Restaurant Week is Here!

One of many dishes at Alan Wong’s.

By Claire Paul
November 16, 2015

Hawaii, known for its diversity of people and food, is holding its eighth annual Restaurant Week from Nov. 16-22. More than 60 restaurants participate in this yearly event, with hand-designed menus that are a package deal for their dinner guests.

Each restaurant participating creates a 3-4 course meal with a few options for each entrée, appetizer, and dessert at discount

prices, making it possible to eat at a gourmet restaurant for half the price. The restaurants range from find dining restaurants to a few hotdog and hamburger stops. See all the restaurants here at their website http://www.restaurantweekhawaii.com

One of the higher-class restaurants participating this fall are 53 by the Sea, whose special menu that week consists of a lunch menu with an appetizer, fish or braised short rib entrée, and the chef’s dessert of the day for $35. The dinner menu is Kampachi sashimi for the first course, Kauai shrimp for the second course, and either the catch of the day or a New York steak for the entrée topped with a coconut panna cotta for dessert at $70 per person for dinner.

Choices on the lower end of the budget are Hank’s Hotdogs, Diamond Head Market and Grill, Rainbow Drive-Inn, and Paina Café. Hank’s Hotdogs has two menus, the “Ira Dog,” is a Vienna beef polish sausage dressed Chicago style accompanied with a drink and Hank’s famous fries and dipping sauce. The second option is a “Breakfast Dog,” a British banger wrapped in cheese and an egg. This menu choice also comes with breakfast fries topped with onions, garlic, a poached egg and Hollandaise sauce paired with a ice coffee slush with a dollop of whip cream.

Restaurant Week is a way to showcase the many new and old restaurants on Oahu. The simple diversity of how many choices there are when it comes to food and restaurant week gives you a cheaper way to experience it all.

The Culinary Institute of the Pacific at Diamond Head is a four-year culinary program for developing students into chefs. Restaurant Week is raising awareness for this institution while it is still undergoing construction. The project is slowly being built with the first phase of building being complete in December 2016.

According to Biz Journals, this 7.8-acre facility will house advanced multifunction laboratory, an advanced Asian cuisine laboratory, two paved parking lots, baking and pastry lab, an umu pit and farm plots. There will be many classrooms. Offices, a 100-seat auditorium for demonstrations, along with a 200-seat restaurant for teaching and lab use.

The Restaurant Week logo.

The culinary institute will be for students who have finished two years of education at one of the community colleges around the island, an advanced program to turn out students with a bachelor’s degree in applied science.

A main part of this new facility will be to help promote a farm to table type of business that helps sustain the agriculture in Hawaii and the local farmers, a fresh way to make food and keep the island grown food on the island.

Restaurants close to Chaminade that are participatin