Ryan "Hawaii" O.'s Profile

Sacred Heart Church is a beautiful, historic cathedral that's part of the The Manoa-Punahou Catholic Community (East Honolulu Vicariate), with a sister church at Saint Pius X Catholic Church in Manoa Valley. It was built in 1913, and features beautiful architecture and stained glass windows. Fittingly, this church is on the state and national registers of historic places.

The community is warm with a good mix of distinguished elders and young families. We've attended since our first child was born in 1998 through today, now with a total of three keiki. We're sometimes the noisiest family there, but rarely get stink eye.

Even though we moved out to Mililani years ago, and tried visiting other churches, we still drive all the way into town to attend Sacred Heart each week. It feels like home. I do miss the energetic and articulate sermons of Marc Alexander, and some celebrants are more engaging than others, but church isn't supposed to be a rock concert, anyway.

In 2005, Sacred Heart Church came out of a $3 million renovation project, the most notable change being the addition of air conditioning... a great relief to generations of worshippers that have memories of sweating through sermons. They also added projectors (so heathens like me who forget the words to songs and prayers can still follow along) and refinished its elegant koa pews. The electric organ sounds great. (Sometimes, a violinist joins in.) Outside, the courtyard and fountain is a small oasis of peace in urban Honolulu.

Our family's only gripe? Inadequately padded kneelers. But it probably keeps me from nodding off, so it could also be a feature.

If you're visiting Honolulu and looking for a place to worship, Sacred Heart is a great choice. (Visitors are recognized at Sunday Mass and given simple lei as a token of hospitality.) The church also has Bachelot Hall for special events and rare stage presentations.

This church shares grounds with Maryknoll School and is across the street from Punahou School. So sometimes regular weekly events are canceled because of conflicting Maryknoll events and the massive annual Punahou Carnival. The Sunday Mass schedule is pretty solid, but be sure to check the website calendar for anything else.

It was only in December that master chef Philippe Padovani, who had been focused on creating gourmet chocolates in a small store at Dole Cannery, decided to dive back into the restaurant business. He took over the space previously managed by business partner Donato Loperfido ('Elua and Sapori) in Uraku Tower on Kapiolani Boulevard, then set about renovating and rebuilding practically from the ground up to open in less than a month's time.

My coworkers and I are friends and fans of his, thanks to his chocolate shop, and we've become big boosters of his efforts online.

Though Padovani's Grill is open, it's still more of a "soft open," with tweaks and changes still taking place on a daily basis. Reviews of restaurants during this phase are always a tricky thing, but I was just too eager to see what Padovani had come up with.

We basically tried to order a cross section of items on the lunch menu (and the chef picked the desserts):

- Maui onion soup gratinée (appetizer)
- Risotto (daily special) with mushrooms and snow peas.
- Baked Itailian eggplant
- Sauteed shrimp and fettuccine
- Sauteed chicken & penne pasta in curry sauce
- Crispy confit of Muscovy duck leg (a specialty)
- Tiramisu
- Fig and port wine ice cream

Absolute favorite dishes? The duck leg is popular for a reason. The crispy skin is a fantastic (almost local Filipino) touch, and the Beluga lentils were surprisingly good. (For dinner, he adds foie gras! Mmm... fat on fat!) And while I'm not a salad guy, the baked eggplant was wonderful. The onions smoothed things out, the kalamata olives added just the right amount of tanginess.

I have to rave about the desserts, next. And they weren't even on the menu yet! First, tiramisu is a pretty common dish, but I dare say Padovani's is the best I've had. Impossibly light, wonderfully flavored, and the cinnamon and sauce just right. But Padovani also sent out fig and port ice cream... something we'd never heard of, but immediately loved. Ice cream with specks of sour figs would never be something we'd have sought out on our own, but even now, hours later, I can still recall the taste. And it's a good taste.

What else?

The shrimp and fettuccini was a solid entree, a likely order for a less adventurous diner. And the shrimp were served with tails removed, my coworker noted, which was a nice touch. The sautéed chicken and penne pasta with curry sauce was an unexpected Asian twist on a conventional pasta dish. But if you're at all a fan of Thai curry, with its multitude of flavors, you might find the simple mix here a little flat.

The weakest item was probably the Maui onion soup. It had an impeccable pedigree in terms of ingredients ("Gruyere & Emmenthaler Cheese from the Alps"!), but frankly, the combination was too sweet and subdued. But at least one member of our party really liked it!

