12th Ave Grill is another restaurant in Honolulu that features farm-to-table, locally sourced and seasonal ingredients. The restaurant has won several awards for its food as a neighborhood gem.
The bread service features house-made focaccia, french bread and butter (click on the butter in the picture to change focus):
The Seared Kampachi Crudo was served with cilantro oil, pickled serrano chimichurri, garlic chips and fried potato strings. It was very tasty and was even tolerable for a cilantro-hater:
12th Ave Grill also has one of the best wine lists we have seen in Hawaii. We ordered a couple of glasses of Sanclodio White Ribeiro from Spain to start with and a bottle of Aglianico from Southern Italy. Because of the climate, red wine in Hawaii is often served too warm. Stored in wine refrigerators, this bottle arrived at the proper temperature:
The Ka’u Sweet Corn and Peppadew (small sweet pepper) flan was a custard topped with a house-cured ham and rock shrimp salad. Crispy shallots on top added some crunchy texture:
The tasty flan was studded with lots of Big Island corn. The shrimp and ham salad was almost like a bonus dish:
Their special that evening featured grass-fed beef liver served with creamed garlic spinach atop a kabocha squash mash. The perfectly cooked creamy liver was topped with pancetta and onions. This excellent modern version of liver and onions was finished with a balsamic pan sauce:
Their other special that evening was slow-braised Duroc pork cheeks served on top of a pancetta and cannellini bean ‘chili.’ This tasty take on pork and beans was topped with avocado and smoked onion relish:
With our great experience there, we returned for another dinner as requested and accompanied by friends. We ordered this Santa Barbara wine to go with the meal this time around:
That evening’s appetizer special was a perfectly portioned shrimp and scallop risotto:
The ABCLT Salad included avocado, bacon, truffled dungeness crab, butter lettuce, and tomatoes dressed with an orange-thyme vinaigrette:
We really returned to order their Shinsato Farms Pork Osso Bucco which was a tender maple-bourbon braised pork shank with wilted mustard greens. The tomato-pecorino bread pudding that came with it was as good as the rest of the dish:
The cherry and honey glazed bone-in short ribs were served with Big Island new potatoes and a salad of citrus, shaved local fennel and watermelon radish. The refreshing salad helped cut the richness of the fall-of-the-bone meat:
12th Ave Grill is another restaurant that would thrive anywhere with their excellent take on contemporary American food. Set apart from the bustle of Waikiki, it is worth driving (or taking a cab) to have a meal in this quieter part of Honolulu.
Note: The BarFlys are vacationing in Hawaii. SF posts will return soon; in the meantime, hope you enjoy these travel-related posts.
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