Nico’s offers perfect
lunchtime escape

It’s a world away from the office

Sure, it's in an industrial area. Sure, it's hot outside. Sure Downtown Honolulu is just a couple of miles away. But when you're sitting there, you'll feel you're on vacation. Time slows. You start to melt into the plastic lanai chairs, becoming one with the universe and humidity. Pretty soon you're asking yourself, "Do I really have to go back to work?" while meditating on reasons not to.

Before you experience this Zen-like calm, you've got to find the place, which has been open for nine months in a corner of Honolulu few ever explore. To get there, head toward Ala Kawa on Nimitz Highway. At Ala Kawa, head toward the ocean. The restaurant is on the ground floor, in the back of Pacific Ocean Producers, and marked by a dark green awning.

Meals at Nico's are not fancy production numbers, allowing time before or after for a quickie meeting, or leisurely conversations. Therefore, the mix is diverse here. You'll find friends lingering at tables, alongside construction and harbor workers, police officers and salesmen flipping through papers and Blackberries between bites of chicken katsu ($6.25) and hamburger steak ($5.75).

Nico's familiar grinds are cooked to order to prevent you from experiencing that dried-out, not-so-fresh feeling common to other takeout joints, where foods sit steaming in huge vats or under hot lamps while waiting to be chosen.

Happy birthday, Kua Aina Kua Aina, the burger joint born on the North Shore, marks its 30th anniversary today, with business as usual. That means serving up hundreds of its award-winning burgers to those hungry for its famous third- and half-pounders served on Kaiser rolls. Kua Aina opened its doors in Haleiwa in 1975 and sold 12 meals the first day. A Ward Avenue shop followed in 1997. If that growth seems too slow for a legend, consider there are now 12 Kua Aina stores in Tokyo. In case you want to say "happy birthday" or are just hungry, the Ward store is at 1116 Auahi St. Call 591-9133. In Haleiwa, it's at 66-214 Kamehameha Highway. Call 637-6067.

BREAKFAST is available from 6:30 a.m., with lunch service beginning at 10. In the morning, your basic two eggs with rice, fresh fruit and choice of ham, bacon, Spam or Portuguese sausage runs $3.95. Omelettes including your choice of two ingredients from a list of breakfast meats, mushrooms, green onions, Cheddar cheese and kamaboko cost $4.50.

I read too much into the description of fried rice ($3.95), billed as "a meal in itself." This would seem to promise big chunks of ham, Portuguese sausage and bacon, but they arrived in standard tiny dice form. So if you do want meat with that, you have to pay $1.95 per side order. I liked the rice anyway, topped with an egg prepared to your liking. It was sunny side up for me.

Those with a sweet tooth might prefer Nico's French toast ($3.25), made with fluffy Molokai Sweet Bread and dusted with a sprinkling of powdered sugar. It doesn't need any help from syrup or butter, but don't stop yourself if this is your one-day-a-week caloric splurge.

Because of Nico's proximity to the water, I assumed seafood would play a large role on the menu, so I was surprised to find no shellfish. Instead, there are manly plates of beef stew ($5.75) and pork roast with gravy ($6.95).

Even so, I was still set on seafood, so found myself ordering the furikake pan-seared ahi ($6.95), something I stopped ordering from other restaurants because it's usually overcooked and stale tasting. In this case, the fish looked as flat and gray as ever, so I was happily surprised that it was fresh and clean-tasting, much better than it appeared at a glance. As it should be, because chef-owner Nico Chaize only has to walk over to the auction house next door for his pick of fresh fish.

Beer-battered fish was light and crisp as well, served as fish and chips ($6.25) or as a sandwich ($6.95).

There are other things offered that I'd like to try, like the Pier 38 Double Cheeseburger ($5.75) and some of Nico's specials, such as a steak with cabernet sauce, and more seafood dishes would be welcome. So if I disappear one afternoon ...

DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM Nico Chaize, chef-owner of Nico's Waterfront Restaurant on Pier 38, shows his furikake pan-seared ahi served with a ginger garlic cilantro dip, while his wife Juliana serves up the catch of the day, pan-seared ono with cilantro mango salsa.

Nico's Pier 38, 1133 N. Nimitz Highway (toward water across from the Nimitz Business Center) / 540-1377 Food Service Ambience Value Hours: 6:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Mondays to Saturdays Cost: Breakfast less than $10 for two; lunch about $15 for two