The service was good, on its way to being great, but as with any restaurant, everyone's still trying to find their rhythm. I suspect Padovani will have the team gliding about like a well oiled machine in no time.

The location is... a quirky one for a restaurant, for some not easy to see or find from the street. But there is a good amount of underground parking, provided you don't miss the driveway on Kapiolani Boulevard. Once you've found it, you'll think of it as your special place -- not many fine dining establishments within a "working lunch" distance of downtown have parking!

The elevator is out of order at the time of this writing, so take the stairs or ramp back up to the entrance.

Padovani's Grill will absolutely highlight the chef's gourmet roots and talents, but expand and explore just enough to be a little more accessible to the local business lunch and fine dining dinner crowd. We'll definitely be back often, if only to see what new things he's testing out on Honolulu's more adventurous and curious palates.

Note: Chef Padovani unexpectedly comped our meal, though we tried hard to pay. Obviously, it's a bit much for a restaurant just getting off its feet. We vowed to return for another broad sampling, completely on the books.

My mom, who has worked at Hawaii National Bank for nearly 40 years, gave me the heads up on this true "hole in the wall" that opened this week. It's hidden in a tiny space on Marin Lane, the narrow one-way street that heads Diamond Head from Smith Street to Nuuanu Avenue, facing a small pay parking lot off Nimitz Hwy.

Chef Kate Wagner is known at the Kailua, Kapiolani, and Mililani Farmer's Markets, and previously managed a shop called Starpoint. This modest, downright spare space is just enough room for this artisan pastry and bread shop.

If you've a special diet, she has something for you. She uses healthy alternatives to sugar, substituting agave, honey or fruit juice. She has gluten free, vegetarian, and vegan fare.

The red velvet cake is easily the most notable item on the menu, but the name of the place is the truth. To start your day, you can find Kona coffee, pastries, and I've seen bread pudding and s'mores as well. There are great take-out lunches ($7 seems the price point), like lasagna, mushroom chicken, pork loin, tamales, and salads.

There's parking everywhere, and Chef Kate has even staked out a small section of the loading zone at the door for "drive-up service."

The menu changes daily, but it's worth stopping by to check it out. If you're especially lazy, there's a "today's special" menu board outside that you can probably read as you drive by!

My coworkers and I are, perhaps not surprisingly, fans of the original Boulevard Saimin on Dillingham. We heard about the split, and looked forward to the debut of Tanaka Saimin, as surely two good saimin spots are better than one. And Tanaka Saimin on Nimitz Hwy. seems like a more convenient location for most people.

I've been there twice so far, and while I see a lot of service-related complaints, I give them some leeway as they work out the kinks. This should be the case for any new restaurant. Yes, our server wasn't sure where her section was, and the cashier was still sorting out the system, so there were certainly delays. These things, I hope, get smoothed out over time. Even with the confusion, we were seated relatively quickly and served in under 15 minutes.

Tanaka Saimin immediately distinguishes itself with its huge, shiny, modern and clean interior. I personally prefer the modest, homey vibe of a hole-in-the-wall eatery, but I can see this place actually drawing a lot of new people who probably wouldn't dare wander into the Dillingham location.

But the great new look, I think, raises your expectations for the food, and after sampling all the traditional mainstays on the very familiar menu, the best we could muster was "good, not great."

Does it taste the same as Boulevard Saimin? I think so. Perhaps there's a little something missing now that everything is being cooked in a shiny new kitchen, rather than being "seasoned" by equipment and tools with years of history. But even so, it was nothing special.

I think Tanaka Saimin needs some time to break in, get some scratches and dents, and generally loosen up. Right now it feels almost sterile, like a furniture store showroom, and even the best saimin wouldn't be enough to warm you up.

The other problem? Parking. It's a disaster. There are only two businesses open in the building right now, and already the one-way single-row lot fills up fast and cars quickly back up. Imagine what it'll be like when every retail space is open for business? Or when Lowe's opens up next door?

I hope there's a neighborhood master plan for parking somewhere, because right now, we headed over because we could walk over from our office in Dole Cannery. I doubt people driving over from downtown or elsewhere will put up with a lunch hour traffic jam.

On the plus side, the prices aren't as fancy as the decor... and we were told they were seeking a liquor license. Tanaka Saimin could have a whole second life after the sun goes down, and I'm curious what that might look like.

