Hook'd Pan Roast - Honolulu Seafood Restaurant — Restaurant in Honolulu

About seven months ago, while we were walking along Kapiolani Boulevard, we noticed the former Chingu Korean restaurant had been replaced with a Hook'd Pan Roast sign. I excitedly created a business page and posted a tip about its upcoming opening. My excitement grew for this bouillabaisse-bisque concoction that I've eaten at Las Vegas' Palace Station and Harrah's Oyster Bar and similarly seafood étouffée at New Orleans' Jacques-Imo's until I could stand it no more and ended up taking a trip to Las Vegas. I was disappointed because Harrah's Oyster Bar was temporarily closed and came home still longing for a seafood pan roast. I kept pining away for a Las Vegas-style seafood pan roast until I noticed reviews posted for this business in late 2021.

The Holidays were a busy time for our family, and we indeed waited long enough to book a reservation at Hook'd Pan Roast via OpenTable.com. We made our early dinner reservation for 4 PM and walked (about 0.6 miles) from our home rather noticed several parking stalls along Kapiolani Boulevard leading up to Hook'd Fronting the business are RESERVED/PRIVATE PARKING STALLS marked as Tow-Away Zones.

Upon entry, a host/cashier greeted us. He confirmed our reservation and verified our Proof of Vaccination and Identification Cards. He also took our body temperature by quickly scanning our wrists before leading us to a table. Fortunately, the restaurant wasn't crazy busy, and we were able to socially distance ourselves from others while having a full view of the dining room from along the perimeter wall. I did suggest if we could sit at their counter to watch the chef prepare our pan roasts, but the host declined my suggestion, and my husband said that it would be more comfortable at a table.

While we were settling at our table, I used the QRC posted on the table to view the menu. We discussed our menu choices, and I was about to submit our order when our server, Marie L, came by to offer us glasses of iced water and take our food and beverage orders. We were thankful that Marie took our order because I hadn't accessed the beverage list. Hook'd Pan Roast appears to have a full bar, but we felt like having a beer. Marie recited their beer list, and we made our choices (Waikīkī Brewing Co's Skinny Jeans IPA and a Corona Pilsner). She then took our food orders for the fried calamari, Hook'd Combo Pan Roast, and Seafood Combo Pan Roast. Oh, Marie did tell us to select our desired spice level and warned us that the mild could pack some heat. Usually, when ordering pan roasts in Las Vegas, we share an order because of its generous portion and richness. However, we hadn't eaten lunch, so we greedily ordered a pan roast for each of us.

FOOD: Fried Calamari: The light and crisp battered calamari rings and legs were tender and flavorful. The batter coating shattered upon each bite, while the calamari was perfectly fried, juicy, and soft. The cocktail sauce had a nice horseradish-like kick. $12

Hook'd Combo Pan Roast features shrimp, crab, scallops, and Portuguese sausage in a thick bouill-roast sauce. Hook'd version was creamier and denser than I remember at Las Vegas, and the mild spice level was just suitable for my palate. The gently cooked seafood maintained its supple textures and sweet, briny flavors. The pan roast was served with a massive scoop of steamed white rice and a taro roll. This serving was very filling, delicious, and satisfying and met my expectations for a pan roast. $29

Seafood Combo Pan Roast features huge handfuls of shrimp, crab, clams, and scallops in Hook'd's thick sauce. I don't know how my husband got those clams out of the shells without sticking his fingers into the sauce, too, but he ate everything down to the white of the bowl and used the taro roll to mop up the sauce. He also thought the sauce was thicker than what we remember but, we're not complaining because it was so tasty. $29

The flavors make us yearn for Las Vegas' Oyster Bar, but at least we won't have to take a 5-hour flight to...

I think this was my first time trying Pan Roast. I assume this dish is under the category of Creole Cuisine from Louisiana, because it has those same delicious flavors!

My family and I loved it! I think it’s called pan roast because maybe they cook all the seafood and meats and sausages in a pan first and then they put it all together in the oven to roast it.

We ordered: portobello fries, fish and chips, lobster sliders and my man and I shared the Wild Ones combo.

When you eat this pan roast you eat it with rice and you also get a taro bun bread. The Wild Ones combo is huge and we probably could have shared the dish among all 4 of us. This dish combines all the other dishes into one so you get all the seafood and all the sausages & meats! Yumm!

I explain a pan roast to taste like a creamy version of gumbo.

Since our Pan Roast was a lot and we couldn’t finish it, we brought the rest home. I love all the sausages in it and so I was the one that mostly ate all of the meats.

The next day for lunch, I chopped & grilled up a polish sausage and threw it into my left over Pan roast and it was still...

Full disclosure... We did not eat here because we walked out after 5 minutes. The restaurant is one small room with a bunch of inexpensive tables and TVs on the wall blasting the game at the time we were there. They would not give us paper menus because they said they're inaccurate so we had to use QR code menus. The menu wanted us to order online and all the food had a Portuguese pan roast base. Very spicy according to the menu. A number of regular items like fish and chips were listed as out of stock (like this was Amazon) at a restaurant. We bailed so in fairness to the restaurant we have no idea if the food was really good. The 4.7 star reviews that this place got seemed out of place based on the menu being different than what a lot of the reviews said and based on the fact that there were no...