Miro Kaimuki — Restaurant in Honolulu

Miro offers a seasonal, French inspired coursed prix-fixe menu with vegetarian and pescatarian options. The menu changes by the month and for the season. Coming into fall the menu was very luxurious. $92 with an optional $48 or $90 wine pairings.

They also have some optional bar snacks such as gourmet toasts and oysters.

We started with cocktails and mock tails from their extensive drink menu (also seasonal and crafted by Michael their mixologist and server).

The rhubarb cocktail was torched on top to add almost a meringue topping and the young buck was like a spiced version of a virgin Moscow mule. The cocktails seem to be on the sweeter side, but they are very delicious and a great complement to the savory meal. It is also super fun and recommended to try to get a seat at the bar and watch them make beautiful drinks all night!

Now into the food, we started with the Kumamoto oysters ($4 each) with the mignonette of flavors of papaya salad. The mignonette did not overpower the soft Kumamoto oysters, and they were clean and prepare perfectly. It was a great start to the meal!

Next the seared ahi on brioche toast ($17). The brioche was buttery and delicious, but this year coffee on top and a pop of some sort of citrus sauce in the middle to balance out the creamy fish and buttery bread. This is a must try!

The first course of the tasting menu was a little local lettuce with persimmon , hazelnut purée and tarragon oil. Let us was fresh and crisp with dice persimmons and small croutons on top, which could be dipped in the luscious hazelnut purée with the super flavorful tarragon oil. This dish take salad starter to another level!

Next was the spinach flavored agnolotti pasta filled with sweet potato that had butternut squash, pine nuts and pickled matsutake mushrooms as accents along with a satisfying portion of chopped pancetta, high quality olive oil and what tasted like a balsamic agridolce. This dish was sweet and sour and umami, and really captured the beautiful fall colors with the green pasta and the beautifully cut leaf shaped butternut squash. The filling for the pasta was delicious and smooth and the pickled mushrooms, gave a bright burst of flavor to clean your palate in between bites. We were all lapping up the last bit of the sauce on our plate.

Next, we ordered the off menu risotto special with rare white truffles ($100). I don’t typically eat a lot of truffles or $100 rice dishes, but we were going all out so I had to do it. The truffle flavor came through very strong and the truffles shaved on top were very beautiful and quite a treat to enjoy. I thought it was a bit small because it was just delicious and I would’ve liked a bit more! I guess at $3,600 a K for truffles it’s not a bad deal! What a treat!

Next was the blackcod that has a crispy skin and was served in a reduction of the fish and shoyu. The skin was super crispy, and the fish was extremely flaky and delicate with a lot of cod flavor as the broth was intense. The balls of braised potato, pickled radish and Watercrest leaves were a nice finish this rich dish.

Finally, we had the washugyu flank steak served with a parsnip purée, a black peppercorn sauce, and a sweet reduction with burdock root and pear. The sauces on this dish were delicious! The purée of parsnip with beef fat was luxurious and smooth, the peppercorn sauce featured whole peppercorns that were extremely flavorful and satisfying, as well as balanced with a sweet, sticky reduction. The beef was cooked perfectly, although it was not as fat or tender as I was hoping. Also was super stuffed by this point in the meal! The burdock and pear were delicious bites to drag through the different sauces. The bread was also very helpful at all of these courses to ensure we got every last drop of all their delicious sauces.

We finished with the desert that was on the menu, which is a local ulu cake with hints of lemon, caramel and coconut. Even more delicious was a special birthday dessert of local kululo that we got. This reminded me of a dense churro and was...

The world food travelers resumed their bi-monthly visits to interesting dining venues … this time, Miro Kaimuki. We’ve been wanting to try this restaurant for a long time but my tablemate is allergic to shellfish so we peruse the menu each month hoping for one with limited shellfish.

We passed on the wine pairing and ordered a 2015 Gevrey-Chambertin (Domaine Lecheneaut). It was earthy with dark fruit undertones and a hint of spice. This was a great start to what hopefully would be a stellar dining experience.

