Spirit of Aloha | Features | September/October 2007

Bites of Paradise

Honolulu eats better than ever
By Joan Namkoong


Seven new resturants add a delicious dimension to the urban dining scene

PHOTO: GUY SIBILLA PHOTO: GUY SIBILLA PHOTO: ADRIANA TORRES CHONG PHOTO: COURTESY OF ‘ELUA RESTAURANT PHOTO: MICHAEL SPENGLER PHOTO: DAVID CHANG PHOTO: Nobu Restaurants and Hotels & Resorts of Halekūlani

For the past few years, my fellow foodie friends and I have lamented the lack of anything new on the Honolulu dining scene, where, in the 1990s, a stable of restaurants impressed the culinary world with Hawai‘i Regional Cuisine. Food writers and critics are a tough crowd, always looking for a fresh flavor, a new twist and something unique when it comes to food. We especially like new restaurant openings where we can compare notes and catch up on gossip while sipping cocktails and nibbling on great food. But we’ve been in the doldrums in recent years as chains like The Cheesecake Factory, E&O Trad­ing Company, Romano’s Macaroni Grill and P.F. Chang’s have deluged us.

Don’t get me wrong: It’s not that these restaurants don’t throw great parties or serve good food, but we do like the stand-alone, chef-owned establishments where creativity is the name of the game and the food is all about the chef. This year has been different.

Within a matter of several weeks in late spring, seven new restaurants open­ed in Honolulu, raising the excitement level about the dining scene and sending food critics scurrying to each new venue. These places reflect the personalities and visions of their chefs—veterans of the restaurant scene, plus a couple of fresh faces, each with old and new ideas about how food should taste, look and feel.

What’s refreshing is a shift from Hawai‘i’s traditional Euro-Asian menus toward Euro-American ones—in other words, soy sauce is giving way to olive oil, butter and herbs as the key flavors.

Some of these places are casual, others more formal; but, in all, sophistication has taken hold in the dining rooms, with a more urban, modern ambiance setting the stage for creative food preparation. Prices are definitely rising, but not without reason, as chefs focus on quality ingredients and deal with a tight labor supply for which they have to pay dearly. Best of all, simplicity is at the core of the new dining spots, which have added a welcome dimension to the Honolulu dining scene.

CASSIS BY CHEF MAVRO

Harbor Court / 66 Queen St. / Lunch Monday through Friday / Dinner Monday through Saturday / Closed Sundays / 545-8100

When chef George Mavrothalassitis opened the award-winning Chef Mavro restaurant in 1998, food critics raised their eyebrows at the prices (I was one of them). And, no doubt, when Cas­sis opened downtown to the lunch crowd in early May, the same eyebrows were raised. Justifiably so, with tabs of $18 or more for an entrée, a bit on the high end for downtown secretaries and even business account diners in Hawai‘i.

“I have a reputation for being expensive,” says Mavro­thalassitis bluntly. But when you realize his pricing is based on a pantry full of top-quality Ha­wai‘i-grown or Mainland pro­ducts, and cooking from scratch as he has always done, which requires a skilled and well-honed staff, you come to expect a great meal and a hefty tab without complaint.

If his King Street locale were open for lunch, the menu would be the Cassis menu of classic offerings like cassoulet, flounder grenobloise, smoked duck on frisee with a poached egg. Of course, Mavrothalassitis adds local twists—rotisserie chicken hulihuli style, pork kau yuk with mochi potatoes and his irresistible malassadas for dessert—which makes this a classic Hawai‘i bis­tro with the finesse of a fine French bistro.

The Cassis kitchen is entrusted to Ben Takahashi, a longtime Mavro­thalassitis protégé, who re­cently returned to Honolulu from stints at the Mauna Lani Resort & Bungalows and the Sheraton Keauhou Bay Resort & Spa. “I like the intricateness and preciseness of every dish,” says Takahashi, who learned his craft on the job in a number of Hawai‘i restaurants, clubs and hotels. It is the skillful presentation and consistency in Mavro­thalassitis’ food that will no doubt prove the price-conscious again on the wrong side.

PASTA & BASTA BY DONATO

Restaurant Row / 500 Ala Moana Blvd. / Lunch Monday through Friday / Dinner Monday through Saturday / Closed Sunday / 523-9999

Unlike Cassis, Pasta & Basta is de­signed for the hurried lunch crowd out for quick sustenance at value pricing. But this is no ordinary pasta and pizza joint: the pastas are made fresh daily on the premises, and these are wood-fired, made-to-order pizzas.

