Roy’s Waikiki, 226 Lewers St., Honolulu, HI

Roy’s Waikiki

226 Lewers St., Honolulu, HI

Roy’s in Waikiki is located right near the action in the Waikiki beachwalk neighbourhood. First started in Hollywood, California in 1984, Roy soon decided to head back to his hometown to open a restaurant in 1988. Roy’s is now a successful gourmet chain with restaurants all over the Hawaiian Islands and the rest of the United States. Their Hawaiian menu features local ingredients and Asian Fusion flavours. It was perfect for our sushi craving and love for sake.

Roy’s Waikiki, 226 Lewers St., Honolulu, HI

We started off our meal with a bottle of Ginjo sake, imported from Japan, it was light, easy drinking. This particular sake was delicate and fragrant in flavour and more of the soft and sweet side of the flavour palate as opposed to full bodied, dry, heavier sakes I’ve tried. It was a nice refreshing way to start our meal. I’ve always preferred drinking sake ice cold as opposed to warm, especially in tropical places.

Juntao roll, Roy’s Waikiki, 226 Lewers St., Honolulu, HI

For our sushi craving, we ordered a couple of rolls. The Juntao roll was filled with tempura pork belly, cucumber, wasabi, aioli and dressed with some citrus ponzu gelee. They love ponzu sauce here on the Island, it’s present in many dishes and all the poke we have had was doused in the stuff. The pork belly was juicy in this roll, but there was only enough of it in each bite to tease our taste buds.

The Frying dragon roll, Roy’s Waikiki, 226 Lewers St., Honolulu, HI

Our favourite roll was the “Frying Dragon,” filled with unagi, avocado, miso butterfish, macadamia nuts, and spicy wasabi sauce. This roll was amazing, it was gorgeous on the plate and I loved the crunchy outer crust. The unagi was also salty and delicious and even though the roll was thick, the big slices of sushi rolls held together as we ate, no crumbling rice here.

The Frying Dragon roll, Roy’s Waikiki, 226 Lewers St., Honolulu, HI

Next up, I had to try some traditional Hawaiian poke. We ordered the traditional big eye ahi poke, it was mixed in with Maui onion, ogo, inamona, chili and sprinkled with Hawaiian salt. Poke is a traditional Hawaiian dish consisting of cubed raw fish, traditionally tuna dressed with sea salt, crushed inamona (a nut called candlenut in the walnut family), soy sauce, sesame oil and chili pepper. I’ve seen enough episodes of Top Chef to want to try this stuff. I had imagined it tasting like the sashimi salad we have in Vancouver, we were surprised to find that the poke was extremely salty. There were actually giant specs of Hawaiian salt that we spotted on the fish. The extreme saltiness in this dish definitely jolted our taste buds awake. Each bite left a lingering numbing feeling on our tongues as the Hawaiian salt melted away.

Poke, Roy’s Waikiki, 226 Lewers St., Honolulu, HI

Wanting to sample as many items on the menu as possible, we ordered Roy’s Beach Walk Trio which had three of the chef’s signature dishes: Hibachi grilled salmon, macadamia nut crusted white fish and the critically acclaimed misoyaki butterfish served with a side of rice.

Roy’s Beach Walk Trio, Roy’s Waikiki, 226 Lewers St., Honolulu, HI

We had heard rave reviews about the butterfish. When we told people we were eating at Roy’s, the misoyaki butterfish came up in conversation. We can see why, the butterfish was definitely the star of the trio. It had that incomparable ‘melt-in-your-mouth’ smooth, rich goodness to each bite. The fish was fragrant and beautiful in the dish, and tasted even better than it looked. The flavours were deep and seductive, salty, sweet with a hint of nuttiness. There is also a full order of the misoyaki butterfish offered on the menu too.

Misoyaki butterfish, Roy’s Waikiki, 226 Lewers St., Honolulu, HI

The hibachi grilled salmon was no competition for that epic butterfish. Used to eating lots of salmon in Vancouver, we were very picky about the fish so we found Roy’s rendition only average and verging on the dry side. The flavours were fresh but the dish definitely didn’t have that elusive “je ne se quoi” element that made the misoyaki butterfish so memorable.

Hibachi grilled salmon, Roy’s Waikiki, 226 Lewers St., Honolulu, HI

The macadamia nut crusted white fish was totally lacking a sauce. I love macadamia nuts or what they call here in Hawaii mac nuts. But I’ve found that restaurants don’t do much to dress up the nut, they just chop it up and sprinkle it on top of fish, pancakes or whatever else. The flavours of the mac nuts are incredible but this dish was missing something to melt the mac nut flavours into the white fish. The crispy crust on the white fish featured mac nuts but the crust did nothing to enhance the delicate flavours of the fish.

Macadamia nut crusted white fish, Roy’s Waikiki, 226 Lewers St., Honolulu, HI

Our server asked us three times whether or not we wanted dessert, the strange thing was, he kept asking us in the beginning of the meal. We found out this was because the desserts take up to 30 minutes to prepare, the pastries are probably made-to-order.

