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Twist at the Hanohano Room, a closer look
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Other Fine Views of Twist at the Sheraton's Hanohano Room:
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See the official site of Twist at the Sheraton's Hanohano Room! |
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 Yelper's take notice! |
 Metromix takes a look at Twist at the Hanohano Room! |
4/27/10 - Other than for work, surf, or your best friend's wedding, us locals often shun Waikiki faster than a trip to the dentist! Quite the shame, really. The area in and around Kalakaua Avenue contains some of the islands' best dining spots, many of them coupled with some of the most picturesque views around, so there's hardly an excuse for leaving the place to tourists alone! Me, I actually work in Waikiki, right on the beach, so I know how beautiful it can be any day of the week. Throw-in a spectacular Hawaiian sunset, whether from the Diamond Head end, Kapahulu groin wall, Duke Kahanamoku statue, Hilton Pond, or Ala Wai boat harbor, and all of a sudden, you'll find yourself close to God himself for a few stuck-in-time moments.
Yeah, from anywhere along the entire beach, you'll easily find a suitable vantage point, but few public perches can rival the view 30 stories up, at the Sheraton Waikiki's Twist at Hanohano. Formerly called, quite simply, the Hanohano Room, and perhaps once-known more for family-style brunch buffets and breakfasts, the new Twist ups the ante quite a bit, with a schnazzy-new attitude, a modern, up-beat furniture and decor face-lift, and the awesome new menu of Chef Ryan Loo. Now open only at night, they're actually supposed to welcome guests from 5pm for cocktails. On our particular visit, however, the doors were completely shut-tight until 5:30. Oh, well. Still plenty of time to catch the sunset!
The place is very, very roomy, with, besides the bar area, one section featuring views towards the Ewa side, which is best to catch sunsets, another section opening-up to Waikiki Beach and Diamond Head, and a top/middle section where you can take advantage of both, albeit a little further back from the giant glass walls. Because Twist at Hanohano is definitely a night-spot, with an almost cocktail lounge-vibe bordering on night-clubbish in the bar-end, I guess it didn't look quite as trendy and modern in bright daylight, with the strong late-afternoon/early evening sun permeating the room. Here's a partial shot of the middle section, which directly faces the stage:
Bummer thing was, we were in on a Tuesday, and entertainment is featured only Thursday-Sunday, at 7:30pm. BTW - Kaimane plays a mean ukulele on Saturday nights!
And another portion of the dining room, with bar in back:
A couple more, the second with completely blown-out windows. Sorry, I'm trying to get better, but I don't have any aspirations of being a photographer for Honolulu Magazine!
The view from this Diamond Head-side, though not a direct shot at the sunset, is perhaps even more gorgeous than the Ewa-side, which is a bit obscured in places by other buildings, as on this side you'll be treated to sweeping views of almost the entire Waikiki Beach area. It's a bit over-cast today so it's without the vivid colors of a postcard shot, but hey, you can't have blue skies every day, right? Gotta have some rain once in a while to keep things fresh! There was a decent South Swell, though, and the place was packed with surfer's:
We'll take a look at a few night-time shots of the dining room later, when the mood becomes much more impassioned and romantic, but for now I'll call things as they came, and what came first was some of the little things that always make restaurant experiences like these all the more fun. I mean, not just cubes of butter, but garlic/chive butter, along with different salts that vary in preparation and come with a few added twists here and there. Each may not bring down the house per se, but Kumi and I both loved the extra effort involved, making everything much more interesting and leaving us with an anticipation of things to come:
The menu here, once again, is not your typical one. Though you can pick-and-choose appetizers and drinks if you so choose, the menu is more geared towards 3, 4, and 5-course meals for $65 ($85 w/pairings), $80 ($105 w/pairings), and $105 ($135 w/pairings), respectively. Unlike fixed menu courses, however, you are given your choice of various starters, entrees, and desserts. In the Honolulu Advertisers' TGIF food/entertainment insert, I recommended a lobster bisque as part of the appetizer portion of my Progressive Dinner route, and I wasn't joking in the least. Combined with roasted cauliflower truffle essence, this bowl of goodness was silky-smooth delicious, and talk about essence! It had lobster in every drop of its being, not to mention the small chunks of meat also added. Texture, taste, looks - this bowl had it all!
The second appetizer mentioned on my Progressive Dinner route was actually an entree offering, but perfect for appetizers, as well - a shellfish "cassoulet" of baby lobster tail, diver scallop, and crispy-skin onaga. However, I guess they were short or long in certain ingredients, as the only part of the trio included normally was the diver scallop - the other two are usually a jumbo prawn and manila clams! Oh, well. Suited me just fine!
