Order-taking lapse diminishes Luigi's experience

By Matthew Gray
Advertiser Restaurant Critic

Luigi's Place, tucked away in Kailua, offers primarily Italian fare. One of the restaurant's best dishes is the fresh fish piccata, offered with a choice of three fish. Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser Luigi's Place 442 Uluniu St., Kailua Dinner: 5:30-9:30 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays 263-5678 Good

If you take a look at Luigi's menu, you'll see "Mediterranean cuisine" printed on it. On the business card you'll see "Italian food with a twist." Chef/owner Luigi Baraldi's menu does include one Greek salad with feta cheese and Kalamata olives, and one salad with hummus and tabooli, but that's not Mediterranean, that's Middle Eastern. Let's just say, for the most part, the food here is Italian.

The inside is charming and comfortable; it has a neighborhood feel to it. There are a couple of dining-room areas inside and a small patio in the front. Colorful frescoes, light fixtures and objects d'art make Luigi's a visually pleasing space.

One of my major restaurant peeves was showcased here. Although the young lady serving us was charming and friendly, she committed a big-time no-no: She failed to write down the order.

And once again, all I could do was watch (our server's all-knowing my-memory-never-fails style) and wait (for the ultimately upsetting they-got-it-wrong-again results). I used to offer up a kind, "wouldn't you like to jot this down?" in the past, but not anymore. And yes, of course, the entire meal experience suffered because of this inefficiency.

Crostini ai porcini ($7.50) was where we started. This dish of sautéed porcini mushrooms and mozzarella cheese on toasted bread was lifeless and bland, and also not hot. This theme carried throughout my first visit — cool food without much flavor.

Bruschetta ($6.50) is grilled bread topped with tomato, garlic and olive oil. Mozzarella pomodoro & basilica ($7.50) is grilled bread, tomato, mozzarella, basil and capers. Caprese di bufala ($8.50) combines buffalo mozzarella, tomatoes, olive oil and basil. There's also another bread item, garlic bread ($2.95).

Five of the six appetizers rely upon only a few products and do not showcase complexity or creativity. The lone nonbread-based appetizer is grigliata mista ($7.50), a mélange of grilled eggplant and peppers that was more pleasing than the other appetizers I tasted.

Several simple pasta dishes come with house salad or soup. Spaghetti arrabiata ($13.50) is a sharp tomato-driven sauce with garlic, capers and olive oil. It is dosed-up, heat-wise, with the addition of dried pepperoncini flakes, if you so desire.

Another tongue-zinger is the con melanzane piccante ($14.50) prepared with thinly sliced eggplant, red onion, walnuts, capers, olives, basil and Romano cheese. This dish I quite enjoyed.

What interested me was the polpette di tofu ($14.50), which are tofu meatballs, so I asked for a side order of these when we first arrived. But as I mentioned earlier, our server didn't jot down our order, so when I eventually reminded her, I received the regrettable and all-too-familiar, "Oh, yeah, let me get that for you." Well, 15 minutes later we received said tofu meatballs, cool to the touch and about as unexciting as can be.

Jumbo prawns beurre blanc ($17.95) is a pretty good dish, served with wild-mushroom pasta and rosemary potatoes. Also worth ordering are the gnocchi (potato dumplings, $14.95), served with either tomato-basil sauce or a pesto Genovese. Lobster ravioli ($16.95) are offered with tomato-basil sauce or white-wine sauce. I'd like to see subtly flavored dishes such as the gnocchi and lobster ravioli also offered with a light cream sauce.

The best thing I tasted was the fresh fish piccata ($18.95), which was offered with a choice of three different fish. I chose mine with mahimahi, and I enjoyed the moist and flavorful sauce of anchovies, butter, wine, lemon and capers.

Overall, I was disappointed with the food and upset about the service glitches, but I must admit I enjoyed my two experiences here. Perhaps the multiple (and delicious) cappuccinos lifted my spirits!

Reach Matthew Gray at mgray@honoluluadvertiser.com.