Not such a hot review
San Antonio Express-News
November 11, 2005 Friday
STATE&METRO Edition
SECTION: WEEKENDER; Pg. 34H
LENGTH: 815 words
HEADLINE: restaurant review;
Kona offers taste of the islands
BYLINE: Bonnie Walker, EXPRESS-NEWS STAFF WRITER
BODY:
Getting to the Shops at La Cantera, especially on a Friday night, is marginally easier than hopping a jumbo jet at S.A. International for Maui.
But after you've negotiated traffic and found a parking place (or broken your New Year's resolution and used the valet service), Kona Grill is there to help. The stylish, soft-lit ambience, small army of black-clad servers and a menu that strongly hints at Pacific and Polynesian flavors might ease you back into a good mood.
The sushi bar is a good place to start. While my purist companions thought the tuna slightly overcooked in the maguro tataki, I enjoyed the contrast between the lightly seared outside and very fresh, tender, raw interior. The soft-shell crab rolls, the smelt and the quail egg, as well as an eel and cucumber and roll, all tasted over two visits, were competently made, simple and very appealing.
At the top of the appetizer list, we'd put the garlicky potstickers. Made just right and served hot, they were crunchy and browned on the bottom, steamy pillows on top. We also liked our Garlic Shrimp pizza. The shell was pre-fab, but the toppings were good. One suggestion: If "garlic" is going to get top billing in the name, be generous with it.
With appetizers we'd ordered a couple of glasses of chardonnay. An unoaked Kim Crawford was fine; the Newton was too warm. We ended up tossing a few ice cubes in it (hey, if Robert Mondavi can do it ...). In this case, our server didn't get back to the table to solve the problem more gracefully. But for the most part, that band of servers, runners and bussers at Kona did a good job.
The Maui onion rings were far more intriguing to look at (in a Frederick's of Hollywood sort of way) than to eat. Here's why: When one slices up a large onion to cook, the outer layers, which used to be tossed into a simmering cauldron for making stock, are instead often discarded. They tend to be tough. But bread and deep fry them and serve with some tasty pineapple chipotle ketchup -- voilà, you've got a money-maker on your hands. Too bad that onion shell is still just too tough for my taste.
Let's discuss this chipotle thing for a minute. Perhaps the Islands have taken to the smoked jalapeño we so love here, though recent visits by food staff say no. And Italy? Basil Pesto Linguine sounds harmless. But Kona adds to it Andouille sausage, chicken, tomatoes and a chipotle cream sauce. Dang. We'd hoped that "eclecto-mania" disorder, so rampant among young chefs in the '90s, had gone aground.
Then we tasted it. As geographically disoriented as it seemed in print, it worked fairly well as a whole. Better, though, was the almond-crusted Pork Tenderloin. We were asked how we wanted it, then it was served correctly at medium-to-medium well. The Cheddar cheese mashed potatoes were good, the sautéed baby bok choy excellent.
A real problem arose with Baked Seabass. At $21, this dish was distinctly and unpleasantly fishy tasting and rubbery in texture. The fried rice with it was ho-hum; the green beans were an odd, mottled yellow and tough. (The "Szechwan" beans on another entrée at a later visit were at least green, but again, terribly undercooked.)
The fish factor improved somewhat with the Lemon Grass Crusted Swordfish. It was fresh and tasted fine, but lacked the big, steaky presence we want in a slab of swordfish.
A rack of baby backs was much better. The meat was practically falling-off-the-bone tender with a staunch, spicy sauce. With a glass of Spellbound Petite Sirah, one could fall in love.
But we ran into trouble with two other dishes: a lunchtime salad of Roasted Asparagus and the dinner entrée of rib-eye steak. They had the same problem -- an overwhelmingly acrid taste from a grill that had not been punctiliously brushed. The asparagus had not been trimmed of its tough, woody bottoms. The lettuce on the salad was drowned in the too-peppery dressing, the tomato was pink and hard ... we'll just stop here.
The light at the end of this tunnel, however, was our dessert -- Kona's Passion Fruit Crème Brûlée. We're picky about our crème brûlée, and this example won us all over. The texture was perfect, all smooth, lightly thickened cream; the flavor of passion fruit was pleasantly acidic; the caramelized sugar on top was perfectly dappled and yielded with the gentlest tap of the fork.
The dessert designers need to rethink the chocolate brownie, however. It appears to be the entire contents of an 8-inch-square baking pan. Ours had a tough veneer of inedible frosting and was unevenly heated. Our advice: Order the crème brûlée.
bwalker1@express-news.net
Kona Grill
15900 La Cantera Parkway, Bldg. 7, Suite 7300, (Shops at La Cantera), (210) 877-5355 (NW) Lunch/dinner: Daily. $$-$$$. Credit: Major. Casual. Wheelchair accessible.
Report card
Food: C+ ; Service: B ; Ambience: B ; Value: C+
Express-News restaurant critics pay for all meals and strive for anonymity.
GRAPHIC: Kona Grill is one of the food-service options in the new Shops at La Cantera. PHOTO: KEVIN GEIL/STAFF |
