Waikiki Eats: Prince Court Lunch Buffet

December 17, 2009 in '3 SPAM Musubi' rated, Mixed Plate | 4 comments

Back in March of this year we celebrated my birthday at the Prince Court restaurant, where we thoroughly enjoyed their fantastic Sunday Brunch Buffet. This time around our office gang decided to have our annual Christmas lunch here at the Prince.

While at about $10 less, the lunch buffet menu doesn’t include Prime Rib, Crab Legs and various fresh seafood poke and/or sashimi that the Sunday brunch menu offers, unless you’re so determined in having that, you’d hardly notice it wasn’t there with everything else there is to choose.

Getting right to it, this is the lunch menu posted for the date of our visit, which was this past Tuesday, December 15, 2009:

Prince Court Lunch Buffet
December 14-18, 2009

Salad Bar
Mixed Greens with Assorted Dressing
Grilled Vegetables with Balsamic Vinaigrette
Crispy Tofu Salad with Spicy Shoyu Sauce
Watercress and Bean Sprout Namu
Variety of House Salads
Lomi Lomi Salmon
Vegetable Crudites with Ranch Dressing
Assorted Cheeses with Crackers

Specialty Station
Thai Beef Panang Curry with Jasmin Rice

Saimin Station
with Condiments

Japanese Station
Sushi Station
Shrimp Tempura
Vegetable Tempura
Shabu Shabu with Condiments
Miso Soup

Pasta
Penne Pasta with Smoked Salmon, Capers and Cream Sauce

Fish
Cajun Spiced Mahi Mahi with Sweet Chili Aioli and Papaya Salsa

Vegetable
Vegetables of the Day

Special of the Day
Monday – Open
>> Tuesday – Hoisin Glazed Pork Loin
Wednesday – Medallions of Veal with Port Wine Sauce
Thursday – Teriyaki Chicken with Stir Fried Vegetables
Friday – Roasted Duck on Cake Noodles

$25 per person

Considering the selection and quality of food, presentation, service, the elegant ambiance, and most importantly the marina-side (ocean view) location in Waikiki, $25 per person is a really good value.

With Christmas right around the corner, it appeared many other guests in the restaurant were also having office get-togethers in celebration of the holiday just like we were.

While I didn’t get pictures of every single dish on the buffet  line, here’s a few highlights, starting with the ever-popular shrimp and vegetable tempura…

Hoisin Glazed Pork Loin…

Cauliflower Au-Gratin…

Vegetable Crudites (with Ranch Dressing)…

The Shabu-Shabu station…

The sauce on the left is ponzu, and the lighter one on the right is Goma-Dare.

The boiling dashi broth pot and thinly-cut slices of raw beef…

The way this works is you place a little each of the raw beef and veggies in a basket and submerse it in the boiling dashi and kombu-broth where it quickly cooks in about 30 seconds to a minute (depending how done you want your beef and soft you want your Shiitake), then empty your now-cooked shabu-shabu into a bowl. Serve with Ponzu and/or Goma-Dare sauce, which you dip the shabu-shabu in as you eat it. I simply poured the sauce over my cooked shabu-shabu bowl at the station, as I didnt’ have enough hands to carry an extra bowl back to the table. Damned Gaijin. lol

That’s all I got of the entree and salad line, which of course there was MANY more dishes to offer than “just” that. Now here’s some of the desserts, starting with this Chocolate Macadamia Nut Flan…

Creme Caramel…

Coconut Cake…

Decadence Chocolate Cake…

Banana Creme Pie…

Assorted French Pastries…

Almond Float…

Goodness gracious, just the dessert station alone is practically worth the price of admission here. Not to forget the abundance of fresh-cut island fruits over by the salad station.

Following are a variety of plates that landed on our table, reflecting the mood each of us were in as far as selections from the buffet line…

That there looks like Kim Chee Tofu Poke, Lomi Lomi Salmon, Tossed Salad and Macaroni Salad.

Pepperjack, Cheddar and Brie cheese ‘n crackers…

Whoever made this plate gets a D- for presentation lol…

This is my plate, which has (starting top to bottom) Vegetable Tempura, 2 shrimp Tempura (with tempura sauce dish next to it), Cajun Spiced Mahi Mahi with Sweet Chili Aioli and Papaya Salsa and Penne Pasta with Smoked Salmon, Capers and Cream Sauce…

The tempura was delicious, except for one complaint: it was room temperature (A/C) COLD. Note to chef: please put a WARMER LAMP at your tempura station! The Cajun Spiced Mahi Mahi sure was spicy, with good kick of heat to it, which I believe was Cayenne pepper. Otherwise, very tasty and super, super moist and tender! Winner. The Penne Pasta with Smoked Salmon was also delicous.

