For young chefs, culinary education doesn’t end with the classroom, but continues on the job, and the Hawaii experience over 25 years has proven that one successful restaurant can beget exponential success.
In my early years of reviewing restaurants, I had a reputation for casting stones. Sorry, but anyone born in the late 1980s has no idea of the food desert that existed here at that time. There was saimin. There was teriyaki. There was surf ’n’ turf with either broccoli or peas and carrots on the side. Then came the Hawaii Regional Cuisine movement, which led to a flood of new techniques, new ingredients and experimentation. Talk about being in the right place at the right time. These days a good restaurant is more a norm than exception.
Restaurants like Roy’s, Alan Wong’s and Chef Mavro became laboratories of creativity. And while successful, perhaps their greatest success has been in nurturing the next generation of chefs, preparing them to launch projects of their own.
One of the most highly anticipated openings of fall 2013 is the arrival of MW restaurant from husband and wife Wade Ueoka and Michelle Karr-Ueoka, longtime alumni of Alan Wong’s Restaurant, he as chef de cuisine and she as pastry maestro. Both won Rising Star accolades last year from StarChefs.com, an online magazine for culinary insiders.
The couple has set up house in one of the refurbished spaces in the former KGMB building on Kapiolani Boulevard, with an easy valet or self-parking entrance on Makaloa Street. The room is contemporary with an open feeling, thanks to windows that let in plenty of light. There’s bar seating overlooking the open kitchen for those who enjoy seeing their meals being made.
Alan Wong has always given those in his kitchen room to shine, putting team members in the spotlight through his Next Generation dinner series, but when someone leaves there’s always a question of how close a protege’s new endeavor will hew to that of his mentor. In this case, MW appears to be a whole different creature, with a casual temperament and focus on comfort food, albeit with some chefly deconstruction and twists.
For instance, basic oxtail soup with peanuts and cilantro goes deluxe for lunch with the addition of corned beef and pork belly ($18). The salt-cured, seasoned beef adds a new dimension to the rustic, earthy oxtail while retaining all the homey quality we expect.
Then there’s Ueoka’s take on fried chicken ($12), prepared like Chinese-style pressed duck, with tender Jidori chicken encased in its crisp shell, served with garlic soy sauce and hearts of palm. This one is not to be missed, offered as an appetizer on both lunch and dinner menus.
Editing will be a problem for diners who drop by at night and find themselves wanting to try everything. When it came time to decide what NOT to order, I fixated on ahi poke ($18). Everyone does ahi poke, right? Luckily, I was vetoed. When the dish arrived, it was obvious that this wasn’t your average poke. It was arranged over a layer of spicy ahi, luxuriously interspersed with uni and ikura, and topped off with crispy rice crackers.
Appetizers are intended to be shared, though the Alaskan king crab trio ($14) would be an exception. The crab is deep-fried in a small lumpia roll, baked in garlic sauce and served in the form of a “lollipop” croquette, with a small claw as the stick propping it up. It was so delicious, but the portion was so small that it lands in no-share, “get-your-own” territory.
The Ueokas continue to embrace the master’s farm-to-table philosophy, and salads make use of MA‘O Organic Farms greens, Kula baby romaine and Ho Farms baby tomatoes. Those with a taste for pickled mango will be drawn to the old-fashioned flavor of a pickled local beet salad ($10) with cucumbers, tomatoes and ume-beet vinaigrette.
As for entrees, two of my favorites are the mochi-crusted opakapaka ($32) and shrimp and uni ($32), pliant, house-made linguine flavored with creamy urchin roe, soy and bonito, layered with shrimp and a sprinkling of shiso and nori. Mind you, I’m not even a big uni fan.
With the opakapaka I again had the short straw. It was what was left after everyone else made their selections, but I loved the thin, crisp crust encasing the fish. I could have eaten it plain, but it was even better after adding the snappy yuzu soy vinaigrette, which helped to brighten the somen sitting under the fish.
A rib-eye steak with anchovy garlic butter and potato gnocchi is worth ordering again, and Ueoka also does a good job getting the flavor right with seafood gumbo ($32) with housemade andouille.
For another version of oxtail, there’s an oxtail roulade over beef stew risotto ($28) with peanuts and mushrooms, for those who like no-nonsense comfort flavors. This was the most folksy of the dishes I sampled, though the beer-braised pork belly bao ($10) may also fit the bill. I still prefer Chinatown version.
It’s tempting to eat everything on the plate, but be sure to save room for Karr-Ueoka’s desserts, multidimensional and textural compositions balancing elements of sweet, sour and salty, each priced at $9. Nobody does strawberry cheesecake quite like this, with less cheese and more Kula strawberries that have been filled with li hing ume, freeze-dried and made into yogurt sorbet, with the whole dish dotted with kiawe graham crackers.
It is really hard to pick a favorite, but if you gravitate toward fruit, you might start with the tropical “Creamsicle,” with guava semifreddo, lilikoi panna cotta and diced fruit arranged in a semicircle on the plate.
Similarly, for those who love coffee, the flavors of affogato have been deconstructed to their essence, served dry in the form of a chocolate cake presented with aerated coffee granite, dehydrated mousse, coffee gelato and espresso tuile.
Chocolate lovers might start with the MW Candy Bar comprising praline crunch, salt caramel, Waialua chocolate cake, bananas, kinako marshmallows and puffed rice-popcorn ice cream.
MW is an ambitious enterprise for first-timers, but after inviting every critic in town to visit during their first days open, the Ueokas have shown they have the chutzpah and chops to make it.
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Nadine Kam’s restaurant reviews are conducted anonymously and paid for by the Star-Advertiser. Reach her at nkam@staradvertiser.com.
