Azure — Restaurant in Honolulu

I find it slightly humorous that Waikiki's famous Royal Hawaiian Hotel which is aptly named "The Pink Palace" (as it is painted in pastel pink) names its premier restaurant Azure.

Despite the conflicting contrast of colour names (but the Pink Palace does overlook the azure blue Pacific Ocean) - Azure is a wonderful Waikiki beachfront restaurant specialising in fresh seafood locally caught and bought daily from the fishing boats that come into Honolulu's fish auction each morning.

Azure is set in a pleasant oceanfront space. Outside, under the veranda, you can dine outside right next to the sands of Waikiki in a lavish cushioned cabana with a view of the beach and Diamond Head (but you will pay for the privilege). Inside it's like entering a plantation mansion that has been blended with a touch of the Moroccan - white columns, polished floorboards and Arabian-style lamps that sit on the benches, bar and tables. Azure - cabana service

I've dined at Azure a couple of times over the years, once without a booking but I was able to sit at the wooden bar when reassured that we would still get full service and the full menu.

I get a little awkward sitting at the bar to dine. In Australia I find that you tend to get treated as an inferior as you are a walk in without a reservation. But thankfully it's different in the good 'ol US of A. You aren't stateless - you're still a welcomed guest (and we were joined by others).

Barman, Robert, was most welcoming and accommodating and was able to make some suggestions that proved to be spot on and without a doubt his advice contributed to Azure being one of the top dining experiences I've had on Oahu.

The menu concentrates on seafood with local Hawaiian tropical influences (and a little fusion) and choosing such is perfect for the setting and the dining experience. It is balanced by some meat selections with a five-course tasting menu (that features both seafood and meat).

The tasting menu was tempting but after a day in the sun we shared a salad and had a main course each.

Robert brought us a basket of mixed fresh bread with house-made butter sprinkled with pink Hawaiian sea salt as well as some crab dip while we eyed the main menu.

Salads are underrated. I am glad that we got one at Azure because now I have started to appreciate them again - especially if they are fresh and balanced with the right ingredients and dressing. The ocean salad could be a light meal in its own right and included a good handful of fresh seafood: kona lobster, dungeness crab, prawns, big island abalone, scallop and octopus. The seafood was mixed with avocado, baby lettuce, drizzled with a tarragon and crème fraiche dressing and topped with tobiko caviar. Fresh and crisp, it was a summer dish perfect for outside dining and was an ideal accompaniment to the 2012 Trefethen Riesling from Napa, California.

My wife and I had to have fish so we decided to choose one of the local "catches of the day" (the opakapaka which is a pink snapper) and had it simply cooked - that is seared. I could choose two sides and decided upon the oven roasted Twin Bridges asparagus and wok charred Ho Farms long bean with soy and garlic. It was a nice piece of fillet that was heat roasted and served with a white wine herb and lemon caper sauce. A classic.

My wife can never resist scallops and ordered the seared Hawaiian yellow fin Ahi and Hokkaido Scallop with an "eight spice" blend, sake braised spinach, prosciutto wrapped enoki mushrooms all in a port wine buerre sauce. The spice is basically a Cajun-style blackened spice for the fish. It was pan fried and surrounded with plump scallops wrapped mushrooms and spinach. It all sat on a the rich wine sauce. Spicy with a rustic richness, the tuna was seared perfectly allowing its raw pinkness to shine through.

Azure is a wonderful restaurant set in an ocean-front icon and offers innovative dishes with quality and service expected of a top notch...

We will never go back. Every dish was unremarkable and a couple were truly terrible. I hate writing negative reviews, especially when the waitstaff is excellent and the view is gorgeous. But this was a terrible meal. Over $600 and most of it was completely disappointing.

◆ 2020, Alsace Pinot Blanc, Trimbach — fine, but nothing special. The wine list is largely California and Oregon which definitely limits your options. Plus the markup was high.

✓ great wasabi ✓ we could change the beet salad to a green salad

cocktails: the Helumoa Mai Tai was a nice clarified cocktail, but I wouldn’t call it a Mai Tai. Their house Mai Tai was not nearly as good as the one you can get at the Mai Tai Bar just outside of Azure. Green salad was… fine? It started a trend of little pink flowers stamped out of a completely flavorless vegetable just so they can add some pink to things and keep it in the hotel theme. Ahi Crudo was completely overwhelmed by the smokey-fishy character of too much katsuobushi. I couldn’t taste the tuna at all. Poached Scallops, despite having lots of ingredients, made for a bland plate. Snake River Farm Stripling & Short Rib was served lukewarm. The accompanying sauce was overly thick (not all of it would even pour out the little pitcher). The cauliflower accompaniment was just half-hazard florets strewn on the plate. Mashed potatoes were overly garlicky. Pan-Seared Local Fish (that night it was Kanpachi/Amberjack). I’m truly sorry an animal was killed for this dish. If that fillet was pan-seared, then some chef needs to go back to culinary school. My guess was it was sous vide prepared and then had the skin (badly) torched. Again the main was served lukewarm. The seafood boudin was a steamed roll of miserable eating, under seasoned and rubbery in texture. The accompanying potatoes were undercooked. A plate of food so sad I didn’t eat most of it. Citrus Olive cake was just a mess of construction. The cake was placed on top of the lemon creme disk which meant that every bite squished the whole column into a mess over and over again. The creme was lightly lemony but overly gelatin in its texture (so that it could support the flavorless cake?). The other flavors (li-hing, strawberry, vanilla rhubarb) just weren’t punchy. It tasted like jam out of a jar. And the olive tulle wasn’t even crisp.

There are many fine dining restaurants on Waikiki. Probably any of them would be a...

This is for my 7:45 PM Easter evening reservation. Mrs. Lefrak pink hair, white hat. I was staying at the Royal Hawaiian and this place came highly recommended.

This is a luxurious restaurant nicely appointed very dark at night so bring a flashlight ha ha I'm not kidding and it's right on the beach so you get tourists walking through the restaurant which gives it a nice touch in my opinion.

Service is attentive yet excruciatingly slow.

My waiter was nice but seemed stiff and standoffish at first I didn't get offered anything special nor did he give me any suggestions on switching anything out.

I tried the tasting menu with wine pairing. Listen, I've lived in San Francisco for 30 years I know what overpriced beautiful food is all about! This is a San Francisco style restaurant except the tasting menu portion should be called a "tres petite appetizers" I left hungry and with tip, out of approximately $144 I'm not bragging trust me.

I researched this restaurant & the Azure came highly recommended due to the freshness of the food which I concur. I also am aware of the reputation of the celebrity chef.

Yet the tasting menu portions were absolutely too small the main course of the beef was so minuscule it was almost a parody! I was looking forward to the main course that was ridiculous really. Make a circle with your thumb and your forefinger and then make it 50% smaller that was the size of the beef.

I left hungry. The tasting menu was almost like a Saturday Night Live parody

Based on this experience I cannot wait to go back to Gary Danko in San Francisco where their tasting menu has reasonable sized portions for the same price point and you leave feeling full.

Come on Chef you must do better sizing the portions your...