Dining Out in Waikiki : Upgrading Island Fare

Among the canyons of Waikiki’s high-rise buildings we found some excellent restaurants. In fact, the area is well on its way to becoming a culinary star of the Pacific.

“A few years ago the food in the Islands was terrible,” said Guy Banal, owner and chef of Bon Appetit, a French bistro at the edge of Waikiki.

“But while nobody was paying attention to us, we started combining the cuisines of East and West to create a Hawaiian cuisine that will hold its own with any in the world.”

Banal and other chefs in Honolulu are mixing organically grown vegetables, tropical fruits and fresh fish with classic European and Asian techniques to create some remarkable dishes.

Banal, who studied and apprenticed in France, said: “It’s not just mahi-mahi anymore.”

Hidden on the ground floor of an office complex on Ala Moana Boulevard, Bon Appetit features such dishes as onion soup made with three kinds of Island onions and topped with Brie and Swiss cheeses ($5.95), and a Tahitian salad, a poisson cru made with raw tuna, sliced thinly and marinated in lime juice, then served with grated carrots, onion and coconut milk ($5.95).

Using Local Products

“This is Island food with a French touch,” Banal said.

“I like to work with the local products.”

Making use of the island’s bounty was not always easy. “I looked everywhere for fresh basil when I came here 20 years ago,” said Sergio Batistetti, owner and chef of Sergio’s Italian restaurant.

“No one had ever heard of it. So I brought some seeds from home and grew my own.”

Spurred by the demands of such chefs as Banal and Batistetti, local farms have begun to supply a cornucopia of fresh produce--Maui onions, kula tomatoes, Molokai sweet potatoes, organically grown mushrooms, watercress, baby vegetables and herbs.

“Now we get everything,” Batistetti said. “Fresh thyme, sorrel, sage, even arugula.”

Like Banal’s French cuisine, Batistetti’s Italian dishes have an Island flavor.

His seafood risotto ($16), for example, is exquisite. It’s made with local mussels, calamari , bay shrimp, clams and prawns. The rice is cooked in a mixture of white wine and orange juice and topped with freshly grated Parmesan cheese and fresh oregano.

“We use the classical techniques, of course,” Batistetti said. “They have been around for 400 years. But we combine those techniques with the tastes of today and use the wonderful local ingredients.”

Chief among these ingredients is seafood. Hawaii is one of the few states in the nation to really serve fresh fish, and in Honolulu it’s possible to eat fish within hours of its being caught.

Daily Fish Auction

During an early morning visit to the daily fish auction downtown, huge yellowfin tuna, swordfish, skipjack tuna, red snapper and mackerel are laid out in long rows for sale.

Tuna caught during the night is sold for sashimi and sushi, and one can even find rare species such as the disc-like sunfish. Aquaculture farms also are raising tiger prawns, shrimp and even seaweed on Oahu, and off the Big Island of Hawaii, small, dollar-size abalone are being grown.

Local fish and seafood give an Island flavor to the bouillabaisse ($13.50) served in Orchids restaurant at the Halekulani Hotel. As in Provence the rich fish stew is served with croutons and aioli (a garlic mayonnaise), but the ingredients include such local specialties as kumu, a fish considered a delicacy.

“This is a French recipe using Hawaiian fish,” Orchids chef Ian Risley said.

The restaurant specializes in Island cuisine and features such dishes as broiled opakapaka (mackerel) with watercress salad and fresh hearts of palm ($16.50); ono, a firm, white-fleshed fish sauteed with light ginger cream sauce ($17), and brochette of kahuku shrimp with a lemon-grass sauce ($20.50). The food was light and matched our mood on a warm tropical night.

“The great cuisine of any region depends on the ingredients available,” Risley said. “The fresh ingredients here in Hawaii are different from anywhere else in the world--they grow in combinations you don’t find anywhere else.

Varied Cuisine

“Also, Hawaii is a real melting pot of cultures--Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese--and all of these influences make for an infinitely varied cuisine.”

La Mer, the Halekulani’s fine dining room, is more traditionally French than Hawaiian under executive chef Philippe Padovani.

We dined one evening on baby eggplant with zucchini flowers, new potato salad with a cream sauce and caviar, broiled opakapaka in oyster sauce, a salad with warm truffles and fois gras and a perfect lilikoi (a local berry) souffle with kiwi sauce.