Normally a type of rich, hearty bean stew consisting of meats like sausage, pork, or duck, this particular cassoulet was more of a surf than a turf, its seafood varieties placed on a base of either stewed tomato or eggplant. The stew was actually very light, its broth coming as a kind of sauce instead of stew.
In total, there are usually about five different appetizers, five different entrees, five or six different desserts, and periodic specials offering a few more of each. Between the two of us, one with a 4-course and one with a 5-course, we were able to sample almost the entire menu, except for desserts, in a single evening!
From the appetizer menu, the only two we didn't see was the lemon roasted asparagus and baby bibb lettuce ceasar, the latter of which we declined despite coming highly recommended by our kind waiter and with helpings of prosciutto and garlic emulsion, panzanella croutons, and white anchovies. Sounded killer, but then again, so did the others we did get to try, one of those being a Hawaiian-style crudo:
Unfortunately, we probably shoulda went with our waiter's recommendation this time, as our second app was the only dish of the evening I wasn't particularly impressed with. I mean, first of all, you could barely see the fresh Kona Kampachi pieces underneath, while the entire presentation seemed just a bit too busy with other ingredients taking away from the Kampachi slices themselves. I guess if you wanted a salad, this topping of shaved fennel, pickled red radish, and sea asparagus may have been a good choice, but I was hoping for and expecting a typical seafood crudo, with its drizzling of oil, pinch of salt, and dash of citrus, a light combination that serves to accentuate the taste and freshness of the fish, not overwhelm it.
No disappointment with our remaining appetizer, though:
Flawless. This pair of citrus-scented diver scallops sat upon a fava bean, fennel, and mushroom ragout while coming topped with tomato fennel marmalade and a garnish of Kahuku sea asparagus. A caramelized browning formed on the top and bottom of each scallop, while the insides were sweet, tender, and perfectly-cooked. The ragout, like our cassoulet earlier, was more a sauce than the stew ragout is properly named after, but a play on the word I didn't mind experiencing at all, nonetheless!
The only regular-menu entree we didn't try was a Tahitian vanilla poached onaga, which I'm sure would have been delicious. With all the seafood we were already having, though, along with the onaga already included on our cassoulet trio, we were looking for a healthy mix of sea, land, and air for the rest of the evening, beginning with the flying variety:
No, it ain't chicken, and it didn't taste like chicken, either. This here is a 7-spiced duck breast with gingered cranberries and honey pumpkin puree. Moist, chewy, and with a healthy layer of skin and fat, this duck came just as it should come in a top-caliber restaurant like Twist, with the deep, rich, almost molasses-like puree providing a sturdy, very tasty sauce to match.
A couple of turf varieties followed, beginning with this alae-salted tenderloin:
The most expensive cut on a cow, though not necessarily the tastiest as far as I'm concerned, this tenderloin was soft, fork-tender, and lean as could be. Here's a better shot inside, revealing a medium-cooked cut:
Well, perhaps more like medium-well, but only because I took so long with the shots before knifing my way through. Underneath was a butter-braised baby romaine, while wild mushrooms, plumb tomatoes, and a merlot wine sauce served as accoutrements.
Allright, allright, truth be told, you all know I prefer a fatty ribeye over a lean tenderloin, which they didn't have on this particular night, but all in all, I can't complain. It was done nicely, with a rich-brown demi-glaze type of sauce so often found accompanying steak. The very conspicuous green mound standing beside, as seen from the middle shot, was a combination of potato, smoked cheddar, and chives. A more interesting look, for sure, but like green, red, or black pasta, however, looks are more easily perceived than taste.
Our last entree choice was a pine nut-crusted chop of lamb:
Another interesting choice of colors, with two types of paste deriving from a green-hued mint lemon pesto and a mustard-looking carrot and Maui goat cheese puree, along with a sauce consisting of a blueberry grape reduction. Like our tenderloin, these cuts of lamb were as tender-soft as could be, and came with a mellow, refined taste that wasn't gamey in the least bit. Periodic mouthfulls of oooh-so-lovely fat, and not the tough kind, melting in my mouth like fine chocolate and buttah, along with cuts of meat as to not over-do anything, sent a bevy of heavenly ooh's and aah's echoing throughout my happy soul!
You know, if there was one thing that struck us about the food tonight, it was that despite Twist at Hanohano being a very sophisticated restaurant, there was also a very local-boy type of taste influence, meaning, every dish came with at least one or more elements with bold, well-seasoned, or somehow otherwise strong flavors. For Kumi, it became a little bit of over-kill near the end, but me, I thought it was well-suited to local and even Mainland tastes. Of course, my wife is from Japan, where dishes are much less seasoned and spiced than most other places on the planet, so that kinda explains her outlook upon the evening.
