The closure of the Willows at the start of the new year left a void for all who had enjoyed the open-air ambiance of its Hawaiian-style buffet.
The Pagoda Floating Restaurant, open since 1964, remains top of mind when it comes to buffet restaurants operating in that open-air, nostalgic tradition. But other contenders are vying for the hearts of patrons who believe happiness is a full stomach.
They cannot replace the Willows’ original series of Vladimir Ossipoff-designed hale, introduced in 1944 and updated in 1999, the site of many a bridal party and family celebration.
The Willows will also be missed for its luau specialties, but otherwise, the remaining buffets deliver that expected abundance of hot-and-cold, veg-and-meat, appetizer-to-dessert options, as well as what a friend calls the “shockers,” items intended to shock and awe.
These tend to be stacks of crab legs and prime rib carving stations, but you’ll sometimes find Chinese-style steamed whole fish and, in one instance, beef bone marrow.
Word has it another buffet is headed to Waikiki soon. Stay tuned.
KAI MARKET
Sheraton Waikiki, 2255 Kalakaua Ave.; 921-4600
Kai Market opened nearly a decade ago with lofty ambitions. Before “sustainable” became a household word, chef Darren Demaya aimed to fill the buffet with 80 percent locally sourced meat, seafood and produce, now featured in dishes that capture Hawaii’s ethnic, culinary diversity.
The buffet can give the feeling of a tour of the Pacific Rim, in the comfort of a casual, upscale dining room with open views toward the ocean and pools.
It’s hard to know where to begin. On weekends, stacks of snow crab legs beckon from two ends of the hot bar, sharing the interactive stations with prime rib on one side, and whole ginger-scallion steamed fish on the other. While most buffet-line snow crab is accompanied by drawn butter, this one also features garlic-infused butter for even more savory goodness.
Traditionalists will start with the breads, followed by cold-bar selections of Pier 38 sashimi, tako poke, Korean chap chae, Kula Farms whole baby romaine Caesar salad, and an assortment of cheese and fruit. Buffet veterans, though, may skip to hot specialties such as fried rice with Portuguese sausage and kim chee, crispy Kauai shrimp or beef short ribs.
From Mondays to Thursdays, you’ll find baked pastas, crispy roast pork-belly bao, soy-glazed broiled salmon and shrimp-truck-style garlic butter whole prawns.
As much as I try to get my money’s worth out of a buffet, I went back for seconds of kabocha mashed potatoes, a combination of sweet kabocha and butter-whipped potatoes with a hint of nutmeg. I couldn’t help it. This starchy belly filler was too delicious and creamy to resist.
It can get loud here because large parties often share the room with individual parties, but if you’re open to it, you can share their joy, singing a happy birthday, or even witness a lion-dance blessing of others’ special occasions. Buffets do make it easy for large parties to get up and get anything they want at a set price.
The diversity continues with desserts of warm Portuguese bread pudding, Thai coffee custard, Hawaiian vanilla bean panna cotta, coconut haupia tapioca, slices of Ted’s Bakery pies from the North Shore, and red bean- and peanut butter-filled mochi. A soft-serve machine is also there for those who crave something simple after feasting.
>> Hours: 6 to 11 a.m. and 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. daily
>> Cost: BBQ Dinner Mondays to Thursdays, $57, $25 ages 6 to 12; Seafood Nights Fridays to Sundays, $61 adult, $25 keiki; 25 percent kamaaina discount. Free parking up to four hours.
My college experience of dorm living preceded the days of the celebrity chef, so I was curious about the food awaiting Hawaii Pacific University students at their cafeteria — Pier 9 by Sam Choy, which is also open to the public.
If it’s got Choy’s name on it, there’s got to be poke in the picture, right? Unfortunately, this is more of an Aramark food-service enterprise and serving all-you-can-eat poke to college students is one sure way to go broke. Poke is not on the dinner menu, but limited to Wednesdays at lunchtime.
What’s here is mostly all-American stock teenage fare like burgers, grilled cheese panini, roast beef sandwiches and pizza. The only Sam Choy dish I could find on a Friday night was the chef’s beef stew, easily the best thing on the menu.
Figuring the students knew best, I followed their lead. A few girls were making the most of their school meal plans, and most opted to build a salad at the salad bar, then turn around to the hot station to request a cooked-to-order fillet of grilled chicken breast. At the same station you can also request a burger built to your specifications.
Much better burgers, pizzas and sandwiches can be had just about anywhere off-campus, but those who put quantity first can fill up on all of the above and the like, plus soft drinks for the fair sum of $18. To keep appetites in check, signage lists calories for each action station item, from a slice of sausage pizza (330) to a slice of American cheese (45).
I liked building my own salad of spinach and condiments ranging from roasted sunflower seeds to bacon bits. I also enjoyed a cream of broccoli soup. The dishes to watch for are Choy’s signature specials that change nightly.
Diners have a beautiful view of the harbor and the students are smart enough to show up early and grab window seats. Outdoor seating also is available.
There is a suggestion box and hopefully the cafeteria menu will evolve with students’ input. For now, neighboring Old Spaghetti Factory is a lot more tempting.
