Vegan Hills restaurant opened Monday in Kaimuki, the latest vegan restaurant by Megumi Odin, former owner of Peace Cafe on South King Street and of Satori Hawaii, a pop-up restaurant operation in the Soto Mission in Nuuanu.
Odin sold Peace Cafe 3-1/2 years ago and ran Satori at the temple for about a year, according to Tomoko Wada, manager of Vegan Hills.
The restaurant will serve all vegan, plant-based food including sandwiches, bowls and salads. Sandwiches range from $13 to $16, and bowls are $15.
Salads start at $10 for the pure grain salad, which includes grains, cucumbers, pea tendrils and kale along with other greens. Prices top out at $17 for a Perfect Rainbow Cobb salad with avocado, grape tomatoes, carrots, cabbage, watermelon turnip, cucumbers, mixed greens, tofu ricotta, tempeh (made from soybeans) and vegan Parmesan, Wada said.
Takeout service is being considered, but for now the restaurant offers dine-in seating for as many as 35.
Vegan Hills, which succeeds the former Ka Lei Marketplace and The Medley cafe, will open daily from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Cakebread wines in spotlight
Beachhouse at the Moana hosts its first “Pairings” event of the year, a dinner featuring the wines of Cakebread Cellars on March 25.
Master sommelier Patrick Okubo will lead the wine tasting, which begins at 6:30 p.m.
Chef David Lukela’s menu: Kumamoto oyster with green apple and smoked trout roe (with 2015 sauvignon blanc); abalone with sunchokes and chicken skin (2014 chardonnay); quail with fennel and pickled grapes (2013 merlot); wagyu short rib with barbecued beets (2014 Mullan Road Cellars red blend); and blue cheese and pears (2013 cabernet sauvignon).
Cost is $125, available through honoluluboxoffice.com. Beachhouse is at the Moana Surfrider in Waikiki.
Future “Pairings” events: Grgich Hills Estate with Violet Grgich, June 7; Pahlmeyer and Wayfarer wines with Pahlmeyer’s Joe Hunter, Sept. 21; and Domaine Carneros by Taittinger with Eileen Crane, Oct. 27.
Sam Choy opening at cultural center
Chef Sam Choy joins the food-truck lineup at the Polynesian Cultural Center on Saturday with a grand opening at the Hukilau Marketplace.
Events from noon to 4 p.m. will mark the opening of Sam Choy & Tita’s Seafood & Poke Truck, plus two more trucks, So’Da Bomb and Fia Fia Farms. Also on tap: entertainment by Vaihi and Roots Rockaz, plus inflatable slides and face painting for kids.
Admission is free. The marketplace entrance is just outside of the cultural center.
Quickbites is a weekly listing of dining events. Email items to crave@staradvertiser.com.
