12th Avenue Grill

My daughter had a school dance and my son had a performance, so I looked at my wife and read her mind (or did she read mine?).   It’s time to sample a new restaurant!  Since we had limited time, we wanted somewhere close to our kid’s school, and 12th avenue grill fit the bill.  I’ve been there once before and really enjoyed it.  I thought it would be good to try again.  It gets crowded quickly, so we went at 5:30pm, when they opened.

Original Sign

The sign is picturesque in a special kind a way.  Don’t worry, the condition of the sign does not reflect on the condition of the kitchen.

Outside

From the outside, the restaurant looks festive and clean.

Inside

The inside is modern.  The seating can get a little cramped.  As long as you don’t sit next to “nielle” people, it is comfortable.  There was a group of loud drunk women across the aisle, but that was entertaining.  It added to the festive atmosphere.

View toward the kitchen.

View from our seats to the kitchen.  For those that notice details,  this picture is at the beginning of the meal, the previous picture was at the end of the meal.  You can see the tables filled up.

Bread

I was not going to take this picture.  I didn’t want to spam my own blog with “normal” food.  But my wife loved this bread and demanded I take the picture.   So here it is.  Crispy crust with rock salt (not too much), but tender and warm inside.

Menu

My wife chose Spinach Fettuccine w/ Gulf Shrimp.

Specials

I went with one of the specials:  Pan Roasted Big Island Wild Boar Loin.  We also split the Havarti Fondue and Truffled Pate appetizer.

Appetizer

This Havarti (Danish Cheese) and Truffled Pate was an interesting dish.  I think each dip by itself would have been too much, but if you alternate, they complimented each other and cleaned your palate.  This paired well with a Pinof Grigio.  But I would not order this again.

Wine

Now the main courses:

Spinach fettucine

Nice light cream sauce.  My wife loves Feta Cheese.  I thought it was good, but nothing exceptional.  Macaroni Grill serves a comparable dish.  Don’t get me wrong, I love Macaroni Grill.

Wild Boar

For me, this was the star of the show.  It’s the loin of the pork (or wild boar), so it was very tender.  The Marsala sauce was light, and herb crusted outside was had the right strength to give it flavor without over powering it.   I keep imagining big island hunters coming out of the rain forest with this boar on the hood of their car.

Wine Tasting

I was undecided on which wine to get:  Merlot or Pinot.   The waiter let me sample both.  What service.  I went with the Pinot Noir.  Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of the special wine menu.

On to dessert!

Dessert Menu

I went with the Fruit Crisp, which happened to be Pear.  My wife chose the Mango Upside Down Cake.

Mango upside-down Cake

It looks like this dish will have a stong impact of sweet and maybe sour.  But actually its quite light.  It was also warm.  The combination of Mango and Coconut Gelato was balanced and yummy.

Pear Crisp

When I first saw this dish arrive, I was disappointed.  I imagined the typical apple strudel.  Was I wrong.  This ended up to be the best dessert I’ve had this year.  Imagine a very light syrup with fresh crunchy but cooked pears.  It reminded me of fresh out of the oven pear muffins I used to get in Manoa.  Notice how the ice cream is still hard and not melted.  This dish travelled quickly from chef to table.

Pear Crisp Closeup

Here is a closeup view of the pears.  The coffee was good, but did not deserve a picture.

Bill

Heres the bill.  Not too bad.

Kitchen

I love this place.  The food was excellent, and decor had charm.  I would definitely recommend it.

If you do go, I would suggest two things:

1) Go early.   It gets crowded quickly with people waiting outside.  Also there are only a certain number of specials (you can see the count down on the bottom left), so come early before the specials run out.  My wife and her friend used to “reserve” the desert specials at the beginning of their meals.

2) Go with a special.  The specials seem to have creativity and provide adventure.

Thank you for visiting my blog, and I hope to see you soon when I blog about Hiroshi’s Taiseki Dinner!

 

Roy’s Waikiki

It’s wedding anniversary time, good excuse to try a new “Fancy Restaurant”!  This time my wife and I thought we would try Roy’s in Waikiki.  We’ve been to the Hawaii Kai one, but not to this one.

Zagat says: 26 food, 22 decor, 24 service, well within our “Fancy Restaurant” parameters.

Street view of restaurant

The street view from the opposite corner.

Outside

Closer view….

Back entrance

The back entrance is just as nice.

Lounge

You could almost bear the wait in this lounge.

Decor

Decor is modern and comfortable.  This is the view toward the kitchen.  Again, we were the first customers.  I guess 5:30pm is not typical.

Edomame

Instead of bread, we get Edomame (Soy Beans).

Menu

Now to the menu.  We love the set menus, so we both went  Prix Fixe.  My wife went with the Salmon and Chocolate Souffle (Red Arrows).  I went with Mac Nut White Fish and Mac Nut Tart (Blue Arrows), yes double Mac Nut for me.  Of course we ordered the matching wine.

1st Course

Starting from the left, the Blackened Ahi had a paprika dusting, and came with a wasabi cream sauce.  The short rib was “fall off the bone” and sat above green aoili.  The chicken spring roll was crispy on the outside and tender moist on the inside.

Roy’s paired this dish with a Prosecco, which is an Italian Sparkling wine.  To me, it tasted like a dry sparkling Riesling.

Prosecco

The interesting thing about this pairing is how the wine seemed to fit with each of the dishes in the trio.   With the Ahi, it seemed to give off a sweet pineapple taste.  As you move toward the ribs, the wine started growing more tart and went grapefruit-ish.  Finally with the spring roll, I got more citrus (lemon) coming at me.

Now for the main course…

Salmon

My wife had the Salmon cooked medium rare.  This had an oriental flare with the namasu (pickled cucumbers) and a citrus ponzu sauce.  This dish came with rice.

