Spirit of Aloha | Articles | Adventures in Dining | September/October 2001

Adventures in Dining
By Beverly Fujita

Still the Best

Sarento's Top of the "I" has the kind of hearty, old country fare you want to take home to meet the family

Dining at Sarento's includes a stunning view of the yacht harbor 26 floors below.

A Waikiki waterfront address, sweeping views of the city, and one of the most dramatic entrances in town. With these features, you might expect Sarento's in the Renaissance 'Ilikai Waikiki to be a restaurant with an attitude. Instead, it's an elegantly simple celebration of two of life's basics: food and family. "It's a virtual villa on a hilltop that's an extension of our own homes," says Aaron Placourakis, president and CEO of the Tri-Star Restaurant Group, which owns and manages Sarento's. "It exudes family."

To get to the restaurant, we take the glass express elevator from the hotel lobby to the 26th floor, the "top of the 'I.'" (If you can, time your ride to coincide with the sunset and enjoy the unusual sensation of seeing the sun slip into the ocean while you swoop above it.)

The elevator delivers us right to the reception desk, where Capt. Gary Adair greets us. As he escorts us into the main dining room, we pass a 40-foot-long mural depicting a bustling family dinner. Don't be surprised if some of the people look familiar: Placourakis commissioned the piece as a tribute to a long-standing Sunday tradition in his family, so the artist obligingly rendered real faces of family and friends.

We mull over our first selections while enjoying a basket of ciabatta, dipped in balsamic vinegar and olive oil. The Salad Gabriella, featuring marinated baby artichokes, roma tomatoes and goat cheese, named after Placourakis' younger daughter, is a popular choice, as is the Crab Cake, wrapped with golden-fried cappellini and served with a lobster sauce.

We opt for the Escargot Alla Sarento's. I'm momentarily disappointed that they are sans shells (I like the challenge of plucking the chewy morsels out of their shells without sending them flying across the table), but I'm over it as soon as I start dredging the buttery, garlicky sauce with bits of bread. We follow it with the Caprese Salad, a creamy circle of buffalo mozzarella complemented with slices of vine-ripened tomatoes and Maui onions with fresh pesto.

For entrees, Adair suggests the 'opakapaka Portofino, sauteed with langostino, a sweet Mediterranean lobster. I'm in the mood for something meaty, however, and I'm torn between the Filet Marc Anthony, brushed with Italian mustard (a dish carrying the chef's own name must be excellent, I reason) and the Veal Chop.

"Go for the chop," urges Adair. I'm not disappointed. This hefty, 14-ounce cut, with a truffle demi glaze and sliced portobello mushrooms for extra depth, is not for the fainthearted. Crispy waffled potato wings anchored in a mound of mashed potatoes and baby broccoli and carrots complete the plate. A glass of Whitehall Lane Chardonnay cuts nicely through the richness of the veal.

My dinner companion's Gamberi Alla Francese is a generous serving of five tiger prawns, lightly battered and pan-sauteed with garlic and capers, on a bed of lemon-pepper linguine. He finds the perfect complement in a Robert Mondavi Chardonnay Coastal, with light, fruity hints of melon and apple.

I don't know about you, but I plan my meals around dessert. I made sure I saved enough room for Sarento's version of Bananas Foster: sliced bananas sauteed in brown sugar and creme de cacao, on a rich vanilla bean creme brûlee in a toffee wafer shell, served warm. I stole bites of his Tropical Sundae, one scoop each of coconut and vanilla bean gelato surrounded by spears of Hayden mango and topped with a warm rum sauce.

Says Placourakis, "Chef Marc's style suits the 'villa' theme-rustic, yet somehow modern."

In addition to Sarento's in Waikiki, the Tri-Star family includes Sarento's on the Beach in Kihei, Maui, Aaron's in the Ala Moana Hotel and Nick's Fishmarket-Maui. But the Sarento's locations hold special meaning for Placourakis. The restaurants are named after his grandfather, who came to the United States from Greece and ran a produce market. "He was one of the most important people in my life," says Placourakis. "This is a way of paying homage to my roots." We think Grandfather would be pleased to see how his name lives on.

Sarento's Top of the "I," Renaissance 'Ilikai Waikiki, 1777 Ala Moana Blvd., O'ahu. Dinner Sunday-Thursday 5:30-9:30 p.m.; Friday-Saturday 5:30-10 p.m. Reservations recommended. Slacks and collared shirt for gentlemen. Valet or validated parking. 955-5559.

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