Alan Wong’s
We left Aulani around 5:30PM to head into Honolulu for our 7PM dinner at Alan Wong’s. I continued to be thankful for Apple Maps and it being able to get me there without getting lost through all those downtown streets. Alan Wong’s has valet parking but for the life of me I couldn’t see the valet so I just pulled into the parking garage and scared the daylights out of the valet since he was just not paying attention. Oops! I’m sure he got over it when we tipped on our way home at the end of the evening.
We headed up the elevator to the 3rd floor of the building. You see, Alan Wong’s is located inside a small business tower in the middle of Honolulu. If you didn’t know what you were looking for, you could very well miss it. We were let out directly into the restaurant where we did have to a wait a few minutes before we could be seated, especially since we had arrived about 20 minutes earlier than our reservation time.
Eventually we were seated along the back wall where they had placed many of the 2-people parties for the evening. I’m just glad they didn’t put us outside! I love seeing how they had the front of house staff sign the menu for my birthday which was totally a nice touch!
Signed Menu
As we looked at the menu, I got a cranky husband again - kinda like how I did at Morimoto's. He had been looking at the menu and didn’t see a single thing for him entree wise. I had told him that Alan Wong’s is a favorite among vegetarians but he wouldn’t believe me one bit. At least not until our server came to take our drink order and go over the menu. The server explained that instead of just having a few vegetarian options, the chefs like taking anything on the menu, no matter the protein, and accommodating it for vegetarians and he rattled off a few examples. There were a couple options that couldn’t be made vegan friendly. After our drink order was taken (Ginger Mule for me and a Diet Coke for him), I had to say, “told you so!” and finally he was in a better mood. My drink arrived quickly and I was happy with its flavor.
Ginger Mule
We had ordered the local butter tasting as I wanted to know what $7 worth of butter tasted like at a place like this. I mean, yes, they had given us another dip for the bread service but this had to be fancy butter if I had to pay for it, right? (My husband thinks I’m silly)
Well, the butter was in fact very tasty. The Hula Cow Salted Butter was my favorite but you could tell the difference between each of the options given.
Local Butter Tasting - Naked Cow Bariy Butter, Hula Cow Salted & Unsalted
My husband went with a salad that the server had recommended for him as it was easily made vegetarian friendly with the removal of one topping. He declared it to be one of the best salads he’s ever had and actually finished off the entire plate!
Sweet Land Farm, Wahiawa, Goat Cheese Salad, Candied Almonds, Macadamia Nuts, Tea Candy
I went with a smaller appetizer as I knew I would also want dessert. These dumplings had a lot of flavor but you had to be careful on how much of the Szechuan Chili Sauce was on the dumpling as it was hot! Definitely glad I had bread with my fancy butter to cool off my mouth afterwards.
Pork & Shrimp Hash Dumplings, Soy Mustard, Szechuan Chili Sauce, Parmesan Cheese
My husband’s entree turned out to be everything he wanted and more. The lemongrass black bean sauce was something different than he has ever had before but he really enjoyed it with the linguine and with the multitude of vegetables throughout the dish. He only had to pick out mushrooms but the rest of the dish he would eat!
Vegetable Linguine, Chili Garlic Lemongrass Black Bean Sauce
I went with one of the signature Alan Wong dishes for my entree. I was actually torn between two different ones but I’m glad I did this one. The short ribs were so expertly cooked that I was in heaven. If I could have gotten away with licking my plate of the sauces I would have but I am an adult and sometimes do have to behave as such.
Twice Cooked Short Rib, Soy Braised & Grilled “Kalbi” Style, Ginger Shrimp, Kochu Jang Sauce
I also had picked these mashed potatoes as my side. I’m usually not the biggest mashed potato fan but there were perfection! The cheese was throughout with flavor and the brûlée of the cheese on top was even better. I did make a mistake of having a bit shortly after it was placed on the table but was quickly going for my water as it totally was too hot for consumption! At least you know it was fresh!
Parmesan Cheese Mashed Potatoes
After our mains, we looked at the dessert menu and both found something that caught our eyes and of course it wasn’t the same dish. As we hadn’t ordered a lot of desserts this trip, we just went for it and both got our own as we weren’t sharing!
I went for the Kualoa Farms Banana Cream Pie. This pie was such a nice surprise in flavors. The lime whip provided a nice tartness to the dish that balanced the sweetness of the banana cream and vanilla ice cream.
Kualoa Farms Banana Cream Pie - Hanoaka Farm Lime Whip, Vanilla Ice Cream, Brown Sugar Crisp
My husband went for the super chocolate dessert as he does love his chocolate! He devoured it without saying much so that had to have been a good sign!
Waialua Chocolate Crunch Bars, Milk Chocolate Macadamia Nut Crunch, Bittersweet Chocolate Mousse, Waialua Chocolate Ice Cream
We were both beyond stuffed at this point. This was a lot of food for us nowadays and apparently, it wasn’t everything! They brought out a special dessert for it being my birthday. I ate two bites of it to be polite and it was enjoyable but I was too full to even attempt to try anymore as I didn’t want to be ill.
Guava Cake
We paid our bill (warning - sodas here are not free refills but that's our fault for not asking since soda wasn’t listed on the dinner or drink menus) and headed back downstairs to get our car from the valet. I totally overtipped because of the previous scare and drove back to Aulani for bed and for us to decide what we would be doing the next day as it was kinda up in the air at this point!
