Bills introduces new happy hour

Nadine Kam photos
I appreciate the green touches on Bill's new happy hour menu. Korean fried chicken, recently $6, has the chili sesame sauce on the side to give diners more control over how much heat they can take.

Bill's has introduced a new happy hour menu in keeping with its Aussie roots. For us, that means seeing a lot more greens on the plate than we're accustomed to seeing, and all the fresh fare left me feeling a lot less guilty than usual about nibbling on deep-fried pupu.

The menu encompasses five small plates and four flatbread pizzas. Some are on the regular menu, but they are priced a few dollars lower at happy hour, from 3 to 6 p.m. daily.

I love the restaurant's beachy vibe and high ceilings, which helps make this a pleasant place to spend an afternoon.

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Bills is at 280 Beachwalk Ave. Call (808) 306-9241.

No, Bill Granger's not from here. You can tell by the restaurant's sweet-ish poke, accented not only by sesame seeds and sea asparagus, but by crunchy buckwheat, which one of my birds loves. I didn't realize how much until I didn't give her any one morning and she wouldn't stop screaming. The avocado and shimeji mushrooms on the side are a plus. Recently, $8.

I enjoyed the blanco pizza topped with caramelized fennel, sausage, ricotta and basil; recently $9.

If there is a downside to seeing more greens on the plate, it's that I felt more justified to indulge in calamari when pairing it with all that cilantro.

Happy hour cocktails include the hibiscus margarita, left, and traditional 1953 mai tai with Flor de Cana rum, pineapple, Bols orange curacao and Whaler's dark rum. Recently, $6 each.

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Nadine Kam is Style Editor and staff restaurant critic at the Honolulu Star-Advertiser; her restaurant column is in print on Wednesdays. Contact her via email at nkam@staradvertiser.com and follow her on Twitter, Instagram and Rebel Mouse.