The G Manifesto

So my girl and I went over to Roy’s recently.

The theme is Hawaii Fusion, east meets west. This is a chain with 34 restaurants owned by the Outback Streak house company.

I don’t normally do chain places, but Mark used to work there and said I should try it. He set the reservation for me, and his wife was to be our waitress.

The place:

This is a fairly nice place with the emphases on Asian tan colors, dark wood and some bamboo hints throughout the restaurant and bar. They have some really cool wall hangings. Think modern Asian. Nice ambiance and some cool lighting.

The bar area is nice, but smells like sour mix, this is from the rubber floor mats – a common problem in many bars. I wouldn’t want to eat at this smelly bar.

This is a full service bar. There were a few couples eating in the bar area. The bartender was responsive and knowledgeable about the menu. He only messed up one cocktail – forgetting the Grey Goose for my girls Cosmo. (She tasted the difference at once and sent it back.) He recovered nicely. I had the Kona Longboarder Lager, a nice golden lager, not so hoppy brew that won’t kill my taste buds. The bartender offered up a taster of the “House” martini – tasted like Malibu rum, ice and Skyy vodka. I didn’t like it all – too sweet.

The food:

We started off with a really nice Jalapeno Hamachi appetizer with a citrus ponzu sauce.
Paper thin slices of pepper top good size slices of fish along with grapefruit and avocado slices. A great app, good quality fish, nice flavor and not overboard on any one flavor – well balanced. Solid.

Second app was brought to us “on-the-house” and was a smoked salmon panko crusted meatballs. Tasted like smoked fish with panko – nothing special.

We took our drinks and were shown to our table by a tall long legged hottie. Both hostesses were pleasant to the eyes, and one seemed to actually have a brain.

We sampled a couple more apps. We tried the Hot Peanut oil seared Ahi with a soy sauce on it topped with black and white sesame seeds. The hot oil doesn’t really cook the fish as so much as bring out the natural fish oils –thus bringing out even more fish flavor. Very good app here.

We were brought a second on-the-house app – this was a lobster pot-sticker. Pot stickers are usually steamed or pan cooked. These were of the fried variety. They came out not hot, the fried wrapper was not crisp. I couldn’t taste any lobster in it. Served with spicy Togarashi Miso Butter Sauce (good sauce). Not prepared or served correctly.

Next up was a Chinese Muscovy Duck Neapolitan. Start with some sort of green veggie on the bottom of the stack, add a roasted red pepper next, top with duck confit and top with a combo of rich sauces. This one app could ruin an entire meal due to the high level of duck fat (but it’s a good thing). Very rich app with a good amount of duck confit. You could make a light dinner with this one.

Dinner for her was the Diver scallops with a risotto. The scallops were large nicely seared, not over cooked, and the risotto was great. There was a bur blanc type sauce that was done right. The dish was prepared well, and Camilla enjoyed it.

I chose a house special. Hawaiian Butterfish Misoyaki style. This is a very rich dish even for fish. The combo of white miso paste and glazed with teriyaki sauce makes it overall too sweet for my taste. It was served with a ball of sushi rice and a small braised bok choy as the veggie. Due to all the other food before I was only able to eat the fish – and that was difficult due to the richness of everything.

My Take:

Roy no doubt is a great chef with awesome skills.

The entire menu is based all around Roy’s special sauces created for each dish.
These sauces are more in line with heavy rich styles from France then anything from Asia, except for the basic ponzu sauce.

The food quality was good, and the presentations done nicely. The cooks seem to do a good job preparing as everything we had was cooked right, minus that pot-sticker.
The wait staff was on top of everything and provided good service.

Very rich dishes that showcase the sauce not the food.

I prefer more on excellent quality products prepared correctly. Let the high quality of the product speak for itself and use the complicated sauces to highlight the food – not cover it up.

Eduardo
AKA El Lobo

Email of the week in regards to Going for Dolo:

“Nicely pieced together Sir! I am all about rolling solo. I have seen my last days of dragging and funding turds around all night. I have implemented a cover charge to hang out with me for the night, whether it’s my brother, Derek Jeter (who I saw you ho slap in Vegas) or some high rolling import who does leveraged buyouts. I charge $500 up front and $500 on the back end should one of these gremlins swoop on my deep stock of femininas. Even though I am comped EVERYWHERE including charities, I still make these critters buy me drinks that I just dump out and often make them fetch me such crucial G items as Viagra, e-tabs, Escobar, and additional female livestock. Rolling solo is my game too, but why not make a little bank roll off the chum? I tip my white Gucci top hat to you Lizard King, the Peoples Champ has spoken the truth once again!”

That is actually a really good idea, charging a cover charge to hang out, I like it. I typically will not let someone roll with me unless they are bringing a gang of Model girls, and I need to see photos beforehand for confirmation, to make sure they are Haute Couture Models, not something weesh, like a Model that just did some bathing suit print ad for a surf company. I am so sick of guys saying to me, “You already have two girls, can I come with you?”. Come on skippy, I can handle two girls by myself…..MPM

Michael Porfirio Mason
AKA The Peoples Champ
The Guide to Getting More out of Life
http://www.thegmanifesto.com

(Want to see something in The G Manifesto? Send suggestions to thegmanifesto@yahoo.com )

Jayo Felony, Sherm Stick (genius sample of Teddy Pendergrass, Come Go With Me, fliped around on a West Coast Gangster tip)

Come Go With Me – Teddy Pendergrass