Hoku was amazing. I have a view of it in my trip report. Very romantic and quiet!
Hoku
I had decided on Hoku based on the reviews seen on Opentable. It hasn’t been mentioned much, if at all, here on the Disboards.
We left a little over an hour in advance of our reservation time to drive over. I’m glad we did as it was definitely farther than the other restaurants we went this trip. It is located east of Diamondhead at the Kahala Beach.
The parking at the hotel is valet only so we dropped off the car and walked over to the restaurant. We were sat on the upper level but we still had a great view of the ocean from the table.
View from Table
My husband and I laughed when we were served three butters this evening with the bread for free after having paid for the butters the night before. We both passed on the Olive/Anchovy. We enjoyed the Honey and Sea Salt one.
Trio of Butters - Olive/Anchovy, Honey, Sea Salt
Our server here was very knowledgeable and friendly and went over the menu in detailed about what was their specialities along with the options my husband could have as a vegetarian. She ended up changing my mind on my appetizer because of how she made me drool when describing it!
The amuse bouche is the one place this restaurant stumbled, but overall, that isn’t a huge thing. As my husband is a vegetarian, he probably shouldn’t have been served a dish he couldn’t eat. Usually I don’t like calamari that much but this was alright. It was firm still but not gummy! I also ate my husband’s portion to be polite.
Amuse Bouche - Calamari
After our amuse bouche - we are served our drinks and my husband made me laugh with is love of diet coke.
Pinot Noir & Diet Coke
The server had let me know that they served a half portion of the Ahi Poke Musubi when she originally described the dish. This was everything she described and more - totally worth the drool worthy description for it. The poke on the inside is still perfectly cold but is encrusted by sushi rice and wrapped in nori and fried. It has such a different notes of textures that it really is amazing!
Ahi Poke Musubi - Ahi Poke w/ Sushi Rice Served Crisp Fried, Crab Namasu, Soy Ginger
My husband went with the corn soup for his appetizer. The truffle was grated freshly on top of the dish after it was served which helped make sure its flavor was at its peak.
Sliced Fresh Summer Truffle & Ewa Corn Verte, Edamame, Cold Press Olive Oil
My husband went with this dish based on our server’s recommendation for his main. It is a vegetarian napoleon style dish that used potato slices instead of puff pastry. I was actually shocked my husband chose this as it had some items in it that were a bit different things than he normally orders in it. He loved this! Despite usually not liking brussel sprouts or olives, they were chopped super fine along with the other ingredients so that you couldn’t really tell what it was. He finished it off with no problem!
Potato-Mushroom “Mille Fueille” Sauteed Brussel Sprouts, Olives, Caper Berries, Pine Nuts, Chinese Miso-Ginger Thyme Sauce
Once I saw this dish on the menu, I knew what I was going to get. It also at the time, was probably the most expensive entree on the menu but I didn’t care. It has been years since I last had abalone (at Victoria & Albert’s when it was pan fried in a meyer-lemon butter) and I wasn’t going to pass it up here! It was as tasty as I remember. This was a different type of abalone than what I previous had (Kona rather than White/Californian) and was a bit tougher. So while the abalone was tough, I had the fork tender butterfish to balance it out. The miso sauce was outstanding as well.
Roasted Big Island Kona Abalone & Butterfish, Kyoto Miso Sabayon, Bok Choy, Potato Confit
While we had really enjoyed our appetizers and desserts, we had to get desserts as they had awesome sounding choices.
My husband loves chocolate cakes and vanilla ice cream. This choice was easy for him. He was very happy with it.
Hoku’s Dark Chocolate Coulant, Berry Consomme, Vanilla Bean Sauce
I went with a lighter option for dessert. The almond baumkuchen was very light and a nice end to this meal.
Almond Baumkuchen - Compressed Pineapple, Passion Fruit Cemeux, White Chocolate Powder, Pineapple Sorbet
And since a birthday was noted on the reservation, they brought a special dessert. This was nice and still light. I was full but I was able to eat at least half of it and my husband had the rest.
Jasmine Rice Panna Cotta
We paid our bill and headed to back to the valet. On our long drive back to Aulani, my husband and I decided that Hoku had to be the best meal of the trip. It had amazing food, an amazing view, a properly attentive server. We didn’t expect it to be our favorite of the trip before we got there but we were really blown away by it. With it not being overly busy, it made for a really nice evening. Totally worth the drive and the cost!
