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I could list all the dishes on the dinner menu the night I visited the Sheraton Waikiki’s three-month-old Kai Market, billed as a farm-to-table buffet. But then I wouldn’t be able to write anything else. Because it would take all the space I have.
The friend who accompanied me to dinner knows food and the local restaurant community, and he said it was the longest buffet he’d seen here. And even if it’s in two repetitive halves — you can approach it from left or right and see the same thing until you get to the middle, where there’s a dessert presentation — it’s a looooooong line of food. I had to walk it first, then make strategic decisions.
But the most impressive thing about the buffet is that, despite being in a Waikiki hotel, it’s grounded in Island culture, featuring a huge rice cooker, cake noodle with sauce, tako poke, chap chae, miso fish, alaea prime rib, salt-and-pepper shrimp, black bean crab, coconut chichi dango, Portuguese bread pudding, calamansi chocolate tart (and I’m just skimming the surface here).
According to chef Darren Demaya, a Hawaii boy mentored by Alan Wong and recruited by former RumFire chef Colin Hazama, the goal is to represent the seven primary cultures that have heavily influenced the Island food profile since the plantation era.
They also have a goal of using as much local produce as possible; half of what they serve is locally raised now, and he’s shooting for 80 percent.
The restaurant is meant both to satisfy local tastes and to educate guests, Demaya said.
In addition to the food, which is quite good, there’s the view: the sea and, if you dip your head almost down to the top of the table, all of Diamond Head (the restaurant is on the ewa side of the hotel, opposite RumFire). Plus, there’s entertainment. They offer Hawaiian music and hula seven nights a week on a länai overlooked by the restaurant, and it’s real kanikapila (party) style.
I actually got out there and joined the dancer in a hula. And there’s a fire knife show (“The Flaming Sword of Samoa”) that will curl your socks, if you’re wearing any. Even though I knew that fire knife dancing is an invented thing, it had me standing up from the table to get a better look. The dancer is both cute and talented and does a double knife dance that looks life-threatening.
For locals, the price is also right: 25 percent off. Discounts are also offered for other customers. And it’s a comfortable and casual kind of place; you could go in Bermuda shorts or a little muçu; no need bring out the Sig Zane and sequins. They’re also known for their breakfast buffet, but I wasn’t able to sample that.
Waiting for my dining companion to arrive, I was struck by the extent of the menu posted at the entrance to the restaurant. It went on and on. There are two primary entree specials each night (plus others), a soup, salads, pupu kinds of things (LOTS of poke, plus hummus and dippers). The menu press release for this place is 19 pages long. It lists 30 “partner companies” — the local food suppliers they buy from.
So how was it, food-wise? Ono (except maybe the calamansi chocolate tart, which was way better than ono and had me making the happy noise) — everything competently prepared and well presented.
My favorites were the salt-and-pepper Kahuku shrimp (in the shell, you gotta peel ’em and eat with the fingers), prime rib, cake noodle with sauce (I never met a carbohydrate I didn’t like), and the grilled vegetables and asparagus.
There were oysters on the half shell on a bed of seaweed. There were beautiful, glistening trays of sashimi. There are carving stations for the prime rib. The trays were refreshed often and kept in good order. And the line is backed by a “Living Wall” of herbs, created by
Greg and Terri Lee, whose firm, 1st Look Exteriors, creates the “Living Vases” you may have seen at Whole Foods or elsewhere.
But, really, my favorite thing about Kai Market? Just being in that beautiful indoor-outdoor room with huge open windows looking out over Waikiki. I think often about how we in the Islands leave all the good stuff to the visitors (in part because we can’t afford it).
Kai Market’s a lovely place, with dim lighting and comfy chairs, with the music drifting in from the lanai, glimpses of the hula dancer (who came around to ask for requests), a very akamai and gracious waiter.
It was not just an education for visitors but for me, who, like most locals, tends to avoid Waikiki.
Kai Market
Sheraton Waikiki
2255 Kalakaua Ave.
808-921-4600
Hours: Breakfast 6 a.m.-11 a.m. daily; dinner 5:30-9:30 nightly.
Prices: Breakfast $26, dinner $49 (child discounts available, 25 percent off for kamaaina).
Other details: Free self-parking with validation; remodeling construction obscures the front of the hotel until sometime in December; nightly entertainment, including hula, fire knife dance.
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