Locokinegrindz.com went out on the town tonight in search of a good movie to see. But, like any Friday Night outing, finding good food was also on the agenda. My girlfriend and I were craving for something different, something new. Our search for food took us to an establishment that we had never tried before, but had heard some good things about: The newly reopened “Restaurant Epic” at the corner of Nu’uanu Ave and Pauahi Street. Since reopening its doors this summer after a brief closing, Epic has seen an influx of customers interested to see what newly appointed head chef, David Hoffman, had to offer. Learning beforehand that Mr. Hoffman was a graduate of Kapiolani Community College sparked some interest to see what a locally trained chef would produce (David Hoffman worked at Roy’s Restaurant previously).
As with any downtown business, finding parking is a bit of a challenge. The restaurant does offer its own Valet Parking service for $5. Simply pull up to the curb and the valet will take take it from there. We decided on going with a slightly cheaper approach, and found parking in a garage a block away for $3 for the first two hours, more than sufficient for a quick dinner for two. A short walk up Nu’uanu Avenue took us by Indigo Restaurant. Unlike Indigo’s opened doors and loud blaring music fanfare, Restaurant Epic’s entrance is very quiet and blends into the building. As we open the doors and enter the restaurant you get a sense of the decor. Deep oranges and browns adorn the restaurant’s walls and furniture, giving a kind of upscale club feel to the experience. The hostess greeted us nicely and confirmed our reservations, and from there it was off to our table. A quick step beyond the bar, which is still awaiting its liquor license at this time (causing Restaurant Epic to be B.Y.O.B. for the time being), and we were seated in the very middle of the restaurant up against the wall. We received our menus promptly and began flipping through. One look at the menu and you can see that this restaurant falls within the “fusion” food category. A mix of east-meets-west dishes fill the menu from its appetizers to its main dishes.
Not in the mood for anything very heavy we opted for a course of fish based dishes. We began with a dish I had read about previously, the Trio Ahi ($18), which was comprised of a portion of ahi poke, ahi and unagi sushi roll, and sizzling ahi poke. The ahi poke was quite well prepared with a slightly oily base complemented by a mixed fruit garnish. The sizzling ahi poke was garnished with a slice of avocado and grapefruit, which when combined with the ahi made for an interesting mix of flavor and texture. By far the biggest hit of the trio was the Ahi and Unagi sushi roll. Prepared very well as an inside-out sushi roll, the flavors of fresh ahi and unagi mixed together well, culminating with the sauce in a slightly spicy aftertaste.
For our main course we both ordered the Saikyo Miso Style Butterfish ($26) served with bok choy, crunchy sea beans, tomatoes, and a furikake crusted rice ball (musubi!). Having been a long time fan of miso butterfish since I was a kid, I had high hopes for this dish, especially since I had read about it in the newspaper. I must add that there was an unusually long wait time between the arrival of our appetizer and our main course, which after a while began to get slightly irritating. We received our food a short time later, and immediately you can see the presentation efforts on behalf of the chefs. The plates were very well laid out and presented, although we would expect nothing less of a restaurant at this price tag. I regret to inform you that as beautiful as the dish looked, it did not taste as good as it looked. For a dish claiming to be “miso” butterfish I could not make out any hint of miso at all. The vegetable garnishes and the sauce that was drizzled over the dish were very salty, to the point where I had to sip my water constantly. I think our waiter got sick of filling my water cup so often, and truth be told I would have been irritated, too! The fish itself was well cooked at a “medium well” level, retaining its natural moisture and soft texture. Unfortunately the diligent preparation of the food was overshadowed by the overuse of salt.
From left to right: Trio ‘Ahi Appetizer, Saikyo Miso Style Butterfish
Having finished our butterfish with disappointment still on our palates, we moved on to the dessert menu hoping to find a little bit of sweet to balance the high level of saltiness we had just endured. My girlfriend opted to try Restaurant Epic’s signature dessert, the Traditional Bailey’s Cheesecake ($7). I went with a lighter choice and ordered the Grand Marnier Strawberry Mascarpone Pavlova ($8), which was essentially a dish of fresh strawberries and cream. Once we placed our order I also picked up a cup of decafe coffee. The coffee was mild and easy to drink, although once more this would be expected at a restaurant at this price level.
From left to right: Traditional Bailey’s Cheesecake, Grand Marnier Strawberry Mascarpone Pavlova
The cheesecake was light and creamy, a bit lacking on the bitter cheese taste that, in my opinion, is the essence of real cheesecake. But it was good nonetheless. As usual the presentation was excellent, but the taste was just a cut above mediocre. My dessert was quite the surprise. Not only was the presentation different from what I had expected (and quite beautiful), the freshness of the strawberries exceeded my expectations and the quality of the cream cheese used was superb. A light and airy cream cheese generously balanced with the fresh strawberries made for a nice end to the meal. This dessert was likely the best dish of the night.
Final thoughts: Overall, Restaurant Epic, is not all that different from other restaurants that field mixtures of different culinary styles into a “fusion” experience. The service and atmosphere was excellent, but did not make up for the lacking quality of taste in the food. While the foods were generally well prepared, with the exception of the overly salty butterfish, the overall tastiness of the dishes did not leave me wanting more (save for the Strawberry dessert!). All-in-all I walked away paying $80 before tip was applied, a hefty price for what we felt was a so-so experience. I will definitely plan on trying Epic one more time in the months to come, perhaps at lunch time to sample some other menu items.
| Service: |   |
Above Average |
| Food: | |
Average |
| Atmosphere: | |
Above Average |
| Overall Value: | |
Average |
Restaurant Epic: “A Journey of Flavors New & Old”
1131 Nu’uanu Avenue. Honolulu, HI 96817
Phone: 808.587.7877
Monday - Thursday: 11AM to 2:30PM, 5PM to 10PM
Friday -Saturday: 11AM to 2:30PM, 5PM to 11PM
Sunday: 5PM to 10PM
Directions to Restaurant Epic — Simply replace “Honolulu, HI” with your address!