Pineapple upside down cake, Roy’s Waikiki, 226 Lewers St., Honolulu, HI

We chose the pineapple upside-down cake which turned out to be a gorgeous little golden cake with lots of sweet, caramelized pineapples and a buttery crust. It was the perfect sweet finish to a lovely meal.

Pineapple upside cake, Roy’s Waikiki, 226 Lewers St., Honolulu, HI

Roy’s Waikiki, 226 Lewers St., Honolulu, HI

Since Roy’s is located in the heart of downtown Waikiki, we got to enjoy a nice evening stroll along the beach walk.

L'Abattoir, 217 Carrall Street, Vancouver

L’Abattoir

217 Carrall Street, Vancouver

Gastown has become the new hip hub for great restaurants. I’ve been hearing endless raves about L’Abattoir and finally tried it last week. I was not disappointed. I love the cozy, intimate but cosmopolitan ambiance of L’Abattoir. I really like the metal menus too!

First off, I was already impressed by their bread basket. They served bacon brioche! The key to my heart is bacon.

It wasn’t just bacon bits sprinkled on top of this fluffy little bun either. The bacon was distributed throughout the bread, I got a little bit in each bite. Delish!

The other bread basket goodies included cheese sticks and a flat bread. The salty cheese sticks were my second favourite. I’m pretty neutral on crunchy flat bread in general.

For drinks, I decided to order a light, fruity and refreshing French white: Monmousseau (2010) from Turonien Vouvray, Loire, France.

We also ordered two cocktails: the Gastown Swizzle: Plymouth gin, Aperol, passion fruit, fresh lime twists and Fernet Float. The gorgeous drink was a brilliant orange and tasted fruity and sweet with a splash of citrus from the lime. We were actually more intrigued by the metal spoon/straw sticking out of the drink (I was dining with a mechanical engineer). We didn’t discover that the hollow metal rod was also a spoon until we got to the bottom of the drink. How practical!

We ordered the Aviation because on the menu it was compared to a Cosmo but it was far from it. It wasn’t exactly sweet and the gin really dominated the drink.

One of the memorable things about L’Abattoir was the striking plating. It literally was like every plate was a canvas and the food and swirl of sauce on each plate created such a visual masterpiece that I felt guilty messing everything up with my fork.

I ordered the roasted duck breast of course. It was served with a fried confit leg, beets and a foie gras sauce. For a second, I thought the duck breast was bleeding on the plate but turns out those streaks of red were just from the bright red beets.

The duck breast was amazing, succulent, juicy, with just the right amount of fat topped off with crispy skin.

And the rich, creamy foie gras sauce really tied the dish together, complimenting the robust duck flavours and adding a rich butter flavour to the vegetables. I actually polished off all the leafy greens from my plate. That never happens. Ask anyone.

The Steak Diane (not sure who this is named after) was plated in an equally gorgeous way, like a work of art with steaks of sauce artistically drawn across the black plate.

Each piece of steak was perfectly cooked, tender and juicy. The peppercorns sprinkled over the top were a little heavy but really enhanced the natural sweetness of the meat.

The crispy little knob of potato fondant was so delicious! Crispy on the outside and chewy and salty on the inside.

I can’t say enough about the roasted scallops and potato gnocchi. First of all, I love both these items to death anyway, and L’Abattoir only made me love them more. I like how they didn’t get stingy with the scallops, the plate was piled high with four big ones with a big handful of tender little gnocchi. Admittedly, this was my friend’s dish but I ate most of it! It was so delicious!

Needless to say that like the other two plates, the plate of scallops were presented in an impeccably breath-taking manner, with the flat leaf parsley and mushrooms sprinkled over the scallops, making me think of a wild, majestic, woodland fairytale filled princesses, fairy godmothers and white knights.

The scallops were roasted perfectly, amazingly tender in the middle with a light char on the outside.

The chewy little gnocchi were rich and melt-in-your-mouth good, soaking up the rich sauce and flavours from the dish.

The thick twirl of celeriac was also scrumptious, a little bit crunchy and drenched in flavour.

We saved room for dessert and ordered two items: the pineapple upside down cake and the chocolate caramel bar.

The chocolate caramel bar was beautiful, like it was wearing a stylish fascinator. I loved the dense and heavy chocolate bar on the bottom of this dessert square. The chocolate yogurt custard was the perfect, light and fluffy texture to compliment the heavier chocolate in this dessert. My friend and I loved the crunchy puffed rice in this dish too, the little kernels added great dimension to the dessert.

The banana ice cream was also delicious, sweet and fruity, the best combo of a banana split in one decadent scoop.

The pineapple upside down cake was dense and crumbly, topped with the stickiest, gooiest, sweetest cooked pineapple. This dessert totally hit the spot.

We also loved the little, bouncy cubes of passion fruit jelly, tasting sweet and tropical. The fluffy mascarpone cream was delicious, adding the element of creaminess to this dessert. I couldn’t get enough of it.

I had such a great time at L’Abattoir. The service was impeccable. I can’t wait to go back!