>> Hours: Breakfast 7 to 10 a.m. weekdays, lunch 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. weekdays, dinner 5 to 8 p.m. nightly; brunch 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays
>> Cost: Breakfast $10, lunch $15, dinner $18; for ages 3 to 12 prices are $8, $10 and $12. Aloha Tower parking is free for an hour, then $2 per hour up to six hours
The Buffet at the Hyatt is just a year old, yet features some of the hotel’s greatest hits dating to the days of Colony Steak & Seafood and Ciao Mein. In fact some of my favorite items are chef Charlie Yang’s Sichuan eggplant from Ciao Mein, chef George Lempson’s coconut seafood curry from Colony, and a chowder that outlasted the Colony to be reborn at another Hyatt restaurant, Shor. These dishes are standouts, even among the more big ticket, attention-grabbing crab legs and kiawe-smoked, alaea salt-crusted prime rib.
Chef Jeff Szombaty said that customers also asked to keep their favorite dishes from the Hyatt’s Japengo restaurant, such as Local Grinds fried rice with Portuguese sausage and kim chee, North Shore shrimp-truck garlic shrimp, crispy garlic chicken and, for dipping those crab legs, a Singapore-style sweet chili sauce.
Highlights are many, starting with a fresh-catch poke and sushi bar, including a station for sushi hand rolls. At the crab-leg station, you can ask to have your chilled snow or king crab steamed. Expanded seafood selections are offered Fridays through Sundays.
Mini laulau are manageable in size but still packed with enough fish and pork to satisfy. A normal-
size laulau would probably fill you up and defeat the purpose of eating at a buffet. More local flavor shows up in dishes of pulehu steak and lechon kawali.
An array of fresh fruit and greens awaits diners who want to be kind to their bodies. One unusual treat offered was longan — a little girl waited patiently as I chose my fruit; out of the whole room, it was what she wanted most. You never know what people will gravitate to.
One item that doesn’t draw enough attention is the honey that accompanies an artisanal cheese platter. The small-batch Hula Meli kiawe honey comes from bees raised on the property and is a rare treat, just one item that makes this buffet unique.
With the arrival of chef de cuisine Jae Lee, menu additions are expected within a month.
>> Hours: 5:30 to 10 p.m.; last seating at 9:30 p.m.
The Sheraton Princess Kaiulani’s Pikake Terrace Restaurant has introduced Waikiki’s newest buffet, La Costa Italiano, one of the best-priced prime-rib dinner buffets in town. For the same $34.95 price as the rest of the week, Saturday nights add steamed snow crab legs.
The Italian theme differentiates this buffet from the competition, and along these lines diners are greeted by charcuterie and cheese boards with imported Italian salumi, cheeses, olives and tomato relish, followed by such options as a cioppino, pasta of the day with sauce served on the side to prevent sogginess, a daily variety of baked pasta such as lasagna or ziti with spinach, caprese of Hamakua tomatoes and mozzarella, and various pasta salads.
A different Italian-style chicken dish is offered daily, from chicken marsala to cacciatore. Highlights were at the carving station, where in addition to the prime rib, you could leave with
Manila clams steamed in white wine with onions and butter, and mushroom-Parmesan risotto.
For those who miss Kaimuki’s Cafe Laufer, pastry chef Cyrus Goo has moved in to create chocolate pot de creme, tiramisu, berry panna cotta, fruit tarts and other desserts.
It’s also the only buffet to feature Hawaiian music artists nightly.
>> Hours: 6 to 11 a.m. and 5:30 to 9 p.m. daily
>> Prices: $34.95, $17.50 for ages 6 to 12; 25 percent kamaaina discount. Free parking.
When 100 Sails took the place of the beloved Prince Court, buffet lovers were taken aback by the smaller footprint of the new buffet. But what was lost in space was made up for in efficiency, and staffers insist there’s a lot more food available today than in the past.
If you really feel the buffet isn’t enough, you can also order off the restaurant’s a la carte menu of selections ranging from shiitake flatbread to a wagyu burger.
I didn’t feel anything was missing, especially when greeted with the sight of a prime rib and hand-roll sushi station, duly noted before studying a variety of hot options, snow crab legs, sashimi, poke and salads.
But what I grabbed first was something tucked away among the salads at the far end of the bar, local grass-fed beef bone marrow served with toast points. It’s rare sighting on a buffet and therefore such a treat! The special will be available through the end of the month.
Some people were content to scrape a little onto the toast, some made off with the whole bone, but a little of the rich, buttery marrow goes a long way. It’s worth the effort to check out the restaurant’s website for each month’s special.
The crab legs and prime rib are fairly standard wherever you go, so what I appreciated here was the variety of local-
style salads and side dishes. I filled my plate to enjoy the simplicity of cold tofu with shoyu and chili oil, Korean-
style tofu, Kamuela tomatoes and mozzarella, and garlic-Parmesan-roasted corn on the cob, to the point my dinner companion thought I’d lost my mind filling up on so-called cheap stuff.
No worries there. I eventually graduated to the spicy salt-and-pepper Kauai shrimp, and sushi hand rolls of salmon skin and riceless Shanghai Chuck, a combination of spicy tuna, avocado, cucumbers and marinated onions, geared toward those on a ketogenic diet.
Desserts made in-house range from caramel flan to lilikoi cheesecake and a chocolate crunch bar.
>> Hours: 6 to 10:30 a.m. breakfast, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. lunch, 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. dinner, and 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Sunday brunch
>> Cost: $59 adults, $29.50 for ages 6 to 12; discounts for ages 60-plus Mondays to Thursdays include $9 off dinner buffet excluding special events/menus and holidays. Self or valet parking is free through April 30.
