Spirit of Aloha | Articles | Adventures in Dining | July/August 2003

Adventures in Dining
BY LEN TAKUSHI

Fit for a Prince

From lavish buffets to sumptuous a la carte specialties, the Prince Court at the Hawai'i Prince Hotel Waikiki offers a royal dining experience

Managing a restaurant, says Joe Bardouche, is a lot like maintaining a car-if there's something that's not working well, you need to fix it.

"With a car, you need proper tire pressure, good gas, a clean oil filter and so on-you need all these things if you want it to work properly," says Bardouche, who oversees the Prince Court restaurant at the Hawai'i Prince Hotel Waik??. "If you take any one of them out, everything else can be fantastic, but the car still isn't going to work the way it should. A restaurant is the same way. It's important to be complete."

We took the Prince Court for a test drive, and we're pleased to say that this popular Waik?? eatery is running on all cylinders.

In recent years, the restaurant has earned acclaim for its impressive buffet spreads, including the celebrated weekend "Seafood Dinner Buffet." Of course, not everyone is a buffet lover. Thus, we formed a plan: My dinner companion would sample the buffet tables, while I would try a few items from the menu.

From the moment we arrived at the restaurant, we could see that the Prince Court has a lot going for it. The views of the Ala Wai Yacht Harbor are stunning. The decor is attractive without being stuffy. And the service is exactly the way it should be-friendly and attentive, but never intrusive.

"This really is a family restaurant," says Bardouche, who joined the Hawai'i Prince Hotel in 1999. "It's a place where people can relax and enjoy their meal without any pretentiousness in the service. Some of the staff have been here since the hotel opened 13 years ago. They love what they're doing, and it really shows."

The Prince Court's top draw, of course, is the food.

The evening's buffet theme was "A Touch of the East," and my dinner mate certainly got more than a "touch" of Asian delights. In fact, she returned to the table with a plate loaded with all kinds of Asian and local favorites: dim sum, poke, sashimi, hand-rolled sushi, lomi salmon, honey-glazed lemon chicken, roast duck with Bao buns, summer rolls, roast pork, fresh fruit and more. She smiled, shot me one of those I-got-the-best-of-this-deal looks, then dove right into her meal.

"It's important to plan your buffet meal," advises Bardouche, smiling. "Even if you just take a little bit of everything that looks good to you, you'll wind up with an 8-pound plate of food, and that pretty much wipes out any chance of having dessert."

I'm pretty sure my companion didn't eat 8 pounds of food. Nonetheless, she loved everything she tried. Dessert, too.

I started with an appetizer: Crispy Roasted Duck Breast with sweet caper raisin sauce, hearts of palm, shiitake mushrooms, Maui onions and snow peas. It tasted every bit as good and flavorful as it sounds.

For my entree, one of the restaurant's signature dishes: Slow-Roasted Rack of Colorado Lamb with caper mashed potatoes, Beluga lentil sauce and Roma tomato confit. Again, I wasn't disappointed. The lamb was tender, succulent and prepared to absolute perfection. For lamb lovers, it doesn't get much better than this.

Between bites, I smiled contentedly at my dinner mate. I was thinking, no, I got the best of this deal.

The a la carte menu, overseen by Executive Chef Alex Fernandez, also features entrees such as Sesame Crusted Island Mahimahi with vegetable relish, Yuzu citrus sauce and jasmine rice; Steamed Keahole Maine Lobster on fettu-
ccine with roasted garlic cream; Lobster Tail, Shrimp and Sea Scallops with asparagus, baby carrots and coconut saffron cream; Grilled Rib-Eye Steak with oven-dried tomato and shiitake mushroom relish; and Island Smoked Chicken Breast and Leg with linguine and sun-dried tomato cream.

Buffet or a la carte? Either way, you are a winner.

The Prince Court has long been a winner among local residents, and that's by design. "Visitors look for good restaurants," says Bardouche, "and one of the best ways of finding a good restaurant is to go where the locals eat. We have people who have been coming here for years. We try to maintain an atmosphere of aloha, and I think people can feel that. We want to be a fun and enjoyable place to eat."

Prince Court, Hawai'i Prince Hotel Waikiki, 100 Holomoana St. Open nightly for dinner: Monday-Thursday, 6-9:30 p.m.; and Friday-Sunday, 5:30-9:30 p.m. 944-4494. Also at Maui Prince Hotel, Maui, 875-5888.

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