It’s Donato Loperfido’s passionate an­swer to “people wanting to have good food and not pay too much money.” Loperfido was the chef and owner of the now-closed Donato’s in Mānoa Valley; his passion for all things Italian is without comparison and his goal is to share it in a delectable way.

Bruschettas, fish, pizza and panini are all cooked to order. “This is not fast food,” says Loperfido. There’s no table service and Styrofoam is the lunch hour’s plate, but china is used for dinner. This keeps prices down while the food quality shines.

‘ELUA RESTAURANT & WINE BAR

Uraku Tower / 1341 Kapi‘olani Blvd. / Lunch Monday through Friday / Dinner daily / 955-3582

While Pasta & Basta is simple and casual, Loperfido is not unlike every other chef who possesses a passion for cooking classic dishes with high-quality products and presenting them in a more elaborate way on the plate. That’s the concept behind ‘Elua, the Hawaiian word for “two,” a partnership between Loperfido and Philippe Padovani, one of O‘ahu’s acclaimed Hawai‘i Regional Cuisine chefs.

With Loperfido as the Italian classicist and Padovani as the French classicist, you can expect the menu to be, well, classic. On the Italian side there’s osso bucco, veal tenderloin Rossini and a myriad of pasta dishes; on the French side, duck confit, foie gras and a selection of dishes from the former Pado­vani’s Bistro.

But chefs rarely stick to the same repertoire and innovation is the name of the game as seasonal products play around in their creative heads. At ‘Elua, each chef presents a page on the menu and is involved in the kitchen—often on alternating nights. It’s the best of both worlds under one roof, filling the niche for the signature dishes that have been missed for the past year or so since these chefs closed their individual Hono­lulu locales. An unlikely duo in the eyes of foodies, this partnership in a simple but svelte dining room marked by high-backed leather chairs could work nicely. Stay tuned.

DOWNTOWN @ THE HISAM

250 S. Hotel St. / Coffee and pastries Monday through Friday / Lunch Monday through Saturday / 536-5900

When Ed Kenney went to New York a few years ago, he came back with ideas for “the quintessential museum café,” based on several meals at the Mu­seum of Modern Art.

He had already carved out a niche with his Town restaurant in Kaimukï, where ingredient-driven food influenced by Italy, France and Spain is the operative theme. When the state of Hawai‘i called for proposals for a café at the Ha­wai‘i State Art Museum, Kenney was in line. Downtown @ the HISAM became Kenney’s dream come true.

With about 100 seats in the naturally lit café and carry-out dishes to be eaten on the museum lawn (or at desks in downtown offices), Kenney has come up with the perfect combination of grab-and-go and sit-down service.

On the Downtown ASAP menu are panini (grilled sandwiches), quiches and antipasti—at least seven different choices each day—all designed to go. Dine in and sit down to soups, small plates and luncheon entrées that in­clude fresh grilled fish, filet mignon and omelettes. The café’s also a perfect, quiet spot for a light breakfast.

Steve Brown oversees the preparations, which are decidedly European, though an unexpected delivery of fresh tuna might appear as sashimi. Better yet, an ‘ahi BLT sandwich accompanied by organic MA‘O Farm greens.

French “Prince of Gastronomy” Curnonsky wrote, “In cooking, as in the arts, simplicity is a sign of perfection.” Relying on local farmers for fresh ingredients and minimizing embellishments to let the products’ flavors and textures move to the foreground of his canvas, Kenney is definitely mastering his art.

EPIC

1131 Nu‘uanu Ave. / Lunch Monday through Saturday / Dinner daily / 587-7877

EPIC, an acronym for Euro-Asian Pacific International Cui­sine, aptly states the theme of this Chinatown cigar den trans­formed into a modern, sleek, wood-paneled room with abstract art. Owned by Richard and Jennifer Chan and David and Kenneth Chang, all partners in the successful Lit­tle Village Noodle House a few blocks away, EPIC brings wel­come re­finement to the gentrifying Chinatown food scene.

It’s not just the décor; the food, too, is upscale, though not at terribly upscale prices. The menu is eclectic, leaning toward the Asian palate of flavors, but with some European classics such as bouillabaisse, panini and ravioli on the lunch menu.

The chef is David Hoffman, a longtime employee of famed Roy’s Res­tau­rants, where he learned almost everything he knows about cooking. Hoff­man’s emphasis is on “good tastes, good flavors, things cooked properly.” Flavors are bold and strong, with depth, as one would expect from someone tu­tored in the Roy Yamaguchi style of cook­ing. Natural sauces based on re­ductions are evident, as is the lack of frou-frou on the plate.

