American · $$$$
1 Manalo Lounge
92-1001 Olani Street, Kapolei
“Beachfront dining with excellent service, unbeatable lagoon views, and decent food. Overall, the food was very nice plated and great flavors, but in my opinion every dish was slightly salty, not a deal breaker but certainly could be a little less heavy handed. I would definitely come back again but hope everything would be a little bit more dialed in to make it 5/5 stars. Kambucha squash with miso caramel: great flavor and great texture but sauce was again very seasoned. 8/10 NY strip steak: perfectly cooked medium rare with nice crunchy bits on top and very tender. It was served with a few sauces that while indeed salty again, in this case it worked and the salt let the beef flavor shine. 9/10 would definitely come back again for this. KFC cauliflower: korean fried iteration of cauliflower it was spicy, sticky, crunchy, sweet and definitely was one of the table favorites. 9/10 Sunset roll: standard sushi roll with crab and fish on top. It was good and fresh. 8.5/10 Beef, pork, mushroom skewers: the pork belly was great and the sauce was tasty and not overly salty, my favorite of the three. The beef was decent but did not really compare to the steak we had so having them side by side made it kind of underwhelming. The mushrooms were good but kind of small for the price compared to the others. 7.5/10 Shoyu eggplant: eggplant was plump and tasty with a definite soy sauce taste. Kind of verged on the salty side but considering shoyu was in the name it definitely delivered on that front. 8/10 Shrimp toast: fried Japanese milk bread with shrimp and a tangy sauce and salad on top. Great crunch and flavorful shrimp but again the sauce was verging on overly salty. That said, we all did enjoy this dish and would order it again. 8.5/10 Fresh caught fish with crispy skin over rice with consumme: this dish was the only dish that was not overly salty and I thought was delicious, well balanced and had nice delicate flavors. My one nitpick was the skin did not come out crispy as advertised. 8/10 Scallops: Three scallops served over a cream sauce with rice cakes and salmon eggs. The scallops and sauce were the star and very tasty on its own, however, when eaten with the ikura, again it followed the trend of overly salty so I kind of avoided it. The rice cakes were kind of just there and was surprisingly bland considering the aforementioned saltiness. Overall, while the scallops and sauce were nice, the dish was a little underwhelming for the high price and small amounts of scallops ($16 per scallop). 7/10 In summary, most dishes had high and lows, but with the great service and views this place still offers a lot of value, I just think it has some kinks to work out.”
