Enjoying an ocean of flavors

After a long closure, Waiolu Ocean Cuisine made a quiet comeback from the pandemic five months ago. Sushi forms a strong foundation of its menu, with so much more to explore via an additional seasonal roster of local-style and international appetizers and entrées.

Executive chef Joseph Rose has been keeping it fresh for local returnees with a new menu every three months, with the current dinner menu in place through fall.

The restaurant also recently reintroduced lunch with casual fare such as a gourmet grilled cheese sandwich ($18) filled with white cheddar, fontina, Emmentaler and brie with caramelized Asian pear; kalbi ramen ($26) with a light tonkotsu broth to highlight the grilled shortrib; and DIY burger ($19) with 7-ounce ground chuck patty you can customize with American, Swiss, bleu or cheddar cheeses, and further customize with add-on ingredients ($3) such as egg, apple-wood-smoked bacon, grilled mushrooms or avocado.

Those in the know are most likely to show up on Friday nights, settling in for a perfect view of the 8 p.m. fireworks show staged by the Hilton Hawaiian Village. But even without the lure of the aerial show, the reawakened restaurant charms with dishes both eyeand palate-pleasing.

Settle in with a glass of wine or house cocktail such as the Waiolu martini ($15) of Pau Vodka and Malibu Coconut Rum, infused with fresh pineapple, lychee, vanilla bean and lilikoi.

Smoked kampachi dip ($17) with taro chips are one of the most popular items here and as much as I loved the fish, the housemade taro chips also had a starring role, so delightfully thin and crisp that you had to spoon the dip onto them. They were that fragile. Some may view that as a flaw, but I don’t like it when chips are cut so thick that biting into them feels like a potential tooth-shattering experience.

Gingery sesame ahi tataki ($20) is there to provide a light start to a meal, while those who prefer creamy, rich flavors might start with an appetizer of a pair of seared scallops in a pool of coconut curry sauce and smear of edamame hummus.

From this point, you could veer toward a meal entirely comprising sushi, a more Western-style dinner, or an eclectic combo of both to suit your cravings.

A sushi meal might start with a chef’s omakase platter of nigiri priced at six pieces for $30, eight pieces for $40, or 12 pieces for $55. Or, build your own platter with selections such as hamachi (two pieces nigiri, $10; three pieces sashimi, $15), amaebi ($14/$21), mackerel ($8/$12), local snapper ($8/$12), market price uni, and more.

House sushi rolls include a North Shore-inspired combo of garlic shrimp, avocado and kampachi with garlic aioli and kabayaki sauce ($26); Red Dragon Fire Roll ($26) with a center of shrimp tempura, avocado, crunchy cucumber, layers of ahi, unagi and spicy tuna, flavored with a combination of spicy and kabayaki sauces; and Rise of the Phoenix Roll ($26) featuring Alaskan crab, smoked salmon belly, ahi, hamachi, and avocado with yuzu aioli and Peruvian aji amarillo sauce.

On the Western side of the menu there is a saffron-rich lobster bisque that arrives as an arrangement of lobster medallions and a hefty dollop of chive cream.A pour of the bisque blends soup and cream so enticing that a dinner companion proceeded to clean the bowl, using bits of soft Japanese milk bread ($12) we had ordered as an appetizer to mop up every last bit.

It wouldn’t hurt to double up on soup with the chef’s offering of a beautiful Thai-style bouillabaisse ($45) stocked with island fish, clams, mussels, shrimp, octopus, scallops and squid with fennel and chard. It’s accompanied by two thick slices of country bread slathered with delicious garlicky saffron rouille, a must for bouillabaisse but so seldom appearing on local menus. It presented an “OMG” moment!

Heavier options include a prime 12-ounce New York strip steak ($65) with charred leeks, Hamakua mushrooms and truffle potato pave with ginger-mustard veal jus; and tender honey umeboshi duck breast ($32) further sweetened with smoked dates, with a touch of citrus and sansho pepper.

Other fish entrées abound, such as roasted black cod ($35) with miso-yuzu glaze; inamona-crusted ahi ($38) with snap peas, hon shimeji and shallot dressing; and Kona kampachi ($35) with pillowy Parisian gnocchi, peas, asparagus and ginger butter.

Desserts of olive oil macadamia nut cake with pineapple ($14) and chocolate molten cake ($17) with warm cherry compote and vanilla ice cream sent us home in total bliss.

My only regret was being too full to eat more of that chocolate cake!

Waiolu Ocean Cuisine

Trump International Waikiki Hotel
223 Saratoga Road, Waikiki

Food: ****
Service: ****
Ambiance: ****
Value: ***½
Call: 808-683-7456
Hours: 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Lunch and 4-9 p.m. Dinner Thursdays-Sundays
Prices: Lunch about $70 for two, dinner about $120-$150 for two without alcohol

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).