Ikaika Bistro was in the American Foreign Legion building when we visited but you’re in luck because they’ll be in a new location by the time you read this. Stephanie and Chris Balora own the place that serves Polynesian cuisine among other dishes. Opening in Sept. of 2022, Chris named the place Ikaika which means “strong” or “warrior” in his native Hawaiian language. It’s a 2-person operation with Stephanie taking your order and busing tables while Chris does the cooking. They’ve had good success which is why in Sept 2023 they are going to move their restaurant to a food truck in downtown Langley where they’ll have indoor and outdoor seating and be near a coffee shop, which is good as they serve breakfast and lunch. So I won’t describe the AFL building, just include a couple photos, but the move will create a major improvement in the ambiance. The couple are the nicest people and easily make conversation with guests filling them in our their journey to get to this spot. The food was novel, generous and tasty and I hope you’ll give it a try if you are in the area.
Set-Up
Food
The Spam Fried Rice was a favorite of Stephanie so we went with that. It came with a side and she recommended the Hawaiian Mac Salad which was great with it. The fried rice was topped with two fried eggs that easily mixed into the ingredients below. It was filled with tasty mushrooms, celery, carrots, scallions, ginger and diced fried spam slices. The ingredients were fresh and flavorful and I actually liked the spam pieces. A little hot sauce and this one was terrific. The Mac Salad had lots of mayo, celery and carrots in the mix with the macaroni. It was nicely seasoned and was fine on its own or in combination with the fried rice.
The Loco Moco contained a seasoned hamburger patty on top of rice with sauteed onions and mushrooms then topped with two fried eggs and brown gravy. This was a large plate with a ton of rice below the meat patty. Wonderful slices of flavorful mushrooms were perfect with the beef and brown gravy. The eggs on top just added into the mix. This was comfort food that you could eat on a regular basis.
Baked Beans were really smokey and slightly sweet. Some seasoning of bacon and or ground meat added to their wonderful flavor.
Okay. I’ll open my mind to fried Spam if/when I come across it. I enjoyed livermush, so why not?
Thanks! I admit I was skeptical when my husband first suggested eating here with this being the popular dish but it turned out to be pretty good with nice flavor and okay texture. Color me surprised!