Bali Oceanfront — Restaurant in Honolulu

I’ve said this before and I’m still a firm believer in Hotel restaurants.. Whenever we travel we always have a mix of Local restaurants as well as one or two that are located inside Hotels.. Why you ask..its simple, usually a hotel restaurant have a much larger support structure backing it where as a local restaurant they really only have themselves to rely on so they are either going to do well or they go under… Hotel restaurants typically don’t fail, you have the team in the restaurant driving Culinary and Service with another layer of management (Property Executive Chef and Food & Beverage Director) over-seeing them and above all that a Hotel General Manager that “Hopefully” dines in the outlet weekly and provides Feedback to the teams.

We choose to visit Bali Oceanside Restaurant this trip, its located in the Rainbow Tower of the Hilton Hawaiian Village. We arrived just as they were opening and were sat almost immediately. First impressions were that the staff were all smiling, the restaurant was clean and well lit.. Its important to see “All” the staff smiling.. this is a good indication that the people who work here are happy about being at the restaurant and stand behind whet they are about to do for you!

Our Server came over and introduced himself, as we got to know each other he quickly could tell that I was Food & Beverage and I explained that I was with Hilton for 11years so this opened up all the dialogue and made for a great interaction.

We Started our meal with a Bottle of Daou Cabernet ($72) and two apps.. the Bali Bacon ($19) which is thick cut Pork Belly and the Chef’s take on Ahi Poke ($28).. Both App’s were presented very well.. the Pork Belly was a little on the Dry Side but still tender and flavorful. The Poke had a great balance between Fresh Tuna… Local Mango, and just the right amount of Tartness..

For the main course we knew we could not finish two separate entrees so we shared the Washugyu Ribeye ($84) and a 4oz Lobster Tail (+$24) with Creamed Spinach ($14) and Au Poivre Sauce (+$6).. The Steak was super Tender and well seasoned..just Salt and Black Pepper letting the flavor of the beef do the talking. The Creamed Spinach was not good.. We order Creamed Spinach almost anywhere that serves it because as a Chef its one of those things that is either done really well or a complete mis and well this was really the only fail of the entire meal..

The Dessert menu was surprisingly sparse with nothing on it that stood out defining the end of meal sweets.. so we went with the Creme Brule ($18) and it was what you’d expect from a Hotel Restaurant which was good and disappointing at the same time.

We learned that the new Chef de Cuisine has only been on board for a few months and the outlet is still serving the previous CDC’s menus. As a Chef I understand how hard it is to have to keep up with the quality of someone elses menu and find the time to develop and implement your own menus somewhere along the way.. We will be adding Bali Oceanfront to our list of must returns, I’d like to see how the new Chef drives an already great restaurant into the future!...

We should have known better than to enter the Hilton village. Bali seemed like a decent place for a nice dinner instead we left halfway through our meal because the food was so bad it was unbearable. Lets start off with the copious amounts of fruit flies that was surrounding our table. The server had the balls to tell me " its a Hawaii seasonal thing" That is not a Hawaii thing, that is a your restaurant is filthy and you need to clean it issue. Now lets start with the food. No bread or anything for the table because the only bread on the menu, they want to charge $12 for- what a joke. We ordered the lobster bisque that says big chunks of lobster. What came out was a pathetic tiny cup of lukewarm bisque with maybe 2 or 3 small pieces of lobster for $18! So we ordered one of the most expensive items on the menu, steaks and added in truffle risotto. This is where it became unacceptable. We asked for both steaks to be cooked medium. One of them came out like a hockey puck it was so overdone. The second steak was a ribeye and the meat was such bad quality, I found myself chewing the same piece for minutes at a time just so I wouldn't choke on the chewing gum that they called steak. The truffle risotto was a mess of cream and bland flavors. It tasted like it came from a powder and was microwaved in a gas station. Throughout all of this, we were playing keep the flies out of our drinks. The server had to replace multiple glasses for us from flies landing it them. The wine list is also embarrassing for a place charging $85 steaks. If they had Carlos Rossi on the wine list it would have fit right in. The wine that we did order, $14 and $18 glasses were terrible, not kept at the right temperature and most likely opened for at least a day or two and left un-corked without removing the air. I will finish it off with saying that the décor is so bland that I thought I was eating at a sizzler in 1997. The only thing this place has, is a view of the ocean, but lets be honest. If you are eating in Honolulu, most nice places have a view so you should have NO REASON TO EVER COME HERE. I would give it NEGATIVE 10 stars if it was possible. One of the worst meals I have ever...

The world food tour duo made its first visit to Bali Oceanfront. It took a while to find a parking space; we circled most of the garage twice before finding a corner stall on the 4th floor. Whew, I needed a drink after that escapade. It’s one of the reasons I don’t like coming to the Hilton; it’s always super busy and that garage, like most others for hotels in Waikiki, features tight stalls and a mix of straight and angled parking.

We were seated at a very nice table adjacent to the beach. Ginger was our server. I perused the wine book and selected a 2014 Blackbird Vineyards Arise, a blend of 38% Merlot, 32% Cabernet Sauvignon and 30% Cabernet Franc. Ginger successfully extracted a fragile cork and we were treated to the aromas of black fruit and hints of licorice … A Bordeaux-inspired wine from Napa.

We started with Bali Bacon, two thick pieces of pork belly with crisped garlic and shallots, pickled onion, cucumber, daikon and a wonderful Aji Amarillo sauce … We asked for more sauce! The other appetizer was Roasted Bone Marrow Canoe … A large and deep bone with unctuous and flavorful marrow, topped with caramelized onions, garlic chimichurri and served with Arugula and sourdough crisps. What a great start to a meal!

We selected the Braised Osso Bucco and the Seared Big Eye Ahi as our entrees. The large veal shank was placed over saffron risotto and accompanied by asparagus and root vegetables (carrots, parsnips) and topped with Gremolata. My ahi was served sashimi-style atop a lemon butter sauce and accompanied by truffle risotto, haricot verts and tomatoes. Visual and taste treats!

Dessert was a Wailua Triple Chocolate Crunch cake and a Lilikoi (passion fruit) crème brulee. I don’t usually have dessert but I needed something sweet and the brulee and coffee were the touches needed to finish a fine meal.

What did we think? We liked our experience at Bali Oceanfront … the food is excellent as is the service. I was surprised by the bill; it was much lower than we usually spend on one of our food adventures....