Tuesday night was our 15th anniversary. We decided to spend our Macy’s gift cards to pay for our dinner. I hadn’t been to The Pineapple Room for a very long time. In fact it was well before I lived here. That time I sat looking out into Macy’s at women’s undergarments. Nothing like eating fine food while looking at lacy bras. This time the view was better.

My memories of the dinner long ago are vague, but definitely favorable. Alan Wong’s main restaurant consistently vies with Chef Mavro or best restaurant on Oahu. So, I know the guy can cook. (like he’s in the kitchen, ha!)

Tuesday was rainy and perhaps that’s why the restaurant was fairly empty when we arrived for our 7:00 reservation. We were immediately seated. Shortly, our server showed up. She ended up being a delight all night long. It was nice she had time to chit-chat a little. We ordered a bottle of my favorite Sonoma-Cutrer Chardonnay. Always fabulous and reasonably priced for a restaurant.

The appetizer ordered was the Hamakua Tomato Tarte.. It was delicious, if not quite hot enough. The crust was a tad tough to cut through too. But still I thought it good. A lot of good flavors, working well here.

Howard started with the Escargot (snails!) in Thai Curry Sauce. It was a recommendation of our server. She said she had never tried Escargot before and thought them delicious. They were soft and tender with a nice flavor in the sauce. Still, after killing so many of them when I lived in San Francisco I still have a problem eating them. (They were imported from France to San Francisco as a food source and consequently took over. A docent at Filoli Garden told me to collect them in a terrarium and feed them corn meal for a few weeks and eat them, rather than kill them. As if!)

The host asked when making the reservation if it was a special occasion. I told him that indeed it was an anniversary. So, after dinner they brought us a special dessert of chocolate ice cream and coconut sorbet with “Happy Anniversary” written in chocolate on the plate. It was very pretty and tasted as good as it looked.

An added bonus is that this special occasion was that we were treated warmly and enthusiastically by most everyone. I thought at first that maybe the buss person had a problem with us, but after observing him at other tables it wasn’t us. He was just kind of nervous talking to all guests. And our server couldn’t have been nicer.

I am, however, convinced that I must visit Alan Wong’s on King Street. I’ll post if I do.

The Pineapple Room by Alan Wong   945-6573

Macy’s Third Floor

Ala Moana Shopping Center

Breakfast

   Sat: 8:00 am to 11:00 am

 Sun: 9:00 am to 11:00 am

Lunch

 Mon–Sat: 11:00 am to 4:00 pm

 Sun: 11:00 am to 3:00 pm

Dinner

 Mon–Sat: 4:00 pm to 8:30 pm