Stage Restaurant and Amuse Wine Bar

I am not done with my Alaska trip report, but because that will take some time to complete, I thought I'd share my experience at Stage and Amuse in the interim. A couple of my girlfriends and I recently started a tradition that we'd just have a nice dinner together in celebration of the holidays. We dined there on Friday, November 30, and we had a 6 p.m. reservation.

Stage is a restaurant that is located in the Honolulu Design Center, the bright orange furniture store on Kapiolani, between Pensacola and Piikoi. I had read some pretty good reviews of it, and it sounded to me like this was the up-and-coming "it" restaurant in Honolulu, akin to Alan Wong's, Roy's, 3660 on the Rise, and Chef Mavro. So it's no surprise that the chef is Jon Matsubara, formerly of Alan Wong's. Apparently, many other servers and kitchen staff were also former Alan Wong employees.

Before I get to the details of the dinner, I have to talk about the other details of the Honolulu Design Center. First of all, parking there is great! You can enter from either Pensacola or Piikoi, and right now, even though there is a booth and an arm gate, it seems to be unmanned. There are tons of parking stalls in a covered lot that leads you straight to the entrance of the store.

As soon as you walk into the store, there is a coffee bar straight ahead. To the right there are escalators which will lead you to the upper floors (I can't remember if there were 3 or 4 floors, but I think it's 3). Because we had some time before our 6 p.m. reservation, we decided to check out the furniture. What I expected was very different from what it really was. When the store first opened, there were television interviews touting the designer and very expensive furniture at the Design Center. What I saw was fairly reasonably priced, very nice looking, furniture! I can't imagine what they were thinking talking about all their expensive furniture (none of which I saw, by the way -- unless it was in one of the areas we didn't explore)! My guess is that they scared people away, seeing as how we felt almost like we had the entire store to ourselves. Personally, if I were looking for furniture before I walked in there, I wouldn't have even bothered. I would have just assumed it was out of my league. But now that I know they have nice stuff at a decent price, I would go there!

Anyway, enough ranting about their marketing. After we explored quite a bit, we still had time before our reservation, so we decided to check out Amuse, the wine bar. I had read about this place...it's like a self-service wine tasting bar, where they have machines that provide one ounce pours of wine. I thought this was a really cool concept, and I saw it someplace else -- I think it may have been in Napa.

Amuse is located right before the entrance to Stage (I think on the 2nd floor). Interestingly, Stage has it's own bar, and there is also bar seating at Amuse. We approached the bartender and asked him how the wine dispensing machines worked. We each gave him a credit card, which he linked to what I'll call a "wine card," which looks like an ATM or credit card. Basically, you stick your card in the machine, and it keeps track of all of your charges. When you're done, you "close out the tab" and they charge your credit card, or you can pay cash if you'd like.

My friend overheard a couple ordering a cheese plate, so she ordered one for us too. They put it on her wine card. Then, we went around tasting a few wines. The wine bottles are attached to the machines, so you're able to look at the actual bottle and read the label. Above the bottle, there is a digital reading of the cost of a one ounce serving of that particular wine. I think the lowest price may have been about 90 cents. I'm not sure what the highest was, but I'm sure it was over $10.

A lot of them were in the $2-$3 range. During our first round, we weren't quite sure how to use the machine right. I tried using it like the machine at the gas station, putting the card in and sliding it out right away, before pushing the button to dispense the wine -- but, the proper way to do it was to leave the card in the slot, push the button, then pulling the card out after. One of my friends made a boo-boo on her first try and ended up hitting the button twice, resulting in a $10, 2 ounce serving of wine! At least it was a really good wine though!

The three of us each tried about 3 or 4 different wines and nibbled on our cheese platter (brie, cheddar, some kind of white cheese, grapes, apples, and crackers) and a basket of bread (which was really good!) before heading into the restaurant for dinner. On the way in, we noticed a private room to the left right before the entrance, where it looked like they were setting up for a private party.

