'Trading' space inviting but tastes need spicing
By Helen Wu
Advertiser Restaurant Critic
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| David Quist and Janny Van Aalderen, both of the North Shore, complement their meal with a toast at E&O Trading Company in Ward Centre. The restaurant serves an eclectic mix of Asian dishes.
Photos by Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser |
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| E&O Trading Company's satay dish with chicken, salmon and steak and dipping choices of a thick peanut sauce and thinner shoyu glaze. |
E&O Trading Company Ward Centre, second level, 1200 Ala Moana 591-9555, eotrading.com Open Sundays-Thursdays, 11:30 a.m.-10:30 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays, 11:30 a.m.-11:30 p.m. Full bar
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The world got a little smaller with the arrival of E&O Trading Company at Ward Centre.
E&O has taken over the long-vacant space left by Jean-Marie Josselin's A Pacific Cafe and obliterated any trace of the former occupant. What stands is an inviting visual enticement to shoppers that works the way a "big sale" sign does.
Outdoor seating and a view of the bar are effective window displays. A certain attractive dimness pervades with the lure of Ali Baba's cave. At the entryway is a Moroccan-style waiting area with low seats comfortable enough for me and my friends to want to flop down and linger. But all too soon we were whisked away by a hostess wearing a hip-belt of dangling, coin-sized, golden discs. A seductive shimmery sound emitted from her waist as she walked us to our table.
What followed was not as promising as the first impression. It's not that the restaurant is unattractive, with its not-too-dark interior and Indonesian furnishings. E&O's dining room is an alluring place to unwind after the shopping bags start to feel a little heavy. The menu's potent, tutti-frutti drinks ($8 to $9) can quickly make you forget how much money you just blew buying that new pair of shoes.
When it comes to food and service, though, what you receive isn't as exciting as the Pier 1-style decor might lead you to believe. Combining Asian elements successfully in interior design is a challenge in itself, but presenting dishes that fuse them together well is even more complicated. In the Islands, the restaurant faces not only the difficulty of meshing regional distinctions, but also of pleasing an audience that is well-versed in Asian cuisines.
E&O's one-page menu is divided into small and big plates. Appetizer dishes can be ordered to round out a meal or for nibbling on with drinks. They include a few satays, salads and Indian-style flat breads known as naan. Bits from Japan, Korea, India and various Southeast Asian countries appear as ingredients and in preparation methods. As a result of this eclectic, mix-and-match approach, dishes sometimes leave the palate confused, conflicted or bored.
The satay platter ($19.95) comes with two kinds of dipping sauces: thick peanut and a thin, salty shoyu resembling a glaze or marinade. But the sticks of portobello mushroom ($10.95), chicken ($6.95), salmon ($9.95) and steak ($10.95) could have been coated with the sauces before serving, making them easier to eat.
Flat breads don't resemble Indian naan so much as fluffy, chewy pita bread. A choice of regular or Indian panir cheese (both $4.95) arrived with an un-spicy, tomato-sambal dipping sauce. Tomato-onion and lamb-stuffed breads (both $5.95) have a tad more zing. Surprisingly, the tomato-onion has stronger flavors, tasting Mexican rather than Indian with fresh cilantro and a sprinkling of cumin seeds.
From the four salad selections ($6.95 to $13.95), we tried two options — a simple butter lettuce salad as well as a seared 'ahi and soba noodle combination. They were bland and left us wondering what happened to the salad dressing. Small plates don't guarantee satisfaction but seem to be safer. Chilled, plain edamame ($3) are the least expensive. The most expensive is $12.95 for smoked salmon and 'ahi tartar, but this dish is dominated by the stronger-tasting salmon. Unusual Indonesian corn fritters ($6.95) accompanied by a chili-soy dipping sauce are a popular choice, with an airy, light texture and bursting corn flavor.
Big plates cost from $15.95 for shrimp and pineapple fried rice to $22.95 for misoyaki salmon, hardwood grilled 'ahi and char-siu-style smoked mero (sea bass). We noticed that they followed the same pattern as the smaller dishes except on a grander scale. Single components of a dish jumped out instead of smoothly integrating into complementary flavors.
Another trend is that the main ingredients in these dishes often came in large, difficult to eat pieces. For example, the butter lettuce leaves in the salad were whole, and the satay ingredients were in long strips rather than cubes. Both mango-glazed Thai ribs ($11.95) and clay pot duck ($19.95) featured hunks of meat, and the fat was difficult to trim away.
Orders can arrive slowly, especially the satays. Servers were polite but not warm. And meals don't end with a bang. The limited choice of desserts is delivered verbally and didn't provide any closure to this type of food, leaving us nonplussed.
Although the restaurant attempts to give the impression that here you will encounter the aromatics and spice of foreign lands, these elements were missing from the dishes we tried. The place works well enough for drinks and small bites, but those seeking a complete dining experience might be left wishing they'd simply gone to a nearby (and less expensive) Japanese, Korean or Indian eatery. E&O Trading Company is a well-designed concept restaurant, the latest addition to a chain of three others in the San Francisco Bay Area. But to successfully colonize these shores, the Honolulu branch will have to try a little harder in converting locals already accustomed to Asian flavors.
Reach Helen Wu at hwu@honoluluadvertiser.com.
