As a kid did you play with your food and draw maple syrup happy face on top your pancakes? Or maybe you sculpted your mashed potatoes into one volcano and made da brown gravy be da lava? As kids we was always told NOT for play with our food and das why I tink dis Pac-Man themed Pac-Store pop-up cafe at Bread & Butter is so appealing. It appeals to our inner child. And get dis: It's da first of its kine in da whole country.

When you arrive you’ll notice da place is all decked out with Pac-Man themed ornamentation. You’ll find neon lights of various Pac-Man characters, Pac-Man related wall art, table tops made to look like giant Pac-Man trading stickers from da ‘80s, one giant Pac-Man statue ready for photo ops, as well as one cool standup Pac-Man arcade machine das playable with special tokens you get for buying items off da Pac-Man food menu.

We brought some small people with us and though they had no clue who dis Pac-Man guy was, they were still super excited to soak in all da video game ambiance. They had a lotta questions though. I played my fair share of Pac-Man when I was small, but I admit I haven’t really kept up with da characters. My knowledge of Pac-Man people stay pretty much limited to Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man and Inky, Blinky, Pinky and Clyde. And I vaguely recollect one baby or junior. Or was dat Donkey Kong? I kinda wished I could tell da small people who dis Pac-Marie gal was. And Pac-Little? Whose kid is dat? And what about all these new ghost monsters, Terry, Rocky, Harry and Kerry?

On to da food! Now you can’t go into dis thinking you going get da best loco moco ever or da best pancakes ever. What you will get is food das very playful and photogenic. It was very telling when our server came to check on us. She nevah ask, “How did everything taste?” She asked, “How did everything look?” Lol.

For da food items, get Pac-Man shaped pancakes, pizza, mac and cheese, beef curry, garlic shrimp, burger, fruits sandwich, along with one ghost-shaped loco moco. For da desserts get Pac-Man shaped cheesecake or ghost monster shaped red velvet cake, along with various frozen drinks as well as one latte. (FYI: All da Bread & Butter regular menu items stay available for order too). Though small people initially wanted da pizza, I had for convince them dat pizza is da lamest one cuz we can just make our own Pac-Man pizza at home! (I felt like asking da server, “Does any parent let their kid order da pizza or what?”) So da small people decided for try da pancakes and da mac and cheese. And though it wasn’t da best dey had, it was apparently satisfactory as dey managed to clean up their plates.

As for myself, I got da prettiest-looking one — da Ghost Loco Moco. It’s made with yellow rice. Da server said da rice comes yellow li’dat and it’s not like dey add anything to it for make ‘em yellow. Den on top of dat get da hamburger patty. And on top of dat is da egg white part with two yolks for da eyes and two beans for da eyeballs. And instead of brown gravy get one sweet soy sauce demi-glace. I thought dat wuz kinda interesting and made ʻem different-tasting. Tasted not bad. My fear wuz what if taste junk, but I finished it. At $16.95 this wuz tied for da most expensive Pac-Man ting on da menu, but considering how cool it looked, I think wuz worth it for all da Instagram likes you could get.

Lotta Pac-Store swag was for sale too for da people who want all da souvenirs, but I nevah even look how much any of dat costed. I wuz happy we scored some free game tokens. After we ate, da small people tried their hand at da video game dat spawned dis whole Pac-Craze.

I thought we would check out dis pop-up place once and dat would be enough. But da small people was already talking about what dey was gonna order da next time we come! Lol. I just bettah remind ‘em, “We can make our own Pac-Man pizza!”

Pac-Store pop-up cafe runs until May 31,, 2018

Bread & Butter Island Café

1585 Kapiolani Blvd.

949-3430

Daily 8 a.m.-9 p.m.