Being a designer furniture store, the decor in the restaurant was quite eclectic. What I liked about it was that it was kind of fun and whimsical, and not overly stuffy as some restaurants in this price range are. My favorite feature was the different lighting fixtures, particularly the giant Japanese-style lanterns hanging from the ceiling, although the one that was above our table was deflated.

We were also right next to the window facing the street, and also in front of the open kitchen. Some people find open kitchens a turn-off and a distraction, but I like them. Strangely enough, I didn't even really notice any noise coming from the kitchen, even though it was right there. We got to see Chef Matsubara himself, in the middle of all the action.

I loved the service here. We had two people constantly checking on us. The servers were friendly and unpretentious, just how I like them. I felt comfortable here and did not feel as though it was stuffy at all, something that bugs me at other comparably priced restaurants.

The menu at Stage is fairly simple and uncomplicated (although the wine list is a slightly different story!). It seems as though they change their menu often based on seasonal items, and when we were ordering dessert, the server apologized that he couldn't really describe most of the items since many of them were new to the menu that very day.

I ordered a glass of wine, one of my friends went back outside to get that $5/ounce wine at Amuse, and my other friend ordered a vodka collins. We started with two appetizers, the crab cakes and Caesar salad rolls. There are two crab cakes, but our server asked the kitchen to cut them each in half so we could each have one half, and fight for the last remaining half. There were 3 of the Caesar salad rolls (which seemed to be really popular -- we saw a lot of them coming out of the kitchen), which was kind of like Caesar salad wrapped up in clear rice paper (like the summer rolls you see at Bale with the shrimp in them).

I thought the restaurant was very smart about the way they distribute bread. Rather than leaving a bread basket on the table, someone comes around offering several different types of bread. I asked for one type (the same one I was eating outside at Amuse), and the server said, "that's all?" So I also chose a foccacia. He came around at least two more times asking if we wanted to try other breads, but I held back. We noticed that the selection changed throughout the evening, as people who were seated later than us were offered a couple of different options.

For entrees, my vodka collins friend ordered the seared ahi. My expensive wine friend and I both ordered the rib eye with foie gras (duck liver). This entree was $49, I believe the most expensive item on the menu. We were given the option to forego the foie gras, which would have reduced the price to $35, but we both wanted to try it, and I know I did not regret that decision!

The rib eye was served on a bed of roasted Kahuku corn and mushrooms, which was SSSOOOOO good! There was also a side of garlic potato puree, basically pulverized garlic mashed potatoes, also very good, and very garlicky. And the rib eye was cooked to perfection. It had a wonderfully smoky aroma and taste, and it was quite a huge portion. And the foie gras...I don't think I would eat the foie gras by itself, but I would cut small pieces of it to eat with a piece of rib eye, and it was just like butter! (By the way, to all of my animal rights friends, I'm sorry...I know what they do to those poor ducks to make the foie gras -- and I'm sorry to my friends who never knew what they did or what foie gras is, but are probably looking it up right now because I mentioned it.)

I think my friend with the seared ahi ended up finishing most of her food, but the two of us with the rib eye could not finish. We ended up having our leftovers boxes up. However, we still saved a little room for dessert! They had a sampler platter that sounded interesting, so we ordered one to share. Two of us also ordered coffee, which was worth it just for the presentation! We each received our own French press, which was good for about two full cups of coffee. So good! The dessert platter was excellent as well, although I think we all agreed that the creme brulee was the best item on the plate. I believe it was a cinnamon creme brulee. There was also a truffle, an espresso with ice cream in it, and one other item that I can't remember at the moment.

I don't know if there was a mistake or what, but our bill only came up to $200! I swear it should have been at least $250, and I was actually expecting it to be closer to $300, considering there was a glass of wine, a vodka collins, two appetizers, 3 entrees, a dessert, and 2 cups of coffee. For what we got, I thought this was a very good value, and I would not hesitate to return again or to recommend it to others. And I would definitely make time to have a few sips at Amuse first! If Stage is not in your budget, just go to Amuse -- they have some reasonably priced appetizers and simpler meals like sandwiches and burgers.

