Located at Halekulani, La Mer is heralded as one the most prestigious fine dining restaurants on Oʻahu. Known for its French cuisine and refined ambiance, the eatery is Hawaiʻi’s longest-running AAA Five Diamond restaurant since 1990.
Executive chef Alexandre Trancher recently introduced a new menu degustation at La Mer; this eight-course menu only changes a few times a year. The dishes on this menu are also available a la carte. Everyone in the dining party must participate in the same menu experience.
Trancher — who began his career in France and boasts an extraordinary culinary background in Michelin-starred restaurants in Japan, Paris and Greece — moved to Hawaiʻi in 2012 and incorporates local ingredients into his cooking.
Dishes on the menu degustation ($325 per person, optional wine pairing available for $175) are also available a la carte.
The dining experience begins with an amuse bouche, which is meant to please your palate and prepare you for the culinary journey ahead. During this media dinner, it’s broccoli panna cotta with lobster remoulade, trout roe caviar, basil lemon oil and Japanese rice crackers for texture. It’s finished with a broccoli vichyssoise — or chilled soup — on top. It’s light, creamy and refreshing; the perfect start to our meal.
Diners are also given a choice of featured breads from a basket. Choices include classic French baguette, nori bread made with seaweed, brioche, or sesame roll with carraway seeds. Diners can choose more than one roll; I’m partial to the buttery, flaky brioche.
The first course features a ballotine of foie gras, which is nestled under a cloud of cotton candy. It’s accompanied by apple calvados marmalade, cubes of chartreuse gelee and dollops of kahlua-ginger gel. Apple dust lies on the very bottom of the plate.
Our server suggests using the utensils to lift the cotton candy to access the foie gras, then eat the components together.
Foie gras is known for its rich, umami flavor. This course features a unique pairing through the cotton candy, but the combo works well. The airy cotton candy’s sweetness balances the foie gras’s savory flavor, and there’s lingering hints of apple with each bite.
The next dish was one of my favorites of the evening — a seared scallop on a bed of cauliflower puree. It’s topped with a cuttlefish leaf and served with an orange beurre blanc with caviar incorporated into the sauce.
The succulent, tender scallop is bathed in that flavorful cauliflower puree, and the briny caviar gives it the perfect amount of savoriness.
The third course features abalone, served in a Maui onion marmalade and topped with crispy onions and squid ink powder.
The abalone is poached in a broth of sake, konbu and daikon radish. It’s finished with a sauce of spinach and parsley emulsion in olive oil.
The next course features a colorful medley of poached Maine lobster with zucchini and yellow squash, served with coconut anchovy sauce and tomato chutney. The sauce contained heart of palm, red and yellow beets, daikon radish and chives. While the veggies are flavorful, the tender, slightly sweet lobster is the star of the show.
While all courses feature impressive presentations, this one is particularly exquisite.
The main entrée — a beef filet — comes next. The filet mignon is topped with shaved truffles and served with seared Hudson Valley foie gras, along with truffle mousseline potatoes. It’s finished with a French demiglace, which is made with Madeira wine, cognac, brandy and black truffles.
The filet is cooked to a perfect medium rare, and the shaved truffles enhance its umami flavor. It’s drizzled in a deeply flavorful demiglace.
Next comes a selection of cheeses from the restaurant’s cheese cart. Four cheeses — all of which are imported from France — are offered during our visit; the selection usually includes a variety of soft and hard cheeses. The camembert — a soft, creamy cow’s milk cheese — and Mimolette — a firm, orange-hued cheese — were my favorites of the ones featured. The latter has a harder texture and nutty flavor that’s similar to Parmesan, resulting in a savory finish.
Before dessert, the eatery’s version of madeleines is served. This refreshing palate cleanser features a madeleine-like dessert filled with mango, banana and pineapple curd, complete with white chocolate powder on top.
Dessert features an aesthetically pleasing pecan vanilla mousse. It features a chocolate and pecan center, almond cake, pecan cremeux, poached pear in a pear brandy, fennel foam and “leaves” made from a honey tuille.
The dessert overall is light and refreshing, a nice finish after the last few savory courses.
At the end of the menu degustation, diners are given mignardises, or petit fours — bite-sized French confections — to enjoy or take home. Our selection included Kona coffee coconut bon bons with caramel, mango pate fruit and Sakura financiers.
CONTACT
La Mer
Halekulani
2199 Kālia Road, Honolulu
808-518-2019
halekulani.com/dining/la-mer
Open 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. (last seating 8:30 p.m.) Tuesdays to Saturdays
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Kelli Shiroma Braiotta can be reached at kelli@alohastatedaily.com.