Tags: Hawaii Food, Hawaii Food Review, Restaurant Epic, Restaurant Epic review, Restaurant Epic Hawaii review
Other Popular Reviews:
Restaurant Epic has closed its doors once again. My former coworker, who was a waiter at the restaurant, told me they shut down the restaurant this week because the co-owners were having problems with each other.
Sorry, my bad. Restaurant Epic is still open. I guess my coworker didn’t know that they reopened again.
Oh yes they just reopened a few weeks ago I believe. They still don’t have their liquor license paperwork they are so new
Last night was my first long-awaited experience at Restaurant Epic and despite this article’s average outlook and not so favorable rating I must say it had far exceeded my expectations. We had begun our meal with the khalua pork spring rolls at our server’s recommendation and my doubts had immediately disappeared at first bite. Excellent preparation and flavor, yet not as overpowering as you would expect from a former chef of Roy’s. Then we proceeded to experience Chef Hoffman’s Hawaiian take on the traditional Paella and I had no choice but to finish every last grain of rice and piece of seafood on that plate. However, after thinking that the food could just not get any better (or that I could just not take another bite of anything put in front of me) our server brought out the Pavlova making it more than what could be described as a sweet ending to our formidable and quite epic experience.
It must also be mentioned that the service was some of the best found anywhere in Honolulu and the atmosphere provided for the perfect satisfaction to a craving for a real city life dinner experience. I think Dale needs to take another visit to the restaurant, open his mind, and awake his tastebuds to truly understand great food.
I understand that at some times restaurants may have off nights. And given that not only myself but the person I was with felt the same about the food on this particular outing, I do not believe that it was just my lack of an “open mind.” I find that places that serve great food do so on a consistent basis (I’ve never walked into Merriman’s and left feeling this way among the dozen times I’ve been there). I do intend to return to Epic to sample other menu items in the future.
I recently dined at Restaurant Epic and thought that the Miso Butterfish was delicious and one of the best I’ve ever had. My friends had a lamb dish and a blue cheese papio dish and I thought the tastes that I stole from them were also fantastic. I think you should rethink your decision to be a food critic if you’re going to have such a closed mind and say that you wil not return to Epic to sample other menu items from just one visit. As a food critic, don’t you think that you should have ordered something different from the person that you are dining with in order to sample a VARIETY of dishes on one’s menu….hmmm. Being a fairly new restaurant, you would expect it to have a few hiccups but to compare it to such a well established restaurant as Merriman’s is a little ridiculous. Find a new HOBBY Dale.
Last week, my friend decided to celebrate his birthday at this restaurant. None of us knew anything about it except that it had closed and reopened not too long ago.
After reading your review (and several others) I wasn’t too thrilled to eat at Epic. However, my friends and I also keep a food blog and thought it would be great challenge for us to go in and dine with open minds.
Unfortunately, our experience there went downhill from the moment we asked for an ice bucket. Service was awkward, and the food was drowning in all sorts of sauces that left my mouth itching for something bland. One friend’s all-time favorite dish is Misoyaki Butterfish. Another friend and I had warned her about it, but she was a trooper and decided to try it. She had three bites. No miso flavor in sight and fish was “hard.” Birthday person had the “special,” Papio, and he ate two bites and even told the waiter that his fish was swimming in a cheese sauce that overpowered everything on his plate. He was told it was a cream sauce, but it seemed to be more of a blue cheese sauce (as Brent states in his comment above).
In the end, all 10 of us only ate 1/4 of our meals. For a group of “foodies” that says something. We did our best to prove you wrong, but we failed miserably. I read your reviews every time I need a reliable opinion and you came through again. Thanks! We’ll all be posting our take on this place on our own site soon =)
I’ve been to Epic twice and thougt both experiences were pretty good. I had the Daube (braised short ribs) on my first visit and that was great. On my second visit I had blue cheese papio and didn’t see anything wrong with it. It did have a lot of sauce around it but I didn’t mind since I love sauces.
As far as service goes, probably some of the best service you can get on the island for the price range.
Wow what a let down! Looks can be deceiving, such a nice looking place with poor service and mediocre food. I had walked by it repeatedly, even looked in the window at the menu and it looked promising. We were very disappointed when out soup took a half hour to arrive and while the bowl itself was screaming hot, the soup was lukewarm. We would have sent it back but our server did not check in on us for way too long and we were starving. Two girls were sat 15 minutes after us and received their entire meal before our cool soup arrived. The Trio Ahi came out and all of the samplings were at room temperature, not chilled like most poke, or hot like seared poke, but simply ambient temperature. Again, our server mostly ignored us and did not check back until we were thoroughly disgusted with the meal and we just wanted to get out and go somewhere to eat. The Paella was medium rich flavorful, but the whitefish that was mixed in had texture only, no taste to it. Overall it was quite bland and disappointing. I went to the restaurant website to post a comment but the site is not functional either, just a picture screen with no functional links. Yet one more disappointing thing about this place. Honestly, one of the worst food experiences that cost me $61.78, and I cringed at leaving a tip for such a poor server. The only good part was the hostess was friendly and the guys filling my tea were on top of it, covering for the servers inadequacies. STAY AWAY.
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