Before COVID-19, I enjoyed exploring the world through travel. In March 2020, I was just starting to make plans to travel to South Korea when the pandemic made that impossible as borders closed.
South Korea recently reopened its borders, but its COVID-19 cases still number more than 125,000 a day. That’s still too high for comfort, so just to get back into the practice of adapting to airport lines, waits and human traffic, for the first time in two years I took a hop over to Maui. Baby steps.
It was a good time to check out chefs Chris Kajioka’s and Mourad Lahlou’s latest project, Waicoco, at The Westin Maui Resort & Spa, Kaana pali, since they just received their liquor license after a yearlong wait.
Based on Oahu where he oversees Miro Kaimuki, Kajioka makes it a point to be in the kitchen at Waicoco three days a week, while San Francisco-based Lahlou is there a week a month. Otherwise, diners are in the hands of executive chef John Taube IV, an alumnus of Charlie Trotter’s restaurant in Chicago, and Daniel Humm’s NoMad in New York City.
The restaurant makes the most of its oceanfront site with an open design, ocean view lanai and bar seating indoors and out for those who can’t get enough of fresh air and sunshine. In this setting, you can’t help but relax.
It’s a great place to start the day. Considering how many breakfast options we already have on Oahu, I couldn’t help but think, “We need this on our island,” when digging into one of the restaurant’s sometimes morning specials of a hen’s egg yolk, one of Lahlou’s signature Morrocan-inspired dishes. Smoked potato foam is layered over spicy herbed chermoula, then crowned with the yolk that is broken and swirled into the creamy, flavorful mix, along with crunchy toasted quinoa.
The prix fixe breakfast is $32 per person for three items (starter, main and dessert) on the menu. It’s great if you can go with someone who doesn’t mind sharing dishes to get the most variety out of the experience. But with that egg, I’d say, “Get your own. I’m not sharing.”
Also bearing Lahlou’s signature is the kiawe-smoked shakshuka, a Maghrebi dish of eggs poached in a stew of Kula tomatoes finished with goat cheese. Scoop it up with accompanying grilled sourdough toast.
Other morning options include bananas foster pancakes with mac nuts and dark rum caramel; a Kula Benedict topped with avocado, Kula greens and brown butter hollandaise; and the option of Maui or mainland soft scrambled eggs. The local version is served with Portuguese sausage and white rice, while the mainland features bacon and crispy potatoes.
And a dish of kalua pork and cabbage gets an upscale take with confit pork served over dashi rice.
Supplements to the menu include sides of bacon ($9); Portuguese sausage ($9); and loaded potatoes ($15) blanketed with chimichurri sauce, brown butter hollandaise, chives, pickled shallots and aleppo peppers; plus a $10 pastry trio that includes a chocolate croissant, cheddar biscuit and cinnamon-banana muffin. Each is also available at $4 a la carte. I would opt for the crispy croissant.
Dinner is intended to bring people together over a shared ohana-style experience that might start with a poke tower ($58) comprising prawn, tuna and salmon poke, with condiments of seaweed and lava salt, that can be scooped up on rice and prawn chips. The poke is also available at a la carte prices of $22 to $26.
Other starters include warm Hawaiian sweet rolls ($12) served with whipped honey butter, and burrata ($22) served with a salad of Kula tomatoes with olives, basil and miso vinaigrette.
I enjoyed the pupu-style firecracker-glazed short ribs ($42) served with Molokai sweet potato mash and oyster sauce glazed eggplant.
But they really get into ohana territory with dishes meant to serve two to four, such as 20-ounce seared rib-eye ($126) served with crispy potatoes, kula green salad and hollandaise; or a seared half hamachi or kampachi ($116) served with ginger rice, herb and Kula greens, and miso buerre blanc. The fish is not pretty, but it was certainly delicious.
For the vegan crowd, there is an ohana option of Auntie’s vegan Hawaiian coconut curry ($46), a sweet yellow curry with Hawaiian purple cauliflower, toasted peanuts, green beans and peppers, served with a Thai herb salad. Add-on options for meat eaters include chicken ($9), prawns ($12) or fish ($22).
For dessert, a pineapple upside down cake ($14) was a heart-warming treat. The nostalgic dish just isn’t seen on menus today. It features sweet Maui Gold pineapple with lemongrass syrup and Lappert’s vanilla ice cream.
I’m still not sure whether I’m ready for a big adventure with the world in such disarray, but it’s nice to be able to escape close to home.
Waicoco
The Westin Maui Resort & Spa, Kaanapali
2365 Kaanapali Pkwy., Kaanapali
Food: ***½
Service: ***
Ambiance: ****
Value: ***½
Call: 808-446-3020
Hours: breakfast 7-11 a.m. daily, dinner 5-9 p.m. daily
Prices: $32 per person
Nadine Kam’s restaurant visits are unannounced and paid for by Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Follow Nadine on Instagram (@nadinekam) or on YouTube (youtube.com/nadinekam).
