UYE @ Surrender

UYE @ Surrender
I know I was late to the party and late to review — but no shame it was wonderful!
I had been to this bar a very long time ago — as it looked nothing like it does currently. The food is anything but bar food. There were seafood buns that would do Princes Tiana justice if her benias were real in the Princess and the Frog from Disney.
The fries were topped with a good hot mix of toppings similar to salsa and beef.
Nachos too were heavily topped.
Steak was wonderful– onion and mushrooms made it just to die for…
Ariana made sure to work the crowd. I saw her at least talk to everyone at least twice making sure everyone was having fun. Really great way to talk to and catch all of the Unilocalers that showed up for the event. Very Classy!
Overall– it was a fun event that I am so glad I came to even though I was going there straight from work.
Kathy A– all the photos that you uploaded sure do help us know how much fun you had. You were also a wonderful Unilocaler to sit next to and get to talk story with — you are a generous person. Mahalo Nui Loa!
Always great to get to talk to Jacob and Unilocal crew, sometimes sticking it out to the near end pays off with some great wise cracks and good jokes along with talk story time — Mahalo Jacob.
Thank you Ariana M. and Eric B. for hosting an awesome UYE! Congrats for being so cool — having a wonderful hosted event that brings a bunch of Unilocalers together.

Thank you Eric B for being such a gracious co-​host. What defines a good host? One who walks over and greets each and every one of the guests. Now is that class or what?
A great event and a great time to meet and greet «new» faces and welcome the «known» faces. I was pleasantly pleased to see many out on a «Monday»… I suppose its the «new» way to start the week at a relatively «new» lounge in town.

Thank you Ariana M. and Eric B. for hosting an awesome UYE! Congrats especially to Ari for her FIRST UYE!
The event itself was very chill and small which made it great to talk story with other Unilocalers. The food was definitely on point. I had the opportunity to try (sorry I don’t remember the exact names of the food) steak, nacho fries, and lobster rolls. My favorite snack was the lobster rolls because the taste of the roll was sweet and reminded me of an andagi/​malasada.
Again, great job Ariana M. and Eric B. I look forward to your guys’ next UYE! :)

I Surrendered.
Admittedly, I have been absent from various Unilocal events, official and unofficial, due to many work commitments over the past few months. I have been working and working and working, and only until attending this UYE last night was I reminded how much FUN people comprise and belong to our island Unilocal community.
I’ll make another honest and true statement: I signed up solely because of the people who clicked «I’m in» on the event page. It was absolutely WONDERFUL to see Jacob N, Cathy T, Terry K, Rod U, Kathy A, Lien V, and Ed L. And of course, always great to see our gracious and friendly host, Eric B. I had a great time catching up with the familiar faces, and it was especially nice to «talk story» with Jacob and Cathy about trips/​travel, books and the book club, as well as all things concerning Downton Abbey.
The laughs were contagious, the drinks were nice and COLD (a great way to combat the recent heat wave), and the company was amazingly terrific. I’m thankful, as well as grateful, to have been able to attend this UYE. It was certainly a vivid reminder of the awesome and friendly people that are part of Unilocal Honolulu.
BOTTOM LINE: Overall, a fun night and UYE. Sometimes its ok to SURRENDER.

