Basalt’s New Chef Overhauls the Menu—and There’s a 20% Kama‘āina Discount

Guava baby back ribs. Photo: Mari Taketa

I had dinner at Basalt the other night, and it was a wow. I knew what to order from a media tasting back in June, when the ABC Stores-owned restaurant announced that new head chef Lance Kosaka had overhauled the offerings—putting local flavors front and center on a modern American/global menu.

Kosaka is a respected chef and mentor, an unflashy figure who never went for the marquee fame of his own restaurant. Fans know his cooking from Alan Wong’s Pineapple Room, Café Julia, Top of Waikīkī and Mariposa at Neiman Marcus. This is a chef so in love with the lechon at Thelma’s Kitchen that I recall him going on, maybe 10 years ago, about his family’s trips to Waipahu for that dish and how he tried to recreate it at Pineapple Room. Instead, he came up with a towering onion ring burger, a Maui beef loco moco bathed in veal jus and his famous salmon chazuke risotto, which has followed him to Basalt.

Until the end of August, Basalt’s food comes with a 20% kama‘āina discount, the restaurant’s first. The offer started in July, but I only made it back the other night—so you have 13 days left.

SEE ALSO: Kama‘āina Deals: Restaurants and Eateries Around O‘ahu

Daily brunch features the likes of citrus-cured salmon toast ($22), pork hash loco moco ($22), beef stew shakshuka ($24) and a biscuit sandwich ($20) with sausage, scrambled eggs and cheese. About the only thing remaining from Basalt’s previous incarnation is its signature charcoal buttermilk pancakes ($20).

At lunch, there are ‘ahi and vegetarian poke, Chinese chicken salad ($24), a garlic chicken sandwich ($24) and kalbi fajitas ($30). Happy hour dishes are prepared at adjacent Spitfire, including a 4-ounce bar burger ($9), more poke ($7) and wings ($12).

I went twice for dinner, where the main takeaway—aside from touchstone homegrown flavors in the heart of Waikīkī—was that portions are massive. You can feast on appetizers and leave full.

Must-haves here start with the babyback ribs ($22), a throwback to Kosaka’s mother’s glazed ribs. Mrs. Kosaka bathed hers in whatever jelly or jam was on sale at Long’s, whether pineapple, liliko‘i or whatever. Her son’s version, in a guava barbecue sauce, are so tender they’re almost fluffy.

Photo: Mari Taketa

Likely Waikīkī’s only warabi salad (aka pohole, hō‘i‘o or fiddlehead fern, $18) is also one of the few on the island—the only others I know of are at Mud Hen Water, Little Plum and Young’s Fish Market. The smooth crunch of the soft stalks gets a bright umami punch from a soy-cuttlefish dressing.

The Vietnamese Bruschetta ($17) should change its name to Better Than Banh Mi. That was my immediate reaction when I crunched into the herbs and pickles mounded on grilled focaccia and met the creamy luxe of chicken liver paté and touches of char and lemongrass on slips of grilled pork. This is at once light and rich—the four pieces are enough for a quick dinner.

Photo: Mari Taketa

Also notable is the Lemon Pepper Shrimp (a better descriptor would be Lemon Bacon Shrimp, anyway, $22), grilled with shells on but pried back so the accompanying dice of bacon, onions and corn can seep onto the meat. Asian-Inspired Beef Carpaccio ($18) also needs a better name, though I can’t think of one—translucent sheets of raw beef par-cooked in the acid of a lemony Vietnamese nuoc cham dipping sauce and sprinkled with mint, Thai basil, crushed roasted peanuts and fried shallots; it’s a pretty palette on a plate.

Photo: Mari Taketa

Entrées include a fresh catch crusted in lup cheong-studded mayo with shiitake and broccolini ($36), a rib-eye steak in soy-shallot butter with cremini mushrooms ($45), a mushroom risotto with macadamia nuts and crispy garlic ($30), and that salmon chazuke risotto ($38) with bubu arare and ikura, which you can get all day except during happy hour. Nearly all come with a starch—that notwithstanding, these are large plates that deserve family-style sharing.

Photo: Mari Taketa

Desserts, all $12, include a popular tart of chocolate and coconut mousses and an olive oil cake. My pick is the POG mousse pie on a crust of crushed mac nuts and graham crackers—it’s a creamy tofu mousse, a riff on sous chef Zoe Shinjo’s grandmother’s after-school treats of the 1970s.

ABC Stores president Paul Kosasa gave Kosaka carte blanche to redo the menu. It will evolve as Kosaka settles back into the rhythms and appetites of Waikīkī. I’m hoping the ultra-local warabi salad stays, and the esoteric Asian Beef Carpaccio and Better Than Banh Mi. I know the ribs and shrimp will be there.

Finally, park in the building (Hyatt Centric Waikīkī, enter from Seaside Avenue) and the restaurant will validate your ticket for three hours of free parking.

Inside Dukes Lane Marketplace & Eatery, 2255 Kūhiō Ave., Waikīkī, (808) 923-5689, basaltwaikiki.com, @basaltwaikiki

SEE ALSO: Where to Park in Waikīkī

Mari Taketa is editor of Frolic Hawai‘i and dining editor of HONOLULU Magazine.