Leonard's Bakery

          After spending the morning as a tourist at Hanauma Bay, why not keep being a tourist for half of lunch? Prior to our stop at Ono Seafood, we stopped at Leonard's Bakery for some freshly fried malasadas. This is probably one of the most the most famous eateries around Oahu, as they sell merchandise alongside the malasadas. If you don't know what Malasadas are, essentially they are just deep fried pieces of dough that have Portuguese origins. If you want a simple explanation, think doughnuts without holes. At Leonard's you can't miss the big flashy sign or the group of people hanging around eating their malasadas. Inside you can see a big case filled with baked goods, but you are here for the malasadas, which are nowhere to be found. Well, I guess that the goods could be gold, but we didn't try any, and they are (obviously) famous for malasadas. The reason is that they are made fresh to order, so there may be a wait. The pricing is average, put up on a board and a few other things so just watch the T.V showing odd and comedy like commercials for Leonards.

        

Malasadas, Cupcakes and Drinks Menu

           You can get two different kinds of malasadas, with or without filling. The filled ones are $1.50 and the none puffed items are $1.10. From what I see, there is no discount from buying more of them and you can pick what flavours you want. For the filled items, there are always the macadamia nut, chocolate, coconut, and custard flavours to choose from along with the flavour of the month. For the normal malasadas, you had the choice of the original sugar, cinnamon and li hing (salty dried plum). Of course we tried everything, starting with the macadamia nut, or the ones on the bottom right and left. Not sure why it was a macadamia nut flavour, as it was just sweet and tasted nothing like the nut. At least the dough was nice and airy: 3/5. Next we tried the original which was very good. Not overly sweet from fillings  this was a nice light airy deep fried ball of joy: easy 5/5. The guava, which was the flavour of the month during our visit was not very good at all. Although it was nice and airy as usual, the filling was much too tart and sour, and made the malasada not sweet enough: 2/5. Finally, we tried the li hing flavour, which seemed like nothing was out of the norm and was just like the original 5/5. Those were the 4 that we tried when they were hot, as we saved the other ones for later. It really isn't the same to write about the fresh and unfresh, so I won't try. Overall, what we tried at Leonard's Bakery was very hit and miss. Some were overly sweet, some hit the target spot on. I think the ones without filling are better than with filling. 

Bottom Line: Hit and Miss Malasadas

Tip: Unfilled > Filled                                        

Overall (hot items only): 4/5                                                                        One of Everything!!!