Heavenly, the new restaurant in Hawaii Kai, will open for weekend dinners – Fridays through Sundays – beginning this Friday (Feb. 9).
The swanky, healthy-dining eatery on the marina at the Koko Marina Shopping Center, will take reservations with seating beginning at 5 p.m.
Heavenly has been open only for breakfast and lunch, from 7 a.m. daily, and its unique seating — with regular tables in the front half of the restaurant, and comfy, unusual sofa and cozy chairs in the zone fronting the marina — has been a hit.
I popped in for breakfast this morning – my second –following an early doctor’s visit at 7 a.m. — and was surprised the long lines weren’t there today. Since my Jan. 5 surgery to remove my problematic gall bladder, I’ve been gradually consuming appetizing meals like Heavenly’s egg benedict, with choice of salmon or Canadian bacon, beneath the poached egg. ‘Twas my first reintroduction to eggs and boy, was it yummy, with hollandaise sauce with lilikoi butter, three fingers of Okinawan potato, and salmon. A small kale salad was included, it’s not my choice salad greens.
My earlier visit, before my surgery, was a sensible pancake duo with berries and a splendid homemade syrup. I would have had this again but opted for something new.
The restaurant is gorgeous if you’re seating facing the marina; the view is spectacular, and with sliding glass windows fully open, it feels like you’re dining at a waterfront resort with real palms and vine as part of the charm. The near hour I spent at breakfast, there were no pesky flies.
The décor, with a surfboard on one wall, reflects a lifestyle of a surfer. Indeed, a surfer opened the first Heavenly in Waikiki in 2014 and a decade later, Hawaii Kai is blessed with this second option from Zetten Inc., Japanese owners who operate six other restaurants in Waikiki.
I had a peek at the dinner menu for the Hawaii Kai restaurant, and the offerings will range from steak to lamp chops to mahimahi, cold and hot tapas including lettuce wraps and jumbo shrimp cocktail to fried Takoyaki to Kauai garlic shrimp, fish and shrimp tacos to Koko Head loco moco, and custard pudding ala mode to itoen matcha tiramisu, and special drinks such as smoothies, lemonade, fruit drinks and special coffee drinks. For now, however, not all items on the menu will be immediately available.
Can’t wait to have a dinner experience here; it took Heavenly like a year and a half (perhaps longer) to finally open at its location next to the reopened Assaggio, and it should be a greater neighbor.
Moena Cafe, the upscale breakfast place, may have lost some customers with Heavenly just a few doors down. Its major nighttime competition might be Roy’s Restaurant at the Hawaii Kai Towne Center on Kalanianaole Highway, but hey, all restaurants have their devoted following based on cuisine.