Ever since Chef Bob McGee announced his departure from The Whole Ox Deli back in March, we haven't been back to check on the latest incarnation of the restaurant. Part of it stemmed from several articles highlighting the new chef - I'm not sure if he was misquoted but his attitude seemed a little arrogant in those interviews. Part of it was due to the revamping of the menu - the hamburger increased in price by 50% and they only offered it during lunch and the famous Johnny Aloha potatoes were no more. I discussed the events with the Mrs and said we still should see whats going on and make our own determination - we shouldn't simply make conclusions based on what we read or what others say. So here we were to retry The Whole Ox Deli.
To our surprise, the menu was revamped again. The original new menu included several starters including a Chilled Carrot Soup which E stated was very good or a English Pea Quinoa Risotto or a Deli Taste platter with pate and sausage. Since we were meeting K for dinner (and it would take her about 20 minutes to meet us), ordering starters while we waited would've been ideal. But there are no starters now. Just 6 sandwiches and 3 sides. And since all sandwiches come with dressed Mao Farms greens, it's actually just 2 other sides. So we "started" with the Beet Salad which was good but beets, goat cheese and greens are always good and the pepitos gave it a nice crunch. Good but nothing really special.
And we also "started" with the Ox Potatoes. We were informed they were first roasted then finished in the deep fryer for crunch. The cooked potatoes were good but at least half of them were still crunchy in the interior. While I like my steak rare in the middle, I prefer my potatoes fully cooked.
I uncorked a bottle of 2001 Banfi Brunello di Montalcino which worked with our sandwiches.
Which included the Italian Combo with ham, porchetta and loin. I didn't see any porchetta in the sandwich - it did have ham and slices of sopressata but I didn't see any porchetta or loin.
The Sausage Sandwich which was good with fennel spiced sausage and roasted yellow and red peppers.
And the Fried Chicken which had panko(?) coated tender chicken nuggets with slaw and was also a very good sandwich.
Now the downside. Previous FB postings from The Whole Ox Deli's site displayed breads and rolls baked in-house for their sandwiches. Our bread simply looked like mini Francisco rolls from the supermarket. The previous posting also had the sandwiches looking like basic hoagie rolls in the 6 inch range. Ours only looked to be 4 inches or so. Our server (who did a great job with our table) explained that the revamped menu was due to management feeling that Hawaii wasn't ready for the total overhaul of the original menu so they took a step back. He further stated that they plan to do Pop-Up dinners highlighting their "creative' side but at least diners will know that for these nights, it'll just be the "creative" dishes and that if you only want the comfort foods, you can just go there during the non Pop-Up nights. So will we be back? If the wine group wants to revisit The Whole Ox Deli, we'll accompany them - it still is BYOB which is a plus - but I don't think we'll go on our own. The Mrs who is all of 90-something pounds wasn't full after our meal so we headed to Vino so she could "finish" dinner with one of Chef Keith's pasta specials. I think you should be sated after 1 entree and not have to go looking for another...
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