Flying to Alaska

This year I had the opportunity to travel to Anchorage, Alaska for a conference at the very end of September. Because I was going all that way, I decided that I had to stay at least a few extra days to experience what Alaska has to offer. Now that my experience is over, I have to say that I think EVERYONE should go to Alaska at least once in their lifetime. It was one of the most relaxing and beautiful places that I have ever seen.Before I begin, I'd like to share a little bit about my experience in planning this trip. Although many tourist destinations have travel seasons, Alaska's non-peak season really is a dramatic drop-off from its peak season, which runs from mid-May to mid-September. My two colleagues and I had difficulty finding activities that were operational after September 15th. For example, my colleague was interested in going to Denali National Park, and I thought it'd be fun to ride the train there (remember, Alaska is HUGE -- cities are pretty far away from each other). The train stopped running in mid-September, and a lot of the lodging around Denali also closed for the season. In addition to that, although Denali is open year-round, their shuttle service, which is the only way to get around since you can't drive a car beyond a certain point, stopped running too! So, this proved to be somewhat of a planning barrier. However, the upside is that prices are greatly reduced, sometimes up to 50 percent!

We also had an interesting experience in planning our flights. First of all, at the time, there were no direct flights from Honolulu, other than a charter flight operated by Hawaiian Airlines that is sold by an Alaska-based travel agency. The flight would have only been about 6 hours, but it only departed one day a week. Next, we looked at various flights on different airlines. Strangely, a lot of the flights depart Anchorage at 1 - 3 A.M.!! Yes, in the morning! The best flights we found were on Northwest Airlines (NWA). We departed Honolulu on a red eye to Seattle where we had about a 2 hour layover, and arrived in Anchorage at about 10:30 a.m. We departed Anchorage at about 10 a.m., again with about a 2 hour layover in Seattle, and arrived in Honolulu at about 8:30 p.m. Other flights either arrived or departed Anchorage at weird times, or we would've had a very lengthy layover. Not long after we made our arrangements, it was announced that Alaska Airlines would be flying to Hawaii, with some direct routes! However, those routes were not in operation during the time of our trip.

Another interesting note about our flight arrangements. Two of us booked the flight for about $800, I believe on Monday afternoon. The very next day, our other colleague booked his flight, the EXACT same flight, for $600! It turns out that NWA has a great policy that allows you to cancel and rebook within 24 hours of initially making the reservation, without penalty. So we canceled our first reservation, and rebooked at the lower price. We had to wait a few days for the first charge to be reversed from our credit cards, but we still saved $200!

The day we returned from Vegas was also the same day I was leaving for Anchorage. We did manage to squeeze in a nice lunch at Mandalay in Downtown, but the rest of the day I spent unpacking my shorts and t-shirts from my Vegas trip, and repacking my thermal underwear, beanie, scarf, and double-layer L.L. Bean jacket. It wasn't too hectic, but I will try to avoid these types of situations in the future!

I got to the airport a couple of hours in advance of the flight, as I usually do. This was the first time ever that I didn't have to walk all the way to the end of the terminal to get to my gate! The gate was the first one past security. Each of the planes we flew only had one aisle, with 3 seats on either side, but it worked out pretty well since there were 3 of us traveling together. This was my first time flying NWA, and I was pretty happy with the service, especially at the airport. It was nice having someone facilitating the flow of the line, rather than just being a free-for-all. Also, we were able to earn Continental miles, since it's not likely I will be using NWA frequently.

Arriving in Seattle was interesting. It was my first time flying there, and it was a bit bumpy on the way in. Also, very foggy! So foggy that I didn't even realize we landed until after we hit the ground! The Seattle airport is really a great place if you have a long layover. It's almost like being in a mall! The only slightly annoying part was the trains. We took 3 trains to get to the terminal we needed to be in, then found out that we could have just walked after the first train. Oh well, we got our exercise!

