Pinky's offers enjoyable food with casual style

By Helen Wu
Advertiser Restaurant Critic

Tami Ortega, left, her children Logan, 3, and Brendan, 5, and her husband, Mark, drop in at Pinky's Pupu Bar and Grill in Kailua. Pink's serves up a variety of pupu dishes for around $8, as well as entreÚs for $18.95 and up and generously sized beers and mixed drinks. Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser Pinky's Pupu Bar and Grill 970 N. Kalaheo Ave. at Mokapu Road, Kailua 254-6255; takeout, 254-1112 Open daily: Happy Hour and $9.95 Cheap Eats specials 4-6:30 p.m.; pupu bar 4-10 p.m.; dining room 5-10 p.m. Full bar Good

This modest, comfortable family-style restaurant puts you at ease whether you have kids, are out on a casual date or drinking with friends. As you enter, you find a bar and a seating area with high stools and small tables on one side. A dining room is on your left with expansive windows and a picturesque view of Kawai Nui Canal. Soothing lighting, Hawaiiana touches and unobtrusive carnation-pink accent the interior. I saw guys at the bar, couples intimate over small tables, dining families, and chatting girlfriends sharing dessert all relaxing in this atmosphere.

I felt a lot of aloha from the moment I stepped in. The smiling staff greets you warmly and makes you feel like one of the neighborhood 'ohana even if you live elsewhere. Our server, Milton, stopped by more than once to check on me while I waited for my friends, and he was attentive through the entire meal.

Despite the "pupu" in its name, Pinky's features some very large offerings. Our whole table laughed as drinks appeared: Beer comes in heavy 18-ounce schooners and mixed drinks in giant-size glass goblets. The restaurant also features bigger entrÚe plates in addition to their pupu-sized dishes, with more expensive selections topping $18.95. Most pupu cost around $8 and are the usual standards for serving with drinks — meaning they are meat dishes or deep-fried or both. Sandwiches along with a few salads and pasta dishes make for lighter fare.

Our meal began with the 'ahi platter ($14.95), which we had greatly anticipated but found a little disappointing. The sashimi slices were rather thin and not cleanly cut. The plate also came with seared sashimi slices, three Buffalo wings, one egg roll split in half lengthwise, three fried won tons, and a scoop of rice. Altogether, the presentation looked skimpy on its bed of shredded cabbage, and we felt slightly dubious about what would follow.

The next order, a good-sized portion of Lanikai wings ($8.50) with a sweet shoyu-garlic sauce, banished our concerns. We could have eaten the hot, crunchy brown chicken wings plain, but the dark, syrupy sweet sauce underneath was irresistible. A side of tropical marmalade sat mostly untouched because the teriyaki-like sauce was more than adequate. Accompanied by a tangy cabbage slaw, baby back pork ribs ($8.95) were also a pleasant surprise — tender, meaty and coated with a lip-smacking sauce.

Our two prime-rib connoisseurs enjoyed the prime-rib pupu-style ($9.95), again served with rice, commenting that the meat was seasoned all the way through the interior, not too fatty and well-cooked. Beer-can chicken ($9.95), a half chicken first roasted then grilled, came with garlic mashed potatoes and a sauteed julienne of summer squash. The chicken was moist with a hint of smokiness and well seasoned to the bone but pale in color. Although the vegetables were bland, the skin-on potatoes were the opposite, garlicky and rich tasting.

Our meal continued in this way: Dishes were hits or misses, with a few falling in between. We enjoyed meat dishes such as the Lanikai wings, baby back ribs and prime rib. But we felt unsatisfied with others. A small order of Caesar salad ($3.95) had more than a few discolored lettuce leaves. Spinach-artichoke dip ($8.95), served with tortilla chips, was thick, on the dry side and not as creamy as promised on the menu. A fish-taco platter ($7.50) made with fresh 'ono (wahoo) was overcooked and a little tough, but otherwise all right, and fell in the middle along with our dessert. We found the flavors generally pleasing in most dishes; however, presentations tended to be colorless and unexciting.

Our meal concluded with deep-fried banana won ton ($5.95) served over three scoops of Lappert's vanilla ice cream, with whipped cream topped by chocolate and caramel sauces. The creamy ice cream slowly melted under the warm, crispy won ton wrappers, making a perfect textural combination —better than pie à la mode. Although we couldn't find much banana in the dessert, we easily finished the plate in spite of the sparsity of the key ingredient.

Would I make a special trip over the Ko'olau from town just to eat at Pinky's? Probably not, but when I'm in the area, I'll drop in for those 'ono Lanikai wings and a great big cold one in their colossal glasses.

Reach Helen Wu at taste@honoluluadvertiser.com.