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I thought I’d share my review of our dinner at ‘Ama Ama at Aulani from our March 2019 trip there. This is the resort’s signature restaurant and prices are on a par with signature restaurants at Disney World.
It’s located with some beautiful views over the resort beach and I timed our dinner to ensure we’d be there for sunset. We were first seated at an outdoor table and, at first, it looked idyllic, but when the sun came out, we knew that wouldn’t work. It was blinding and I was worried about getting burnt. They were able to accommodate us “inside” – I say it like that, as it’s just covered by a roof. There is a blind at the front of the restaurant that they keep down until about 20 minutes before sunset.
For appetiser, I went for the jumbo lump crab cake with rice wine slaw, fried garlic and sweet onion aioli and won tons. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect and the dish didn’t look like anything I expected when it arrived, but it was excellent and all the flavours went together beautifully.
Mark went for the ahi poke with crispy rice, kochujang aioli, kabayaki and sea bean salad.
For entrée, the way it works is that there were four choices at the top of the menu, which are complete dishes – i.e. they come with accompaniments or they’re all prepared together, i.e. stew or curry etc. The rest of the entrée menu is a la carte, where you pick either a fish or a meat and then pick the sauce you’d like with it (at extra charge of course) and the vegetables/protein you want, again at an extra charge.
I went for the fish and the auction fish, which was mahi mahi. I chose the lomilomi tomato ogo butter to go with it. If you’re not sure what that is (I wasn’t!), the tomatoes are well massaged and the ogo is seaweed. The sauce was beautiful, very delicate and flavoursome and went really well with the fish, which I opted to have sautéed. You could choose either that or grilled.
Mark went for the rib eye steak with the house made steak sauce, after enquiring what that was and discovering it wasn’t hot, which was his only concern.
We also got some sides, we shared the herb-coconut rice, the asparagus with herb butter and fried garlic and the baby carrots with local white honey. Yes, it’s one of those restaurants, where you order the main dish and then pay additionally for side dishes. I must confess I’m not much of a fan of that, but that’s how a lot of the pricier restaurants seem to work these days.
Just as we were getting to sunset, our desserts came out. I immediately knew what I wanted, the mango white chocolate crème brulee with mango pineapple compote, mamaki tea jelly, strawberry pavlova, lilikoi reduction, hibiscus fluid gel and coconut gelato, all of which was a joy to eat. The flavours worked together beautifully in this dish and it was so well presented.
Mark went for the banana foster, chocolate chip cake, caramel pearls, cinnamon cremeux, caramelised bananas and vanilla bean gelato.
This was not a cheap meal, but then again, you don’t expect it to be. In total, a three course meal for each of us, plus drinks, came to a grand total of $215. It was the one major blow-out meal we were having of this trip though and it was a real treat to end our stay at Aulani with such a good meal.
Would I dine there again? Without a doubt if we return to Aulani, but definitely only the once for dinner, given the prices!
It’s located with some beautiful views over the resort beach and I timed our dinner to ensure we’d be there for sunset. We were first seated at an outdoor table and, at first, it looked idyllic, but when the sun came out, we knew that wouldn’t work. It was blinding and I was worried about getting burnt. They were able to accommodate us “inside” – I say it like that, as it’s just covered by a roof. There is a blind at the front of the restaurant that they keep down until about 20 minutes before sunset.
For appetiser, I went for the jumbo lump crab cake with rice wine slaw, fried garlic and sweet onion aioli and won tons. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect and the dish didn’t look like anything I expected when it arrived, but it was excellent and all the flavours went together beautifully.
Mark went for the ahi poke with crispy rice, kochujang aioli, kabayaki and sea bean salad.
For entrée, the way it works is that there were four choices at the top of the menu, which are complete dishes – i.e. they come with accompaniments or they’re all prepared together, i.e. stew or curry etc. The rest of the entrée menu is a la carte, where you pick either a fish or a meat and then pick the sauce you’d like with it (at extra charge of course) and the vegetables/protein you want, again at an extra charge.
I went for the fish and the auction fish, which was mahi mahi. I chose the lomilomi tomato ogo butter to go with it. If you’re not sure what that is (I wasn’t!), the tomatoes are well massaged and the ogo is seaweed. The sauce was beautiful, very delicate and flavoursome and went really well with the fish, which I opted to have sautéed. You could choose either that or grilled.
Mark went for the rib eye steak with the house made steak sauce, after enquiring what that was and discovering it wasn’t hot, which was his only concern.
We also got some sides, we shared the herb-coconut rice, the asparagus with herb butter and fried garlic and the baby carrots with local white honey. Yes, it’s one of those restaurants, where you order the main dish and then pay additionally for side dishes. I must confess I’m not much of a fan of that, but that’s how a lot of the pricier restaurants seem to work these days.
Just as we were getting to sunset, our desserts came out. I immediately knew what I wanted, the mango white chocolate crème brulee with mango pineapple compote, mamaki tea jelly, strawberry pavlova, lilikoi reduction, hibiscus fluid gel and coconut gelato, all of which was a joy to eat. The flavours worked together beautifully in this dish and it was so well presented.
Mark went for the banana foster, chocolate chip cake, caramel pearls, cinnamon cremeux, caramelised bananas and vanilla bean gelato.
This was not a cheap meal, but then again, you don’t expect it to be. In total, a three course meal for each of us, plus drinks, came to a grand total of $215. It was the one major blow-out meal we were having of this trip though and it was a real treat to end our stay at Aulani with such a good meal.
Would I dine there again? Without a doubt if we return to Aulani, but definitely only the once for dinner, given the prices!
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