It’s the weekend.  You ‘re  in town having a  great family outing but hard  pressed to find a decent place that is kid friendly, serves alcohol and won’t hurt the wallet.  

Look no further,  Izzy’s Restaurant has recently just opened its doors at its new location in the heart of Apia.  

The restaurant offers an American dinning experience with a Samoan twist.  Being one of the only restaurants in Apia to offer create- your own gourmet burgers that can stack up to six inches tall! 

As well the best seller, mouth- watering, savory pulled pork sandwich.  Which is slow roasted, smothered in barbecue sauce, shredded and stuffed between two buns.  It  is  one of the only sandwiches of its kind  on the island. And of course, one of its more  notable dishes is  “the Stui”, which is a coconut crusted fresh fish burger paired with banana chips and  nui is one of the most popular dishes amongst expats. 

Restaurant owner,  owner Friedrich J Kruse IV , disclosed the inspiration behind naming the dish “the Stui”.  

He said, “We call it the Stui because, (Prime Minister) Tuillaepa  had mentioned in the news paper that he wanted to see more dishes with local fish and bananas and nui.  So we were happy to name that after him.”

“He hasn’t come into try it yet, but we’ll shout him a Stui if he wants to come down.” 

The mastermind behind Izzy’s unique flair is restaurant owner Friedrich J Kruse IV, and  cites his eldest of his two daughters, Izzy , as the  inspiration behind the name of the restaurant. 

Having been born and raised in American Samoa, Mr. Kruse reflects his life experiences in his menu and unique ambiance that the restaurant offers.  

He stated, “We’re pretty much American based.  A lot of my culinary experience has been from the U.S:  Hawaii, Texas and California.  

Since I’ve been here and my wife is schooled over in New Zealand, I have been able to change and kind of fuse in some New Zealand favorites as well as my American background as well as some Samoan dishes.  Just pulling everything together into that.” 

“I’m from American Samoa born and raised.  I have family here, they own a restaurant already made and came to help with their restaurant.  I’ve been able to save up and be on my own and I’ve been on my own ever since.  We’ve been in business for about four years now, and we’ve done well enough to move into town.”

Not only is the food amazing, but the unique dining experience and catering toward working class people  is an attraction as well.  The restaurant is family friendly offering a well-lit indoor facility, outdoor patio and very secure.  Mr. Kruse stated, “One of the things we’re going to do is a happy hour day for Thursday, we’ll just extend our hours just a bit longer for the working class, before they want to go home and want to grab some snacks.  Or we want to do some beer pairing with some of our food that will be the opportunity for us to do that on Thursdays.”  

“My personal project is, I want to do family friendly dinners on Friday’s.  There are not too many places in town where you can bring over your family to have dinner unless it’s like a bar.  So we’re hoping to tap in to that market.” 

“It’s well lit, we have an outdoor patio, it’s well secure, and we have some kid friendly food.  We’ll have a dinner menu for some of the adults.  

We do have alcohol, we do sell beer, but we’re not expecting to have a tower on the table.  

We just wanted to have; you know if dad wants to have a beer with his steak then we’ll be able to offer that, while the kids can have pasta.”