Good food overwhelmed by noise, bustle at Roy's
By Matthew Gray
Advertiser Restaurant Critic
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| Roy's in Hawai'i Kai is a restaurant that serves good food but lacks a relaxing ambiance because of its open kitchen and noisy main dining room.
Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser Roy's 6600 Kalaniana'ole Highway 396-7697 Dinner, seven nights Mondays-Thursdays, 5:30-9:30 p.m. Fridays, 5:30-10 p.m. Saturdays, 5-10 p.m. Sundays, 5-9:30 p.m.
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Why? Well, that's a conundrum I've been examining for a while. At Roy's (and its related worldwide enterprises) the food is good, it's always mentioned by guidebooks as one of the best Euro-Asian (now dubbed Hawaiian fusion) places in Hawai'i, and Roy Yamaguchi, the celebrity chef, is a local legend.
However, it seems as though when chefs become famous, they stop cooking unless flashes are popping and cameras are rolling. They move on to consulting, planning, fund-raising and other corporate duties, moving away from active kitchen duty, the magic that got them famous in the first place.
In 1988, when this Hawai'i Kai spot opened, people were still somewhat fascinated by the open kitchen. It was exciting to see the activity, knowing that someone in that culinary scrum would be prepping, cooking and arranging your food.
Nowadays, that concept is dying out because its excess of visual noise is the antithesis of what patrons really want, a relaxing environment.
I'm not exaggerating when I say there must have been 30 employees in one form or another (hostesses, managers, bus people, waiters and kitchen help) moving around the place when we visited Roy's recently. If you're not fortunate enough to be seated with an outside view, this is what you'll be subjected to. Case in point regarding excess movement: They divvy out bread to you via a bread minstrel who circulates through the room. It would be so much easier to have a basket of bread at your table.
But on to the food. The Hawai'i Kai-style crispy crab cakes ($11) are very good. They are loosely packed with sweet crab meat (not filler), coated in panko and arranged on the plate with a spicy sesame beurre blanc.
The teri-glazed Hudson Valley duck breast ($10) with Chinese black bean dragon sauce is another standout, sliced and fanned out over mashed Okinawan sweet potatoes. I also enjoyed the wood-grilled Szechuan-spiced baby back pork ribs ($9), satisfyingly sweet and savory.
The shrimp bisque ($6) was excellent, silky smooth with bits of blue-crab meat. Our servers graciously split the bowl into two servings for us.
On any given night, half of the offerings at Roy's are specials, along with the standard menu. You can feel confident ordering anything from either menu because Roy's chefs are comfortable with the rotating ingredients and flavorings characteristic of the house. A symbol on the menu alerts you to what the chefs consider their "most definitive Hawaiian fusion dishes."
If it's your first visit, you'll be urged to try the roasted macadamia-nut seared opakapaka in Maine lobster butter sauce ($29). We found the piece of fish to be on the smallish side and overcooked, but the sauce was great.
Another fishy incident occurred on our second visit. Having fallen in love with the glazed butterfish with wasabi cream sauce ($13 appetizer, $26 entrée) on my first visit, I recommended it to the table next to me.
I thought they'd receive the same huge butterfish fillet I had, artfully arranged over rice and braised cabbage and incredibly delicious. But what they received looked like a mistake, a shriveled piece of butterfish haphazardly placed on a plate. I asked to make sure they had ordered the entrée-sized plate and was told they had.
The hot iron-seared scallops ($27) with bacon fried rice and crispy sprout salad were skewered and cooked to perfection. Ditto the wild mushroom, spinach and brie-stuffed grilled pork chop ($20) with caramelized apple in a honey Dijon mustard sauce.
The upstairs dining room is one of the loudest you'll ever encounter, noisier than a sports bar with a championship game on television. Comfortable conversation is definitely out of the question. In addition to that, the room is always too warm.
The food, for the most part, is very good, but the many significant problems detract from what could be a wonderful experience.
Reach Matthew Gray at mgray@honoluluadvertiser.com with your comments, questions and suggestions.
