Holiday dining options abound — breakfast to tea

By Helen Wu
Advertiser Restaurant Critic

Sam Choy's Breakfast, Lunch, Crab & Big Aloha Brewery is a great place to take visiting family for holiday breakfast. Five types of loco moco, traditional breakfast items and fish are on the menu for for morning meals. Plus, you know the kids will love playing on the restaurant's boat. Photos by Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser

These restaurants are perfect oases. We've organized them into suggestions for breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner:

BREAKFAST

Sam Choy's Breakfast, Lunch, Crab & Big Aloha Brewery
580 N. Nimitz Highway, across from Gentry Pacific Center, Iwilei. 545-7979

• Keiki ages 5-12
• Breakfast: weekdays, 6:30-10:30 a.m.; Saturdays and Sundays, 7-11:30 a.m.
• Saturday and Sunday breakfast buffet: 9 a.m.-noon; adults $14.95, keiki $5.95
• Lunch: Mondays-Thursdays, 10:30 a.m.-3 p.m.; Fridays, 10:30 a.m.-4 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays, 11:30 a.m.-4 p.m.
• Dinner: Sundays-Thursdays, 5-9:30 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays, 5-10 p.m.
• Brewery, full bar
• Valet parking

En route to and from the airport, Sam Choy's BLC delivers hearty breakfasts that sustain you for a long flight or a day of sightseeing. Sam's five choices of loco-moco bowls give new meaning to "super size." In addition to traditional meat offerings, you can have fish for breakfast — fisherman's platter ($11.50), fried poke platter ($10.25), fried poke omelet ($8.25) or fresh Island fish moco ($11.25).

Platters come with two eggs; both platters and three egg-omelet plates come with toast and a choice of rice, hash browns or home fries. Go extra-local with a substitution of Sam's fried rice for $1.25.

Vegetarians will be happy with a veggie omelet ($7.75) and veggie moco ($6.95) made with sautéed tofu, spinach, mushrooms and garlic. Early birds are rewarded weekday mornings from 6:30 to 7:30 a.m. with a limited choice of weekly breakfast specials for $2.99. And of course, keiki will enjoy clambering on "da boat."

Mariposa
Ala Moana Center, inside Neiman Marcus, third floor. 951-3420

• Reservations recommended
• Lunch: daily 11 a.m.-3 p.m.; breakfast items available on Sunday lunch menu
• Dinner: Sundays-Wednesdays, 5-9 p.m.; Thursdays-Saturdays, 5-10 p.m.
• High tea: Sundays, 11 a.m.-3 p.m.
• Full bar
• Parking in Ala Moana Center lot or free valet parking

If you're off for a Sunday of shopping at Ala Moana Center after a bit of a sleep-in, you won't be disappointed by the breakfast items offered in addition to Mariposa's regular lunch menu. And the view of Ala Moana Beach Park from Neiman Marcus' third-floor veranda will help you forget for a moment how much is left on your shopping list.

Executive chef Douglas Lum's menu of limited but ever-changing breakfast specials, such as old-fashioned waffles ($8) and classic eggs Benedict ($12.50), are sure-fire pleasers. A choice of six "momentous Mimosas" ($4.50) featuring, variously, cassis, guava juice, blue cura'ao, Midori and cranberry juice, in addition to traditional orange juice, give you even more reason to get out of bed. The Neiman Marcus signatures of giant, steamy popovers accompanied by sweet poha-berry butter and tiny teacups of hot chicken consommé are other incentives.

And if you want to be truly indulgent, have one of pastry chef Karen Schooley's desserts such as warm liliko'i pudding cake ($6) and four-layer Valrhona chocolate fudge cake ($7).

LUNCH

The Contemporary Café at The Contemporary Museum
2411 Makiki Heights Drive, Makiki. 523-3362

• Reservations recommended
• Lunch: Tuesdays-Saturdays, 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.; Sundays, noon-2:30 p.m.
• Parking lot on-site

Museums are great escapes. Visually arrested by well-chosen objects, where better to transcend time and space? It is all the more exciting if your taste buds contribute.

The Contemporary Café's garden-like setting does just that. Chef Noreen Lam's simple lunch menu is light and fresh, a good match for the surrounding artwork and museum grounds. Choose from salads, sandwiches and daily specials. Kay's deviled eggs ($4.25), topped with pesto, sun-dried tomato pesto and tapenade, are a new twist on an old favorite. Try the classic wedge salad with Thousand Island dressing, poached shrimp and chopped egg ($9.50) or updated with creamy gorgonzola dressing and crumbled bacon ($7.50). Sandwiches are not stuffy, either. Freshly grilled vegetables on focaccia ($8.95) or a curried chicken salad wrap ($9.25) with pineapple chutney will not weigh you down. Top it all off with a slice of chocolate gateau ($3.95).

