The Weekly Eater
Waterfront Cafe’s new format
is buffet, and it worksThe fast pace of life in the '00s isn't limited to technology. It may be news to those in their 20s, but there was a time when restaurants could thrive for 10, 20 years without changing a single item on the menu! That's right. Go ask your parents.
And while consistency once referred to getting stew exactly the same every day as it was the first time you tried it, today's consistency means the format's the same as it was yesterday. That's no feat considering that these days whole restaurants can disappear, with new ones popping up to replace them seemingly overnight.
Back in March, I stopped into the Waterfront Café & Cabaret. At the time, I said the menu was a work in progress, but the result has been a major overhaul. Out went the cafe and traditional table service. In came the Waterfront Crab House & Nite Club and buffet dining.
In other words, when in doubt throw everything on the table and let the guests fend for themselves. It works at a backyard potluck, and it works at the office, especially these days when party fixin's ain't in the budget. So here you have the homegrown concept, commercialized and exceedingly marketable. The room is more crowded than it ever was during dinner hours when dining was a la white tablecloth. In fact, the menu looks a lot like a big office potluck. So few people have time to cook that the office buffet generally ends up being 50 percent takeout.
THE BUFFET is set up so you can get a glance of all edibles en route to your table for strategizing purposes. Closest to the door is the nigiri sushi, including maguro, tako and shrimp. These are on par with conveyor-belt sushi and hit the spot if you just want a taste and are not particularly finicky. The eel is the most substantial.
RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM
Bill Edwards, a visitor from Colorado, recently stepped up to the sushi buffet at Waterfront Crab House.
Nearby, you'll find boiled, peeled shrimp that are small and flavorless, but given that most people choose to bury such shrimp under a good dollop of cocktail sauce, few may notice the flavor, and size doesn't matter here. You can eat as much as you want to compensate. This was better than Maine lobster claws that looked promising but were dry and barely reconstituted with butter, or snow crab legs dripping with salt water.
Some of those involved in the revamping once ran the Asian Palate at Ala Moana Center, when the mall tried to bring restaurants upstairs near Longs. That restaurant was in tune with the local palate, and those instincts serve them well here. They offer everything from pork laulaus to tofu dressed with ginger and green onions.
It's best to show up around 6 p.m., when everything's just out of the kitchen. The restaurant is not so big and the rush is not so great that there's a large turnover of food.
Some of the best items include spareribs topped with a tangy barbecue sauce, spicy Korean-style fried chicken, kalua pig and cabbage, and chicken with eggplant.
The basic lunch buffet is $14.95 weekdays and $16.95 weekends, with dinner running $24.95 and $26.95 respectively. At that price, the buffet to beat is Todai's for seafood. Those after variety might feel at home at Waterfront, and to sweeten the deal in this getting-to-know-you stage, one person can get a 50-percent discount if a companion pays full price for one dinner, making dinner for two less than $40 without drinks. (The state beers -- Bud and Bud Lite -- run 75 cents per bottle with the buffet.)
For dessert there's soft-serve ice cream, and that mysterious-looking orange dessert is a mango pudding worth trying.
Aloha Tower Marketplace / 585-8488 WATERFRONT CRAB HOUSE & NITE CLUB
Hours: 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 5 to 9 p.m. daily for food; nite club hours 10 p.m. to closing
Food 1/2
Service Ambience Value Cost: $14.95 for weekday lunch ($16.95 Saturdays, Sundays and holidays); $24. 95 for weekday dinner ($26.95 Saturdays, Sundays and holidays). Also, 20 percent off dinner for 65 and older (10 percent at lunch); 50 percent off for keiki 10 and under; 75 percent off for keiki 3 and under; 50 percent off for one person with one full-paid dinner.
See some past restaurant reviews in the
Columnists section.
Nadine Kam's restaurant reviews run on Thursdays. Reviews are conducted anonymously and paid for by the Star-Bulletin. Star ratings are based on comparisons of similar restaurants:
To recommend a restaurant, write: The Weekly Eater, P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu, Hawaii 96802. Or send e-mail to nkam@starbulletin.com
excellent; very good, exceeds expectations; average; below average.