Perfectly Cooked

The fish (as expected) was  grilled crisply but the center was moist, tender, and slighty rare.

Riesling

Roy’s selected a dry Riesling, which matched the tart teriyaki flavor of the citrus ponzu sauce.

Mac nut crusted white fish

My dish was the Macadamia Crusted White Fish (Mahi).  The sauce on the left tasted of sweet tomatoes (like tomato bisque soup), the sauce on the right was the “Maine Lobster” sauce, which was light, buttery and creamy.  I loved the lobster sauce and ran out too quickly.  The fish was crispy & tender.

Chardonnay

The Chardonnay went well with this dish, but the lobster sauce was the highlight.

Dessert Time!

Chocolate Souffle

Ooze

Nothing beats a warm, moist, Chocolate Souffle.

Mac nut tart with short bread

But my dessert was more picturesque.  The short bread crust and macadamia nuts was a winner.

Dessert Parings

The Les Clos de Paulilles is made from Grenache, but was not aged like port.  Although still sweet, it was a lot lighter than other dessert wines.  With the chocolate, it tasted like cherries.

The Muscat with the mac nut tart came out tasting of passion fruit.

Bill Time:

Bill

Not too bad if you consider the wine paring.

Kitchen

On the way out, we took a peek at the kitchen.  Maybe next time we can eat at the bar and watch them cook.

If you feel in the mood for fish, this would be an excellent choice.

Grand Cafe and Bakery Lunch

Had a meeting in Downtown (Honolulu) that finished at 11am.  Perfect time to find a nice restaurant for lunch, before the crowds arrive.  I remember trying a restaurant a few years ago and decided to see if it was still there.  It was still there and better than ever!  Grand Cafe and Bakery.

The restaurant looks quaint and unimposing from the outside.

From the outside, looks like a “hole in the wall”…

Inside the restaurant looking toward the kitchen.

but the inside is nice, cool and comfortable.  The tables on the right could get a little cramped when crowded.  Fortunately, as you can see, we were the 1st customers.

This restaurant has a rich history:

History

The Chef

Now, to the food.  I had to try the Cola Braise Short Ribs…..

Coal Braised Short Ribs

This dish was excellent.  The short ribs was very tender, able to be shred with a fork.  The outside was slightly crisp.  The Cola added a very slight tangy flavor that complimented the ribs.  This is the “low carb” version, without potatoes.

Specials

My co-worker went with the Saute Opakapaka.

Saute Opakapaka

Fish was cooked perfectly.  Tender and moist, but crispy on the top.  Sauce was a light cream sauce that complimented the dish well.

Now on to dessert.

Bread Pudding

The bread pudding was excellent made with raisins and Cinnamon rolls?  Vanilla sauce was not too sweet.

I think we need a close up on the bread pudding:

Bread Pudding Up Close

I think the use of Cinnamon rolls made this Bread Pudding special (I think it was Cinnamon rolls).

Finally, the bill:

The Bill.

Kind of pricey.  I better bring home lunch tomorrow… not.  Maybe Subway.

Overall, it was a good experience and the food was great.  I would recommend this restaurant.

Pineapple Room Lunch

Pineapple Room, located in Ala Moana Center (in Macy’s) is the “little sister” to the restaurant Alan Wong’s. Doing some research on Zagat, I found the rating to be good: Food: 25, Decor 19, Service 23 .  I thought this would be a nice lunch destination for my wife’s birthday.

View toward the kitchen from our table.

Restaurant has a nice modern decor.   Seating and location was very comfortable.

Soup and Sandwich

My wife ordered the “express lunch”, which started with the soup and sandwich.  The soup was an interesting Indian Chicken Curry.  Let’s get a closer look at that sandwich…

Kalua Pig BLT (Bacon Lettuce Tomato)

Sometimes close up photos of food can look messy.  In this case you can see the gravy soaking into the bun.  Don’t miss the big tomato slice on top and grilled onions underneath.  Where did the “L” in BLT go?  The lettuce decided to go separate as part of the salad.

Onaga on the Menu

I decided to order the Onaga, Chinese Style.  I was planning on cooking this and wanted to see how the “Fancy Restaurants” do it.

Onaga "Chinese Style"

Here is a close up of the Onaga “Chinese Style”.   It’s steamed.  The big red thing on top is Lup Cheong (Chinese Sausage).  I asked for “No Starch”, since I am a “Low Carb” guy.  The fish was cooked perfectly.  The sauce was well balanced, not too sweet or too salty.  But the Lup Cheong was salty and a bit overpowering.

Onaga cooked "Chinese Style" with Wine

Here the Onaga is paired with some wine.  This was my chance to get advice on what wine pairs well with this dish.  Our waiter asked the experts and recommended a Riesling.

Alan Wong's own Riesling

The wine was slightly dry of medium.  It was not too sweet as a typical Riesling.  I felt it paired perfectly with the slightly sweet “Asian” soy-oyster sauce flavor of the Onaga.  I would definitely recommend this paring again.  Now time for dessert!

Brownies with "House Made" Vanilla Ice Cream

My wife enjoyed the dessert.  I thought the star fruit added a nice touch.

Frech Press 100% Kona Coffee

Since I had to abstain from the tempting dessert (being low carb), I thought I would splurge on coffee.  How could I not go with “Chef Alan Wong’s Favorite”?

Coffee

Coffee was excellent.  From a scale from 1 to 10, I would say 9.5.  A nice way to end the meal.

The Bill!

Here is the damage!  It’s a bit pricey for lunch, but it was my wife birthday.

Overall, I would recommend this resturant for lunch.  I would definately come again.