Best for: Italian, Happy hour
Location: Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center
I tend to stay away from Italian restaurants for three reasons: 1) pasta dishes are easy enough to make; 2) my standards for pizza seem to be getting lower and lower (I've obviously been away from New York for too long...), so now I can easily fulfill my pizza cravings at any American restaurant or frozen aisle section at the grocery store; and 3) I refuse to believe that we have enough Italians in Hawaii to have authentic Italian food.
However, I was thrilled when Il Lupino was the selected venue for our double date with Jon and Sarah because I'd read good reviews and always pass it after work before heading home. We went for happy hour, which is available from 3:00-6:30 every day. Il Lupino is located on the ground floor of the Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center, with an outside patio that faces the gardens between the shopping center and the hotel. When we noticed that all the happy hour items were $5, we eagerly decided to order one of everything.
The bread was the perfect texture, just chewy enough. I had a bellini and a glass of house red later. Both were delicious. Bellinis really are the perfect drink for sitting outside during the day. We shared about 5 dishes:
- Salumeria plate: proscuitto de parma (dry-cured ham from Parma), speck (dry-cured and smoked proscuitto from Alto Adige), Molinari spicy salami, and three different cheeses.
- Polpettone al Pomodoro: veal, pork and beef meatball served over a bed of pomodoro sauce and parmesan
- Melanzane e Zucchini Soufflé: eggplant and zucchini soufflé with parmesan and mascarpone
- Trio di Bruschette: three selections of bruschetta, served with spinach
- Margherita: pizza made with vine-ripened pomodoro sauce, fresh mozzarella, and fresh basil. The crust was good, but the pizza itself was just margherita; luckily Anthony knew to add toppings from our bruschetta to add some flavor to the pizza.
The red wine (just the house, I believe) was so good that three of us ordered it, some of us more multiple glasses. For dessert we shared the panna cotta. Not as good as town's, which is smoother and not too rich, but panna cotta is panna cotta.
The salumeria plate ended up being $25 instead of $5 (our fault for not reading the menu carefully) but was still worth it, as this dish was easily the best one and worth the twenty extra bucks. The other dishes were less memorable but all tasty. Il Lupino has been added to my list of happy hours, due to its gorgeous location in the courtyard facing one of my favorite hotels, [mostly] $5 menu of perfectly-sized Italian food items, and happy memories (in the end, isn't that really what determines a good restaurant?)
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| sangria, bellini, and a ginger martini |
