Tonight we dined at Hoku’s, one of the most popular restaurants located within The Kahala Hotel & Resort (formerly the Kahala Mandarin). Our outing tonight came as a result of an email invitation that my Aunt received from Hoku’s, which highlighted their special limited menu for the month of August entitled “A Lobster Affair.” As you can imagine this special set menu features a variety of dishes centered on lobster, with the exception of the dessert that did not include any lobster meat. It had been some time since I’ve had the chance to eat at Hoku’s, and the promise of a delicious lobster meal was reason enough to finally revisit this restaurant.

Parking at The Kahala is always a bit of a challenge, as a good portion of the parking structure is for valet parking only. Luckily for us, we arrived rather early in the evening (around 6PM) and managed to snatch up one of the few remaining self-park stalls. The parking structure is situated right in front of the lobby, and a short walk took us right up to Hoku’s. We were seated in the very back corner of the restaurant. This seating provided us with great views of the beach and pool area. Hoku’s is a well decorated restaurant, not lacking in fancy place settings and other atmospheric enhancers. The décor is much like that of Roy’s (along with the noise level of Roy’s as well!).

As we sat down our waitress asked us for drink orders. I decided on a “featured” wine off of their wine list. Hoku’s does not serve its patrons regular tap water. Our waitress poured water straight from freshly opened bottles of Fiji spring water. Needless to say this is an added bonus of dining at Hoku’s. Fiji spring water is especially clean and quite delicious as water goes. Definitely my favorite bottled water brand. Naturally we all ordered the lobster course for our meals, and waited for our food to begin arriving.

Kombu & Sake Marinated Kona Maine Lobster Sushi

The first item of the night was an “Amuse Bouche “comprised of a kombu and sake marinated Kona Maine lobster sushi accompanied by a “Heirloom Tomato Gelee.” This dish is very simple, a singular piece of sushi complemented by the “gelee” and a dash of wasabi salt. The dish itself was very well presented with a pleasing mix of colors. However, the taste of the lobster was sadly overpowered by the strong mint flavor of the “shiso” leaf that served as an outer wrap. Overall the dish tasted good, but didn’t really highlight the flavor of the fresh lobster as I would have liked.

Caribbean Rock Lobster Salad

Second in line was a “Warm Caribbean Rock Lobster Salad” accompanied by mango and foie gras, topped off with a sherry wine vinaigrette. The lobster tail that topped this salad was very nicely seasoned and succulent, retaining all of its natural juices. The combination of flavors from the lobster, sherry wine, and mango made for a delicious salad. This course was likely my favorite of the evening.

Summer Vegetable Kona Main Lobster Soup

After the salad plates were cleared it took some time for our next course to arrive. When it finally did we were greeted with the pleasing aroma of a “Summer Vegetable Kona Main Lobster Soup” complete with a slice of tomato rubbed bread. The lobster and vegetables were set in a large bowl, and after all the bowls were placed the soup was poured in. The soup itself was very light and married well with the summer vegetables. The small chunks of lobster made this simple-looking soup into something more luxurious. I really enjoyed this course as well.

Butter Poached Tristan Lobster and Veal Ravioli

I must note that once again there was quite a long wait for our final entrée to arrive. When the dishes finally arrived our waitress warned us that the plates were very hot. However, the actual foods contents of said plates were quite lukewarm and the lobster was rather cold. This main entrée was a “Butter Poached Tristan Lobster and Veal Ravioli” with fresh peas and lemon shallots. Upon looking at the dish it occurred to me that the combination in it of itself was rather odd, and truth be told the tastes did not meld well together. The taste of the buttered lobster and the saltiness of the veal in the ravioli were awkward together. Adding to taste confusion was the pea sauce that was drizzled over the ravioli. While the lobster and ravioli as individual items tasted good, the combination into one entrée was not. This was my least favorite dish of the night.

Fig Gallette’s

For dessert Hoku’s served up “Fig Gallette’s” with a cinnamon marsala sabayon (or “Zabaglione”). This dessert was very light and creamy. The wafers that topped the sabayon were very crispy, and complemented the creamy texture of the sabayon well. The figs were semi-sweet and soft and added a nice subtle fruit flavor to the dessert. The waiter that served our dessert joked that while the dish did not contain any lobster, it was designed to look like one. But I’ll let you be the judge of that!

Final Thoughts: Hoku’s is a beautiful restaurant that offers great views of the Kahala beachfront. The quality of the ingredients used in the dishes we sampled tonight was very high, although lacking in thoughtful preparation at times. All-in-all Hoku’s seems like a restaurant with great potential, and I will definitely make it a point to return one day to sample some of their regular menu items to get a taste of the its true flavors. As for their August special, “A Lobster Affair” ($88), I would say that the menu was hit-and-miss, with some great flavor combinations early on but thinning out towards the end of the meal. However, the good service and great atmosphere still made for an enjoyable evening.

Service:		Above Average
Food:		Above Average
Atmosphere:		Above Average
Overall Value:		Average +

Hoku’s at The Kahala Hotel & Resort
5000 Kahala Avenue
Honolulu, Hawaii 96816
Phone: 808.739.8780

Directions to the Hoku’s — Simply replace “Honolulu, HI” with your address!

Tags: Hawaii Food, Hawaii Food Review, The Kahala Hotel & Resort, Hoku’s, Hoku’s Hawaii, Hoku’s review, “A Lobster Affair”

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This entry was posted on Friday, August 17th, 2007 at 10:28 pm and is filed under Fusion, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.