We added two extra dishes to the tasting menu. The first was the brioche trio … petite rectangles of fried brioche topped with caviar, uni and seared ahi. Under the uni was an egg mixture and there was avocado under the ahi. It was served with glasses of Champagne. I could have consumed three orders of this “out of this world” dish. My least favorite was the uni; there was some seasoning I didn’t care for … I prefer my uni au naturel. The other extra dish was a 3oz piece of foie gras. The world food travelers have a few rules, one of which is … If there’s foie gras, truffles or bone marrow on the menu; we order it! They say you eat with your eyes … the dishes at Miro Kaimuki are artwork.

Our first course was a gazpacho with pieces of Hamachi sashimi-style, thin slices of fruit, flowers of pickled daikon and something very crunchy. Another artful presentation, a visual and mouth-watering feast. The second course was a wedge of charred cabbage atop a duet of sauces … our server Kyle explained all of the ingredients but yours truly is suffering from a-g-e and didn’t remember the details. With the exception of the dill, the dish was excellent. Our third course was a seared scallop with slices of pickled zucchini and a reduction of zucchini. My tablemate was served a large piece of sea bass in place of the scallop. There was a tasty treat hiding under the slices of zucchini.

The main course was pork, served two ways; a lean piece and one with fat. The cherry halves and the fried fennel complemented the pork. My tablemate opted for the Wagyu shortrib … this was the second most delicious dish of the evening. So tender and flavorful … it went home for another day!

Dessert was a concoction of mango in several forms; I thought it was a sauce but the bottom of the dish was like a mango flavored panna cotta; there was a quenelle of buttermilk ice cream and pieces of mango, both fresh and pickled. I ended my meal with a cup of Maui Yellow Caturra coffee. This was my first time tasting this coffee; I sensed chocolate in the aroma but not on the palate … a very good coffee, if a touch light for me.

All in all, a superlative meal. I need to record the server as each dish is complex and I’m only guessing at the ingredients as I write this review. In summary, this ranks as one of the best meals we’ve had in 2022; the best in Hawaii. Highly...

From the outside looking in, you’d think Miro was still under renovation. But once you step into the establishment, you’re greeted with light-colored wood and plenty of mirrors. The base menu is fairly priced, especially for the quality of food and creativity in taste and texture, but it is very easy to tack on a bunch of add-ons. We did the brioche sampler, escargot, and wine pairing in addition to the tasting menu.

Everything was delightful, but for the brioche sampler, I’d recommend instead to just do the tuna topping. This is because while uni and caviar are always decadent, the toppings in combination with the brioche was a little too rich and fatty. The brioche stick was almost like a stick of wagyu, it was deep fried and buttered up. So the leaner cut of tuna actually made the pairing the best among the three.

The hamachi dish was a palate cleanser, much like a hit of sliced ginger between pieces of nigiri.

The next one was sunchoke mushroom and sweet onion. It also came with sourdough and seaweed butter. The nori butter was great - the seaweed flavor was actually integrated well into the butter. The bread came out piping hot and was addicting to eat. It was very hard not to wolf it all down, but fortunately I was able to dip a portion into the dish. The mushrooms were savory, and the egg yolk added richness to an already very creamy and flavorful dish.

Escargot was nice, curry butter, strong flavors that complements the snails.

The sea bass was so incredibly juicy … eating it with the roll of dough around it turned it into a very decadent spring roll.

Pork belly was great, like a 东坡肉, and I enjoyed the crispy kale on top.

Dessert was a little too sweet, and I’m pretty sure the black sesame bits are literally just chunks of a Chinese candy. So it was a little subpar compared to the rest. But still enjoyable especially with the paired sake.

Speaking of, I also enjoyed the wine pairings a lot. Each was unique in flavor, not too heavy, and actually added complexity to each dish rather than drown it out. For example, the sweetness of the dessert worked well with the slight bitterness of the sake. The rose was a fun pairing with the hamachi, and the natural wines paired well with the mushroom and fish dishes. Red wines were well-bodied but not too dry and heavy.

All in all a great experience and would return. The only issue was that the small plates we were given were a little dirty. I suppose it was fine since they were just meant to catch crumbs...