The dinner cost about $60 per person without wine. Although the dishes were highly imaginative, the execution lacked the intensity of fresh flavors that we had come to expect. An exception was the tart-sweet lilikoi souffle. All in all, however, the dinner lacked the culinary excitement normally seen with such high prices.

Several of the hotels in Waikiki have similar restaurants--beautiful rooms with high-quality service and food that is overpriced.

A pleasant exception is Bagwells 2424 in the Hyatt Regency. We hadn’t planned on eating there but it was late on a rainy night and we were looking for comfort.

Talents Exhibited

Some friends had said that it was worth a try. Without reservations, we walked in and although there was no table available in the dining room we were served in the bar from a special menu that featured entrees from the dining room in smaller portions.

The talents of executive chef Graham Smith were exhibited.

We began with lobster-filled won ton ravioli in vanilla sauce with rubbed sage on the top ($3). Vanilla and fish are flavors not easily handled, but Smith combined them with such finesse that they remained complementary, with the sage providing an accent.

Sashimi was served with a warm basil sabayon over the barely warm fish and accompanied with crisp fried spinach leaves ($3.25). A single lamb chop came with a sauce of red bell pepper and caramelized garlic cloves ($7.25).

Then there was opakapaka that was wrapped in filo dough, baked until slightly brown and set on a puree of fresh mango ($3.50).

When we walked back to our hotel in the light rain, it was with the belief that it was one of our more memorable meals.

Top Thai Restaurant

Our other exceptional dining experience was at Keo’s, easily the best Thai restaurant we’ve tried anywhere outside of Thailand.

In an old converted building on the other side of the Ala Wai Canal near Waikiki, Keo’s huge bundles of Thai orchids form clouds of color to enliven the whitewashed room filled with white umbrellas.

Everyone, it seems, tries the “Evil Jungle Prince,” and we found the dish not only something to talk about but excellent. We ordered the chicken version--you also can get shrimp, scallops, fish or vegetable.

A chicken breast was sauteed with coconut milk, fresh basil, lemon grass and red chili and served on a bed of chopped cabbage.

The Thai spring rolls were light and crunchy with fresh vegetables, and they were the perfect accompaniment to the satays , chunks of meat on skewers that were served with a sauce of roasted peanuts, coconut milk and cinnamon among other ingredients.

The Thai noodles, stir-fried with bean sprouts and tofu, were the best we have had, and the Thai garlic, pounded, cooked with black pepper and served with vegetables, was sweet and delicious.

Dessert was worth the trip alone--tapioca served warm with fresh coconut milk and an apple-banana mixture cooked in fresh coconut. The flavors in all the dishes were clear, distinct and intense--each dish had an individual character. The meal cost about $30 for two.

For the Locals

If you want to sample the “real” Waikiki, go to some places that are not well known except to residents.

Try the Makai Market in the Ala Moana shopping center for inexpensive, good, local dishes--Patti’s Chinese Kitchen, Korean barbecue and traditional Hawaiian specialties.

Have breakfast at Michel’s at the Colony Surf for the eggs Benedict, or down the street at the Hau Tree in the New Otani Hotel for the mango muffins and Portuguese sausage. Both offer good beach-side dining with a view.

Be sure to see the Frank De Lima show at the Noodle Shop at the Waikiki Sand Villa Hotel. The menu advertises the “greatest spaghetti dinner in the world for $4.95.” We can’t vouch for that, but the comedy show is a favorite with locals.

High Sound Level

And if you have teen-agers, be assured that all is well, for Waikiki has a Hard Rock Cafe. Great hamburgers and lime-broiled chicken, but the sound level is only tolerable with ear plugs.

Bagwells 2424, Hyatt Regency, Waikiki, 2424 Kalakaua Ave.; (808) 922-9292.

Bon Appetit, 1778 Ala Moana Blvd.; (808) 942-3837.

Hard Rock Cafe, 1837 Kapiolani; (808) 955-7383.

Hau Tree Lanai, New Otani Hotel, 2863 Kalakaua Ave.; (808) 923-1555.

Keo’s Thai Cuisine, 625 Kapahulu Ave.; (808) 737-8240.

Michel’s, Colony Surf Hotel, 2895 Kalakaua Ave.; (808) 923-6552.

Orchids, Halekulani, 2199 Kalia Road; (808) 923-2311.

Sergio’s restaurant, 445 Nohonani; (808) 926-3388.