Bali Steak Seafood - Honolulu

I’ve said this before and I’m still a firm believer in Hotel restaurants.. Whenever we travel we always have a mix of Local restaurants as well as one or two that are located inside Hotels.. Why you ask..its simple, usually a hotel restaurant have a much larger support structure backing it where as a local restaurant they really only have themselves to rely on so they are either going to do well or they go under… Hotel restaurants typically don’t fail, you have the team in the restaurant driving Culinary and Service with another layer of management Property Executive Chef and Food Beverage Director) over-seeing them and above all that a Hotel General Manager that “Hopefully” dines in the outlet weekly and provides Feedback to the teams. We choose to visit Bali Oceanside Restaurant this trip, its located in the Rainbow Tower of the Hilton Hawaiian Village. We arrived just as they were opening and were sat almost immediately. First impressions were that the staff were all smiling, the restaurant was clean and well lit.. Its important to see “All” the staff smiling.. this is a good indication that the people who work here are happy about being at the restaurant and stand behind whet they are about to do for you! Our Server came over and introduced himself, as we got to know each other he quickly could tell that I was Food Beverage and I explained that I was with Hilton for 11years so this opened up all the dialogue and made for a great interaction. We Started our meal with a Bottle of Daou Cabernet $72) and two apps.. the Bali Bacon $19) which is thick cut Pork Belly and the Chef’s take on Ahi Poke $28).. Both App’s were presented very well.. the Pork Belly was a little on the Dry Side but still tender and flavorful. The Poke had a great balance between Fresh Tuna… Local Mango, and just the right amount of Tartness.. For the main course we knew we could not finish two separate entrees so we shared the Washugyu Ribeye $84) and a 4oz Lobster Tail $24) with Creamed Spinach $14) and Au Poivre Sauce $6).. The Steak was super Tender and well seasoned..just Salt and Black Pepper letting the flavor of the beef do the talking. The Creamed Spinach was not good.. We order Creamed Spinach almost anywhere that serves it because as a Chef its one of those things that is either done really well or a complete mis and well this was really the only fail of the entire meal.. The Dessert menu was surprisingly sparse with nothing on it that stood out defining the end of meal sweets.. so we went with the Creme Brule $18) and it was what you’d expect from a Hotel Restaurant which was good and disappointing at the same time. We learned that the new Chef de Cuisine has only been on board for a few months and the outlet is still serving the previous CDC’s menus. As a Chef I understand how hard it is to have to keep up with the quality of someone elses menu and find the time to develop and implement your own menus somewhere along the way.. We will be adding Bali Oceanfront to our list of must returns, I’d like to see how the new Chef drives an already great restaurant into the future! We’ll be back!

For the price, you can get better food elsewhere. I order the NY strip and it was underseasoned which is highly disappointing when paying more than $60. I can go to Ruth Chris and get better for the same price. I also did not get the salad that I ordered. Also amazing to me that a restaurant in this price range does not offer free bread (you can pay for it though)

This was by far our best experience in Hawaii. A must go. The food and service were top notch.

FELIPE WAS AMAZING! we literally had to come back a second night just because he was so great and the food was so tasty. Fast and friendly service. It's been a couple weeks since we've been there and we are still talking about how great Felipe was and how awesome he made our night. Thank you, Felipe! We appreciate your hard work and we were really glad we got to meet you.

Generous portions, the bacon was perfect and the breakfast potatoes were very good. Juan is your best asset (besides whoever cooked our meal) thanks Juan for some of the best service we have had in a long time.