Past, present come together at Yamaguchi’s new eatery

With about 30 Roy’s Restaurants spread across the nation, built up over 28 years, Roy Yamaguchi could probably luxuriate in leisure, his place in Hawaii culinary history secure as a founding father of the Hawaii Regional Cuisine movement that shifted diner awareness and led to the vibrant food scene we have today.

But he’s not resting at all. In a time when it can seem like accomplishment is measured in Facebook moments and a new generation contemptuous of institutions and standard bearers is likely to ask, “What have you done lately?” he’s back with a vengeance, introducing new concepts, and opening a second round of restaurants that break from the Roy’s upscale Asian fusion formula.

Last month he opened Roy’s Beach House at Turtle Bay Resort and Eating House 1849 at the International Market Place. Yamaguchi launched Eating House on Kauai last year and plans two more, in Kapo­lei Commons and on Maui, by year’s end.

Interestingly, it’s Yamaguchi’s respect for his predecessors that is leading him forward. With Eating House 1849, Yamaguchi goes back to the roots of Hawaii’s restaurant scene to pay homage to his grandfather, who owned a restaurant on Maui in the 1940s, and Peter Fernandez, who opened one of the islands’ first restaurants in the 19th century, and called it Eating House. Fernandez used ingredients available from local farmers, ranchers, foragers and fishermen, a practice today’s top chefs are trying to reclaim, after decades of seeing our palates shaped by sellers of processed convenience foods and ingredients.

Eating House recalls Hawaii’s plantation heritage and the waves of Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, Fili­pino and Korean immigrants who shaped our multi­cultural palate and food scene.

Yamaguchi explained that the first food purveyors were likely associated with the equivalent of today’s bed and breakfasts, where people seeking room and board were fed simple meals. Entrepreneurs like Fernandez offered an independent alternative.

Of course, this coming from Yamaguchi, don’t expect your great-great-great-grandfather’s chicken hekka or lumpia. Though rooted in our plantation heritage and the chef’s taste memories of his grandfather’s cooking, dishes are thoroughly contemporary to suit today’s more adventurous palate.

Something like Eating House 1849’s “Huli Huli” kim chee pork belly ($15), a combo of pork belly laced with kochujang and miso aioli, draped with kim chee, presents a riot of flavors that would have made your ancestors’ heads spin. The audacity! But we, their descendants, expect to be surprised or entertained when we dine out.

What I’ve come to notice about Yamaguchi’s food over the years is that dishes can be fabulous in theory and his own hands, but because of their complexity can prove difficult in mass execution. My first experience with the pork belly was great. Pupu-style presentation was beautiful with every element in the right balance visually and in flavor. A second time, it was tossed together more like a salad, heavy on the kochujang, still delicious but more one-dimensional. A little more consistency would be nice.

Some of the best things on the menu are also the simplest. Few would think of vegetables like cauliflower and Brussels sprouts ($12) as adequate pupu, but these are deep-fried and tossed with toasted pine nuts, golden raisins, butter, balsamic vinegar and panko to become the appetizer of your dreams.

Hawaii’s Portuguese heritage is celebrated with a dish of Manila clams and Hawaiian tako cataplana ($18) with housemade linguica. The mild tomato sauce left something to be desired, as did the sweet bread, though I get the connection. It’s just that, with few Portuguese restaurants out there, we’ve become hard-wired to think Italian and garlic bread when we see a red sauce.

The pork and shrimp gyoza ($15) is done right by Chinese potsticker standards. With a combination of garlic aioli and spicy XO sauce, this is one of the musts.

Because flavors can be so bold here, sometimes sequence is everything. After the pork belly, Lola’s Pork Adobo Lumpia seemed rather staid ($12), as did a bowl of 1849 Spicy Ramen ($22). With palate rebalanced by a bite of misoyaki butterfish ($35), the spice and sesame flavor of the broth came out and the more I ate it, the more I liked it.

A comfort-driven corned beef reuben is a meaty delight, sandwiched with local Naked Cow Dairy Swiss cheese, and brightened by mul (water) kim chee and a side of Thousand Island dressing.

A juicy and flavorful Hawaii Ranchers beef patty with Hawaiian mushroom gravy makes the loco moco ($20) outstanding. If this is an indication, I’m assuming the burger ($18) here is just as good.

Given the flavor-packed menu, I was a little shocked when the Tavern-style fried chicken ($22) was devoid of flavor. The crisp, light texture of the skin was excellent, but it was as if someone had forgotten the salt. I did like the Kahuku corn polenta and Honokaa goat cheese that accompanied the chicken.

Meat eaters will appreciate the kiawe-smoked rib-eye painted green with chimichurri sauce. It’s about time this sauce broke out of its Argentine niche.

Dessert of molten lava cake and vanilla bean ice cream is a Roy’s signature dessert, but an apple “Volcano,” or mini apple pie folded in puff pastry, captures the essence of nostalgic comfort cuisine remade for the present.

Nadine Kam’s restaurant reviews are conducted anonymously and paid for by the Star-Advertiser. Reach her at nkam@staradvertiser.com. For more photos from this week’s restaurant go 808ne.ws/eatinghouse1849