natuRe waikiki — Restaurant in Honolulu

My wife and I attended on Thanksgiving, certainly a difficult day to be a restaurant. I'll open this review by saying a few things: The dishes we ordered, which were the recommendations of our server, were very good. We made reservations and had no problems being seated, getting things ordered, etc. Despite the remainder of the review, I tipped above 20% because I don't believe the issues we encountered were due to our server.

We made a reservation at the bar, which is from the a la carte menu. When we sat down, we ordered a cocktail from the "Dealer's Special" option, where the bartender picks something for you based on preferred liquor and taste. Then we asked to order a bottle of wine with dinner and asked for a suggestion. We included the price range and varietals we like and asked to talk to someone about it. Our server informed us he didn't know much about wine and then proceed to make some suggestions. After a handful of suggestions we weren't interested in, our server suggested he could get the manager to help us. We agreed. This wasn't a big deal, but I would expect a restaurant like this to train their staff to defer to someone who knows the wine list immediately if they don't know.

The manager came over, listened to what we like, and made several suggestions that sounded up our alley. We picked Domaine due Gros Nore Bandol Rouge. We love the grapes (Mourvèdre, Grenache, and Cinsault) and thought it'd be perfect for us. This bottle cost $120.

Afterwards, we asked our server how we could assemble our own tasting menu and he recommended a number of options, of which we selected a few appetizers, a pasta, and an entree. Our server was very knowledgeable about the food menu and made ordering very easy.

The pacing is where we first noticed issues. We were surprised when two of our appetizers showed up before the cocktails. Hard to be mad about food showing up too fast, so we started eating. Again, the food was great. However, then the wine showed up. It was pretty surprising to get the wine we ordered for dinner before the cocktails. The server poured it for us, we tasted it, and it seemed fine. Again, strange it arrived so early, but we just left it until we were ready. The cocktails eventually showed up along with our last appetizer. The cocktails were delicious.

Here's where things really went off the rails. We started tasting the wine, and it tasted extremely bitter. Again, my wife and love the grapes in the wine we ordered. The wine wasn't corked (you could taste red fruit, didn't have wet dog/cardboard taste/etc.) but definitely didn't taste right. Neither of us had finished the initial glass pour at this point. We got our server's attention and told him we thought there was something wrong with the wine. He informed us that when we first tasted it, that was "our chance to get it off the tab". We never said we wanted a refund on the wine, we just didn't think it tasted like it was supposed to. Frankly, for a restaurant interested in being a French style fine dining experience, this is not a good look. Eventually, after some additional pressure, we got the manager to come taste the wine. He said this is how Mourvèdre tastes, you might just need to decante it. We've tasted a lot of Mourvèdre. It's one of my favorites. I'm by no means a wine expert, but I've never had it taste like this. If this was a certain bottle that tastes this way, it would have been great to be walked though how and why it tastes like this. But that's not what we got. We were wrong, this is how it tastes, you should have objected earlier. After getting home and doing some Googling, as expected, I couldn't find a single review for Domaine du Gros Nore Bandol Rouge that mentioned "bitter" as an expected tasting note.

Overall, the food was great but the awful wine service ruined the experience. My take is that there was not someone on site who understood the wine menu and was able to understand if what was served to us was bad or not. If you're looking for a French style food and wine experience,...

The world food tour continued at … natuRe waikiki. This larger than you think restaurant is above Zigu, on Seaside, a little Mauka of Kuhio Ave. The space contains lots of wood, with high-top table, bar counter, table and kitchen counter seating. Where you sit depends on a) whether you’re having the tasting menu, or b) what’s available.

We had a high-top table at the front (Seaside) of the restaurant. One thing the restaurant lacks, at least where we sat is air conditioning. It was humid and I was dripping with perspiration. They keep the windows and entrance door open and when there’s a breeze, it’s pleasant. One downside of where we sat was the hot air emanating from the split system unit outside our window.

We ordered a 2016 Pommard, a red from Burgundy. They hunted high and low and eventually asked me to pick another bottle. Choice #2 was a 2015 Beringer Quantum ($152), a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Petite Sirah and three other varietals. It was full of dark fruit, earthy and acidic. It got better as the evening progressed.

Appetizers were the J. Ludovico Chicken Mousse with guava confit and Melba toast ($13), Crispy Kahumana Zucchini, with citrus tapenade, green onion aioli and turnip leaf powder ($18) and the House made Sourdough Bread with ogo butter ($8). The mousse was so creamy and the guava confit added just the right amount of sweetness. The zucchini was like tempura pillows and the green onion aioli was the perfect accompaniment. The sourdough bread was fine; we used it with the chicken liver mousse as the Melba toast was a bit too hard.

Our entrees were the Moloka’I Venison Bolognese Rigatoni ($26) and the Catch of the Day, a fillet of Ehu served a la Bouillabaisse, with shrimp and mussels, in a tomato and dill based sauce ($56). The venison was ground up but retained the aroma and taste of fresh venison. The Bouillabaisse was fine except I don’t care for dill. There were two whole shrimp, two mussels and a couple of halved new potatoes. I sopped up the sauce using the sourdough bread.

Dessert was the Tarte au Citron, a beautiful concoction of Meyer Lemon Curd, Lime Meringue and Basil ice cream ($16). The tarte was a delight; I passed on the ice cream (lactose intolerant).

It was a leisurely meal, just over two hours … a lot of the delay in the beginning was spent trying to find the Pommard wine. Service was fine but not exceptional. One last note, I got home and found they had charged me for both bottles of wine even through they couldn’t find the Pommard. A call to the restaurant and management said they’d adjust my bill. (Follow-up: they took off the charge for the wine but didn't adjust the tip so our server got an extra $35.)

The food presentation is artful and it tastes as good as it looks. All the place needs is air conditioning and more attentive service. I would rate it 4-plus and can recommend natuRe waikiki as an alternative to some of the more well-known...

We will start with the service. There was a very large party sat at the same time as us, so the timing was very slow. Our reservation was for 7:30 and we didn’t receive our 3rd course until 8:25. We were getting pretty frustrated, but the front of the house manager, Travis picked up on the vibe and everything moved at the proper pace from then on. He is a real rock star.

The cocktails we had were both delicious and the mixologist was very friendly.

As for the food, just a warning, the entire meal had A LOT of umami flavors. So if that is not your thing, you will not like it. At least not the current tasting menu. The meal started off very strong. The small bites were delicious. The venison tartare was a real treat. But after that, there were no real highlights, and unfortunately the real memorable courses stood out for the negative. Everything looked beautiful, but the flavors did not live up to the aesthetics.

The pork terrine with mushrooms was the best course of the night. The flavors complimented each other well and was well seasoned.

The shrimp and poi was our least favorite. You could not find or taste the shrimp as it was overpowered by the sauce and the poi. We were told there was a butter in the head, but even that was lacking shrimp flavor.

The abalone course incorporated the smoke filled cloche. So there was an “ah” moment, but it was unfortunately more show than taste.

The ahi course was extremely disappointing because the vegetables all lacked seasoning and the tuna was bland even though it had been marinated in soy sauce for 4 hours.

The steak course was good. The steak was cooked perfectly and the kale was very well seasoned. Altogether though, all the flavors did not sing.

We opted for the additional oyster which was just okay, the caviar and one of us added the summer truffles with the steak course. He said he would not opt to do that again as they really didn’t add anything to the dish.

Overall it was a disappointing meal when taking into account all aspects, especially including the cost (just under $500 out the door) and I would not...