FUUD: Alan Wong's revisited
By Cat
It's no surprise that one of my all-time favorite restaurants is Alan Wong's Restaurant.
The award-winning restaurant on the third floor of an office building in Mo'ili'ili — yes, office building — boasts an innovative menu that fuses Pacific and Asian flavors with that distinctly "Alan Wong" flair. I'm talking a mini loco moco using a mocha-crusted unagi meatloaf and topped with a sunny-side quail egg or nachos made with roast duck and homemade tapioca chips.
The 90-seat room has a glassed-in terrace that doesn't over look much but King Street.
Still, the lighting is perfect and the koa wall panels create a very pleasing and casual-feeling environment.
We went back recently to sample the restaurant's five-course menu tasting, which is offered daily. It costs $75 per person, slightly more if you want your meals paired with wine. (There's also a seven-course dinner that we decided was a bit too much. Maybe after I run the Honolulu Marathon so I have an excuse!)
Here's what the five-course dinner looked like:
Of course, the meal started with bread, freshly baked and warm.
As at Wong's other restaurants, the bread comes with the signature — and highly addictive — chili and garlic aioli.
Our first course was an appetizer duo, in this case a soup and sandwich combo.
The soup was a chilled vine-ripened Hamakua Springs tomato soup with a grilled mozzarella cheese and kalua pig sandwich.
The soup was simple — and simply outstanding. No cream! Just olive oil and fresh tomatoes. Delicious.
The cheese crisps that created the sandwich was fantastic, especially when paired with the smooth soup. The kalua pig filling was nice, too, and coupled with foie gras. That made the filling a bit oily — but we're not complaining!
The first course also came with one of the restaurant's "Poki Pines," a crispy won ton ahi poke ball with avocado and topped with a nice, not-too-hot wasabi sauce.
Our second course was a sweet, butter-poached Kona lobster atop a shrimp mochi rice cake and topped with an edamame truffle puree. Like the first course, this was a bit decadent but created that "next step" to our third course.
The next course featured the restaurant's ginger-crusted onaga, perfectly cooked and sitting on a tasty medley of organic Hamakua mushrooms and sweet corn. The miso sesame vinaigrette rounded up the dish. It was heavenly.
The course that I was most looking forward to, however, was the fourth: the twice-cooked shortrib, soy-braised and grilled kalbi style.
It came topped with a gingered jumbo shrimp and paired with grilled eggplant and steamed broccoli. But honestly, I could have just been served the meat. It was tender and slipping off the bone — easily the best shortrib I've had.
And finally, my favorite course: dessert. Normally, the restaurant serves a dessert duet, usually the coconut tapioca and the chocolate crunch bars. We got just the latter, which was fine by me. The dark chocolate was just what I needed to finish the five-course meal.
The next, new prix fixe menu — part of the restaurant's Farmer Series Dinner — will be on Wednesday, July 14 at the flagship restaurant.
Called "Bee Sustainable," this dinner will feature locally grown honey. Learn about Hawaii's farms, farmers and — of course — bees.
Cost is $80 per person, $110 with wine pairing. Check out the menu here.
Alan Wong's Restaurant, 1857 S. King St. Hours: 5-10 p.m. daily. Phone: (808) 949-2526.
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Follow Cat on Twitter @thedailydish or send her an e-mail at cat@thecatdish.com.
The Daily Dish
July 9th, 2010 at 8:05 am
AAAhhhhhhaaaaa...it's been a long time since I've put...FIRST!!!
July 9th, 2010 at 8:32 am
Hello Cat!
Fuud pixs Friday!
We go to Alan Wong'd for special occasions like birthdays and anniversaries. They really treat us special every time we have gone there.
July 9th, 2010 at 8:35 am
I love this place. The food is awesome.
July 9th, 2010 at 8:43 am
We went for my mom's birthday last year. Best restaurant all of us had ever had ever had the pleasure of visiting. Incredibly good.
