Waikiki may be the only place in the world where you can enter almost any respectable establishment covered in sand and multiple layers of mud. We owe Moku Kitchen for accepting our gifts from Koko Crater and the afternoon of hot humidity and sun we spent in it. They even gave us the choice of inside seating when even I wouldn’t have let me past the patio.
The cool down continues as we devour the Hapa Poke starter. The ono is an oyes, and its brightness offsets the ahi. Both fish are super fob, and they show you a silky coat of sesame and shoyu.
Everything is made in the kitchen at Moku Kitchen. Props for making everything in house, even the ketchup. Their iteration does have more body with a heavier tomato tang compared to your garden-variety Heinz, and it cuts through the gloriously-Garlic Truffle Oil Fries. Can’t go wrong with Parmesan and truffle oil, and the pairing of a sharp mustard aioli is smart.
I love the Duck Tacos. The duck is tender, and the chunks show that size matters. Each taco is filled and filling, and that pineapple habanero salsa hurts so good. If you’re weak-sauce for hot sauce like me, get it on the side and control your pain.
The pizza special is Buffalo Chicken. I’m rarely impressed by this particular pie, but they know what they’re doing. This one tastes like Saturday-night, watch-the-game at a higher-end bar hardly-hot wings on a fold of flatbread, and it makes me want a beer on tap to wash it down.
The Hamakua Wild Mushroom Pizza is a more polished piece, strong on the truffle oil, with an undercurrent of white sauce that runs through it all. The mushrooms are the main event, and no amount of truffle can take away from these juicy wonders.
I am not a fan of Waikiki. It is probably the most controversial place on the island from what my local friends are saying. Full of shops and hot spots, ritz and glitz, these mega-million shopping malls are hardly in keeping with the loving lull of island life. But while I don’t need a designer bag to carry my water during my become-one-with-nature hike, I definitely need to eat, and I would gladly eat at Moku Kitchen again.
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