The restaurants at Turtle Bay Resort were loaded with potential — and falling short.

Consider the location, surrounded by sand and surf, steps from the ocean on all sides, with pristine views. Thirty minutes from the nearest true town (Haleiwa), which means guests are to some degree a captive audience, and they stay for an average of a week.

And yet, “we were struggling to hit $7 million a year,” General Manager Brian Hunnings said of the resort’s food and beverage sales. “Now, five years, later, we’re sitting on the cusp of $28 million.”

Renovation of the 43-year-old property helped. Rooms were upgraded six years ago; the restaurants and other common areas, 3-1/2 years ago. But the resort’s chefs also revamped the menus, bringing them up to date with the international cuisines that an affluent clientele would expect.

They also took into account the more casual food-truck sensibility that was thriving all along the North Shore.

“For many years the shrimp trucks, that was the story,” Hunnings said. Lesson learned: Vibrant, local-style dishes have their place as well.

Things were looking up. And then came another challenge: Roy Yamaguchi opened Roy’s Beach House on the property last year — formidable competition, or perhaps inspiration. “Roy’s is open now; that applied a little pressure on us to step up the game,” Hunnings said.

For the past several months, menus have been overhauled again at all four eating places on the hotel grounds: the high-end Pa‘akai, the more casual Kula Grille, The Point at poolside and Surfer, the Bar.

And last month James Aptakin, formerly of M.A.C. 24/7 in Waikiki, signed on as guest executive chef, when Conrad Aquino left for ‘Alohilani Resort Waikiki Beach (the former Pacific Beach Hotel).

Aptakin sums up the new menu approach: “We put comfort food on steroids, and we’re going to do that with a North Shore twist.”

Translation: less fussiness, more satisfaction; more ingredients native to the North Shore.

At Kula Grille, for example, chef de cuisine Anthony Phillips said the previous menu included a number of complex dishes — “a lot of components stuffed into one. … We wanted to simplify but still keep each dish beautiful.”

Comfort food was the model, Phillips said. “I wanted to get away from tiny little things. So now we have the chicken pot pie that’s big and stuffed.” That’s stuffed with corn, taro and mushrooms, in a puff pastry.

Also stuffed is a huge pork chop, marinated in molasses, honey and anise, then packed with prosciutto and fontina. It’s served with another old-school comfort item, a twice-baked potato.

All he kept from the old menu, he said, were the flatbread pizzas.

Phillips is also big on the buzz phrase “farm to table” — quite doable considering there are farms on the resort’s property, right across the highway — but he also speaks of an island-to-table mentality — meaning this island. “We had to be sure to be true to our area instead of bringing things in from Kona.”

So, although Hamakua mushrooms remain on the menu, Kona lobster is gone. Phillips is seeking out what local hunters and fishers can provide and trying to source more island beef.

Kula Grille is oriented toward families, with large portions that can be shared, while Pa‘akai, under chef de cuisine John Armstrong, is “more of a couples restaurant,” Phillips said.

There you’ll find filet mignon, rack of lamb and duck confit, as well as poke mixed tableside, each item with a suggested wine pairing. Several dishes are designed for two, including a quite magnificent fried whole fish.

The chefs plan changes to the menus every six months.

Aptakin has another priority: to make storytelling part of the dinner experience. He’d like servers to learn the background, say, of inamona (ground kukui nuts) and why it is a natural pairing with ahi, so they can pass that information to diners considering Pa‘akai’s inamona-crusted ahi or ahi poke.

That way, the meal “goes a little bit beyond the food.”

An extension of that would be cooking demonstrations for guests and monthly dinners with winemakers, beer brewers or farmers in attendance, sharing their stories. “That’s the person behind it,” he said. “That’s the passion, that’s the heartbeat.”