Chef Mavro prepar­ing Onaga Baked in a Hawai­ian Salt Crust — hint: you don’t eat the crust; it’s there to pro­tect the fish from over­bak­ing in the oven.

Chef Mavro Cooks Great­est Hits for Lim­ited Time from Sep­tem­ber 7, 2010

HONOLULU — Guests keep call­ing “Hana Hou!” (do it again!) for Chef Mavro to bring back their favorite recipes from the restaurant’s 12-year his­tory.  Start­ing Tues­day, Sep­tem­ber 7, 2010, for a lim­ited time, Chef Mavro will pre­pare some of his most-requested cre­ations.  The spe­cial 6-course menu ($120) will be in the spot­light although the restaurant’s 3-course ($69), 4-course ($78), and Grand Tast­ing menus will also be avail­able. Guests are wel­come to move recipes from one menu to another includ­ing the Hana Hou selec­tions. This makes it easy to enjoy just one or two of the great­est hit recipes as part of a 3– course or 4-course menu.

“In my kitchen we’re always work­ing on new recipes and set­ting new trends but now we’re going to pause for a few weeks and cook the guest favorites of the past,” explained Mavro.

Many will make a spe­cial trip in the next few weeks to remem­ber or dis­cover why one par­tic­u­lar recipe caught the atten­tion of food­ies every­where. Chef Mavro’s most famous cre­ation “Onaga baked in a Hawai­ian Salt Crust, fines herb-ogo sauce” won GQ magazine’s top 10 recipes, earned a cover spot in The New York Times’ food sec­tion, regaled guests at a James Beard awards gala, and was cel­e­brated around the world for decades.

About 5 years ago when Chef Mavro cal­cu­lated that he had made it over 80,000 times, he exclaimed “No more!”   Until now when the aro­mas of tar­ragon and Proven­cal herbs will again fill the din­ing room as the Onaga in a Hawai­ian Salt Crust is served table­side, turn­ing heads and inspir­ing guests to say sim­ply “I’ll have what­ever they’re having!”

Also guests can again savor the award-winning fla­vors of “Ahi Tartare & Caviar, Kea­hole Lob­ster with a chorizo puff, Wagyu Beef with chimichurri sauce, and Li Hing Mui goat cheese tatin.  Then there are the famous Lilikoi Malasadas, cho­sen as one of America’s Best Dough­nuts and the only recipe that has remained on the oth­er­wise sea­son­ally chang­ing menus since the open­ing.  A Chef Mavro great­est hits menu would be ridicu­lous with­out this cel­e­bra­tion of trop­i­cal fla­vors that remains his most pop­u­lar dessert.

George Mavrotha­las­si­tis, a found­ing mem­ber of Hawaii Regional Cui­sine, won the James Beard Award, a life­time achieve­ment award and the top U.S. culi­nary honor. Chef de cui­sine Kevin Chong and Sommelier/Manager Todd Ash­line are inte­gral parts of every­thing the restau­rant achieves. Reser­va­tions con­firmed here 24/7 .

Hana Hou!
(an encore per­for­mance of Chef Mavro’s great­est hits)

ahi tartare & caviar

big­eye ahi, sea­soned with hanapepe salt

topped with cal­i­for­nia estate mal­os­sol caviar, taro chip, ponzu glaze

kea­hole lob­ster a la coque

cream of kahuku corn, chorizo puff, crus­tacean essence

onaga baked in hawai­ian salt crust

GQ Mag­a­zine “1993 Golden Dish Award” by Alan Rich­man
long­tail snap­per, fines herb-ogo sauce

100% wagyu beef

sautéed strip loin medal­lions, braised short rib chimichurri

pancetta brus­sels sprout, cel­ery root puree, pinot noir sauce

big island goat cheese tatin

li hing mui caramelized granny smith apple, hirabara baby greens

lilikoi malasadas

guava coulis, pineapple-coconut ice cream

Make a Reservation 

How to chop an onion bet­ter than Gor­don Ramsay

As Chef Mavro made plans for a how-to video on the best way to slice and dice an onion, he came across Gor­don Ramsay’s video. Mais non!  Not that way.  But this way so that all pieces are the same size for even cooking.

Restau­rant critic Jo McGarry came by the Chef Mavro kitchen and tasted a big hit from the Sum­mer Menu heav­ily influ­enced by Sous Chef Andy Le.  Their meet­ing inspired Jo to pro­file Andy in today’s Mid­week.  She loved the Kurobuta Pork a la Saigon -  Kurobuta pork loin wrapped in betel nut leaves, green papaya-cucumber-tomato on a crispy shank, wood­ear mush­rooms, lemon­grass pork jus. The per­fect wine pair­ing offered with this dish is the centuries-old win­ery Movia, their 2004 Pinot Nero from Slove­nia.  This food & wine com­bi­na­tion is one of the most pop­u­lar choices on the cur­rent menu avail­able now through mid-September.

Kurobuta Pork

A choice of menus for your dif­fer­ent occa­sions and moods.  Of course the $69 three-course menu with full-size por­tions is pleas­ing to many but more and more guests are choos­ing the Grand Tast­ing Menu at $165, an ulti­mate expe­ri­ence menu show­cas­ing every­thing on the menu in quar­ter por­tions!  Think of it as a Chef Mavro kaiseki, tapas fes­ti­val or as so many guests com­ment -  a peak moment in their culi­nary trav­els!  Whichever menu you choose (3, 4, 6 course or the Grand Tast­ing), all guests enjoy three com­pli­men­tary courses: amuse bouche, pre-dessert, and the famous after-dinner mignardises of Pas­try Chef Perry Ho which cur­rently include Parisian mac­arons and caramels with Hawai­ian salt.