Alan Wong’s
Alan Wong’s is one of the most highly rated restruants in Hawaii. This little restraunt is a bit chaotic and much more laid back than you would expect for a restruant of its caliber. No one held my chair, no one put my napkin in my lap, and I only had two forks on the table when I sat down (at Lola, I had 5). The service was good, but it is much more about the food.
I had the five course menu tasting prix fixed menu with wine pairings. The win pairings were all excellant matches for the course, but even better, each was a great stand alone wine. The five course menu is based on items from the menu. There is also a seven course chef’s menu, that is pretty much anything the chef feels like putting in front of you.
A tasting menu, if you have not had the luck to enjoying, is usually a multi course meal, predetermined by the chef, but the portion size is considerably smaller to account to the increase in courses. It is usually a way for a fancy restruant to show of the chef’s skills. I like tasting menus because most fancy restruants like to do a lot of experiementation, and the menu description might not be enough for you to decide if you want a full plate of a strange concoction. Most of the things I have had on a tasting menu and really enjoyed I would have never ordered. Also, leaving the decision up to someone who really knows what they are doing in the kitchen, and they are using only the best ingredients, results in a great dish that would have been horrible prepared by someone else with subpar ingredients.
The appetizer was a pairing. The first part was a play on tomato soup and grilled cheese, the soup being made from vine ripened red and yellow tomatoes accompanied by a grilled cheese, kalua pig and froie gras sandwich. It was awesome. Definately the best tomato soup I have ever had, and the sandwich was very tasty. I wish froie gras was always served so well. The second part nori wrapped tempura ahi. Just a little batter on the outside and the tuna was almost completely raw, served with a delicious soy mustard sauce. I am a steak lover, and this was outstanding. This was served with a nice sparkling wine, but I don’t have any of the wine names.
Next course was a ginger crusted Onaga. This was a light white fish on mushrooms and corn with a tastely miso sesame vinaigrette. I usually hate fish, but if it was cooked this well, I would eat it everyday. Served with Reisling.
Grilled “kalbi” short ribs followed. It was excellant, but it had a gingered shirmp on top that just didn’t fit in with the rest of the plate. Using it strickly for decoration seems a bit strange, it was good, and tasted as you would expect a ginger encrusted shrimp would, but the short ribs are a tender, heavy, fat rich cut sitting in a dark Ko Choo Jang sauce, a korean hot sauce, and accompanied by a Cabernet Sauvignon. For a tasting menu, there was too much short rib for me. There was at least five or six ounces. Of course, if I showed up hungry, like I was supposed too…
If you like fine rich chocolate desserts like me, you will find that Hawaii has no idea what a dessert should really be. Alan Wong’s dessert on the tasting menu were excellantly excuted, but the chocolate crunch bars, which were milk chocolate, chopped macadamia nuts and bittersweet chocolate mousse were about texture and hawaiian taste then being an awesome chocolate dessert. The mousse had a wonderfully rich chocalate flavor, putting it at the top of my mousse list.
The second dessert was a coconut tapioca and fresh fruit. This was good, but really should have been left off the tasting menu. How hard is it to cut up the freshest fruit you can find on an island paradise? It was a great tapioca, but it is tapioca, not that impressive at its best. Brook just bought some Jello brand tapioca, so I will have to give it a try and see if I change my tune.
Brook had the ceasar salad in the cheese basket. The cheese basket is a deep fried parmesan and was very neat. Her main course was the pan steamed shellfish, which was very impressive. But she raved the most about the sorbet sampler. I sampled hers too, and if you are looking for clean fresh fruit flavors, this sorbet was for you. Nothing was mellowed by these sorbets, everything had a nice crisp taste.
This was the high end of the food stops. I believe the only other restruant on Oahu that rivals Alan Wong’s is La Mer. I will double check and see if I missed any others.