We sampled our first meal at Mud Hen Water earlier this week and they basically knocked it outta the park! I've always been a fan of Chef Kenney's creations at town but because his establishments are situated in the heart of Waialae, we've never ventured here during the usual workweek mainly due to gettin' off work on time then driving back to K-Town then back with the workday pau hana freeway traffic. So that just leaves Saturdays open when we're normally at... you guessed it, Vino. But since we're on staycation, the weekday option was open so I booked a table.
We started with a couple of cocktails, the Mud Water ($8) for the Mrs with Cynar, lime, mint and rock candy syrup. The acid perked the palate for subsequent courses...
And the Vishnu's Vice ($9) for me with Opihr gin, honey, lime, turmeric juice, orange blossom water and black peppercorn. Almost like a sweet curry sauce...
An amuse bouche of compressed mountain apple with fried shallot started the meal... it almost tasted like some type of squash pickle that I never would have pegged it as a mountain apple...
The plates are served family style and they're brought out as they're completed which was totally fine with us. We sampled the Beets ($8) with roasted beets, gorilla ogo, avocado and smoked macadamia nuts... this dish was one of our faves and I told our server that I was "stealing" this dish at my next dinner party...
The Cold Ginger Rabbit Terrine ($11) which was a take on the classic Chinese cold ginger chicken though you knew you weren't eating chicken... it was heartier and more pork-like in flavor...
The Yaki O Pa'i'ai ($10) which was a take on grilled mochi since it was coated with a sweet teriyaki sauce. I also thought this dish was well executed as the pa'i'ai brought an inherent sweetness not found in mochi...
And the Grilled He'e ($16) with luau leaves and inamona dukkah or a middle-eastern spice blend. The octopus was so tender you really didn't need any teeth to consume it - the Mrs devoured the luau leaves that were scented with coconut milk ala squid luau...
I also ordered a glass of Rose ($9) and Beaujolais ($9) to pair with our starters and second courses...
Then we sampled the Kahumanu Duck Egg ($9), a glorious mixture of flaked, grilled ahi kama with cannelini and green beans with that rich, runny duck egg front and center... died and gone to heaven...
Along with the Noodle Soup ($15) with Okinawan soba, braised short rib and a rich meaty broth...
And the Smoke Meat Carbonara ($14) with bucatini (hollow spaghetti), snap peas, pea shoots and parmigiano... It was very rich and filling... in fact we had to box some of it to take home...
The Mrs was enjoying her meal so much she ordered a second cocktail, the Grapefruit Snap ($10) with Ocean vodka, grapefruit, mint and ginger syrup which also paired nicely with the food...
And since we hardly make it all the way down to Waialae, we "had" to sample desserts including the Chocolate-Kiawe Bean Brownie ($8) with a KILLER black sesame gelato and apple bananas...
Along with a Miso-Butterscotch Rice Pudding with ginger lace cookie... At first the Mrs was leery as she doesn't really care for rice pudding (she said it simply tastes like overcooked rice) but this version was flavored with coconut milk and the miso-butterscotch added some salt along wiith umami goodness and slight sweetness from the miso...HOMERUN!
I finished the evening with a B.M.O.C. ($13) or Big Man On Campus with Koval single barrel rye, Alipus mezcal, Death's Door gin, Averna amaro, Aperol and Dolin dry vermouth... Strong enough to put hair on your chest...
When I first made the reservations, I had the sense that the Mrs really wasn't looking forward to dinner ever since sampling a tough Big Island steak at sister restaurant town but I think that Mud Hen Water more than made up for that experience and I'm sure she's looking forward to a return visit as much as I am!
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