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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Friday, December 27, 2002

Indigo pleasures palates with bursts of flavor

By Matthew Gray
Advertiser Restaurant Critic

Kimberly Theos gets ready to enjoy dim sum and ocean-farmed moi, roasted in banana leaves, at Indigo. The Chinatown restaurant offers an abundance of flavor surprises.

Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser

Indigo Eurasian Cuisine

1121 Nu'uanu Ave.

Lunch: 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays

Dinner: 6-9:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays; Fridays and Saturday until 10 p.m.

Expanded evening hours for some Hawai'i Theatre performances

521-2900

Very good

It's easy to like Indigo. Its operators have done a great job with this restaurant, expanding it slowly and surely, stressing quality and attention to detail.

Early evenings here are unhurried and romantic. A well-dressed crowd makes its way down an alleyway entrance, revealing a culinary stage set with hand-carved Indonesian wood panels, lanterns, decorative rattan and bamboo, and lush, tropical plants. In the background gurgles a picturesque waterfall.

The restaurant has been open about 10 years now, and it seemed a good time to revisit — especially since we hear that its lease is up for renegotiation and the future is by no means assured.

Indigo offers a number of areas in which to be seated — the dining room, around the small bar and in the patio/lanai areas. I enjoy sitting in the back by the bar, beneath a ceiling fan. Illuminated by candlelight, it is so dark you may wish to ask for a mini flashlight to read your menu.

You could easily make a meal from the dim-sum segment of the menu. These small tastes bring a lot of flavor. Definitely try the lobster potstickers ($8) with chili soy sauce, an upscale version of the more common meat-filled ones. The lemongrass chicken brochettes ($6.75) are similar to Thai satay; char-grilled chicken served with a dark peanut sauce. Chinese gin doi, a chewy favorite of mine, is made with mochi rice flour that is stuffed with roasted duck and dried apricots, and then fried.

Lumpia-wrapped shrimp ($9) is actually a shrimp mousse filling inside a crisp fried eggroll wrapper; it's served with a mildly spicy chipotle (smoked jalapeno pepper) aioli dip. The shiitake mushroom and chicken bao buns ($7) are a new take on a familiar dish we often call manapua.

Roasted tomato garlic crab soup ($6.75) jumped off the page as something I had to order. Given all the wonderful ingredients such as blue crab and cilantro pesto, however, this soup was a bit too thick and overpowering to carry the crab. The Hau'ula tomato and gorgonzola ($9.75) salad is a delicious marriage of perfectly ripe sweet tomato, along with the creamy sharpness of the noble and bold Italian cheese.

One of the things I love about Indigo is the way flavors become surprising components of a dish. Case in point; the Shanghai mahogany duck with soft bao buns ($22.75).

Half of a roasted duck is placed over black rice (a Thai rice similar to wild rice, with a pleasant firm crunchiness). The duck was glazed with a raspberry hoisin sauce and topped with sweet pink Chinese berries. Satellite sides such as cranberry-apricot compote, a mixed melon salsa, a red cabbage slaw, and an unusually good vegetable combo of baby bok choy and steamed orange squash surrounded the dish. This plate has so much going on that it's remarkable how it all comes together.

Mongolian lamb chops ($25.75) are served with minted tangerine sauce, roasted peaches and garlic mashed potatoes. Emperor Po's ginger ham shanks ($19.25) are braised ham hocks, soft from a long, slow simmer, flavored with black pepper and ginger.

Desserts are done in-house and are artfully arranged. The caramelized pecan tart ($6.25) is held in place with a buttery pastry shell and topped with vanilla gelato. Unlike many overly sweet pecan desserts, this one hit the middle-range bull's eye. The apple lemongrass crisp ($6.25) was not crisp; it actually looked a lot like the pecan tart with the exception of a softer pastry crust. The lemongrass flavor works quite well here as a foil to the sweet apple filling. It, too, is served with vanilla gelato.

Chocoholics need not fret: There's a double-double chocolate torte ($5.50), a dense mousse cake matched with a raspberry coulis.

Indigo is a great place to people-watch, too. A reasonably priced lunch buffet ($13.95) brings together many different items definitely worth trying. And the evening valet parking service ($4) makes dining here a much less harrowing experience than trying to find a space in Chinatown at night.

Reach Matthew Gray at mgray@honoluluadvertiser.com.