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The Weekly Eater
KAILUA is a sleepy kind of town, but you'd never know it if you wandered into Lucy's Grill and Bar. The place is new, but it's packed. Sheesh! Where did these people come from? My guess is they're refugees from Jaron's and Buzz's, which has to have those restaurants a little freaked. Lucy’s will grab
the popular voteLucy's goes a little further than either restaurant in the creativity department. Where Jaron's could be counted on for local specialties with contemporary twists, and Buzz's delivered no-frills, comfort steak and seafood, Lucy's has roused latent culinary yearnings.
It's bound to happen when the menu reads like a charm. Pulehu-style Baby Lamb Chops with Apricot/Pineapple Chutney ($12), anyone? How about Pan-Seared Salmon with Braised Greens, Roast Garlic and Port Demi Glaze ($18)?
Food -- LUCY'S GRILL AND BAR
1/2
Atmosphere --
Service --
Value --
Address: 33 Aulike St.
But before you go hauling okole over the mountain and through the tunnel to examine Lucy's, know that sometimes the grass really is greener on your side.
The dining room at Lucy's is pretty and comfortable. This is the sort of restaurant that wins popular votes but has less luck with critics, this one anyway. Some would label me a snob, but I looked into Webster's New World Dictionary to find a snob defined as "a person who feels and acts smugly superior about his particular tastes or interests."
Well, I can't change my preferences so that's nothing to feel superior about. I also don't tell people what to like. To each his own, I say. Some people like food that's saucy, sassy and over the top. Then by all means come on down because that's what you get here.
I'm from the less is more school, so I find it hard to appreciate the throw-everything-in-the-pan philosophy that to me, and maybe only me, adds up to culinary garble.
The best dish at Lucy's was the free bread, served with a plate of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, basil and Parmesan. Everything after that was overdone, drowned by sauces too sweet, too salty, too sugary or a combination of all three. I liked these sorts of flavors when I was 10. I mean, I still like li hing mui and Lifesavers, but expectations are different when you're chewing on crackseed or munching on candy vs. gnawing on an appetizer of Babyback Ribs topped with a Mongolian Barbecue Sauce ($8). After sloughing off the sauce, the best parts were the meat nearest the bone, untouched by the thick lacquer finish.
Another appetizer of Kiawe Roasted Oysters ($9) might have been improved without the sugary smoked pork, though I did like the accompanying luau leaf stuffing.
Not even a simple salad of arugula, mesclun and shiitake escaped the sweet touch ($8). Is there a dentist in the house?
The best dish I had was the Herb Crusted Scallops ($18) with Shiitake and Sweet Corn Relish and Shichimi Buerre Blanc. The sauce was heavy, but at least the scallops were sitting on top, so one could ingest as little as possible.
This is really a nice place and all the right ingredients are on the menu, just in the wrong quantities. But that's just me. I didn't see anyone else who seemed to care. They just didn't want to cook.
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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 nkam@starbulletin.com