As for desserts to end the evening, you'll find such treats as a chili chocalate catalan cream with cinnamon sugar churros, tapioca pudding, Kona coffee and strawberry tiramisu, saffron and pistachio nut custard, and this waiter-recommended dish:
Yeah, fancy name, but in the end, you can basically call it a mellowed cheesecake. Like a Cheesecake Factory pie, it's not quite as rich as a typical cheesecake, with a texture somewhere in-between sorbet and custard. A mango lilikoi sauce, along with cranberries and a garnish of mint, filled a small basin on-top, even as a crispy-thin almond tuile protruded like a sailboat high above the sweet treat. The little cube was semi-sweet, semi-rich, semi-creamy, and seemed to strike the middle ground between every flavor and taste sensation.
Our final dessert was some type of ice cream, but to tell you the truth, I completely and totally forgot what it was! Kumi probably ate the whole thing, is why!
As you can see from the wierded-out colors, the sun had already set and the lights here at Twist are not exactly the brightest, neither are they of the standard flourescent varieties. To set the scene, you know they've gotta dim the lights down-low, but it sure does give me and my camera fits, I tell you!
Here's a few shots around the room, which carries a completely different vibe at night:
And a couple of shots of the bar area, which is where we ske-daddled to after dinner:
Enjoying a couple of after-dinner beers together, a couple of jolly women sat on the other end of the bar flirting with our bartender as he poured them a most unusual set of drinks. I told Kumi to flirt with him, too, and pretty soon we had our unusual set of drinks, as well! Just kidding. As in Twists' 3, 4, and 5-course meals, drinks also come not only as individual pours, but as flights, meaning a run of three or more different drinks, up to whatever number you care to handle, all meant to complement eachother, usually beginning with a lighter variety and ending with something a bit bolder. The unusual part of this particular flight wasn't the drinks themselves, but the glasses and glass-holder carrying the drinks:
Though I'm still learning, and find sake, beer, wine, and certain varieties of fine liquor most appealing and interesting, the only thing I know about the type of drink in this particular flight, champagne, is Dom Perignon and our high-school infatuation, Asti Spumante. Other than that, I have no clue regarding sparkling varieties. Unfortunately, champagne is the only drink that comes with this gaudy spaceship-looking holder, and it was the spaceship I was after!
For those who do know a thing or two on the subject, this trio was a Brut rose chandon from Napa, an Imperial Moet & Chandon epernay, and a nectar imperial demi sec Moet & Chandon epernay - whatever all that means! Can't say I wouldn't have enjoyed a flight of Echigo Koshihikari lager, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, and a Smithwick's Irish Ale instead, but sometimes, you just gotta go with da flow.
Would I recommend Twist at the Hanohano Room, in the Sheraton Waikiki?
Absolutely.
Good food, good drinks, good service, and unbeatable views? Without a doubt, get down to Waikiki. Don't worry at all about parking - all you gotta do is turn oceanside on Royal Hawaiian Avenue, cross Kalakaua if you haven't already, take a right just after the Royal Hawaiian Shopping Centers' lot entrance, then an almost immediate left into the Sheratons' lot. Be sure to validate, and you won't pay a dime! What could be easier?
Sorry, no street view today. Don't know why I couldn't extract it from Google Maps, but maybe it has to do with difficulties filming in Waikiki.
Glad we finally got some sun these past few days! Been beautiful, ey? You all enjoy the rest of the week, and make sure to jump in the water at least once!
Take care, and Aloha till next time!
Aku
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Comments:
Joanie (4/29/10) Hi Aku! I am in the Public Relations office for Starwood Hotels & Resorts Waikiki. I'm just writing to thank you for the great review of TWIST at Hanohano! Chef Ryan is just one of our young and talented chefs here working for Starwood. Your pictures showed off Ryan's food so well. Thanks for spreading the word to your readers about TWIST! Joanie
Aku (4/30/10) Hey Joanie! Thank you so much for your e-mail! I do believe that Twist is one of the premier places on the island, and it's one of my go-to places when entertaining out-of-town guests. I also mentioned you in the Advertiser's TGIF
spread two weeks ago, as the first stop of a 3-restaurant progressive dinner route in Waikiki:
http://honolulu.metromix.com/restaurants/essay_photo_gallery/hot-in-honolulu-progressive/1883318/content. Hat's off to Chef Ryan and all of you down there at Twist! Take care and thanks again!
spread two weeks ago, as the first stop of a 3-restaurant progressive dinner route in Waikiki:
http://honolulu.metromix.com/restaurants/essay_photo_gallery/hot-in-honolulu-progressive/1883318/content. Hat's off to Chef Ryan and all of you down there at Twist! Take care and thanks again!
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