Loco Ono's popular Hawaiian takeover of Sip Lounge held over into March

by Craig Takeuchi on February 29th, 2016 at 6:30 PM

1 of 4 2 of 4

Chef Jan-Michael Reyes has a hit on his hands.

His island-cuisine-inspired Loco Ono company staged a takeover of Sip Lounge (1117 Granville Street) for the month of February.

The Hawaiian menu of sharable plates proved to strike such a chord with Vancouver diners that his pop-up kitchen has been held over into March. (He informed us that the last day will be April 2.)

Loco Ono's take on the Hawaiian classic dish loco moco features a beef-and-bacon patty, fried egg, brown gravy, and crispy onions straws on rice.

And there's even more good news: there are new items on the menu.

You can check out tuna and mahi mahi poke bowls, pork belly sliders, and malasadas (Portuguese-style fried doughnuts without a hole).

But of course no Hawaiian menu would be complete without the popular Japanese-inspired snack spam musubi (or as his menu puts it, musub-eh), which is fried spam on a block of sushi rice, wrapped in nori, and coated in a maple mustard glaze.

Ma's BBQ steak skewers consists of grilled flank steak marinated in Ma's BBQ sauce, served with garlic aioli and vinegar dipping sauces.

There's also ono perogies, with fried spam, pear brandy, and spicy tomato onion relish.

For Filipino cuisine, check out the new Manila hot chicken sandwich, with buttermilk fried chicken, spicy banana chili sauce, pineapple salsa, pickles, and argula on pandesal bread.

Korean influence shows up in the form of a kalbi veggie rice bowl, featuring fried kalbi cauliflower, pineapple, carrot, radish, and roasted nori on rice.

Loco Ono's coconut mojito

If you haven’t had a chance to check it out, you now have more opportunities to do so. However, be forewarned: they’ve been packing them in so reservations are highly recommended.

Also, note that Sip Lounge is only open from Thursdays to Saturdays. For full details about the lounge, visit the website.