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The Weekly Eater
RARELY does a neighbor island restaurant seem important enough to merit a special visit. We're talking not just dinner, but dinero, with the airfare, hotel stay and rental car. Ritz techniques
dashed good intentionsBut all sense of conservatism fell away when I saw the menu for The Ritz Carlton Kapalua's Anuenue Room. I had to go.
Here was a menu that was truly provocative. The chef had researched Hawaiian cuisine from 300 to 1850 A.D., and promised to step back from a fusion of ethnic cuisines in favor of returning to use of such indigenous ingredients as pohole ferns and opihi. The Hawaiian menu would nevertheless have contemporary accents, and it would be dubbed "Hawaiian Provencal."
Anuenue Room
FoodIt all seemed rather contradictory to me, but if the Ritz could pull it off, it would be quite a feat.1/2
Atmosphere
Service
Value
Address: The Ritz-Carlton Kapalua, Maui
Unfortunately, the ideas are much stronger than their execution. It's as if the kitchen has become as lax as the slow-moving, monied patrons that fill the stately, if somewhat stuffy, dining room. ("Dynasty" lives!) Diners here would probably be too embarrassed to complain or more likely lack enough knowledge of local ingredients to distinguish good from bad.
Note that this is an AAA Four-Diamond Restaurant, but to me, such "outsider" ratings often pertain more to mainstream comfort levels than what's served.
Pricing is done by number of courses per person, so dishes do not have individual prices. A three-course dinner runs $65, four courses cost $75 and five dishes adds up to $85.
Pan Fried Pacific Abalone served with Stewed Limu and Ka'u Lime Butter sounded good in theory, but this was overcooked and rubbery. I was curious about the Crispy Corn and Wana (Sea Urchin) Fritters, but found these to be no more than deep-fried poufs of bread no more exotic than Okinawan doughnuts. I suspect this was a way to make wana palatable for mainland visitors.
Sauces, for the most part, were tasty because they relied on butter and cream.
Kalua Pig was nicely presented, wrapped in cabbage like ho'okupu, but beyond packaging, it tasted no different the dish as served at any Oahu fast-food restaurant.
A Moi Laulau was only slightly overdone. The fish sat atop mashed purple sweet potato and Upcountry mushroom ragout, but here too, flavors of delicate shiitake and other mushrooms were drowned by a confused jumble of non-Hawaiian ingredients, among them bacon, onions and zucchini.
It was hard to find a dish that wasn't overdone, as if the chef doesn't trust patrons willingness to pay for food that hasn't been manipulated to death. The abalone could have been fine if it had been quickly seared to retain its fresh crunch.
Perhaps the best dish I had here was also one presented most au naturel. This was the Keahole Lobster served atop a salad of Manoa lettuce, Big Island hearts of palm and chilled mango.
It's too bad that the chef didn't trust the local ingredients to have an eloquence of their own.
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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:
-- excellent;
To recommend a restaurant, write: The Weekly Eater, P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu, Hawaii 96802. Or send e-mail to features@starbulletin.com
