3 Sunday Brunch Plates You Need to Make at Halekūlani’s Orchids

Spend your Sunday morning devouring desserts and fresh fruit at Halekūlani.

January 22, 2016

Don Wallace,

2016 Hale ‘Aina Awards: Best Hotel Brunch Buffet, Gold — Halekūlani Orchids

IN 1984, HONOLULU MAGAZINE ESTABLISHED ITS HALE ‘AINA AWARDS AS THE ISLANDS’ FIRST LOCAL RESTAURANT AWARDS. OVER THE PAST 32 YEARS, THE HALE 'AINA AWARDS ARE THE MOST PRIZED DINING AWARDS IN THE ISLANDS. CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE.

Our dream of a perfect Sunday: unlimited fresh juices and Kona coffee, a view of the blue sea off Waikīkī and, thanks to Halekūlani executive chef Vikram Garg and his team, no end to savories, delicacies and desserts. Nice to know you think so, too. Our readers gave Hale ‘Aina gold to Halekūlani’s Orchids for Best Hotel Brunch Buffet. Such abundance brings out the strategist in all of us; here’s our optimal plan of attack, organized around three plates (plus a dish each for fruit and those popovers).

Photo: Steve Czerniak

1. Savories & Entrees

Flank a creamy kālua pig eggs Benedict with slices of crispy-skin suckling pig and luscious prime rib. “The meat is the same quality as La Mer,” the hotel’s five-star restaurant, says Garg. “Same cream, same butter, same quality. I don’t want to save a penny. This is what makes it.” Don’t miss the roasted sweet potato and taro medley.

2. Fish & Salads

Array here all things bright and fresh, to complement and restore your appetite: the sashimi (overall, the favorite of local diners, servers say), crab legs, mussels and clams in olive oil and lemon, a little poke from the bar, gravlax (house-cured salmon, plays well with ‘ahi), salads (haricot vert, watercress).

3. Desserts

Condensed-milk panna cotta with espresso gelée, macarons, a perfect fruit tart: Nothing is beyond pastry chef Mark Freischmidt’s range. Oh, but his coconut cake: “So light and fluffy, like air,” said one auntie. “My mother’s favorite,” said another. Specialty pastries like pistachio white-chocolate roll cake, pumpkin crémeux mousse cake and tropical fromage cake alternate. We dawdled, drinking Kona coffee, to make room for seconds.