Revamped Canoes menu falls short of expectations
By Matthew Gray
Advertiser Restaurant Critic
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| Chip Hawkins, executive chef at Canoes at the Ilikai, prepares the restaurant's award-winning duck salad Napoleon.
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser Canoes Renaissance Ilikai Hotel 1777 Ala Moana Breakfast: 6:30-11 a.m. daily Lunch: 11 a.m.-2 p.m. daily Dinner: 5-10 p.m. daily 949-3811
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In February 2000, Renaissance replaced Nikko as the management and operational group responsible for the Ilikai Hotel. It poured about $27 million into renovations, and rethought food and drink service.
I visited Canoes twice recently, enticed by the restaurant's success at the annual Taste of Honolulu event in June. Three of its dishes won first place in the people's choice competition: Crispy crab risotto cakes won the best seafood category; duck salad Napoleon won for best salad; and a warm caramel apple cobbler won the dessert category. Pretty impressive, I thought, so let's take a look at what they're doing on-site, beginning with the award-winning dishes.
The crispy crab risotto cakes ($8.95 special menu; not yet on permanent menu) were tasty but dense and thick, resembling a mashed-potato cake in texture rather than showcasing seafood. Garlic cream sauce dotted with bright green cilantro oil adorned the plate, and the cake was topped with a grilled shrimp instead of a more appropriate crab claw or mound of crab meat.
The duck salad Napoleon ($7.95) looked good but didn't hit the mark taste-wise. It's a stacked and layered affair of fried won-ton wrappers with micro greens, shredded duck and chunks of tomato in a miso and hoisin vinaigrette. Not enough duck was on this one, and what was there was quite bland. Instead of tomato, shreds of green onion, ginger, jicama or something else flavorful and crunchy would have been better.
The warm caramel apple cobbler ($5.95) had a cinnamon streusel topping and was served with vanilla ice cream. Although this dessert tasted good, it seemed more like a home preparation, perhaps made with biscuit mix, than something that matched the current level of dessert artistry in the industry.
Between the appetizers and dessert, I enjoyed three interesting fresh breads placed at the table — soft pretzel-like bread, whole wheat with sunflower seed in the crust and rosemary bread.
The entrées were disappointing. The 'ahi steak ($22.95) is prepared to your liking — grilled, lightly blackened or with lime butter. However, the cut is very thin — less than half an inch — so the fish is too easily overcooked. That's why you'll often see 'ahi prepared from a large chunk; it allows you to sear the outside while the inside stays ruby red and rare, the best way to enjoy this fish. The Cajun seasoning on the thin slice of fish was too spicy and overpowering; on a thicker cut it would have been fine.
The spice-seared 'opakapaka ($22.95) is described on the menu as accompanied by shiitake mushrooms, baby fennel and pineapple coulis. What I received was nothing like what I expected. Yes, there were slices of shiitake and pieces of fennel, but no pineapple coulis in sight. And the fish was swimming in a pool of tomato sauce. Had I known this,
I would not have ordered it. Such disappointments would be simple to rectify either by assuring that waiters have full knowledge of the menu or by more precise menu descriptions.
Many guests choose to sit on the lanai. But if you want to escape the heat, take an inside table. Unfortunately, the dining room, to my eye, looks and feels more like an upscale coffee shop, and that's out of sync with the prices.
Reach Matthew Gray at mgray@honoluluadvertiser.com.