I just had to try their one and only soup of the day (besides the usual Miso soup they always serve), which was Beef and Vegetable…

If you ask me, it tasted (and looked) like Progresso canned soup. For real! Nothing wrong with that, as I love their soups.

Maki and temaki sushi fever…

Heck, why not, have a bowl of saimin while we’re at it…

More of the same from previous plates, while this one also has the Hoisin Glazed Pork Loin and Cauliflower Au-Gratin…

While I didn’t try it, those on our table who did said the Hoisin Glazed Pork Loin was really ono…

Here’s my second run, this time hitting the Shabu-Shabu and Temaki sushi station…

The dipping sauce on the side is shoyu and wasabi. That’s sushi shoga (sweetened pickled ginger) on the right of the temaki. The Shabu Shabu was a winner, although I really should have served the Goma-Dare Sauce separately. That’s OK, the Shoyu Wasabi sauce for the temaki rolls worked dual-purpose quite well with the Shabu-Shabu.

A peek inside my temaki rolls, where on the left is Spicy Ahi and on the right Cali’…

The temaki rolls were really fresh and tasty, with perfectly-prepared sushi rice. Only thing, the Spicy Ahi lacked any detectable actual small chunks of ahi in it, but was more like a VERY spicy “mystery paste”…

Diner ordered one of the scallop and tobiko temaki, which he said was really good…

A bowl of the Thai Beef Panang Curry with Jasmine Rice, which was excellent!…

Now let’s check out some of the desserts that made their way to our table…

Based on a few recommendations from my fellow diners, here’s what I chose…

That there is the bread pudding with vanilla sauce, creme caramel and chocolate macadamia nut flan, which all were YUMMMMMM-OH.  Add a scoop of ice cream and I would’ve been a really happy camper.

We really enjoyed the buffet lunch at Prince Court. The selection and quality of the food was great, while service was friendly and attentive, with the plates that we finished eating promptly removed from the table, while all our drinks were maintained at topped-off level.

Summing it up, we all unanimously give the Prince Court Lunch Buffet a very tasty and satisfying 3 SPAM Musubi.

Prince Court
Weekday Lunch Buffet
Hawaii Prince Hotel Waikiki
100 Holomoana St
Honolulu, Hawaii 96815
Tel. 944-4494

The Tasty Island rating:

(3) Very Good. Considerable of another visit or purchase. (Supah’ Ono!)

P.S.  A few more holiday decorations in the Waikiki Prince Hotel lobby…

Kahala Eats: Olive Tree Café

December 14, 2009 in '4 SPAM Musubi' rated, Greek | 1 comment

Tony KawaguchiJoining us again today is guest blogger Tony Kawaguchi, a Honolulu resident who usually blogs about Hawaii Real Estate at www.AlohaTony.com.

 Olive Tree Café in Kahala
By Tony Kawaguchi

Sometimes it’s easy to forget about a restaurant simply because there are so many on Oahu.  For Greek food there are a few options around, but I had been told by many that Olive Tree Café was the best.  My second time to Olive Tree café in Kahala reminded me why I agreed and had wanted come back.

It’s small, with only about 20 small tables, and a simple order-at-the-Deli bar then pick-up style.  There isn’t much service, as the guys behind the counter rarely come out.  They can’t really, because the line was constantly moving people through like a deli counter. We went on a Wednesday night and it was packed, which is a great sign for a local shop. I love seeing a local business owner thrive in Oahu!

The menu is small, with only 5 main dishes.  Yes that’s right, five. And actually 3 of those are the same dish with fish, lamb or chicken options.

In comparison, they have 7 appetizers (don’t call them pupus — this place is Greek), and 12 different beverage options. They don’t serve alcohol, though the cozy little Greek Deli next door by the same owners offers you everything you could want.

One of the friends who accompanied us had lived in Greece for a time, so he was a great help in choosing and understanding the food.

We started with Tabouleh salad, which has bulgar wheat, greens, parsley, herbs, with lemon herb dressing.  Tabouleh is one of the most popular Middle Eastern salads, and has a great light taste.  This would be a great summer food, while some Greek food is a little heavy for that.  Very crispy and fresh vegetables made this a great starter.  The dressing is lemony light, not heavy like the olive oil you might normally expect in a Greek dressing.

