SERA Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Honolulu

The world food tour stopped in at Mara, in the Renaissance Hotel, across from the Ala Moana Center. The restaurant is located in the first floor of the hotel, facing Kapiolani Blvd. It’s a bright, airy space in a L shape with the bar at the base of the L. We were seated at a high table for two near to the entrance from the hotel. We were early but the place filled quickly and was soon packed with diners.

The menu comes on a single sheet of paper and there was a book of cocktails and another book for the wine list. There was a good selection of wines but it took me a while to find a red that would be suitable for the entrees we planned to order. We ended up with a 2017 Barolo from Ceretto ($224). It was slightly astringent and needed some time to open up.

We chose the Tasting Trio ($28), consisting of two nicely browned (and large) pieces of pita and three dishes: hummus, tzatziki and stracciatella. The latter was a puree of roasted beets and pomegranate molasses with a cream topping. It was sweet like strawberry jam. The pita was warm and delicious, as were the three spreads.

There are a number of seafood options and fish prepared three ways but we opted for the Pomegranate-glazed Lamb Shank ($52) and the Roasted Lamb Loin “Wellington” ($48). We added Fire-Roasted Eggplant ($10) to augment our entrees.

The lamb shank came in a kamsah and was decorated with a few pieces of roasted heirloom carrots and accompanied by a dish of brown butter couscous. It was a visual and taste delight. The lamb loin “Wellington” was a nice piece of lamb loin wrapped in spanakopita … like puff pastry with spinach and feta cheese between the pastry and the loin. A duxelles of mushrooms topped by a sliced, sauteed mushroom decorated the plate. The eggplant was topped with ezme and walnuts; it was the standout dish for me. The “Wellington” was the least successful dish for me … I would have preferred the duxelles to be incorporated into the spanakopita to provide more moisture to the lean cut of lamb.

We finished with a Manoa Chocolate Sokolatina ($16) and a cup of coffee. The sokolatina was presented as a large slice of chocolate cream cake with dollops of cream and a scoop of coffee colored ice cream. It wasn’t coffee; it tasted like hazelnuts to me. It was fine but perhaps we should have tried the kunefe.

Service (from Sarah) was satisfactory even though the restaurant was very busy. We were appreciative that the food came out one course at a time and we didn’t feel rushed. Though it might be unfair, we couldn’t help but compare Mara to the other Mediterranean restaurant (in Kaka’ako). We liked the food at Mara and the prices are reasonable but felt perhaps the flavoring was tempered for the American palate. For us, a four...

My girlfriend and I had a wonderful experience, and we were more than pleased and well satisfied with the food and service!

The restaurant itself was inviting, hip, and somehow both exciting and relaxing at the same time. It had an upscale aura while still feeling casual and not high-nosed.

The food was phenomenal and I will be looking forward to trying more from the menu in the future, or even possible changes when you guys start adding different items to the menu! We were impressed to see the local ingredients highlighted on the menu, as we appreciate establishments that promote local produce and ingredients. My favorite was the fruiti di mar(a), while my girlfriend adored the pistachio crusted fish with the tomato-based preparation (sorry, I don't quite recall the name of the preparation, but it was the first of the three offerings for the seafood entrees). If you're grabbing apps as well, the saganaki is likely to haunt me until the next time I return to order another...

Our server was fantastic as well! She was very attentive, friendly, and knowledgable, and the only thing I regret is that I didn't get her name!

That leads me to my only complaint about our experience, and that is that the place is loud! I understand it is a smaller dining area than some other places and you guys are doing what you can with the space. The spacing is nice and not over crowded and it didn't look like the wait staff and bussers had difficulty navigating the floor space, but that does lend to a lot of splash-over noise, but not so much from other diners, but just as much from the volume of the music and speakers? When the dining area is less populated, having a higher volume may make sense, but when it's busy like it was last night where just about all tables are occupied, the extra volume made it hard to hear, and I didn't want to inconvenience the waitress by asking her name again, and then I realized the wait staff don't have name tags. I suppose, if it's one central system with one volume control, since the bar area is a little less condensed then it helps to have the extra sound, but the dining room was very loud and hard to hear.

Altogether, it's a minor inconvenience that did not detract much from the wonderful experience we had celebrating our 4 year dating anniversary, and I believe we both (at least, I do!) look forward to coming back to...

f I could give this restaurant 10 stars I would. Myself and 7 of my girl friends had such a great dining experience this afternoon for brunch at Mara. We all live here and for all of us, it was our fist time at the restaurant. I selected this restaurant since I had several other friends tell me the food and ambience was amazing. Since it was my birthday, I love trying new restaurants, and love mediterranean food, this place was the perfect find. For drinks to start: all of us got either their maramosa, espresso martini, and/or Mama Mia. The drinks were great, they seem very generous with their pour of alcohol in the drinks, cheers to that. We ordered the Spreads Tasting Trio and it was SO delicious. The pita was absolute perfection, I don't know how else to describe it. The spreads were also very appetizing. My friend ended up knowing one of the chef's (Chef Mike) and he so kindly gave us a gracious amount of caviar to top off one of the spreads. Truly so generous, he also had us try their yuzu pancakes (which was so heavenly, the taste was light but sweet, it was divine). They also treated us with another round of drinks. We all truly felt special and were so appreciative of Chef Mike and all of the staff at the restaurant. We interacted with several of their staff from the front of house and back of house and everyone was patient and friendly with our group. The owner came out to introduce himself as well which was nice. Outside of that, we ordered some of their Pitzas (pizza+pita), their Ahi crudo, and Kona Kampachi. My favorite was... ALL lol. The Grilled Small Kine Mushroom Pizza was SO full of flavor, honestly you would have thought there was some kind of protein in the pizza for how well seasoned and delicious it was. Ahi Crudo and Kampachi was also very flavorful, very fresh, and had very tasty citrus flavors. To end the evening they brought out a delicious piece of chocolate cake with salted caramel ice cream topped with a candle as a birthday treat for us to share. We will definitely be back and are excited to try some of the items from their lunch and dinner menu. Highly recommend and will absolutely spread the message to other friends and colleagues as they did with me, seeing as it exceeded my expectations. They did not disappoint one bit. Great customer service, beautiful restaurant, easy...