Surf Lanai — Restaurant in Honolulu

What a total letdown! After reading many positive reviews, I was really looking forward to trying the food at Surf Lanai. Came in for lunch with my wife on Wednesday around Midday. The Good: Calm, quiet ambience - including us there was only three tables. We were seated outside and the view of Waikiki beach with Diamond Head on this sunny day was stunning. The Food: We both ordered the Chef's Seasonal Tasting Menu. Between us we tried the Chowder Soup/Panzanela Salad/Coconut Grove Loco Moco/Pink Haupia Cake/Baked Passion Fruit Cream. At best I would give the food a 6 out of 10. The Loco Moco was a particular disappointment. Having eaten both traditional and fancier versions at other venues, what was served looked nothing like what I had seen online from other reviews. Maybe the recipe was recently changed? If so it definitely was not for the better. Barely any sauce, very dry and flavours were simply not balanced. Now for the Very Bad: Our server. She seemed tired and definitely lacking any Aloha spirit. Is it common for Entrees to be served prior to guests finishing their starters? We barely received our salad and chowder soup only for the loco moco to be brought out! Our server simply stood there and we had to rearrange the tableware ourselves to make room for the additional plates. You would expect better timing and for dishes to be cleared prior to the next courses being brought out. There seemed to be a concerted effort to get guests out of the restaurant asap with the bill being brought out halfway through our dessert by our server. I paid cash and included 18% Gratuity. When our server returned for the bill, she opened and counted the cash on our table to make sure it was all there. Wow. Management you really need to review your staff training and operations as this is a very poor reflection of such a...

Absolutely the WORST place & experience in Hawaii

The servers here are super nice to Japanese or White people, so if you’re one of those, you’ll probably have an okay experience. But if you're any kind of Asian that’s not Japanese, do yourself a favor and go somewhere else. I’m Asian, but I’ve lived abroad since I was two, and English is my first language.

Most of the servers are Japanese and have THICK Japenese accents. I couldn’t understand about 40% of what they were saying, and when I politely asked them to repeat themselves, they just gave me dirty looks — both the hostess and the servers.

With their weird accent and rude attitude, they told my team to “wait inside.” Naturally, we thought that meant we should pick a table (we even asked where exactly to wait, but she just ignored us). When one of my team members sat down, this short, chubby Japanese server came over and started yelling at him. We tried to ask what we should do to fix the situation (like, okay, we get it, we were supposed to wait outside, but what now?). Instead of explaining, he just kept yelling, repeating, “You were supposed to wait!” with that heavy accent.

By then, everyone around us was watching, and we didn’t want to make a scene, so we went outside and waited like we were told.

Eventually, another hostess seated us (back at the same table where my team had originally sat), and a different, much nicer Japanese server came to take our orders.

The food was good, and the view was great, but I wouldn’t recommend this place to Asians. While we were eating, I noticed how the servers treated non-Japanese Asians with a terrible attitude. But when Japanese customers came in, the servers were speaking Japanese, smiling, and so happy to talk to them. The sudden shift in attitude was honestly shocking — like it was...

Very nice place to enjoy pink pancakes. Breakfast is definitely this places forte. The Royal Hawaiian Mai Tai was made great for an early sip. The Pink Palace was damn near perfect boasting the best sliced pineapple in the city. If you go here of course it's for the Signature Royal Hawaiian Pink Palace Pancakes, they were very delicious and filling. The Royal Parfait had fresh blueberries & bananas. Now for this Short Rib Benedict, I have never had a breakfast that was so flavorful in years. And the potatoes on the side looked burnt but were done to perfection. I wanted to order two of these meals but found myself very full & delighted with my breakfast. The ambiance was nice, The service could have been a little better. Besides staring at me the whole time like I'm not going to pay for my meal lol. Let's just say I noticed other people getting better attention. I would eat here again just for that Short Rib Benedict 🥰. Couldn't go wrong with the Ocean view either. Was very nice to be able to just walk 10ft away from the table and go lay on the beach for awhile and then enjoy the ocean waters. It is a bit pricey but you'll definitely get your monies worth with...