Pavilion Café at the Honolulu Academy of Arts
900 S. Beretania St., Makiki. 532-8734

• Reservations highly recommended
• Lunch: Tuesdays-Saturdays, 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m.
• Beer and wine available
• Parking lot across the street at the Academy Art Center between South Beretania and Young streets. Mondays-Saturdays, 7 a.m.-11 p.m., $3 for four hours with validation; metered street parking around museum

Chef Mike Nevin's menu at the Honolulu Academy of Arts Pavilion Café will dispel even the slightest sign of any holiday blues. Plates burst with vibrantly colored greens and explode with the freshest flavors. White-bean salad ($8.95) is a vegetarian's dream — robust with wilted radicchio, shiitake mushrooms and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, yet refreshingly light. Sandwiches are just as artfully inventive. Chopped salmon steak with dilled horseradish sauce on a house-made roll ($8.95) and an Italian piadina ($9.95) with fresh mozzarella and prosciutto should help entice you away from run-of-the-mill luncheonettes. Make room for decadent chocolate pot de cr¶me or a daily dessert special ($5.95). Revive yourself with a tall glass of house-made ginger lemonade ($2.25) or a glass of wine while you unwind in the courtyard setting. You will probably wonder why you waited so long between visits.

AFTERNOON TEA

The Winterbourne Tea Room at the Mission Houses Museum offers a delightful old-style afternoon tea service Monday through Friday.

• Reservations recommended
• Lunch: Mondays-Fridays, 11 a.m.-2 p.m.
• 373-7714 for high tea information
• Metered street parking around museum on Kawaiaha'o Street, Mission Lane and South Street

The Winterbourne tea room at the Mission Houses Museum is something of a time machine. Feel the minutes pass more slowly as you sip fragrantly restorative tea from a dainty china cup.

If you're hungry, try a three-combination plate with soup, salad and sandwich ($10.25; two-combination plates, $7.75, are also available). Owner Nikki Yasutake's menu and eatery are both small and sweet. There are weekly specials along with two favorite standards — a rich chicken and cashew sandwich and a perky Pupukea greens salad with avocado, asparagus and tomato. Dessert specials such as an ultra-moist rum cake ($3) also work wonders for relieving unwanted shopping stress.

The Banyan Veranda at the Sheraton Moana Surfrider Resort, Banyan Wing
2365 Kalakaua Ave., Waikiki. 931-8383

• Reservations recommended
• Breakfast: Mondays-Saturdays, 7-11 a.m.
• Sunday brunch: 9 a.m.-1 p.m.
• Afternoon tea: Mondays-Saturdays, 1-4:30 p.m.; Sundays, 3-4:30 p.m.
• Sunset dinner: nightly, 5:30-9 p.m.
• Entertainment: nightly, 5:30-10:30 p.m.
• Full bar
• Free validated parking across the street at Sheraton Princess Kaiulani parking structure, entrance on Ka'iulani Avenue

The ultimate throwback is The Banyan Veranda's high tea service at the Sheraton Moana Surfrider. For $25 plus tax, you can savor finger sandwiches and an assortment of sweet pastries, including warm scones with Devonshire cream. Keiki tea parties can be arranged for $17 plus tax per child.

DINNER

Haleiwa Joe's Seafood Grill at Haiku Gardens
46-336 Ha'iku Road, Kane'ohe. 247-6671

• No reservations accepted
• Parking lot on premises
• Dinner: nightly, 5:30-11 p.m. (Saturdays and Sundays open at 5 p.m.), last order at 9:30 p.m.
• Bar opens at 4:30 p.m. for drinks and pupu
• Sunday brunch: 10 a.m.-2 p.m.; $18.95 per person; keiki 11 and younger, $9.95
• Full bar

Overlooking a five-acre botanical garden, you feel like you're in a tree house at Haleiwa Joe's at Haiku Gardens. Tiki torches blaze as you enter, and suddenly you are immersed in vintage Hawaiiana without the Waikiki throngs. Just make sure you arrive when there's still enough light to view the postcard scene in front of you.

Trade your teacup in for a stiff Moetini ($6) made with Bombay gin and garnished with a tomalive. Choose from assorted plates featuring fresh Island fish, grilled ($19.50), baked or steamed ($19.95). Another reason to arrive early is succulent prime rib ($28.75). Lighter fare includes lots of appetizers ($3.95 to $9.95; market price for black and blue 'ahi and sashimi) and a selection of salads ($5.95 to $13.50).

The Willows
901 Hausten St., Mo'ili'ili.

• 952-9200
• Reservations recommended
• Those 65 and older receive 10 percent off
• Lunch buffet: weekdays, 11 a.m.-2 p.m.; adults $16.95; keiki ages 4-10, $8.50
• Saturday lunch buffet: 10 a.m.-2:30 p.m.; adults $19.95; keiki $9.95
• Dinner buffet: weekdays, 5:30-9 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays, 5-9 p.m.; adults $27.95; keiki $13.95
• Sunday brunch buffet: 10 a.m.-2:30 p.m.; adults $27.95, keiki $13.95
• Full bar

The Willows in the heart of Mo'ili'ili provides as much respite as possible in town. How can you go wrong with a dancing water fountain that amuses both children and adults? An all-you-can-eat buffet dishes up Island favorites such as poke, lomi-lomi salmon, laulau, kama'aina-style curry, steamed rice and poi, plus standards such as roast turkey and prime rib. The wide variety and tranquil setting will satisfy the cravings of returning Islanders in a setting that reminds us why we live in Hawai'i.

Reach Helen Wu at hwu@honoluluadvertiser.com.