We had breakfast in a great food court with huge glass window. At one point, we couldn't see anything because of the fog and the darkness. It turns out that this airport was recently renovated, which explains it's new feel. More airports should be like this one, with lots of food court seating, and lots of great shops to browse through while you're waiting for a flight.

We took an Alaska Airlines plane to Anchorage. Again, good service. The flight from Seattle was only about 2 1/2 or 3 hours. About 1/2 hour before landing in Anchorage, I peeked out the window and saw what I've only seen in magazines or on television...huge snow-capped mountains, with no sign of civilization in sight! It was truly an amazing experience, just looking at giant mountains with all of that snow. It was quite a dramatic difference from the experience landing in Anchorage, which actually looked quite barren and a little swamp-like from the air! It was kind of overcast and the area around the airport was just kind of "blah", leaving me feeling a little like Alaska might not be quite what I was expecting, but that feeling wouldn't last very long.

To be continued...

Amina Pizzeria

When it comes to food, I am very much a creature of habit, although I am always willing to try something new. Once I find something I like, I tend to be a frequent customer. What is it that makes me want to go back to the same place almost week after week? Taste, of course, is a factor. But it's not only the taste. I've noticed that of the places I like, consistency is one of the keys. I know what to expect. Most of all, we like the people who work at our frequent haunts. The service might not even be all that spectacular -- we've been known to grab our own boxes or to not complain if we didn't receive our dinner rolls, but if the workers are nice and have made an effort to get to know us, that wins us over.

A while ago I wrote about one of our regular eating spots, Fat Boys. Right next door is another place we enjoy, Amina Pizzeria. It's a hole-in-the-wall counter service Italian place with good food and friendly service. A lot of people ask me about Zia's, a well-known Italian restaurant in Kailua (and another location in Kaneohe), and although Zia's is a table service restaurant with a regular crowd, I really prefer Amina.

So what's so special about Amina? Their food is really good, and even though it's counter service, it's made to order. As a result, it can take a while to get your food, so we usually call in about 15-20 minutes ahead. My two favorites are the meat lasagna and the combination calzone. They also have really nice green salads, and on occasion I eat their French bread pizzas. We've also ordered their pizzas once or twice.

The meat lasagna is a pretty hefty portion, and I almost never finish it. It has just the right combination of lasagna noodles, meat, sauce, and a variety of cheeses, and it's served with a garlic roll that I think is made fresh on-site. It's served in a nice pool of marinara sauce, which is quite tasty.

The combination calzone is like a pizza pocket. They have several varieties, but the combination is almost like ordering a supreme pizza, with sausage, cheese, peppers, and other goodies inside a folded up pizza crust. A side of marinara sauce comes with it, so you can pour it over or dip small bites into it. I once tried the eggplant parmesan calzone, which was quite good with big pieces of eggplant and lots of cheese, although I was a bit disappointed that it didn't come with marinara like the combination calzone -- I made a mental note to remember to order a side of marinara the next time.

The French bread pizza is exactly what it sounds like...French bread with sauce, cheese, and toppings. They have some pre-set toppings, but you can get whatever you want. I like mine with pepperoni, mushrooms, and olives. Their whole pizzas are quite good too, although if we're in Kailua, I would prefer to go to Round Table for a pizza. But for pastas, I'd definitely stick to Amina.

The prices may seem higher than most other fast food places, but it's less than if you were to go to a table-service Italian restaurant. Most items run about $7-$9, a salad is around $5. And the people here are really nice. There seems to be one woman who is there ALL the time. For a while I thought she was running the place all by herself, but the last time we were there, we actually saw a man working in the kitchen too!

So if you're in Kailua and in the mood for Italian, go and check out Amina Pizzeria!