While in the kitchen I noticed the pitas being heated on the grill, which makes them a little crispier than usual and of course they are so much better served hot. Sometimes pitas feel a little gummy, and warming them on a hot grill is the way to solve that problem.

Since there were only 5 main dishes plus the special available, we decided to get 3 appetizers after the salad. The Hummus (garbonzo bean spread) and pita dish was great.  Good hummus is great, mediocre hummus is terrible.  If it’s not just the right creamy texture, hummus feels like eating salty glue.  In this case it was fantastic, with a little olive oil in the center, and of course the warm semi crispy pitas.  Soft like pancakes but crispy on the outside.  By the way I had requested double pitas, which cost an extra 72 cents.  Their normal order is a lot of hummus and you’ll almost always have a bunch left with no pitas to eat with it.

This is the Avgo Lemono soup.  Egg and lemon don’t sound like a good soup, but it’s great.  Though it looks like some kind of chowder, it’s not at all.  The lemony taste tells you that right away.  For only $3.83 (how do they come up with that number?) it’s a great start and not too filling.  While you might never put lemon on your eggs, this combination works surprisingly well.

Dolmadakia is a small wrap of grape leaves stuffed with rice and herbs, and a side of Tzatziki sauce.  At $5.74, a little pricey in comparison to the soup.  Especially since each wrap is about 2 bites.  My friend enjoyed his, but I thought it was a little bland.  All I could taste was the sauce, while the grape leaves have very little flavor.  The rice and herbs inside were not very interesting either.  This was the one dish I didn’t really enjoy.  It’s not bad, it’s just not good.

We ordered the Lamb Souvlaki and the Lamb Shank Plaki plate special. I guess the Greek is Arni Stlehos Plaki.  I took a lot of Greek in college, but not food Greek, so I’m no help at a restaurant.  For $16.24, it was quite a bit more expensive than everything else.

Here it is, beautiful.  Served with rice-like pasta called manestra, and salad and pita.  The lamb as tender as you can ever get, falling off the bone with a mere brush of the fork.  They must have cooked for a loooong time.  The flavor was wonderfully tomatoness, though the portion was small.

The manestra is a lot like rice, but goes down much more smoothly, like it’s coated with oil or something.  It also has a lot more flavor and is a great alternative to plain white rice.

Now the Souvlaki is really their specialty. With only 2 other main dishes, that seems obvious.  We ordered the traditional lamb version for $12.42 (more funny prices) and were really pleased with it.  The lamb was juicy and tender like a meatball, but these were nice thick cuts, not ground meat.  Delicious, saucy smooth and mouth watering.  Eating these big tender chunks of lamb feels like you’re eating something unhealthy, but that’s not the case.  It’s just that good and tasty.

We had gone to the Greek deli next door before our food came and picked up this Mavrodaphne, a “sweet red wine” that was similar to chilled Port.  But with a 20% alcohol content, this fortified wine was no joke.  I had a couple small glasses and felt it quickly, being a light weight.  What a great sweet flavor, perfect for after dinner.  The other wine we had was brought from home, nothing very interesting. But this almost dessert wine was a great way to finish along with…

Baklava!  For only $2.87, we got two of these fresh out of the oven, crispy, sweet honey spiced treat.  Combine this sweet compliment to the sweet wine, and you get one sweet ending to a great Greek meal!

Sometimes Baklava is too dry, which makes it almost hard to eat, but this was warm, flaky, and with enough moisture in the pastry to make it a delight to eat.

Four of us added up to about $68.  We were surprised to see 48 cents for each glass of water.  Is tap water getting more expensive these days?

They don’t accept credit cards, and we had to scrape around our wallets and purses for the last few dollars, so beware and take plenty of cash.  It’s hard to believe how many places in Hawaii still take cash only.  What is this, 1960?

If you want Greek food, I think Olive Tree Café is the best in Oahu.  A quaint local restaurant that has a great local following.

4 Spam Musubi rating!

 

Olive Tree Café
4614 Kilauea Avenue
Suite 107
Honolulu, Hawaii 96816

Tel. 737-0303

The Tasty Island rating:

(4) Excellent. Worth another visit or purchase. (Winnahz!)

Related links:
• Olive Tree Café – ‘Ono Kine Grindz review
• Olive Tree Café – Ma’ona review
• Greek Cuisine Done Light at Olive Tree – Honolulu Star Bulletin review
• Serve Yourself Well at Olive Tree Cafe – Honolulu Advertiser review
• Olive Tree Cafe – Yelp user reviews
• Honolulu Greek Festival (8/28/06, 8/26/08) – The Tasty Island

« Older entries