moco once and it was just ok.