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The Weekly Eater Nadine Kam |
Hula Grill's indoor-outdoor expansiveness creates an appealing, casual ambience.
Hula Grill’s good feng shui
lulls patrons’ taste budsThose living outside of Waikiki think of it purely as Touristville, but a quick glance at the faces on the street will reveal a lot of local traffic as well, and at dinner time, a lot of them seem to be finding their way to Hula Grill in the Outrigger Waikiki. Maybe the scale is not as great as at the neighboring Cheesecake Factory, but the latter, after all, is a gargantuan factory that specializes in rolling out one stuffed customer after another.
The scale's a little more human at Hula Grill, with a pace that's slower, relaxed, as befitting a Pacific paradise, which is a specialty of the TS chain of restaurants in California and Hawaii.
The company's ability to package paradise is masterful. Just look at Hula Grill Kaanapali, or closer to home, Duke's Waikiki, also in the Outrigger, which works magic in resuscitating a vision of old Hawaii generally restricted to historical tomes, old homes and dusty antique-store ephemera.
Duke's is blessed with the excellent feng shui of an open-air lanai opening to an ocean vista, complete with lustrous koa decor and surf paraphernalia.
Hula Grill has that same indoor-outdoor expansiveness, though, on the hotel's second floor, you're above the ocean and swimming pool. You'll pass showcases full of carved wooden bowls and hula implements en route to your table -- request the lanai if you remember.
There are always skeptics out there who don't want to believe in the mumbo jumbo of feng shui practitioners, but few could deny the power of place and ambience in creating a mood, and at Hula Grill the setting is aimed to lull your body and senses into complacency. "Feed me" is all you will ask, and you may not notice that the food is just average. You may not even care, because Hula Grill is intended to be casual. What do you expect in a place overlooking the beach, where a few will stroll in with sand between their toes?
DINNER BEGAN auspiciously enough with focaccia accompanied by olive oil and chili pepper water in place of the usual balsamic vinegar. The combination was a revelation. I'd be satisfied just to enjoy the bread with soup or summery tomato and Maui onion salad ($7; add another $1 for goat cheese). It's difficult to eat a lot when it's hot outside anyway.
The island corn and fish chowder ($5.50) is heavy enough to serve as a meal, with its tortilla-spiced tomato and corn puree, ladled over chunks of fish. On the opposite extreme is a refreshing, light seafood and lemongrass gazpacho ($5.50), but its tartness got to me after a while and I couldn't finish.
An appetizer of imu-style barbecue ribs ($9.50) was a disappointment, with mango barbecue sauce that tasted like any jarred sauce. The papaya salsa on top did little to help. You have to remember they're trying to appeal to the Everyman tourist, and the strong, strange flavors we know and love are tamped down considerably. On the other hand, sugar plays well to our fellow Americans, thus we have jelly-like guava plum sauce accompanying an appetizer of scallop and lobster pot stickers ($9.50), rarely a good idea because the shellfish is chopped and diced to oblivion.
The other appetizer revelation here was the Waimanalo vegetable strudel ($8), a more expansive take on Greek spanakopita, wrapping roasted mushrooms, summer squash, zucchini and other vegetables in light filo pastry, accompanied by a creamy tomato fondue. Wonderful.
This made up for the poor showing of the ribs and plain lemon-ginger roasted chicken ($17). Other items on the menu include steak Kiana (Diane, $26), served with shiitake mushroom cream and lilikoi butter; a Chinese-style veggie stir-fry ($16); and kung pao shrimp ($19.50) with macadamia nuts in place of the usual cashews.
The restaurant wants to be known for its seafood, and offers a couple of special selections nightly. For those who want to stick to the menu, there's your basic Waikiki offering of macadamia-nut crusted mahimahi, fire-grilled ono ($24) with pineapple salsa, and fire-grilled ahi steak ($23) with wasabi and black pepper sauce. Screamin' sesame opah had a rich mouth-feel with its coating of spicy tahini.
While you're playing tourist, might as well go all the way with dessert of coconut creme brulee served in a pineapple half, crown and all. I'm surprised they didn't spell "Aloha" across the glossy surface, but they had done that earlier, the word appearing across the corn soup.
It doesn't take a lot to make people smile when they're on vacation.
Outrigger Waikiki Hotel, 2335 Kalakaua Ave. / 923-4852 (HULA) HULA GRILL HAWAII
Hours: 5 to 10 p.m. daily except Sunday, when service starts at 4 p.m.
Food 
Service Ambience Value Cost: About $50 to $60 for two without drinks
See some past restaurant reviews in the Columnists section.
Nadine Kam's restaurant 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.
