Waikīkī’s Popular 100 Sails Revamps Its Buffet Format
Prince Waikīkī’s restaurant has switched things up with action stations and all-you-can-eat served courses. (We’re looking at you, crab legs and dessert!)
Ah, buffets. 100 Sails Restaurant & Bar in the Prince Waikīkī was my family’s go-to for special occasions. It’s where we celebrated my grandma’s 88th birthday and took my brother when he came home for winter break.
My heart was heavy when the restaurant, along with the hotel, closed temporarily last March. So I was excited to find it had reopened with a new concept. Here’s what I found at a recent media event.
Photo: Kelli Shiroma Braiotta
It’s described as “Indulge, a signature grazing experience.” The carving station, made-to-order handrolls and other action stations are still there, but now they’re supplemented by all-you-can-eat served courses that come to your table. It’s $72 a person for dinner now—up from $62 pre-pandemic—and available Fridays and Saturdays from 5 to 9:30 p.m. The restaurant is open for breakfast and dinner every day and plans to expand the buffet-plus-AYCE format to more days in the future.
SEE ALSO: Looking Up: Sky Waikīkī Shifts to a Raw Bar, Poke and Pūpū
Photo: Kelli Shiroma Braiotta
The action stations still serve poke, temaki sushi and slow-roasted prime rib that’s carved to order. The carving station also features a must-have porchetta with unctuous, tender meat and delectably crispy skin. Some items like spicy ‘ahi, California and scallop-masago handrolls will rotate depending on what’s available. Markers on the floor keep diners spaced 6 feet apart, and dividers separate customers from the restaurant staff serving food.
Other courses like clam chowder and house-made taro rolls, rice, mashed potatoes and steamed snow crab legs are brought to your table.You can request as much as you want. There’s no shame, even five plates of crab legs later. Speaking of which, crab legs come with clarified butter or garlic calamansi butter; I loved the refreshing flavor and strong garlic of the latter.
Photo: Kelli Shiroma Braiotta
As with any buffet, you have to save room for dessert. Fellow sweet tooths, rejoice: The signature dense, delicious Prince Bread Pudding with crème anglaise is back, along with rotating chef’s pastry specials. My current fave dessert are taro malassadas filled with pastry cream and vanilla bean ice cream. This is a special, but it’s featured often, confirming that I’m not the only one who loves gourmet malassada ice cream sandwiches.
Photo: Kelli Shiroma Braiotta
SEE ALSO: Hau Tree Is Now a Chris Kajioka Restaurant. Here’s a Taste
Who knows when we’ll see full-scale buffets again, but in the meantime I’m loving 100 Sails’ approach. The only downside: I can no longer pile my plate with heaping mounds of bread pudding or surreptitiously grab four plates of dessert. But you can bet I’ll go back and order those four plates, one after another after another after another.
100 Holomoana St., (808) 944-4494, 100sails.com, @100sails
