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The Weekly Eater
IN the restaurant business, like the stock market, businessmen tend to follow the money. With stocks, that has meant chasing the dot.coms, telecoms and chipmakers. Those ahead of the curve hopped over to automobile fuel cell technology and biotechs before January's tech slide. Still others have remained faithful to their blue chips, in hope of a comeback after the thrill of the Internet has passed. Lunch buffet
best bet at Chau’sSimilarly, in restaurants, many have hopped onto the regional cuisine bandwagon, while others are perfectly happy in profitable niches away from the crowds. So it is that Raymond Chau continues his empire expansion with a Waikiki restaurant that bears his name. His niche? Tourists.
He did try to return to his roots, serving local customers with Chiu Chau in Restaurant Row, a restaurant I really liked but which failed to gain a following. Those who frequented the Row were simply in the market for something else.
While there is no wall that prevents us from crossing over into tourist territory, we know too much about the culinary landscape to pay more than what a meal is worth.
Perhaps you'll be better off getting the $9 lunchtime buffet. The Neptune V.I.P. Dinner Buffet will seem pricey at $18 when the going rate for other Chinese dinner buffets around town is $12.95 or less. Fresh seafood items would account for the price difference, but these were very few. Among them: oysters, a delicious sashimi salad and mussels on the half shell topped with onions, tomatoes and cocktail sauce. These "starters" were at the end of the buffet line.
RAYMOND CHAU'S RESTAURANT
Food 
Atmosphere Service Value Address: Waikiki Trade Center, 2555 Kuhio Ave. (Free validated parking.)
I had problems with the Honey Walnut Shrimp. Instead of fresh shrimp, these were flat, frozen deep-fried "paddles" more typically found at fast-food palaces. And some of the dim sum were merely air-filled packets. Maybe the fillings evaporated during steaming.
Other highlights are a Chinese Bouillabaisse and the Peking Duck carving station.
Compared to the rest of the menu, the buffet will seem like a bargain. Crab, lobster and fish are priced by the pound, and those who don't read menus carefully may see a number like $16 and assume that is the total.
Quickly adding up the numbers, the buffet and $25 per person Signature Dinners for a minimum of two people did seem cheap. The Signature Dinner starts with a soup of the day, which in our case turned out to be a lovely Scallop Soup. This was followed by Pickled Cabbage, geared more toward the Japan visitor, and Spinach and Yin-Yang Chicken, which seemed a cost-effective throwaway, not something that would thrill or surprise the diner.
After that, choose Lobster, Fresh Island Fish, Fresh Dungeness Crab, Braised Abalone or Roast Peking Duck. We chose the whole crab prepared pepper-salt style, which made the $25 price worthwhile. Not so with the Peking Duck, which, though perfectly crispy-skinned and juicy on the inside, was represented by four meager slices. The same price would buy a whole duck elsewhere.
Dessert was a crumbly Almond Tofu. At any rate, this is not the way I'd choose to start the Lunar New Year.
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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 features@starbulletin.com
