Jeff T.
Yelp
Atmosphere: par none. Come a half hour before sunset and experience the classiest and most romantic digs on a coastline overstuffed with imperious beachside resort restaurants.
But the food at CanoeHouse is mid at best, a solid B. After multiple trips to Big Island, we've canvassed the usual suspects: Brown's Beach House, Meridia, Napua, and the Mauna Lani resort's slightly more modest cousins, Ha Bar and Halani's. Pricewise, you'll be tempted to take out a reverse mortgage on your home, and that's before alcohol. Note that if you want side dishes, those are a la carte.
VIBE
Elegant yet smooth, not trying too hard yet still delivering serious sophistication. Think of a slightly retro 60's surf shack but if a billionaire took it and expanded and outfitted it with sleek dark mahogany and abstract Polynesian ceramics. The dining room opens up via accordion doors to an expansive patio overlooking the shore, tiki torches, and fire pits. There are no bad views here.
SERVICE
Casual yet refined. Our server had very clear dude mannerisms, but was somehow perfectly suited to his environment - he struck me as like the most interesting and well-read guy in a violent surf gang. He was helpful adjusting dishes to accommodate my girlfriend's gluten allergy and comped us a roasted mushroom dish when I balked at the crispy maitakes (more on those later). My drink did take a long while to arrive, and I had to ask for it after 20 thirsty minutes.
FOOD
Ugh. We know enough about eating on Big Island to know to gird your loins for the sticker shock at resorts and that there's an almost inverse ratio when it comes to price to satisfaction on any beachside restaurant. We were hoping CanoeHouse would be the (very pricey) exception to the rule, but alas, it continues to prove the point that if you want good food on island you go to the farmer's market or the local shack or food truck at the side of the road.
We ordered:
OYSTERS
From the Pacific Northwest, they were creamy and briny. Pretty good and very expensive. But for a sudden urge, do you really need to come to Hawai'i to eat oysters from the PNW?
HOKKAIDO SCALLOP SASHIMI
This dish is a messy cacophony of everything everywhere all at once. Just too much going on here overpowering the sashimi, which did have the most silky texture. Would it be to much to ask to be able to taste them, too?
CRISPY MAITAKE MUSHROOMS
You'll see a lot of mushrooms on resort menus on Big Island. Most of them are pretty solid because that centuries old formula of fungus + butter + thyme + salt is nothing but failsafe. So what happened here to make these so utterly flavorless? Yes they were crispy, but completely devoid of seasoning. For $18, I'd skip this.
SEARED SCALLOPS
Okay, here's where I got a little peeved. The trio of scallops are seared perfectly, but first you have to dig and dig to uncover them under a thick blanket of.... more flavorless crispy maitake mushrooms!!! Now, this is the last thing I want after ordering a bland larger appetizer version. I wish our waiter had warned us about this, which I mentioned and he felt guilty enough to comp us a side of roasted, which was better if somewhat heavyhanded.
CATCH OF THE DAY (Mahi Mahi)
Sigh. I hate to compare dishes to those in other restaurants, but my gf ordered this because we'd experienced a transcendent mahi mahi dish at the One Hanalei Bay on Kaua'i which tasted, well, not like mahi - it was delicate and flaky in a way that we've been chasing ever since. Most mahi I have on the mainland is like this one at CanoeHouse was - bland, a little too dense and tough, and in need of strong flavor components to compensate and stand up to it. We were disappointed by both the quality and the portion, although we ultimately had a hard time finishing it.
DESSERT - UBE CHEESECAKE
Delicious! AND YET: it's notable that the single best thing we had at this restaurant was not made in its kitchen; we were told this came from Sweet Indulgence up in Waikoloa Village. Maybe next time we'll just eat dinner up there, too.
I'd come back here again for the sunset ambience, but totally rethink my strategy - instead of going whole hog and being disappointed, I'd just order a couple simple things like the garlic fried rice and another app (not the mushrooms!), a drink, and just soak up that view for an hour. Then, I'd drive up to Waikoloa Village and have a real dinner and even the same dessert.