Honolulu has had a long history of Asian chefs opening Italian restaurants. It started in the 1980s in the kitchen of Castagnola’s, where George "Cass" Castagnola trained his staff so well that many became successful restaurateurs themselves — most notably, Thomas Ky of the Assaggio Ristorante Italiano empire.
At about the same time, we welcomed one of our first Italian restaurants hailing from the Land of the Rising Sun, Angelo Pietro.
Italian restaurants with roots in Japan kept coming, and the most visible today include Taormina, Bernini and Arancino, whose third restaurant is slated to open at The Kahala in early 2013.
The newest entry is La Cucina Ristorante Italiano from chef-owner Don Truong — an alumnus of Fabrizio Favale’s Mediterraneo — who comes closest to capturing the bold, intense and rustic homespun spirit of Italian cooking. Never mind that Truong comes across as mild-mannered and soft-spoken. His passion comes through loud and clear in dishes without an ounce of reserve or timidity.
Let’s start with house-made pasta that begins with semolina flour for elasticity and heft that gives his ribbonlike trenette their wonderful, toothsome al dente quality, able to stand up to such weighty ingredients as his homemade Italian sausage, sautéed with onions, garlic and porcini, and topped with a sprinkling of Pecorino Romano in a dish of trenette norcina.
No doubt I would have walked here every week if we were still in the news building on Kapiolani Boulevard, where La Cucina is a short jaunt past the BMW dealership. There’s parking in the building, but you can check for metered parking on Cooke Street.
The restaurant is small, which is manageable for Truong but makes it hard to get a table without a reservation when you suddenly develop a craving for Italian.
You can start with bruschetta ($7) or crostini well coated with porcini ($8) and a splash of truffle oil, but I tend to think it makes little sense to fill up on bread when you’re offered complimentary bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and want to keep your appetite for what’s ahead.
To avoid redundancy, start with antipasto della casa ($14), with prosciutto, sopressata, salami, olives and cheeses, or caprese salad ($8) or insalada di casa ($6), a mix of romaine and organic greens in an olive oil vinaigrette, topped with a light and refreshing tomato salad. For a heartier vegetable offering, vegetali saltali ($14) is a chunky sauté of olive oil, eggplant, onions, zucchini, carrots, red peppers, tomatoes, capers and kalamata olives.
If you’re in sharing mode, another option would be one of Truong’s house-made ravioli as an appetizer, with about seven pieces per dish. I did this because I’ve been disappointed by cardboardy, flavorless or skimpy ravioli elsewhere, and didn’t want to take a chance on something like this as my main course. But I wasn’t disappointed by La Cucina’s Ravioli Neri ($19), with squid ink pasta filled with lobster, served in a sauce of basil and saffron cream, the orange threads visible in the sauce. Accenting the dish were pieces of lobster meat, including a prominent piece of the claw. I would have been happy to make this my entire meal. Other ravioli filling options include lobster and basil in vodka sauce ($19), chicken and spinach in tomato sauce ($17), porcini in a mushroom tomato sauce ($16) and spinach and roasted garlic in a creamy butter and sage sauce ($16).
Fettuccine scampi limone ($19) is a brighter version of the classic shrimp sauté, with lemon juice cutting through any heaviness you might get from the olive oil.
In addition to other pasta basics such as fettuccine carbonara ($16), frutti di mare ($19) and vongole ($17), you’re welcome to create your own dish by choosing a pasta, sauce and topping of chicken ($4), fish ($5) or shrimp ($6).
Those with huge appetites might gravitate to the Secondi portion of the menu, with chicken, fish and meat selections, ranging from pollo marsala ($17) to cioppino ($22) and osso bucco ($26). Veal piccata ($22) is perfection, and rib-eye bistecca ($24) is a marvel in a red wine reduction, mushrooms and the extra oomph of truffle oil.
As tempting as it is to eat every bit of your order, save room for desserts such as house-made tiramisú ($7) and crunchy hard caramel-topped crème brûlée cheesecake ($7).
Nadine Kam‘s restaurant reviews are conducted anonymously and paid for by the Star-Advertiser. Reach her at nkam@staradvertiser.com.
