The restaurant scene got off to a slow start in 2016, but by year’s end a few trends were clear. Here’s a look at what we saw on our plates.

Ingredient of the year: Chimichurri sauce turned up everywhere, on the menus of not one, not two, but three of the new restaurants at International Market Place: Stripsteak, Eating House 1849 and Kona Grill.

Chefs outside the churrascaria only now seem comfortable adding a touch of green to their steaks, catching on to what the Argentines have known for centuries: that the herbal flavors of parsley and oregano with garlic and red pepper flakes are magic on beef.

With no churrascaria remaining on Oahu, it’s great to see this sauce finally hit the mainstream and cross over into menus highlighting other cuisines, as at the Four Seasons Oahu at Ko Olina, where the Italian restaurant Noe presents it atop porterhouse steak “Fiorentina” for two.

The food hall brought us together: Food trucks had us rallying around the idea of a single open space with many options. This year the community made a rush for the great indoors, lured by the similar promise of multiple food options, but with the comforts of table seating and sun protection.

With these food halls, the traditional mall food court has gone upscale. Shirokiya’s Japan Village Walk gathers 40 purveyors, most specializing in Japanese cuisine, on the lower level of Ala Moana Center, to create a food hall modeled after Japan’s temple towns. People balked at ramen priced at $20 and steaks at $40 in the casual setting, but for every tenant that leaves, another is waiting in the wings. More recently, Waikiki Yokocho opened in the Waikiki Shopping Plaza, offering 17 upscale dining destinations, plus Ramen Road, with shops intended to capture the vibe of Japan’s Edo era.

To come in April is The Street, a Michael Mina Social House, which will welcome such Mina brands as International Smoke and The Ramen Bar.

The food hall makes sense in an iffy economy. Developers and landlords lower their risk when they can count on multiple tenants rather than a single one.

Slushies for grown-ups: The more things change, the more we long for the good old days. Now that craft cocktails are everywhere, those who want a reprieve from sensory overload are retreating … all the way back to childhood for something simple and nostalgic.

Piggy Smalls at Ward Centre introduced a “Slushie of the Day” program that opened with invigorating fresh, icy lilikoi and moved into the holidays with cranberry-orange and spice-infused apple cider blends. At Encore Saloon in downtown Honolulu, street tacos, nachos and frijoles can be accompanied by maragaritas and other alcohol- based slushies that change by the day.

And at the new Senia in downtown Honolulu, chef Chris Kajioka pays homage to his pal, chef Chung Chow of New York’s Noreetuh, with a Pimm’s Cup cocktail poured over pureed fruit and vegetable ices such as strawberry, melon and cucumber. As you sip, the ices break down to give the cocktail a fruity, slushy feel. It goes down all too easily.

Sushi show: When Sushi Onodera opened two years ago, its $200 and $250 omakase-only format was a shock to all those accustomed to the fast and a la carte sushi restaurants that fill Hawaii’s landscape.

Perhaps fueled by the “Jiro Dreams of Sushi” mystique, people have warmed to the idea of the exceptional experience and intimate exchange between diner and chef at this level of dining, one that invites you to grant the chef complete control over what you eat.

This year Keiji Nakazawa presided over the opening of Sushi Sho on the sixth floor of the Ritz Carlton Residences in Waikiki, where an exquisite 30-course omakase runs $300 per person, without alcohol.

Last week, Beniya introduced a more approachable 16-course omakase for $125 at Waikiki Yokocho in Waikiki Shopping Plaza, and next year Michelin Award-winning chef Takeshi Kawasaki is slated to open an omakase-only Hawaii branch of his Japan-based Maru Sushi.

Poke war: Early in the year, word broke of New York’s infatuation with poke, but it wasn’t poke as created in Hawaii. The news went viral, and critical. An Insider Food video about the “poké” craze — yes, national publications added the accent mark so people wouldn’t read it wrong — sparked outrage among people with local ties, drawing about 7,000 mostly negative comments for showing us fish salads, not poke.

But you can’t stop a trend from running its course, and you can’t fault the rest of the nation for falling in love with something we’ve loved for decades. In an “if you can’t beat the crowd, join it” move, chef Lee Anne Wong was determined to bring the real deal to New York via Sweetcatch Poke.

From Italy to the ’burbs: Napoli-style pizzas have been a hit with the boutique pizza set for several years, so it was just a matter of time before they reached the masses. These pizzas have one thing in common: Naples 00 flour, which gives the crusts their distinctive crispness and chewiness.

At Foodland Farms at Ala Moana Center, pizzas include the classic Margherita and five-cheese with mozzarella, Asiago, Parmesan, provolone and Romano. Sophie’s Gourmet Hawaiian Pizzeria at the Koko Marina Center creates fusion masterpieces that combine a Napoli-style crust infused with local flavor and topped with local-themed toppings, such as the Seoul Mate with bulgogi, kim chee, mozzarella, goat cheese and Maui onion. Most recently, Brick Fire Tavern opened on Hotel Street to serve its pizzas in the classic Napoli style, and Pacifico Pizza Napoletana expanded its reach from Kaneohe to Kapolei.

Can you hear me now?: Over the years, several readers have asked me to offer noise ratings for restaurants, but voices of the crowd and ambient music don’t rankle me that much, and in my experience there are only a few offenders — usually the trendiest restaurants, which attract a boisterous “look at me” crowd.

But this year it seems as if the decibels have gone up at big new restaurants that have music blaring through speakers or via entertainers.

The problem is that music is oriented to the individual, and I imagine none of us wants to hear music we don’t like, at any volume.

If I want music, I’ll go to a concert. I dine to meet and converse with friends, and I don’t want to be yelling at them for a couple of hours to be heard over amplified music.

Awkward daters might be drawn to live evening performances that deter conversation, but I prefer spaces that allow connections. So, turn it DOWN, way down.

Happy dining in 2017!: So many restaurant openings have been clustered at the end of the year and into the new. Among them: Chris Kajioka and Anthony Rush’s long-awaited Senia, the Hakkasan Group’s Herringbone restaurant, Yauatcha dim sum teahouse, and Ravish, a new Pacific-inspired restaurant by Fred DeAngelo and Keith Pajinag at The Modern Honolulu. The new year will be off to an exciting start.

Nadine Kam’s restaurant reviews are conducted anonymously and paid for by the Star-Advertiser. Reach her at nkam@staradvertiser.com.