QUICK BITES
Restaurants plan special menus

By Wanda A. Adams
Food Editor

Celebrations and special menus abound as restaurants seek to build business with holiday observances and other events:

• The Plantation Cafe at the Ala Moana Hotel has an Okinawan Food Festival going through March 24 with guest appearances by executive chef Yukihide Shimabukuro and sous chef Seikai Higa, both of the ANA Manza Beach Hotel on Okinawa. The two are preparing such specialities as goya champaru (a stir-fried dish featuring bittermelon, tofu, pork, corned beef and eggs), rafute (a marinated pork dish), sooki soba (Okinawan noodles with short ribs) and sata andagi (those delectable Okinawan donuts). The menu is available Tuesday-Saturday for lunch and Tuesday-Thursday and Sunday for dinner. Complete meals range from $10.50 to $12.50 per person. Also, some selections will be included in the Saturday and Sunday dinner buffets, $23.50 per person. 955-8841, ext. 4070.
• Secretaries Week is coming up April 22-26, and Hoku's and the Plumeria Beach Cafe at the Kahala Mandarin Oriental will feature special fixed-price menus that week designed to get you back to the office in a reasonable length of time on a busy weekday; Hoku's, 739-8780, Plumeria, 739-8760. Other restaurants around town will be following suit; book early at your favorite as lunch reservations are always at a premium at this time.
• The restaurants at the Maui Marriott Resort & Ocean Club, Nalu Bar and Va Bene Italian Beachside Grill, will celebrate St. Patrick's Day with special menu items — which may seem an odd fit, but when you have a chef named Brendan Mahoney, you just have to get into the wearin' o' the green.
• The Wisteria Restaurant plans a special Easter Brunch featuring Frank De Lima, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. March 31; $20 for adults, $10 for children 5-11; younger children free; it's an all-you-can-eat buffet. Seating is limited, reservations are required; 591-9276.
• Compadres Bar & Grill has a number of promotions going, including a "Kids Eat Free All Day" every Sunday (for children 12 and under) with the purchase of an adult entree; "Margarita Madness" on Monday with $10 off margarita pitchers; "Taco Tuesdays," with $1 off tacos from 4-7 p.m.; $3 fresh fish tacos every Wednesday; "Quesadilla Thursdays," with varying options offered at $7 ($3 for a half); a weekly "Manager's Pau Hana Party," 4-7 p.m. Fridays with barbecue oysters 3 for $3 and $2 margaritas and maitais and "Saturday Night Live" with local-style music 10 p.m.-1 a.m. each Saturday.
• And on Maui, Pacific'O and I'o, have updated their menus with a more Euro-Asian style of cuisine, meaning more of a Mediterranean approach, and with more fresh produce (15-20 percent) coming from the restaurants' own garden in Kula. Among the new dishes: At Pacific'O, Yuzu Divers (coconut roll with seared diver scallops) and Shanghai Escargot (wok-seared snails in an Asian-inspired preparation with fried onion noodles) and at I'o, Island Carpaccio (thinly sliced fresh fish of the day in a citrus herb vinaigrette with Kaua'i sea salt) and Maui Steak (filet mignon grilled with garlic, oyster mushrooms and pohole fern shoots).

Wine-tasting fund-raiser slated

Historic Hawai'i Foundation and JMD Beverages are planning a wine-tasting and display of vintage aloha shirts in the renovated 1930s-era C. Brewer Building in downtown Honolulu, 6-9 p.m. April 13. The fund-raiser includes food from 3660 on the Rise and Sam Choy's restaurants, plus wines from Alexander Valley Vineyards, Dry Creek Vineyards, Murphy-Good Winery and Pedroncelli Winery in Sonoma County, Calif. On display will be shirts from the private collection of Dale Hope, author of "the Aloha Shirt," which will be on sale there (proceeds also partly benefit the Historic Hawai'i Foundation). Tickets: $25 for Historic Hawai'i Foundation members, $50 for the general public. Each $50 admission includes an introductory six-month membership. Information and reservations: 523-2900.

Restaurant reopens with a new menu

The Sheraton Princess Kaiulani's Momoyama Japanese Restaurant has reopened, with a new menu for both lunch and dinner and a special kaiseki presentation (a meal in courses) that requires a 24-hour advance order. Kama'aina dinner specials include a complete dinner of salad, miso soup, mukozuke, tsukemono, rice and green tea, maki and nigiri sushi, and two entree choices for $21.25 or three choices for $25.25. Lunch specials include pupu items, a mini-kaiseki, sushi and daily chefs specials starting at $7. Reservations: 922-5811; information about private parties: sheraton-hawaii.com.

Send items of culinary interest to Food Editor, Honolulu Advertiser, P.O. Box 3110, Honolulu, HI 96802. Fax: 525-8055. E-mail: taste@honoluluadvertiser.com.