Cabana Cookout

The food at the Cabanas Seaside Grill is good. The view and the service are exceptional

As much as I enjoy dining at Hoku's, I always feel that something is missing … like a porch or a lanai. I realize that the Kahala Mandarin Oriental's fine dining restaurant is a formal affair, but the views of the Pacific are just too damn good to shut out. If I'm fortunate enough to get a table by a window, I usually end up staring out at the moonlit beach or the glowing pool nearby. It kind of makes me want to order one of the restaurant's famed fried musubis and go stretch out on one of the chaise lounges at poolside.

THE GREAT OUTDOORS: One of the Cabanas Seaside Grill’s airy, yet private tents. Photo: Kent S. Hwang

Now, you can do just that. Well, not exactly that. At the Cabanas Seaside Grill, you can dine under the stars on a small, landscaped lawn between the resort's beach and pool house. The restaurant's softly lit cabanas, which can accommodate largish dinner parties or an intimate rendezvous, are strategically placed within a small grove of coconut trees. The result is an open and airy, yet private dining experience.

Since it is an outdoor grill, the Cabanas' menu is relatively simple. As far as entrées go, there are three beef and chicken selections, three shellfish choices and a half dozen grilled fishes. Similarly, there are only a handful of appetizers.

Our party of four started the evening off with a trio of appetizers: Grilled Lemongrass Beef Skewers ($12), a bucket of Manila Clams ($11) and Waimanalo Mixed Greens ($12). Of the three, I preferred the beef skewers. They were tender and moist, and they were served with mushrooms, onions, peppers and pineapple. It was almost a meal in itself.

Next up were the entrées. Our waiter explained to us that the Cabanas' main dishes are a little oversized (one and a half portions), and are designed to be shared. He suggested that we order three entrées, but we ended up ordering four different dishes for variety's sake. We should have listened to him. Soon, we were inundated with food.

I ordered the Uku ($30). My sister, who was visiting from the Mainland, had the Moi ($30). My wife had the Pulehu Beef ($20) and my sister's friend ordered the All Day Slow Roast Pork ($16). For our side dishes, we split Smashed Potatoes ($6), Pacific Rice ($6) and Asparagus Sautéed ($6).

Cabanas Seaside Grill Kahala Mandarin Oriental Hawaii 5000 Kahala Ave. 739-8770

Hours of Biz: Monday - Sunday 6 p.m. - 9 p.m.

When you order a grilled fish at the Cabanas, the waitstaff debones the cooked fish tableside. It seems like a formal procedure for such casual dining but our waiter, like all of the staff, was friendly, funny and polite. We chatted a bit. He told us of his former life as a sushi chef. He asked us where we were from.

It was then that I realized that the service at the Cabanas was the best I've had in a long, long time. As a youngish local male, I'm occasionally treated like a ketchup-pouring Mongol invading culinary Christendom. But the staff at the Cabanas made all of us feel welcomed.

As I said earlier, we ordered both the steak and pork. The steak was a little on the dry side and was unremarkable. The pork, on the other hand, was tender and tasty, accompanied by a sweet-tart compote of Granny Smith apples and apricots.

Of our two fish dishes, I preferred the moi. It was softer and more flavorful. Both fish came with kalamata olive caper relish and soy ginger vinaigrette.

We ended the evening with a dessert of Smores ($10). (This time we heeded our waiter's advice and ordered just one dish.) Talk about casual. The graham crackers, chocolate pieces, marshmallows and skewers were neatly arranged around a small can of Sterno. The do-it-yourself dessert looked better than it tasted. In fact, the food overall at the Cabanas was good but not great. However, the dining experience was delightful. We ended up staying at the restaurant for some three hours-chatting, laughing and munching-hardly aware of the people and beautiful scenery around us.

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