Where seafood stars and the view is to die for
Editor's note: Cuisine on a Shoestring, usually published on the first Friday of each month, returns next month. We start the new year of dining ready to celebrate, with a restaurant known as a special-occasion destination.
By Matthew Gray
Advertiser Restaurant Critic
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| There's lots to see at John Dominis restaurant in Kaka'ako, including the panoramic view of the Waikiki shoreline.
Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser John Dominis 43 Ahui St. Dinner: 6-9 p.m. Sundays-Thursdays , 5:30-9:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; Brunch buffet: 9 a.m.-1 p.m.Sundays. 523-0955.
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It's beautiful inside. As you enter, a lounge with plenty of seating is to your right, on the same level as the recently added sushi bar and oyster bar. It's an attempt to appeal to younger people who may not venture out to expensive establishments like this one very often.
The oyster bar offers about three different varieties ($10.50 for a half-dozen on the half-shell), so be sure to ask what they're serving when you go. The old rule for shellfish generally holds that any month (in the English language, in the northern hemisphere) containing the letter R is a good month to eat shellfish. (In warmer months, they breed, becoming less plump.)
A small staircase leads you down to the main dining room, over a seawater pond with live fish.
A wonderful view toward Diamond Head sparkles outside the floor-to-ceiling glass windows.
The king crab cocktail ($12.50) was arranged over a bed of red leaf lettuce, shredded cabbage, carrot and jicama, with a side cup of cocktail sauce made from ketchup and horseradish.
The seafood crepes ($6.95) were excellent: shrimp, scallops and fresh fish draped with a rich and velvety sauce, rolled up in delicate pancakes and browned for a moment beneath the broiler.
The crab-stuffed button mushrooms ($8.95) were a tasty appetizer, but not quite what the menu described. We were expecting to receive the version with hollandaise sauce, Boursin cheese and roasted garlic sauce, but what we got seemed to contain a bit too much creamy mashed potatoes with crab, heaped over mushrooms.
I counted 16 occurrences of the phrase "price recited daily" on the menu, and that is overkill. Normally you'd see this perhaps twice on a menu, once for caviar and once for lobster. In today's world of food purveyors, prices just do not vary much from day to day. More importantly, this phrase often makes patrons uncomfortable. (The expression "If you have to ask, you can't afford it" comes to mind.)
I enjoyed the tiger prawns platter done three ways ($34.95), even though one of the ways (scampi style) was actually a cream sauce with mushrooms. The other two styles were with black-bean sauce, and a take on Malaysian curry with banana, raisins and coconut. The huge oval platter was compartmentalized with piped mashed potatoes.
You can order your fish in a variety of ways here: sautéed, flame-broiled, baked in parchment paper, baked crab-crusted ($2.50 extra for this preparation — with two kinds of crabmeat, shiitake mushrooms, spinach, and Boursin garlic cream sauce), and steamed Chinese-style (with ginger, spring onions, cilantro and soy sauce).
We enjoyed the onaga ($36.95) done in the Chinese style, the snow-white flesh of the onaga a splendid consistency for the flavorings.
Even better was the opakapaka prepared in the baked crab-crusted style ($39.45).
Desserts such as the chocolate bread pudding with vanilla ice cream ($6.95), apple tart á la mode ($6.95), and créme brulee ($6.50) were fairly good but not spectacular. Ask if they have any wild berries ($8.95), which will contain a generous serving of raspberries, blackberries and blueberries, with strawberries and whipped cream on the side.
The Sunday brunch buffet ($31.95 for adults, $19.95 for kids ages 5 to 12) looks to be a glorious assortment of everyone's favorite items: omelets, seafood, salad bar, roast suckling pig, waffles, pasta, desserts and much more.
Service is friendly and capable.
Reach Matthew Gray at mgray@honoluluadvertiser.com.
