La Cucina Ristorante Italiano — Restaurant in Honolulu

There is dining...and there is DINING!! La Cucina is not to be missed!!!! I can't believe I've waited so long to try this amazing place. Friends had mentioned it to me, but I'd always heard it was hard to get a reservation or table so I just didn't think about it.

But on a lucky date night with my hubby, he asked me where I'd want to try but hadn't been able to. I, of course, said La Cucina but doubted we'd get a table. Well, to be honest...there are no reservations for parties of less than 4 & for a party of two, like us, in thought pickings were slim. That night when my hubby called, there were only 4 seats at the bar open. Imagine we are an hour away from there...I thought our chances were impossible.

Lucky for me, a table opened up just a few minutes after our arrival! Can you say, lucky dance?!? Yup, I did it...in my mind. As soon as we were seated, we were given fair warning that everything is "Made from scratch and takes 45 minutes to make." To be honest, that stressed me out. But, just like the rest of the evening thus far, I rolled with it.

Hubby and I ordered the Crostini Al Porcini appetizer to start...and we threw in our dinner order right away so we could get the waiting started. With my loyalty to awesome reviewers...I went with the Frutti di Mare and my hubby got the Pappardelle Agnello. (See menu pics for further descriptions.)

Ok, so let's be real... It was already around 8:00, so I was starving for anything because I hadn't eaten much all day. We were brought 3 pieces of table bread to share between the two of us. Let me ask you this... Who gets the third piece and why do they do that to starving guests?? Before we could really answer that question, our appetizer came out!! Woohoo! It was so quick that I was literally shocked. The Crostini Al Porcini was so yummy and hit the spot. Thankfully there were 4 pieces so my hubby and I could share equally.

Just as we finished our last bites of the appetizer, our dinner plates arrived!! Cue happy music in my ears!! I don't know if we waited 45 minutes, but it certainly did not feel that long. Both of our meals were so divine! Words just simply cannot describe the masterpiece, literally, made from scratch. And am I recommending my Frutti di Mare? Why yes, yes I am!! Possibly the best Italian dish this tummy has ever had? I'd say so. I highly recommend it if you're into seafood and you like flavor and a little kick.

We had to order dessert...because I blame all of you who post about their desserts. I knew before we head stepped in that I wasn't leaving without having a slice of Creme-Brûlée cheesecake. It. Was. So. Good. that even my cheesecake hating hubby said he liked it.

All in all, dining at La Cucina was beyond excellent. Their service is top notch... So much so that we adored our server, Mei, who was the sweetest. She recommends parking on the street after 6. Also, they validate for two hours but you just might end up staying longer than that so consider the street parking option. They do offer BYOB...we could tell because the table next to us was going to town. Good on them!

Hopefully, you will make it to La Cucina because it is a food experience not...

I have heard a lot about this place over the few years but never made it before the shut down foe covid. This place is tucked away in the galleria of the imperial plaza on kapiolani st. They validate parking in the back.

Covid related - they make you submit an electronic survey answering a few covid related questions 24 hours prior to the dinner. It seemed like they only take dine-in guests if they had a rsvp. Others were mostly take out orders. They also checked my temperature before letting us in.

Food - we ordered 3 main pasta dishes, a salad (not pictured), and bone marrow.

The bone marrow was seasoned and topped w pesto. Very flavorful and perfect paired w the toasted points.

The pappardelle is homemade and you can taste the freshness, except I still find the pasta a tad harder than I thought it would be. Perhaps it's the wide width of the pappardelle? Portions were definitely generous. Bigger than Meditterraeno on king st. I thought all the pasta were slightly on the saltier end so it's best if you paired it with some beverage.

The agnello is the braised leg of lamb w ricotta cheese. The cheese was definitely very nice and light contrary to lots of other very strong ricotta's I have had. Paired really well with the juicy and tender lamb. Not gamy at all.

The norcina is homemade Italian sausage without the casing paired with garlic, mushroom, Romano cheese. I sausage actually had a tint of spicy-ness in it which wasn't too overpowering but definitely leaves you tongue spiked. (Hence a beverage would come in handy)

The bolognese is homemade ground veal topped with Romano cheese as well. The grounded veal is a slightly easier entry to the mouth since pieces are smaller and smoother w the tomato sauce. If I were to come back I would probably ordered this again. The least salty of the 3 pastas but still left my mouth in need of a palette cleanser after the meal.

I would have wanted to try the tiramisu but Bc the portions were so generous I did not have room for anything else. I even took some leftovers pasta home for lunch the next day

According to my friend, he said the salad di casa was the best salad he's had. Dressing was great and the fresh tomatoes on top was the...

The food here is truly excellent and the wait staff is kind.

There are some issues with the overall experience though. The location is not the best, there's limited parking, it's sort of inside of a bigger building, etc. From where I was sitting... There was a very nice dinning room to my right and a grey parking lot style men's room clearly in view down the hall (not exactly what you want to see, but it's tolerable).

The part that I really found frustrating though is that this place does not have paper menus. I see this trending in some places post-COVID and I don't love it but I tolerate it. In this particular circumstance, because of their location, my carrier Google Fi (T-Mobile) wasn't getting great reception inside of the building and I kept dropping my data connection. That elevates this from "inconvenience" to "frustration."

I work in software for context and IMO anytime a dining experience turns into a tech support experience, something has gone wrong. The waitress told me to reboot my phone and that did work (for a while, long enough to get to the menu) but that's just not something that one should have to deal with while trying to have a nice meal. This is unnecessary friction, not technology improving the world. Have some backup paper menus (even if they're not "pretty" and just have some basic formatting, nice restaurants -- even ones that change their menu -- have done this for decades)... Have some free Wi-Fi... Just, at least have some contingencies "turning it off and back on again" or "I don't have service in this area, let me try over here" should not be part of a dining experience.

The waitress offered at one point to let me use her phone... Which is extremely kind, but, it shouldn't get to that point.

Thank you all for a lovely meal. Sorry to be a difficult customer. Please just print a couple menus for...