STRIPSTEAK Waikiki — Restaurant in Honolulu

I don’t write negative reviews about restaurants. I dine in nice places and boast about them! I’m taking the time to write this hoping that nobody else gets “ripped off” and leaves unhappy. I walked into this open airy restaurant excited to eat their food. It was happy hour and I chose a chop chop wedge salad. So did my friend sitting next to me. When the waiter put her salad down I immediately told our waiter I’d like to change my order. Because of what I saw! I arrived later than my friends and that’s why my salad came after hers. He said he had just put in my order. I was polite and let it be. The salads looked like they were premixed in a big bowl and then placed in small bowls as the orders came in. In different words, we both basically said this salad is pathetic! $12.00! In a small bowl there was a handful of chopped soggy lettuce! I regret not taking a picture! Where was the enticing pieces of bacon? Tomatoes? Please believe me when I say I did NOT want to eat it or pay $12.00 for it! When I told the waiter how disappointed we both were, he didn’t seem to comprehend or care! He didn’t care, he had a 20% tip added to our bill!

Don’t expect pieces of cut bacon or slivers of red onion or any sight of dressing. My guess is Chef Mendoza had nothing to do with the salads that were leaving his kitchen. As my friend said “they should be embarrassed to serve a salad like this”!

Without a doubt it’s a nice upscale restaurant. The drink I had was worth the money. No complaints! I took a picture of it. To the gentleman at the entry desk, take note that the woman that came in excited and friendly when speaking to you is leaving very unhappy. Next time understand your child size salad without the expected things one sees on a wedge salad, just cost you a lot of business! Big deal, it’s a salad?! Yes, but act like you care about your guests experience. Hellooo customer service! Okay, it happens. BUT the attitude coming from me now is because you said, I’ll tell the chef. Look at my bill! Big waste of money with a 20% tip! How would you feel? The way I Iook at it is I just paid $27+ for a drink and disappointment. Shortly after sitting down I posted a photo of the restaurant and recommended it. I removed it when I left the restaurant. Btw, I was friendly, well dressed and happy when I arrived. I didn’t present as someone trying to get a free salad. Look at a few local restaurants chopped wedge salad. Put it up against your chopped salad. See the bacon?! There must be chunks of bacon, you must see blue cheese! Presentation is EVERYTHING’ I will gladly pay more for a good meal. I assume the restaurant that I’m dining in will always put out quality and proportion for the money charged. The salad you show in pictures is absolutely not what you...

The memory of the place still haunts me. It's become my example of overpriced Hawaii with poor service to add to. We had a post Wedding dinner on Christmas day with a group of mainly Japanese. As with everything in Waikiki, there should be some catering towards the Japanese market. Most places seemed at least sensitive to requirements such as Japanese menus. But it's Japanese promptness that many overlook. We booked two weeks in advance (and with anticipation), arrived prior to our booking yet it took almost an hour and much prompting to finally be seated. Once seated, the cue for the fact we were mainly a group of Japanese (myself excluded) wasn't picked up by any staff, so there wasn't an offer of Japanese menus. But when menus were finally brought, the waiter assumed we had read the English menus and prompted all members of the party. "Give up a moment" didn't register and the waiter kept on being impatient coming back to me alone (assuming that I was going to speak for group as one of two English speakers). I was hurried to get menu orders in by a waiter who really needed to calm down. The menu was quite confusing, which was a lot of our issue however when it came time to order the steak of choice (we all ended up ordering the same one to make life easy - it was a group of 10), we asked what the chef would recommend in terms of cooking. A blunt "medium" was stated, which I know wasn't correct. But the waiter was sure. I ordered "medium rare" in protest, whilst everyone else ordered "medium". The waiter kept prompting me to order sides. At the prices I was seeing, I think the steak was hurting enough. I got to a point where I was tired of the waiter hounding me. "Would you like sides?", "Are you sure you don't want sides?" When it did arrive, it fell a long way short of the expectations of a table of Japanese/Australians - I unfortunately get a better steak at my local pub in Sydney for 1/10th the price. The choice of medium for the table ruined it even further. For the rest of the order, we had an entree (starter) that was a pot pie (no, actually it was much with a piece of pastry stuck in a bowl) and a small tart that was such a small slice I thought it half a slice. Stingy. The total per guest was not stingy though. For a very underwhelming meal it was $200 each with an enforced tip. Disgusting. I spoke with the manager and gave my feedback. I still gave a tip (because of customs - that's all), but not the enforced 22% they were going to rob from us. A restaurant of this level should be forgotten as average, or remembered for excellence. I won't forget this place unfortunately for being well...

Parking: There is a parking garage, and the restaurant will validate parking. We stayed for dinner from 7 p.m. reservation to about 9 p.m. and we paid $4 for parking. They took off $20.

Service: The service was nice. It was our first time there, and we made a reservation the day before. We were shown to our seats promptly, and our waiter came to the table to drop off the menus and explain how the menu worked. They switch out the silverware for the 4 course meal. The other waiters show up on time and fill your water and ask if you'd like a re-fill in time. Our waiter was very professional, polite, and formal. Not too personable. But good service.

Food/Drinks/Pricing: The prices are VERY high up there, so this would be a once every few months type deal. A dinner for two is just as predicted, about $100+ per person. They brought out fries with a duck-fat dip, ketchup, ton Katsu dip. The fries were good, and the dips were delicious. The Truffle Sashimi was $32 for two very small thumb sized portions. We didn't taste the truffles. The Spicy Chili Garlic Sauce Edamame was good but not as spicy as I thought they would be. Someone with a very low spice tolerance would enjoy it. It didn't quite meet my expectations of spice level.

The lamb chops were delicious! These had a nice spice rub and were cooked medium rare. The bloody Mary had equal amounts of liquor and tomato juice. Very delicious.

The pineapple flambé was the highlight of our dinner and the food as well. The presentation was informative and quick. The dessert itself was delicious. Would definitely go back just for this! Definitely order it. It's worth the price point.

Atmosphere: The gentleman who was playing music made the whole atmosphere! The music was soft, upbeat, serene, and just enjoyable as a whole. He sincerely had the voice of an angel, no lie, lol! We enjoyed his music and our time there was better because of his beautiful music. The restaurant feels very calm and serene even with the mall foot traffic happening right next to the restaurant. The only thing that was a bit distracting was that our view of the singer was blocked significantly by the dish/waiter/waitress station.

Checkout: We got our check & didn't feel rushed. They let us know to take our time. We paid, tipped, and left when we were ready.

Over-all experience is a 4 out of 5. Definitely would return, but not...