But this was no buffet and nor was it a self-serve format. Instead, Ciao Mein has introduced a new "Taste the Best" menu.

The concept is straight forward: For one price, guests can select as many dishes — two at a time per guest — from a six-item menu that features all of Ciao Mein's award-winning recipes from the annual Taste of Honolulu.

For $30 per person, this "Taste the Best" come-on is perhaps the most original and exciting idea that Ciao Mein has launched since the restaurant unveiled its East-meets-West menu in 1991.

And it also gives first-time visitors, like Doug and Geoff, an opportunity to figure out if Ciao Mein is Italian or Chinese.

As they discovered at the end of the the evening, this hybrid eatery offers a little bit of both.

We started our dinner with a bowl each of minestra di verdure, a hearty Italian soup filled with beans, pasta, carrots, potatoes and chunks of Italian sausage.

With our appetites primed, it was time to dig into the rest of the menu. And this is when the fun begins.

We couldn't figure out if we wanted to take the traditional dinner route — starting with an appetizer and finishing with dessert — or should we throw caution to the wind and start with the tiramisu?

Sensing our state of indecision in what to order, the omnipresent Lanalora Li hammered home the point that this was "all-you-can-eat." Her words rang true and within minutes she was busy scribbling the eight dishes that we wanted to sample.

For round one, I had the Caesar salad in a won ton cup and Szechuan eggplant risotto. G.B. followed me in choosing the Caesar then decided to have the petti di pollo.

After finding out that the petti di pollo would be dipped in buttermilk, Doug — a native of Tennessee, which is known for cooking with buttermilk — quickly ordered this dish, as well as the penne Campagnolo, prepared with spicy ginger garlic shrimp.

When it was Geoff's turn to order, he hesitated at first, but ended up starting with the Caesar salad and hot bean salmon alla Sicilliana with honey-walnut shrimp.

With help from fellow server Vincenze, Lanalora Li managed to make room for all of our dishes, turning our table into a veritable orgy of food.

The portions were perfect, not too small so we wouldn't get a true sense of the dish, but not too big to discourage us from continuing with the rest of the menu.

The Caesar salad and creamy risotto both won unanimous approval. But, we also licked our plates clean of the chicken, spicy shrimp and salmon.

When it came to round two, we ordered more risotto, spicy shrimp and three orders of bisteca de manzo alle Erbe, which was, hands down, my favorite dish of the evening. I could have had multiple orders of this pan-fried medium-rare steak with jasmine rice and I would have been content. I would have also eaten probably more than my money's worth. The meat was a generous portion, considering it was a "tasting."

For our third and final round, we had just enough room for the last item, Ciao Mein's signature tiramisu, which inspired a lot of fork-pointing and "this-is-great" responses from the entire table.

For $30, this "Taste the Best" offers incredible value and fun. The more, the merrier certainly applies here, both in number of guests and dishes tried.