Yesterday we lounged around in bed until we decided to get up because we were hungry. Kristen thought a brunch at one of the hotels would hit the spot, so we decided to try one we had seen online, the Saturday brunch at The Oceanarium Restaurant, located in the Pacific Beach Hotel on Kalakaua Avenue across from Waikiki Beach.
The unique feature of the restaurant is its aquarium, which according to the website, sports "nearly 400 fish from more than 70 different species of marine life." The aquarium is over two stories tall, and is visible from most locations in the restaurant.
We called and made a reservation, and were able to get one, only one hour before arriving, which made us wonder how popular this brunch was. We were able to get a parking spot on the street only one block over, and walked to the hotel.
We were ignored by the two young hostesses at the kiosk to the restaurant, who were looking at something on a computer screen. We were greeted and seated by a host a couple minutes later, who looked up our reservation, then escorted us to our table. The host was gracious enough to hold the chair for Kristen, but that seems to be where the good service ended. When we called to make the reservation, we were told that the tables with the aquarium view had been reserved, but that didn't seem to matter as we still had a decent view. This was nice, as a diver entered the tank while we were eating our meal, and fed the fish. Most spectacular was a large ray, about 6 ft across and almost 10 ft long with tail, that fed from the diver's hand and follower her around, begging for more.
The brunch menu is the same for Saturday and Sunday. In most ways, it seems to be a (slightly) upscale version of your local Chinese buffet restaurant; it definitely had a Japanese inspiration for many of the dishes, which made sense, as the majority of the diners while we were there were Japanese tourists.
There was a salad bar with fresh fruit (Kristen said the pineapple was very fresh and delicious); futomaki and sushi rolls (none with fish); hot dishes (tempura shrimp, eggs benedict, cioppino, various chicken and beef dishes); breakfast foods (sausage, bacon, potatoes, waffles - not made to order); omelet station with the standard ingredients; prime rib (which was rare and actually pretty good, although the au jus was watery and strangely flavored); snow crab legs (with a yellow dipping liquid that was not drawn butter!) and seafood chowder; and a dessert station.
Drinks offered with the brunch are limited to water, coffee or "punch," which was basically red Kool-aid of some flavor.
I plowed through a pile of crab legs (I worked for sometime in a seafood restaurant, so I can open crab legs handily without destroying the meat inside), but legs themselves were over-steamed or boiled, which takes some of the sweetness out of the meat. As previously mentioned, not having drawn butter to dip the meat in detracts from the experience also. An elder Japanese gentleman observed my performance with the crab, and slapped me on the back, declaring "I like the way you put away crab!"
Nothing else on the menu was a real standout or worthy of mention. The "hot" dishes in the chafing dishes were not hot, but a little cool. Some of the dessert cakes were a little dry (one that was actually pretty good, and I had seconds of, was the chocolate macadamia nut cakes - wonderful!) and the pies looked store-bought, not freshly baked.
Our waiter was un-attentive, neglecting to refill drinks, clear plates promptly or deliver clean silverware when needed. Most of the waitstaff looked bored or tired, like they did not want to be there.
One bad thing about the layout of the restaurant is that the buffet is set up at the opposite end of the restaurant from the kitchen, so all through our meal buffet attendants would pass by our table with a shabby cart with fresh trays of food and condiments for the buffet. A little off-putting.
The meal was $26.95 per person, so I don't think we were soaked to bad, but the meal wasn't memorable enough to want to go back, or to take any of our visiting friends there.
Rating: NO ONO.
The Pacific Beach Hotel is located at 2490 Kalakaua Avenue, Honolulu, HI 96815.
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