Ninniku-ya, the Garlic Restaurant

On Thursday, November 29, I went to Ninniku-ya for dinner in honor of my birthday. Our reservation was at 6:30 p.m. I have heard really good things about this restaurant from a few of my friends. Basically, everyone who's told me they went there, liked it.

I tried to do some research on this place prior to going there, but finding information was a little difficult. Because it's kind of a boutique restaurant, there's no website or online menu. I did find reviews on Trip Advisor and Yelp. Strangely enough, Trip Advisor contained mainly negative reviews, while Yelp reviews were mostly positive. Generally, I find reviews on these two sites to be fairly consistent with each other. That worried me a bit! However, while I find Trip Advisor helpful, I always take those reviews with a grain of salt because I've felt that the people who post there tend to be whiners who complain about every little thing. The reviewers on Yelp tend to be a little more fair and balanced, and for food reviews, I prefer Yelp.

So if you haven't heard by now, everything at Ninniku-ya is about garlic. "Ninniku" means garlic. "Ya" is used at the end of a word to indicate a shop, restaurant, or some type of business. For example, "Panya" is a bread shop or restaurant, "pan" meaning bread. Be prepared to smell like garlic for a while, although I didn't feel it was as bad as my friends warned me about (but who knows, maybe I just couldn't smell myself!).

The restaurant is located on Waialae Avenue, on the mauka side, across from the Kaimuki Shopping Center (the one with Times and Longs). You've probably noticed the blue Christmas tree lights wrapped around the trees outside. There is parking, but it can be a little tricky to find. If you're going down Waialae, with the restaurant to your right, there is an "additional parking" sign located just before the restaurant, which is where we parked. There's a little parking lot with approximately 8 parking stalls located behind some houses. You'll see the restaurant's main parking adjacent to it. The main parking is located directly behind Ninniku-ya, which is actually a house transformed into a restaurant. The main parking can be accessed from a narrow driveway right after the house. I think there was also another additional parking lot after that as well. While some people complained about the parking, I didn't find it a problem, and it seemed adequate for the amount of tables they have.

The restaurant can be accessed either from the front or the back of the house. We entered through the front on Waialae Ave., but we left out the back, which leads you directly to the parking lot. If you parked in the alternate parking to the right of the restaurant, you can cut through the parking lot to get there.

There are different types of seating areas here. In the house, the lighting is better, although some of the reviews say it gets hot and stuffy in there, since the kitchen is also in the house. There are also several types of outdoor seating in the front of the house. One part is up the stairs at the same level as the indoor seating. It reminds me of a porch or covered lanai. At the bottom of the stairs, to the right as you enter, is another covered area, kind of like a patio. It looks like it was designed for a small private party -- we saw a party of about 10 sitting at a table there. To the left is another area that is kind of like a garden, which is where we were seated. There is no roof, but there are very large umbrellas. This is probably the least well-lit area, so I can see some people having some issues here, although I kind of liked it. There were some plants that were adjacent to our table (like, our table was touching the planter), which scared me a little because of my fear of geckos. There was also a little pond with fish in it next to us, and my dining partner saw a toad appear. Toads are okay -- anything but a gecko!

The table was a bit small for two people, given their serving style, which I'll explain in a bit. I liked that there were two waiters serving us. They were fairly attentive, and while I wouldn't consider it exceptional service, I thought it was above average. My only very minor complaint was that they weren't great at keeping iced teas filled, but were prompt when asked.

We had iced teas, and I also had a glass of wine. We started our meal by sharing a Caesar salad. Unless you are ravenous or you're not eating an entree, don't even think about eating a Caesar salad by yourself! This was perfect for sharing. I think it cost about $10. There is a generous serving of chopped romaine lettuce, one boiled egg quartered, two big slices of prosciutto on top, and the best garlic croutons I've ever had! It was obvious that the croutons were made fresh, since they were still a little warm and toasty. The dressing was nice, kind of on the lemony side, and not too heavy. I could make a meal out of that salad.

