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New eats: Le Crepe Cafe downtown

A slice of Paris on Fort Street Mall? Oui oui, and with more than twice as many choices as the Manoa spot, so worth checking out


Le Crepe Cafe downtown (1 of 20)

Le Crepe Cafe downtown

By Mari Taketa
Nonstop

Le sigh. Not quite a year and a half ago, deep in breezy Manoa, a tiny creperie came to the valley, and with it a love story. You see, Marysol Ruiz had left California to study in Paris, where she fell in love with Soufiane Bouharkat, who worked at a creperie. Sadly, their time ended and the two parted ways, but wait! Fast-forward a few years, Bouharkat arrives on these shores to visit a friend, and guess who he runs into? Ruiz has settled on these same shores. The two reignite and out of their love for crepes and each other, Le Crepe Cafe is born.

Fast-forward again to last week, Tuesday to be exact, and voila! Ruiz and Bouharkat have opened a second creperie downtown. And quoi? They opened seven weeks after their first baby is born? Ooh la la!

I like this story, and I like that tiny creperie in Manoa, but that's not why I'm braving downtown parking and lunch crowds. Word is the new Crepe Cafe has more than double the crepes of the first, plus waffles, paninis and salads.

This one's a double-dip: I've reviewed these crepes before. For these visits I bring friends to go in and order, while I lurk at a distance with my fork and knife. Ici, crepes! Bring it!

Le Crepe Cafe
1160 Fort Street Mall
www.lecrepecafe.com

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CindySJ 8 pts

My co-workers and Ibwent to Le Crepe Cafe the first day it opened. They were busy from the morning when I passed by on my way in to work! Had the pesto pesto and it was really filling. Co-workers had the cheese crepe and the Nutella crepe. Went back for waffles the next day, but it was okay. Could have been because I couldn't get to it until it was cold. The bananna Nutella looks so yummy!

nonstopmari 246 pts

CindySJ looks like all the griddled things have to be eaten hot and crisp (i have no prob w/ that :). cheese crepe, was it dry?

CindySJ 8 pts

nonstopmari I don't think it was dry. But she kept biting into really salty sections every few bites. When we watched them make her crepe, we saw them sprinkle something on the crepe. It was the salt. Not sure why they did that.

nonstopmari 246 pts

CindySJ aha! i loved the salt crunches in the italien crepe, but yeah, wonder why 3 cheeses wd need even more salt. i apc ur heads-up bc since they make the crepes right there, i can tell them to hold the extra salt if i don't want it.

johngarcia 180 pts

So many french-isms up on this blog, in these comments! Awesome review, contrast, Mari! We went searching for crepes in Manoa this weekend and ended up eating ramen.... :( I still have two groupons to use! Will chase these dudes down!

nonstopmari 246 pts

johngarcia merci! ramen to crepes is a 180-degree pivot. the ramen at manoa mktplace, right? crepes cafe manoa is further down e manoa road, at 1st traffic light from manoa mktplace.

chant808 55 pts

Très bonne!So glad to be able to get crepes when I'm downtown, and so glad to see that they're doing well!

nonstopmari 246 pts

chant808 c'est tres bien! what time are u down there? if u ever get a waffle, can u let me know how it is? until 10:30 :)

turkfontaine 202 pts

that's a story good enough for the Paris of pre and post WWII. le sniff.

nonstopmari 246 pts

turkfontaine n'est-ce pas? moi aussi, j'aime beaucoup cette histoire! phew. butchering french is as exhausting as spreading durian love.

Erica 9 pts

My wrong it Magic Pan the name.

Erica 9 pts

I glad crepe is popular again. Back in San Francisco there was two restaurants called Magic Skillet and serve crepes of many types. They had beef in red wine sauce in crepe and seafood in white wine sauce in crepe. There no where now make it.

nonstopmari 246 pts

Erica crepes as fine dining? mais oui! but u're saying magic pan has closed??

bettydalycity 20 pts

Magic Pan was my former stomping ground has been closed for over 20 years. Due to high wages in San Francisco and overhead it will never come back.

nonstopmari 246 pts

lihinggirl yup. soft, warm crepes cradling ... well today i want l'italien + parisien w/ lemon juice and butter. l'italien will go w/ red wine. pesto pesto makes me think of a chilled dry white, and today's too cold for that.

lihinggirl 40 pts

nonstopmari sounds ono. i've not had crepes w/ wine before. will try that another time after baby is born. =)

Melissa808 269 pts

Someone please teleport me to Cafe Ulysees on the rue Cler!

nonstopmari 246 pts

Melissa808 prolly the ppl at cafe ulysees are wishing someone wd transport them to hawaii :>

turkfontaine 202 pts

perhaps there is a long lost foodie in your past with whom you may one day reunite over the pillows of love that are dim sum, yes, no, yes. Melissa808

About Mari Taketa

Mari Taketa is a dedicated eater who's as opinionated as she is hungry. She covered everything from neighborhood mom-and-pop places to ethnic eateries to fine dining restaurants on Honolulu's dining scene for Metromix Honolulu and The Honolulu Advertiser's TGIF. Before that, she ate her way through Vietnam, Scotland and Japan, where she lived, traveled or worked, after recovering from a journalism career that included stints as editor-in-chief of Hawaii Business magazine and reporter and editor at The Associated Press. Her goals are to always be hungry for more, and to always want to know what's around the next corner.

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