Down to Earth Market

6/10. This is near the corner of University and King, opposite Star Market. It doubles as an organic foods market plus deli. The deli part has sandwiches, vegetarian entrees, salad bar, cookies and some desserts on its menu.

At first sight the place reminded me of wheatsville co-op in Austin which basically caters to the same crowd. However, strangely, I have structural issues with this place. The layout seems to lack openness starting with the narrow and badly-lit entrance. That appears to go against the overall organic worldview or at least how I have understood it. Perhaps there is no such thing. The upstairs seating area is kind of nice though with good lighting, wooden tables and a cozy atmosphere. On to the food.

On my first visit I consumed teriyaki tofu, eggplant parmigiana, some string beans thing and a potato casserole from the entrees section and a brazilian nut cookie as dessert. You have to pay for the entrees by weight and the charges are steep. My total for this was about $10 even though I ate much less than a full meal. All the entrees were great, with the small gripe that the tofu was a bit harder than normal. The brazil cookie blew away the part of my mind that deals with cookie appreciation. The other people I went with also seemed pleased with their meals. They were so joyful that one of them initiated a football game on the pavement outside, to which the others responded heartily. (Note: this friend claims to double as a cia agent and then re-doubles as a double agent. I guess that makes her a quadruple agent of sorts).

My second visit took place yesterday and I was happy to note that the entrees section had all sorts of different dishes such as thai green curry and what-not. This shows that they rotate their menu which goes to their credit. Also, something worth mentioning is that there was an irate lady hovering around, demanding her money back because the sweet-and-sour tofu was only sour and not sweet. She was bounced around between underlings and managers until she gave up and left in a huff. I was myself very satisfied with my garden burger which had a veggie patty, sprouts, cheese, tomato, lettuce and some kind of sauce which was really good. I could not resist having another brazil cookie. Cost: $8.

The market section of this place is the usual sort of organic foods place. It looked pricey even by Honolulu standards and so I didn't do any shopping. This is the norm though in the US, one has to pay to be naturally healthy. But I have real problems with their deli prices because one has to consume greater quantities of veggie food to fill up and deli type stuff is generally cheap. After all it is self-service, they are not incurring any costs there. I will have to think twice before eating there. Verdict: 6/10 - go there at least once even if it bites the wallet.