The Pineapple Room

Oh the misery... Needing to wake up early and disembarking our cruise ship at 8:45am.  Why? Why?? Why???  Who cares about the incoming passengers for the next cruise?  #firstworldproblems right?  Well, we did get off that early and after picking up our rental car, it was far too early to check into our hotel room in Waikiki.  So we had time to kill and where better than the Ala Moana Shopping Centre.  Since we were already there, we felt no need to travel far distances for lunch.  Therefore, we headed over to Macy's and visited our second Alan Wong restaurant in the Pineapple Room.

Fortunately, we were able to snag a table despite not making a reservation (the place is popular).  For myself, I decided to try the Kim Chee Reuben with pastrami, home made kim chee, Swiss cheese and thousand islands spread on rye bread.  This was a substantial and messy concoction with plenty of fatty pastrami accented by crunchy, yet disappointingly mild kim chee. Hence it was more like a regular reuben with lots of tangy sauce with crunchy enough bread to keep things together.  I did love the side of Asian Slaw as it was acidic and aromatic from the sesame oil.  Viv ended up with the Kalua Pig BLT constructed with moist and flavorful shredded pork, crispy bacon, greasy grilled Kabayaki onions and Boursin Cheese on an onion bun.  Viv liked the sandwich, but she thought it was too wet from the oily onions and the other ingredients.

My mom decided on the Shrimp & Pork Hash Katsu Burger dressed with shredded cabbage and hoisin mustard vinaigrette on a potato bun. As much as the panko breading was crispy and easy on the grease, the actual filling was a bit strange for us.  First of all, we couldn't get much shrimp in terms of texture and taste (even though it was supposed to be processed).  Furthermore, the pork was a little dry and the filler ingredients of water chestnuts and green onion seemed to work against the pork in terms of texture and flavor.  On the positive, the bun was soft and surprisingly light while the dressing was well-balanced in sweetness, tartness and saltiness.  My son had the kid's Cheeseburger prepared medium.  Although the grass-fed beef was rather lean, it was still sufficiently moist and loaded with natural beef taste.  The aggressively spotted onion bun was soft and sweet.

My dad went for the Chinese-Style Steamed Opakapaka Short Tail Red Snapper on tofu and topped with choi sum, Chinese sausage, shiitake mushrooms and peanut oil.  Their interpretation of Chinese steamed fish was a decent one as the fish was moist and flaky.  The entire dish was very mild and that worked well as nothing overpowered anything else.  In fact, there was some nice aromatics going on with the salty sausage, Earthy mushrooms and peanut oil. Last but not least, my daughter had the simple kid's Butter & Cheese Noodles that arrived as a substantial portion.  The noodles were a bit too soft while there was a lack of seasoning in our opinion. Overall, we were indifferent with the food we had for lunch.  Granted, dinner service has more refined options, but we didn't get a chance to try that out.

The Good:
- Excellent service
- Well-portioned eats

The Bad:
- Food was "okay"
- A little pricey