'Lucky you live Hawai'i' rings true at Hula Grill
By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Food Editor
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| Breakfast patrons enjoy themselves at Hula Grill Waikiki, a new bar and restaurant at the Outrigger Waikiki on the Beach. Early in the morning, the restaurant is cool and comfortable in the shadow of the hotel.
Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser HULA GRILL WAIKIKI Outrigger Waikiki on the Beach Hotel, 2335 Kalakaua Ave.; second floor, lobby level makai Dinner 5-10 p.m. nightly; breakfast 6:30-10:30 a.m. daily; Plantation Bar, pupu and drinks daily, 3 p.m.-midnight 923-4852 Parking: Valet ($5 hour first two hours, $3 each half-hour thereafter); 'Ohana East Hotel (kama'aina with validation, $1 an hour after 5 p.m. up to 5 hours; regular rate with validation, $3; without validation, $3 per half-hour) Full bar with late bar-menu dining\
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I'd still recommend partying at Duke's, but when you want to really talk story with friends or have a romantic dinner with your honey, climb the new carved-wood staircase from the first floor of the Outrigger Waikiki on the Beach to Hula Grill. (Hula Grill, which has a long-established sister restaurant at Whaler's Village in Ka'anapali, Maui, is owned by TS Restaurants, which operates Duke's and a family of popular spots on the Neighbor Islands.)
The stone-flagged Plantation Bar offers Hawaiian contemporary music in the early evening, a full cocktail menu and a well put-together wine list, and pupu and dim sum. The open-air restaurant proper is composed of two wide tiers facing seaward, with raised banquettes at the rear and tables at the front offering views of the beach and Diamond Head. The inviting dÚcor is a blend of plantation manager's home (glowing wood paneling; muted pineapple, floral and palm tree motifs in the upholstery) and Auntie Pua's living room (collections of bobble-head hula dolls, old-style hotel tablewear and period paintings).
Not long ago in The Advertiser's Taste section, we joined with readers in lamenting the relative lack of "perfect" breakfast places on O'ahu, where the food is really good and served on real tableware, the coffee is high-quality and keeps coming, and the price is fair. Add Hula Grill to the list of places that gets it right (except for parking, but we'll get to that in a minute).
Early in the morning, the restaurant is cool and comfortable in the shadow of the hotel. The sun's rays light the slopes of Diamond Head so that they seem to glow, the early surfers are riding the small rollers in, standing nonchalantly on their boards and, sigh! Lucky you live Hawai'i.
I'd heard from a friend that the loco moco ($13) here is a cut above — mushroom sauce instead of gravy, steak instead of hamburger — and I'm glad I tried it, even if I could have done with a little more sauce (OK, a lot more!). In contrast to many hotel restaurant operations, the prices here don't provoke heart palpitations: omelets at $8 to $9.50; egg-and-side breakfasts, $7 to $13; pancakes, $6.50 to $8.50. These prices don't include juice ($3), coffee ($2) or toast ($2.50), but they do include the view. I appreciated the guava jam piled in a pot rather than in those silly little containers you see at most hotels.
At dinner one evening, a friend and I chatted late into the night over kalua pork potstickers ($7), shrimp and Mauna Kea goat cheese quesadilla ($9.50), paired with a Babich sauvignon blanc from New Zealand ($5.50 a glass) that is my new goes-with-anything fave. The steamed clams looked and smelled delicious as they went by.
The Screamin' Sesame Opah (market price; $25 the night I was there) came highly recommended, and, though it didn't really scream with spice as we thought it might, it was perfectly prepared and laced with sesame and a light chili flavor. The prime Kansas City strip steak ($32) arrived sizzling, flavorful and (a miracle!) actually done to the degree I specified. It's simply done with an herb butter. All the plates include vegetable and starch.
Chef Mark Kowalkowski's menu steers a nice middle road, with touches of the East livening up familiar dishes — appropriate for a restaurant that caters to visitors who may or may not be adventurous diners. So the cool gazpacho has a touch of lemongrass, fresh fish and shrimp ($5.50); the vegetarian stir-fry is in a spicy black bean sauce ($16); and the crab cakes come with an pickled plum vinaigrette ($16). There are nightly specials, too.
TS Restaurants is so well known for its homey desserts that its Web site is www.hulapie.com. We tried the ice-cream sandwich (mac-nut brownies with vanilla in between; $6) and Baked Hawaii (pineapple upside down cake meets Baked Alaska; $8), loving every bite.
There is no use introducing locals to a Waikiki restaurant if you don't discuss the "P" word: parking. You can't self-park under the hotel, but you can valet park — just be ready for the tariff. I spent $17 one evening. Ouch! But there are options: Kama'aina can get a special rate after 5 p.m. of $1 an hour for up to five hours, with validation from Hula Grill, at the 'Ohana East Hotel, 2375 Kuhio Ave. The regular rate for non-kama'aina, with validation from any of the Outrigger Waikiki restaurants or the Society of Seven show, is $3 for up to 4 hours.
Reach Wanda Adams at 535-2412 or wadams@honoluluadvertiser.com.