Next, we ordered the garlic toast, which a lot of the reviews rave about. I like to call it a "heart attack on a plate." It was SOOO good! I think this cost about $6, and the presentation of this was kind of interesting. There was a bunch of oil, butter, garlic, and tomatoes on the plate, and there were two bread "pillars" that were standing upright. Some of the garlic mixture was on top of each of the pillars, and the server kind of shoved the mixture down into the bread, and left the rest to us. Again, this was perfect for two people, and I actually kind of overstuffed myself on this one because it was so good! The outside was nice and crusty, and the inside nice and soft. It soaked up the garlic and oil perfectly, so that every bite tasted yummy! I cut my pillar into pieces and would dip it back into the main plate to soak up more of the flavor.

Ninniku-ya has a variety of entrees to choose from, but are primarily pastas, some seafood, and steaks. They also have lamb, which I saw someone at the table next to us eating. The reviews on the pastas aren't that great, and the restaurant seems to be known mainly for their steaks. We had a New York strip and a rib eye. Both were about 16 oz., and we really could have just shared one. The steaks run about $34-$38 depending on the cut. The presentation of this is very unique. And you don't order your steak to a particular level of done-ness. The steaks are all prepared rare in the kitchen, then brought out to you on a sizzling platter. Both of our steaks and a huge mound of roasted garlic were on one hot "stone," as they call it, along with garlic mashed potatoes and a few slices of zucchini and baby tomatoes cut in halves (we each got a full ice cream scoop of mashed potatoes, and 3 slices of zucchini topped with the half tomatoes). They cut the steaks into big chunks, I think about 5 pieces each steak.

Although we were given instructions on the steaks, I wished I had paid better attention to the steak. I prefer mine medium rare, while my dining partner prefers his more well done. I tried to take one off immediately after the waiter left, but it wasn't cooked enough to have that nice charred outside. The stone further cooks the steak for a good 10 minutes. In retrospect, I would (a) leave the steak on the stone longer before taking it off; (b) turned the steak once to get it charred nicely on both sides; and (c) take all of the steak off the stone once it was ready to my desired done-ness. I ended up leaving some of the steak pieces on too long.

But, those complaints are all my doing, and nothing to complain to the restaurant about. The steaks themselves were seasoned perfectly, and were quite tasty. They provide 3 different sauces for the steaks, but the sauces really aren't necessary. As for the sides, they weren't bad, but nothing special either. I kind of wished I had ordered the garlic rice, which received good reviews. But, we really didn't need the sides after the salad and the toast. We ended up with a huge container full of our mashed potatoes, zucchini, and leftover steak.

And, I felt like because it was my birthday, we needed to have dessert, so we shared a chocolate decadence cake with was REALLY good and lived up to its name! They also had some interesting desserts including a garlic gelato. They also had a lavendar gelato which sounded interesting.

Some of the complaints in the reviews I read said that service takes forever, but I felt like it was fine. The only time I felt that things could have been sped up a bit was when we were pretty much done eating our meal. We sat there for a while before we were offered a box. Otherwise, I thought the servers were great at taking away dishes and checking on us to make sure we were okay. They even offered to bring out another hot stone in case we wanted our steaks to be cooked more. I think our dinner took a total of about 2 hours at most. The pace between courses was perfect, and aside from waiting after finishing our entrees, we weren't sitting around twiddling our thumbs. Not hurried, but not too slow either.

Overall, I thought this restaurant was great, and wouldn't hesitate to return. The next time, I would consider ordering something smaller, like the filet mignon, and ordering the garlic rice. I would also like to try their gelato for dessert. If you prefer indoor or outdoor seating, you might want to mention it when making a reservation. When we got there, it wasn't very crowded, but at around 7:30 or so, the tables were pretty full. And remember, this might not be the greatest place for a first date, given the garlic factor. But oh, it's so good!

Ninniku-Ya
3196 Waialae Ave.
Honolulu, HI 96816
(808) 735-0784