On Saturday morning, I cracked a tooth. Having not seen a dentist in over a decade, I had no idea what to do. My good friend Burt mentioned that his brother, Dayton, was a dentist, and with no more information than that, I called and asked for help.

Even though the office was booking appointments for regular clients three months in advance, they made room for me on their Saturday schedule (they close at 1 p.m., so they asked me to come in at 12:30 p.m., less than two hours from my call).

As office locations go, Oahu Dental Care is interestingly situated, tucked in the corner of a strip mall ("between American Savings Bank and Chuck E. Cheese's in Pearl City" were the simple directions).

I showed up, a complete stranger, completely at a loss as to what to do. Nonetheless, the staff was friendly and helpful and extraordinarily patient with my stupid questions. I didn't know my insurance policy number, but they were able to look it up. I filled out some forms, and after a short wait, was led back to an exam room.

Suffice it to say, I'm a lousy patient, and there's a reason I've avoided the dentist for so long. I was nervous and jumpy and wasn't doing the staff any favors. But Dayton was both professional and extremely diplomatic (which is to say, he didn't say outright what a disaster my teeth were). He and his capable assistant Crystal assessed the situation and got to fixing it right away.

And by fixing it, I mean shooting me up with painkillers, going at my tooth with a variety of drills and pointy metal things, and finishing up with cement and glue and duct tape (well, not really).

Considering that I was planning only on relaxing at the water park with my family only two hours earlier, it's notable that they were able to ease me into emergency dental work so smoothly. Frankly, I'm surprised I didn't take off like a bat outta hell. They're that good.

Of course, now I'm hoping to become a regular, and will probably be waiting three months for a normal appointment for some long overdue dental work. But Dayton and his team made a great first impression under the worst of circumstances.

One of the most disappointing dining experiences in recent memory. Tables were poorly managed (I can't imagine the mess this place is when there's a show going on across the street), staff were distracted and curt (more interested in amusing themselves with dry banter), service was slow, prices were high, and the food simply bland.

Now, I'm willing to put up with chaos and poor service for good food -- that describes some of the best Chinese restaurants in Honolulu -- but here the offerings were just adding insult to injury. I'm not an expert on Cuban food, nor do I know what's authentic. I just wanted bold or interesting flavors. I got neither.

Yes, the food looks good. The servings are modest. Mind you, our dinner wasn't bad. Just unremarkable. If it had just ended with the plantains and a stroll through Chinatown, perhaps I'd be left with a brighter impression of this place.

Unfortunately, though our waiter couldn't be bothered to check on us once during our much-delayed meal, he was willing to engage my host in a ten minute argument over a misunderstanding on the menu. I'll say right off, it was definitely our mistake, but not an unreasonable one, and one that amounted to a $2 difference in our already sizable bill.

My friend asked to talk to a manager, who defiantly sided with his now sneering employee. They couldn't wait to clear our table for the next victim.

It was probably our mistake, and hardly worth the argument. But the staff seemed to savor the debate more than serving us. We agreed that $2 was a small price to pay to never come back.

Being in Chinatown, nestled amongst genuinely interesting and creative places, doesn't automatically make a place good, or cool. The vibe I got is that Soul De Cuba thinks it's a heck of a lot better than it is, and a heck of a lot better than its customers. And that's a lousy place to be.

Max's, in many ways, was a godsend to my coworkers and I, who toil daily in the giant yellow block of commerce known as the Dole Cannery. Why? It's one of the only restaurants within reasonable walking distance with table service. That fact alone has brought us to its doors almost a dozen times in the few months it's been open in Iwilei.

It surely stands out with L&L, Costco hot dogs, and food court fast food as its nearest competition. And even up against Zippy's and Sam Choy's on Nimitz Highway, its a nice change of pace.

The famous fried chicken? Famous for a reason. We can demolish a whole chicken in a blink. The garlic rice is pretty good. And halo halo or ube ice cream for dessert? A perfect finish.

But there's a lot here that's unremarkable. Safe, but bland. For a rich and colorful cuisine that's prevalent throughout Honolulu, Max's here seems to stick to its Mainland-palate style. If anything, the vegetable dishes have more personality than the meat dishes -- a real shame for a Filipino place. The classics like pancit and lumpia are good, but not great. To get the flavor profile somewhere north of "interesting," we drain half the bottle of banana sauce on our table.

Still, the restaurant is big, clean, and the service is okay (bordering on slow), and it's hard to resist when you just want to sit down and have the food come to you for a change.