July 9th, 2010 at 9:09 am
Our family loves this place. For our 10th anniversary, we sat at the counter and watched all the ACTION. It's a special occasion place for our whole family. Every meal we've had there has been excellent and the service is excellent. We now have young kids and they will offer to make a pasta meal just for them. Wonderful place!
July 9th, 2010 at 9:14 am
mmm.... i haven't been there for a while! everything looks delicious!
by the way, saw you on that "shaka" segment that ends the news... looked like it was taken at your holiday picnic?!
July 9th, 2010 at 9:18 am
went there for our anniversary. it was delicious!
July 9th, 2010 at 9:48 am
Do I detect a special occasion? Perhaps a marriage proposal?
July 9th, 2010 at 10:01 am
You know, I was reading a review in Frommers about Alan Wong's and it said people complain about the long waits by the elevator. I've never had a problem, though... Anyone else?
And no, no marriage proposal. But it was our anniversary. (smile) Thanks for asking!
July 9th, 2010 at 10:11 am
You should write for Gourmet or Food and Wine magazine
July 9th, 2010 at 10:23 am
@ Maxcat --> Unfortunately "Gourmet" published by Condé Naste is no longer. They stopped publication on it last year... although the rumor mill has it that they will come out with an iPad version!
Question:
If you go to the Pineapple Room, can you really say you've been to Alan Wong's?
If you go to Breakfast, Lunch and Crab, can you really say you've been to Sam Choy's?
I have guests coming in and they've wanted to eat at both (including Roy's), but was wondering how legit those two places are at being a real representation of the two... Although I've eaten at both AW's and SC's, I prefer their offshoot restaurants.
July 9th, 2010 at 12:48 pm
Yup! Alan Wong's is my fav too...what makes it even better...Alan is SUCH a cool guy!
July 9th, 2010 at 12:57 pm
you can't go wrong with wong.
July 9th, 2010 at 12:59 pm
guest said: "Do I detect a special occasion?" bonnie said: "Let's give 'em something to talk about; a little mystery to figure out."
July 9th, 2010 at 2:28 pm
Lucky I decided to check-out the blogs today
AW's is our family favorite place to go 
And like lovinlife said Alan is one nice guy 
btw: next time you go ask them if they can make the mini cheese burger and fries
July 9th, 2010 at 3:47 pm
Yes Cat, when we went we had a large table right by the elevator.
There's not much room so there was a pack of people waiting for a table right outside the elevator. It did put some pressure on us to hurry up and free up the table (we had 10 folks).
I do remember that, but hey, once you do get a table this place is the best.
July 9th, 2010 at 4:27 pm
nice of them to deshell the lobster. Second ,third and fourth courses are like a samler of entree's . quite nice. did u get bibs between courses...maybe some sorbet to cleanse the palet, to fully enjoy the taste explosion?
July 9th, 2010 at 10:22 pm
CAT,
Aaaiiiyyyaaahhh! Fuud Pix! Tenks! A great restaurant and the fuud is guud!
July 10th, 2010 at 4:57 am
Fuud pix Friday!
The last time I was in the area, Obama came to town. With Cat's pictures of the above, I can see why......
July 10th, 2010 at 5:36 am
Max,
Thanks for the update. Guess I need to go into the magazine section next time I slurp up a Java Chip Frappacino (however you spell that) at Barnes and Noble and find out what's still being published. Yes, don't want Cat writing about food from the 'other side!' 'Dark side' maybe, but not 'other side.'
July 10th, 2010 at 7:29 am
Do high-end restaurants like Alan Wong's offer vegetarian fare? I stopped eating animal and flesh in April, 2008, after seeing a really funny but disturbing documentary on PBS called "King Corn." From time to time, I still eat milk & eggs as long as they are organic. I'm not doing this for my health, but for the animals'health,\.
Another doc, "Food Inc., " definitely confirmed my decision.