The title of this post pretty much sums it up. One of the best things about Hawaii is the food. It’s responsible for most of my excessive weight, and it’s one of the primary things I look forward to when I come back home for vacation. Hawaii has the best assortment of fresh local fish, and it’s such a treat to go to a fine dining restaurant in Hawaii that maximizes use of fresh local seafood and ingredients.

I’ve been to Hoku’s Restaurant in the Kahala Resort (formerly the Kahala Hilton and the Kahala Mandarin Hotel) several times in the past and have always enjoyed my meals. Its menu manages to showcase the freshness of local ingredients in a clever way. Hoku’s also has one of the more unique beginnings to a mea — you get a bread basket and a spread of creme fresh with raw ahi and a bit of horseradish. So you get a light fresh, slightly spicy tasting dip with bits of raw ahi in it. It might sound gross, but trust me, it’s delicious.

Anyhow, in late 2006, Hoku’s underwent renovations to both its interior and its menu. This is the first time that I’ve been back since the renovation. Although I couldn’t really tell any substantive difference in the interior decor (the tables were still fairly close, the color palatte was nearly the same save the new yellow dishware and annoying stemless wine glasses doubling as water glasses, and there was still no private dining room), I could definitely tell the difference in the menu. It was much more expensive than I remembered, and unfortunately, the food was definitely underwhelming.

The tableside view is still gorgeous. You look out onto well manicured lawns, white accent furniture, and the ocean. The Kahala obviously has this whole thing set up for that perfect wedding moment. You also immediately realize how posh this place is. This is the hotel where Japdamus saw O.J. as a little kid and where several celebrities/noted people stay while on Oahu.

So you’re totally primed to have a leisurely, relaxing dinner. They start you off with an amuse bouche of strawberry-watermelon soup with raspberry yogurt (at least that’s what the server told us. I overheard her tell another table that the yogurt was creme fresh, so who knows which is right). I thought it was okay, definitely light and very fruity. You could really taste the watermelon, but it was more of the weak, artificial watermelony taste that you’d get from Bubblelicious gum flavors. Not a deep summertime sort of flavor. One of the people at the table grimaced, and most everyone left the soup unfinished. Now, I was willing to let this go because it’s wintertime and fruit’s just tough to come by, but if you’re going to do an amuse bouche, then just do something that doesn’t solely rely on out of season fruits. You are a place that’s known for seafood, after all.

So we decided to do the signature Hoku’s dish: the seafood tower. It’s pretty much exactly what you’d expect from that name. It’s a mountain of finely crushed ice, and they artistically arrange a lobster tail, oysters, crab legs, crab claws, shrimp, clams, mussels, differentt ypes of sashimi, and edible seaweed on it. You get seven different dipping sauces — ponzu, Hawaiian chili pepper water, ume/shiso water, mustard/horseradish, wasabi, cocktail, and something else. This is interestingly considered a “special” even though the waiter said it was their signature dish. It was refreshing and luxurious. The lobster tail was a bit overdone, in my opinion, but everything else was perfectly prepared. You got enough of the sea in every damn bite and got a great sampler. A small tower can easily feed four people for an appetizer. This is probably the best value for your dollar purchase (though it’s $68 for a small tower) at Hoku’s. And it’s got one of the best presentations.

In the past, I’d seen Japadamus order the ahi musubi here, and it always looked great. He got two large musubi with succulent chunks of ahi lightly tossed with a seasame oil marinade and the outside of the rice was grilled yakitori style so it was crisp. I dreamed of it for over a year, and I was so excited to see it on the revised menu. The revised menu had it prepared two ways: fried and grilled. I’m actually not really certain which is which because one was just like I remembered it — crispy rice on the outside, softer rice ont he inside. the other was this weird ass thing that was shaped to resemble a chicken drumstick or perhaps a pork chop, which is even odder b/c it’s a riceball stuffed with tuna. Wtf. anyhow, that drumstick was basted in waht tasted like a teriyaki sauce but the rice didn’t seem to be grilled or fried. it just seemed like they took a bunch of rice fromt he cooker, shaped it, and threw it down on the plate. which one of these do you think is the fried and which is the grilled? or ?

Tough to tell, huh? Anyhow, this was the second best dish of the evening, but I was sort of iffy about it being $19 for this and me only really enjoying the non-lamb chop one.

Okay, so I was really looking forward to my entree. I dont’ know why exactly in retrospect because I ordered the special: steamed moi with steamed Asian veggies and steamed Jasmine rice. It’s very simple, but I remembered that Hoku’s had excelled in steamed dishes int he past. And I was always full and enjoyed the wayt hat the subtle marinade highlighted the flesh of the fish. As a personal note, I really hate whole fish for some reason. I think it’s a lot of work and you dont’ really get much more flavor as opposed to getting a nice fillet cut. But the server didnt’ mention that, and I’d have large moi in the past. So I was a bit surprised to see this: It looks tasty enough, but it was maybe 6-7 inches worth of actual flesh and man you had to work well for your flesh. there were lots of smaller bones and i kept on getting errant scales while eating, so overall, I definitely had to work for my meal. The flesh was delicate and whatnot, but it wasn’t really anything spectacular at al,so I was pretty disappointed.

I decided to console myself with dessert. I ordered … just cake (really, it’s called “… just cake” You have to enjoy a dessert with ellipses in dish’s title). It was an orange sponge cake with seasonal berries and fresh cream. It was good, but it wasn’t really $10 good either. I’d say a slice of Napoleon’s Bakery orange sponge cake would be equally satisfying, which is really a damning statement you’d know if you’ve ever had Napoleon’s Bakery baked goods.

I suppose the main reason I’m panning Hoku’s is b/c it’s been so great in the past that it’s with really high expectations and a hungry stomach that I went there expecting to recreate some of the magical times of past. But instead, we were left with okay food and a tab taht ended up being about $110/head without tip.  I feel like here are several other fine dining restaurants in Hawaii that will give you equal satisfaction for less money or more sataisfaction for the same amount.  It’s with a heavy heart that I recommend you try someplace besides Hoku’s.

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