You'd think good Hawaiian food would be found everywhere in the islands, but as a born-and-raised local boy, I can tell you that the list of decent places is very, very short. Helena's Hawaiian Food in Kalihi is likely at the top of that list.

Of course, it's a small place in an unlikely neighborhood for a James Beard Foundation award winner, it's closed on Mondays, and there are precious few parking spaces and precious few tables. My coworkers and I plotted for ages to go, and only finally made it this past week.

I realized I hadn't been there since the late, great Helen Chock passed away. But her spirit lives on, and the food is still fantastic.

My colleagues and I all ordered the basic "Menu A" -- kalua pig and lomi salmon with your choice of poi or rice -- and then went nuts ordering ala carte items to share. Pipikaula, poke with opihi, laulau, squid luau... and of course sweet onions with sea salt and haupia was included.

The food was heavenly. Epic. Almost orgasmic. That may sound extreme, but biting into the perfectly prepared, flavorful, just crisply-cooked-enough pipikaula was pure bliss.

I love how the drink fridge was packed with strawberry and orange soda and Hawaiian Sun orange passion cans. So local!

Bring cash (no credit cards or checks accepted), and patience. You may wait for a table, and the sweet cashier tallies your bill in longhand before double (and triple) checking with a calculator. Come early, and take your time, and you'll be well rewarded.

The only must-have we missed was the fried butter fish collar. So we'll have to go back again soon.

Return to Waikiki hopes to bring back the heart of "old Hawaii," and is a must-see for anyone looking for something genuine in the center of a tourist Mecca that is largely sorely lacking in real island experiences.

Star performer Makana notes that the International Marketplace, with all its color and chaos, is perhaps the last remaining outpost from Waikiki's golden age. This open-air show is the perfect compliment. Visitors are taken on a journey through Hawaii's musical history, from ancient chant to hapa haole and tiki kitsch to contemporary Hawaiian.

There's something for fans of every flavor of Hawaiian music, with each given a little "twist" by Makana and friends. They tackle several standards ("I'll Remember You," "Okole Maluna," and more), and bring something special to each.

This is not the cliche "luau" with Rockette-like lines of swinging hips and shrieking fire-knife displays. Think Hawaiian, not (air quotes) "Polynesian." Epitomizing the more "laid back" mood of local life, "Return To Waikiki" enhances its top-notch musical program with earnest solo and pair hula dancers, visits from "Tutu," and old-fashioned radio commentators invoking the airwaves of the 50s and 60s.

And, of course, the food. Events in Hawaii live or die by their spread, and "Return to Waikiki" pulls out all the stops. A buffet menu that would make any local wedding reception proud includes whole roast pig (with crispy skin), kalua pork, chicken long rice, lomi salmon, and the full slate of starches (sticky white rice, poi, potato salad, yams...). And fresh fruit and haupia for dessert.

Service is also great. From the kukui nut and flower greeting to getting drinks at your table, you feel valued and cared for.

I'm perhaps most intrigued by what will happen after the show. Beginning next week, the dinner setup will give way to a cocktail show -- no cover, two drink minimum. Visitors, locals, and performers alike will be invited to take the stage to jam in the open, improvisational spirit of kanikapila.

Tickets range from $95 to $125 ($55 for kids 4-11, 3 and under free), and that's probably the only downside to this ambitious new enterprise. There's a lot of competition for visitor dollars. Being in Waikiki is a big plus, as is the "real Hawaii" pitch, but I'd like to see prices closer to $70 (perhaps for the Thursday show), and some steep discounts for kama'aina. Because kama'aina would probably appreciate what they're trying to do here more than anyone.

Note: I attended the dress rehearsal two days before opening night as a guest of the program.

My first visit to this location was a positive one. Hungry for breakfast, I rolled in with two of my kids. We got good food, and great service, for a good price. We'll be back!

I ordered two short-stack pancakes, and the cashier recommended saving some cash with a large and an extra plate instead. I ordered a large drink, and the cashier recommended a small with free refills instead. I ordered corned beef hash and eggs with home-fried potatoes, paid, and sat at a table. No more than 90 seconds later, the food arrived, piping hot and delicious.

The pancakes were great, but they're hard to get wrong. I was especially impressed with the home-fried potatoes: skin on, cut extra thick, perfectly roasted.

The place is small but well staffed. Employees are friendly and efficient, clearing and wiping tables before departing customers were out the door.

This Koa Pancake House is counter service only, but that's a good thing. The food is not only good, it's served fast.