Hoffman is undoubtedly “putting him­self out there,” utilizing learned skills but experimenting along the way, taking diners on a “journey of new and old flavors.” With much activity in this ethnic and artsy area of Ho­no­lulu, EPIC is a calculated departure for the owners, one that will certainly be welcome among the mix of dining at­tractions for urban dwellers.

STAGE

Honolulu Design Center / 1250 Kapi‘olani Blvd. / Lunch Monday through Saturday / Dinner daily / Sunday brunch / 237-5429

Eclecticism is truly defined at Stage, a restaurant entrenched in a furniture store below a towering condominium. If dining in a furniture showroom with nou­veau, red-black-white furnishings and sleek lighting fixtures doesn’t overwhelm you, the food’s crisp, edgy profile will certainly make an impression.

The chef here is Jon Matsubara, a former law school student who decided he wanted to cook for the rest of his life instead of following in the footsteps of his father, uncles, aunts and even his wife. He started out as a dishwasher at Roy’s and Alan Wong’s restaurants and, after working his way through a restaurant kitchen, he went on to the French Culinary Institute in New York City. He spent several years expanding his horizons and sharpening his skills at some of the finest tables in the Big Apple, then returned to Hawai‘i and spent a couple of years at the Mauna Lani Resort & Bungalows, where his Pacific Rim skills were showcased at the Canoe House.

But Pacific Rim is not what this chef’s “couture cuisine” is all about. The classic, hand-crafted and time-honored techniques married with quality (mostly local) products are there, but the modern, fashionable food presentations add a new dimension to Honolulu’s growing food sophistication. Foams, gelées, purees, emulsions and mists accentuate; an eat-with-your-hands “interactive” salad is amazingly neat; spices en­hance in a worldly way. The menu is classic and eclectic, reflecting the chef’s innate tendency to try new and different things. “I’m taking a risk cooking the food I love,” says Matsubara.

With familiar faces like Charly Yo­shi­da circulating the room and Mark Okumura crafting pastries and desserts (both formerly of Alan Wong’s), the Stage show is a multifaceted gastronomic affair. While at first diners raised their eyebrows at the prices, they are comparable to those in Honolulu’s other top restaurants. The entertainment factor is high at Stage; fun is an operative theme and the food is well worth it.

NOBU WAKIĪIKĪ

Nobu Waikīkī / Waikīkī Parc Hotel / 2233 Helumoa Road / Dinner and bar lounge daily / 237-6999

Further proof of Honolulu’s growing sophistication as a world-class dining town was the opening of Nobu Waikīkï, one of more than a dozen internationally acclaimed dining rooms of renowned chef Nobu Matsuhisa. The press release was not just hype when it said the David Rockwell Group’s design was stunning; the dramatic ambiance created with a contemporary Japanese aesthetic is in­deed a feast for the eyes, and the food an even greater feast for the senses.

Nobu’s signature style marries the sensuousness and aesthetic of Japa­nese cuisine with the bold and riveting flavors of Peru. Central to every dish is the expression of “kokoro,” or heart, and a com­mitment to quality fresh and, when­ever possible, local ingredients. Ceviche alongside sashimi, sushi and grilled items, sashimi tacos—one could go on eating for hours, always wanting another bite, another flavor.

n the kitchen, Lindsey Ozawa oversees the hot line while Toshiyuki Sa­sa­jima presides over the sushi bar and cold preparations. Ozawa, born on the Mainland, traces his roots to Kamuela, Hawai‘i, where his great-grandfather was a paniolo (Hawai‘i cowboy). He’s been with Nobu in Las Vegas since 2003, addicted to the opportunities of working with a culinary genius.

Nobu was perhaps the most anticipated chain-restaurant opening of the year. Right across the street, Roy’s, the Yard House and Holokai Grill also spark­ed interest among foodies. Ken Mitsutsune’s Tsukiji Fish Market and Restaurant at Ala Moana Center open­ed its doors this summer. And Tango, a con­temporary café at Hokua by former Hawai‘i Prince Waikïkï Hotel chef Goran Streng and Tami Orozco is scheduled to open before the year is out.

You can see—and almost taste—why local foodies are happy!

Hawai‘i-born and -raised, JOAN NAM­KOONG is a foodie, a free-lance writer and an organizer of farmers’ markets and food events. She is the author of Food Lover’s Guide to Honolulu, Go Home, Cook Rice and Family Traditions in Hawai‘i.

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