Basalt
Known as a longtime convenience chain and Waikiki fixture, ABC Stores moved into the food business in a big way this July when it opened Dukes Lane Market & Eatery, a food hall and market, crowned with the full-service restaurant Basalt.
Highlighting the menu is a raw bar featuring a seafood tower, oysters on the half shell, charred tako, sashimi and an array of poke.
Other items include salads and a mixed plate of local flavors in dishes of pork belly buns, salt-n-pepper local prawns and adobo chicken wings, plus shareable items such as a charcuterie platter, cheese platter and summer rolls with fillings of pork belly, prawns and greens.
Lunch is coming to Basalt, but to date, people have been able to sit in the restaurant’s air-conditioned comfort while enjoying lunch from the kitchens of Spitfire Rotisserie & Flatbread, and Ono’s Burgers, with their respective offerings of pizzas, rotisserie chicken, pork and duck; and beef and lamb burgers, plus pork, chicken and fish sandwiches.
———
Inside Dukes Lane Market & Eatery, 2255 Kuhio Ave., 923-5689. Dinner; lunch coming soon. $$$
Baku
This restaurant was a curiosity from the start — a North Carolina interpretation of a Japanese robata and sushi restaurant. This I had to see.
The subtlety of authentic Japanese cuisine is out the window here, but the restaurant’s key selling point is man’s fascination with food and fire. There is seating indoors and on a patio, but the most coveted seats have a view of the robata grill, which uses a combination of Japanese binchotan (oak) charcoal and kiawe wood to flavor skewers of chicken thighs, wings, livers and gizzards, pork belly and beef tenderloin.
Those with larger appetites will find entrees of lamb chops, kalbi-style short ribs and steaks, highlighted by a 38-ounce USDA prime tomahawk.
Sashimi, nigiri, sushi rolls and plentiful raw and small plates round out the menu. Some selections are tuna tataki, Kona kampachi, short rib and foie gras gyoza, and a wild mushroom kamameshi pot topped with fresh truffles.
———
International Market Place; 800-3571. Lunch, dinner, late night. $$$$
Fish Hook Cafe
Chef Elmer Guzman branched out beyond his successful Poke Stop ventures to open this casual cafe in the Luana Waikiki Hotel, offering novel twists on everything from fish and chips (smoked ahi and ahi poke dip served with taro chips), to avocado toast with a base of bacon-fat, to wasabi and cinnamon toast-crusted salmon.
Of course, an array of poke is also available to eat in or to go.
Another lobby space accommodates his Fish Bowl Hawaiian Breakfast, where diners can take in a buffet featuring early-bird favorites such as fried rice, scrambled eggs, bacon, link sausages, pastries and fresh fruit, at $14.95 for adults and $8.95 for children.
Can’t wait to see what he has planned for dinner, tentatively set to open in summer 2018 after a kitchen expansion. Also in the works is a pau hana cocktail and tapas lounge.
———
Luana Waikiki Hotel, 2045 Kalakaua Ave., 942-0999. Breakfast, lunch. $$
Herringbone
Strange for a community surrounded by ocean, Honolulu has a serious shortage of dedicated seafood restaurants. Herringbone became an overnight sensation by correcting this odd situation.
The restaurant, the second from the Hakkasan Group to open at the International Market Place, brings California chic to Waikiki via “Top Chef” alum Brian Malarkey’s contemporary ocean-to-table menu.
The restaurant has made Oyster Hour, 4 to 6 p.m. daily, a favorite time of day, when oysters are $2 each. On the regular menu, they start at $3.50 per piece and pit West Coast against East Coast bivalves. Oysters are also a part of seafood platters priced from $75 to $155. Other raw specialties include yellowtail crudo spiked with truffle yuzu and whole fish ceviche.
Far from being a one-trick pony, the restaurant also works magic on meat dishes. Highlights are a Pono Pork chop coated in a kukui- and macadamia-nut vinaigrette, and a half of crisp-skinned, perfectly roasted local chicken with capers, lemon, herbs and a sprinkling of furikake.
Other popular dishes include Ray Ray fries topped with furikake, green onions, tobiko and Rooster (Sriracha aioli) sauce; and Buffalo-sauced octopus, the tako done up right, tender with crisped tentacles.
During weekend brunches Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, many of the raw seafood specialties are offered alongside hearty breakfast fare such as garlic shrimp and grits; bacon with chimichurri sauce; chilaquiles with ranchero sauce and Portuguese sausage; and biscuits and Pono Pork gravy over porchetta.
———
International Market Place; 797-2435. Weekend brunch, dinner. $$$$
Coming soon: Appetito Craft Pizza & Wine Bar
For months this restaurant from the WDI International group has been teasing us with delicious-looking imagery on social media.
This restaurant promises Italian fare created by Hiroyuki Mimura, executive chef for sister restaurant Taormina Sicilian Cuisine.
The new restaurant will offer casual-elegant fare for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Among dishes being tested in their kitchens and paraded through the restaurant’s Instagram feed are porcini cream pasta with crispy prosciutto; potted lasagna with a base of blue cheese; a king crab, avocado and shishito pepper pizza; and portobello fries.
Can’t wait to see what dishes make it onto the menu when the restaurant opens late this month.
———
Ohana East Hotel, 150 Kaiulani Ave. Details to come.
