The Pineapple Room: Restaurant Review

The Pineapple Room is one of chef Alan Wong's restaurants in Hawaii and it's located in the Macy's at the Ala Moana shopping center. Here you can try some of Alan Wong's style of Hawaiian cuisine without spending as much as you might at some of his other fancier restaurants. At dinner, entrees are in the $20-30 range and are ridiculously huge. I had a green curry braised short rib that came with tomatoes, green beans and eggplant and so many enormous prawns, it was enough for dinner plus two lunches.


I really enjoyed the stir-fried soy beans with garlic, chili peppers and soy sesame sauce. This is one of his signature dishes and was enough for the whole table. I inspired me to begin experimenting with a number of variations on this theme.


Lee had a wonderful fish dish with a buttery sauce sprinkled with sesame seeds.


My father made a meal out a few of starters including a goat cheese tart, a salad and French onion soup that had kahlua pork at the bottom of the bowl.

Dessert was also memorable, it was called Peanut Butter Sesame Crunch, 
and had layers of milk chocolate peanut crunch, peanut butter cream cheese mousse, caramelized bananas, bittersweet chocolate and Hawaiian salt caramel sauces and vanilla ice cream. 
It was crispy, soft, creamy, sweet, salty, nutty, chocolatey--it had it all.


Service is just great here so if you are looking for somewhere to splurge, this is a good choice.

The Pineapple Room
Macy's, Third Floor
Ala Moana Shopping Center
Honolulu, Oahu
808.945.6573

Farina: Restaurant Review

My review of a relatively new Italian restaurant in the Mission district, called Farina is up over at SF Station.

Aside from a few rough spots, I liked the place and will go again. I had a good meal of mostly Ligurian style focaccia and pastas with Lee and my friend Alton. It was also fun running into author and scientist Harold McGee, former SF Chronicle restaurant reviewer Amanda Berne, chef Daniel Patterson and his wife, just one table away.

I like this photo because it's a bit of a "where's Waldo?" I took it from across the street and Lee is in it.