I arrived at the site of the UYE at 5:15pm on a casual Monday afternoon. As luck would have it, I saw a car crash happen right in front of me on the intersection fronting Surrender Bar and Grill. It was pretty surreal!
I waited for the usual Unilocal peeps to arrive that I knew in person already, so we could all make an appearance. I’m that way, I guess lol This UYE was hosted by Unilocal extraordinaire Ariana M and co hosted by Eric B, whom arrived a little bit later. I hadn’t been to this place before, so it was a treat to come here. It was great to see Unilocal friends I hadn’t seen in a while and new Unilocal friends In person. Nice to see Michael C, Jacob N, and Cathy T, as always. It was great to meet the hosts, Ariana M and Eric B, as well as Kathy A. There were others, but I didn’t catch their names. The bar scene is pretty cool, although it wasn’t the ideal place for me. The music was kind of blaring and I could not hear people talk much, but that was alright. I didn’t order anything, since I had picked up a little something at McDonald’s nearby before coming here. I had 30 oz of vodka and a few beers the day before, so I wasn’t too keen on drinking liquor again anytime soon. Just had water and enjoyed the ambiance with the Unilocal family that was here in attendance.
This UYE had the hallmarks of a great UYE, if you enjoy the bar scene. Although it was loud, it was good. I had a nice time for 2 hours before it was time to go. It was a very good change of pace, especially on a Monday evening. Congrats to Ariana M for her first UYE under her belt and hope to see her host more in the months ahead. The food ordered was awesome, but I had a few nibbles here and there. I had the deep fried donut with Seafood filling was okay. Just sinful. Lol it was a shame to miss Maka K’s fashionably late entry here. Oh well. It was a fun UYE and hope to attend part 2 sometime soon.
The parking thing was a challenge, if you had a car and the traffic was horrid. Thankful for the public transit, if you need it — like me. :) The service was fun and very good. They treated us like VIPs and that was awesome!
Support local!
A+

You’ve heard of being fashionably late, right? Well this time, I was almost too late for the party! I had a previous engagement during dinner, so I sadly couldn’t make it when the UYE started. I was really just hoping that I could make it before everyone left!
First time host Ariana M and co-​host Eric B held their pau hana UYE at Surrender Bar & Grill, and I really wanted to show them some love & support! By the time I showed up, lots of Unilocalers had left, so I’m sad I missed out on seeing folks like Rod U & Michael C! BUT I’m glad that Unilocalers like Cathy T, Jacob N & Darin O were still around keeping Ariana & Eric company when I arrived!
Ariana M bought me a welcome shot & I sat down with folks just in time for a plate of fried pickles to arrive at the table! Good stuff! I stayed for a few hours with these folks at the bar, so I’m glad I decided to show up even if I was so late!
Edit: Good job Ari & Eric! Your UYE was a great success!

Thank you everyone who came out last night for my FIRST UYE! Thanks you so much Eric B. for hosting it with me! I had such a great time last night, I cant believe I didn’t host a UYE sooner~!!! Although I think next time I will hold it on a Friday/​Saturday night. I’m super tired at work today D:

Thank you Ariana M. and Eric B. for hosting a fun UYE get together and help us get over our Monday madness! Did Ariana really say this is her first UYE? She could have fooled me (most at this UYE would agree) twice over. Ariana is the hostess with the «most-​est» because she was genuinely gracious, took good care of us and always had a smile on her face. I don’t think she had a chance to imbibe or consume anything because Ariana tended to each and everyone of us. Co-​host Eric B. made sure we were looking our best too; he bestowed his wisdom of the «anti-​aging» secret to a number of us while we posed for group pictures.

What I really enjoyed about tonight’s UYE was our «smaller group» atmosphere, hence making it more conducive to conversations. And what is a UYE if not with food? Cast iron skillets of sizzling mushroom and onion steaks arrived at each table in style — courtesy of our host Ariana. Super delicious! Thank you Ariana!
Then to top it all off, Kathy A. got us quite a few orders of Surrender’s special of the day: lobster buns or rather the Chinese bao and shared her carne asada nachos. OMG — these lobster baos are to die for! They are so darn addicting. Shamefully, I scarfed down 2 in less than 10 minutes. Cathy T. didn’t helped either because she said «go for it». Yikes, how could something looking so harmless could be so tasty? Much appreciation and mahalo to Kathy’s generosity.
What a fun UYE @ Surrender. So nice to see familiar Unilocalers and non-​Yelpers. Hana hou Ariana and Eric! Service was good as usual, staff were efficient and friendly. There were 2 neighboring patrons who entertained us with their great singing skills at the karaōke machine. But most of all, I am glad Surrender did not freeze me out by having the AC full blast.

Okay I’m the baboose in this UYE! All my photos are posted on Surrender’s site instead of the UYE site. Sorry about that Ariana but girl you ROCK! What a fun event, fun people, great food and lots if flowing libations. I know Eric was your co-​host so kudos to him too.
Now that you have your first UYE under your belt… where and when on #2? I’ll be first to sign up.