Pretty in Pink

Fine dining through rose-colored glasses

Every time I visit the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, at some point during the wedding, brunch or lunch I'm attending, I'll turn to my wife and say, "We have to stay here one of these days."

Then, she will lean over and remind me of how many times she has heard this statement. "Just make a reservation already," she said the other night at dinner.

SEAFOOD SHAVE ICE: At The Surf Room, the Royal Hukilau Seafood Platter is served on a cone of shaved ice. photo: Jimmy Forrest

Part of my fascination with the Royal is that, although it is such an iconic Waikiki landmark, it really exists in its own space and time. The Royal's Moorish/Spanish architecture, with touches of California mission style, doesn't exactly embody the Hawaiian sense of place, whatever that is. Inspired by Rudolph Valentino and his Sheik silent movies, the hotel opened in February 1927, six months after the silent film star died and a year and a half before the fall of the stock market and the onset of the Great Depression, which changed everyone's travel plans. Then there was a little thing called World War II. The hotel has always been a little behind or a little ahead of its time. But throughout, the Royal just kept on being, well, royal.

I was reminded of this when we stepped into The Surf Room, the Royal Hawaiian's fine-dining restaurant. The spacious eatery sits on the Diamond Head side of the hotel and spills out onto a covered lanai on the edge of the nicest stretch of Waikiki Beach. Of course, nearly everything is pink – upholstery, linens, menus, sunset and tourists. This rose-colored atmosphere is accentuated by bright, pink spotlights, which cast their beams on the pink-and-white canopy overhead. Only at the Royal.

The Surf Room The Royal Hawaiian Hotel • 2259 Kalakaua Ave. • 921-4600 • Dinner • la Carte Menu Service 6 p.m to 9:30 p.m. • Saturday to Thursday Seafood Dinner Buffet $46.95 adults / $26.75 5 to 12 years. Friday only, 5:30 to 9:30 p.m.

We started the meal off with the Royal Hukilau Seafood Platter ($39.50), an outlandish appetizer that featured shrimp, crab legs and claws, clams, oysters, mussels, sashimi and octopus. This ocean bounty was tastefully arranged on a cone of shaved ice, which sat in a large stainless steel bowl. The quality and freshness of the seafood was superb – the shrimp were plumb, the crab moist and succulent, the mussels meaty and the sashimi as soft as butter.

The Hukilau was accompanied by five different sauces: dill, cocktail, shoyu/wasabi, ponzu and chili-pepper water. I particularly liked the inclusion of the chili-pepper water. It gave some of the appetizers a little kick, without overpowering their natural flavors.

For my entrée, I ordered the Roasted Onaga ($28), which was accompanied by a potato pancake, charred cabbage, gingered lomi tomatoes and a Thai chili butter sauce. With a flavorful crust on the outside and soft, juicy meat on the inside, the fish was almost beef-like. It was a perfect match for the crispy-on-the-outside potato pancake, which wasn't greasy at all.

I finished my meal with the Coconut Haupia Cake ($7). The healthy slice of dessert was airy and light but, largely unremarkable. I'm ordering something else next time.

After dinner, my wife and I soaked up a little of the Royal ambiance. We were bathed in pink while outside the rest of Waikiki was cool and glittering in the blue night. We tried to take pictures of each other with our cell phone cameras, but the bright pink spotlights were throwing the lighting off. The resultant photos looked like we were either sitting next to a raging fire or inside a raucous strip club.

We gave up after a few tries. We knew exactly where we were.

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