Liholiho Yacht Club

Photo by Connor Bruce

Liholiho Yacht Club, Dinner, Lower Nob Hill
May 6, 2016

P&J:
fried oyster, beef carpaccio, 1000 island, butter lettuce
duck liver toast, jalapeno, pickled pineapple
marinated squid, crispy tripe, cabbage, peanuts
hopper shrimp, miso avocado, walnuts, kumquat
roasted octopus, curried raisins, castelvetrano, butterball potatoes, fresh coriander
asparagus in parchment, bone marrow bearnaise, brioche
grilled shortrib, escargot, bone marrow, mushrooms, leeks, fresh horseradish
butter mochi

Cocktails:
Castaway - Hidalgo Manzanilla, Green Chartreuse, Salted Falernum
Coconut Telegraph - Banks 5 Island Rum, Coconut Syrup, lime
Yacht Club Fancy - Plantation Pineapple Rum, Amaro Nonino, Hidalgo Manzanilla


Notes:
This place is out of control popular right now.  It's practically impossible to get a reservation before 10 pm, even on a week night, and when I called to ask how long the wait would be without a reservation, I was told 2-3 hours.  I'm sorry, what?  But we went anyway, with a 10 pm reservation on a Wednesday night; I've been dying to try the place.

The food here is influenced and inspired by Hawaiian, Indian and Chinese foods and flavors, and yes, they even have Spam (relax, Patrick, it's house made).  The restaurant, with its soaring ceilings and varying colors and textures, feels full of energy and warmth; next time, we'll try to grab a table next to the open kitchen.

Liholiho has one of those menus that I find overwhelming, in that I want one of everything.  But, with a party of 3 (a friend joined us), we were able to try a good deal of the menu, so crisis averted (MORE!!).  We started with the "fried oyster, beef carpaccio, 1000 island, butter lettuce" - this read like a salad to me, but it arrived as 3 crisp butter lettuce cups each filled with a cornmeal-fried oyster, a generous dab of 1000 island, and a thin slice of beef carpaccio (raw beef, essentially).  It was delicious, but the beef got lost in the mix, and we felt like this would have been just as good without it.  The duck liver toast was a bit of a misnomer.  The slightly sweet, soft and thick-cut oatmeal bread was barely toasted and layered with a rich and smooth duck liver pate, tangy pickled pineapple relish and fresh herbs.  I was first disappointed by the toast not being toast, but the flavors and soft textures were so good together, I had no trouble finishing the last bite.

The marinated squid dish, a salad really, had a discernibly strong Southeast Asian influence, it seemed a take on the Burmese ginger salad.  Crispy shredded cabbage, crunchy little bits of fried tripe, squid, peanuts, fish sauce, lime - it was packed with flavor yet incredibly light and refreshing, the kind of thing I'd love to eat on the regular.  Next was the hopper (aka pink) shrimp with miso avocado.  The shrimp were beautifully cooked, plump and succulent, the kumquats were nicely candied, the avocado perfectly ripe, but the individual components didn't come together for me on this one; I couldn't find the harmony.  The roasted octopus course resulted in a split decision at the table.  Patrick and friend did not find the curried raisins and castelvetrano olives necessary or even agreeable, and it more or less ruined this dish for them.  I was loving it.  Super tender octopus and crispy, craggy smashed and fried new potatoes sat atop a generous swath of cilantro-heavy mayo.   I didn't at all find the olives or raisins to be an unwelcome distraction, but instead little briny and sweet-tart accents to and otherwise rich dish.

The asparagus in parchment was nice, even with no discernible flavor of bone marrow in the bearnaise.  A wedge of lemon was served alongside, and the dish perked up considerably with it's juice, which left us wondering why it hadn't been incorporated into the sauce by the kitchen.  And because you can never have too much marrow, we ordered the grilled shortrib.  This dish didn't wow for me.  The beef approached medium, overcooked in my view.  The escargots were nestled in the marrow bone and topped with toasted breadcrumbs, overall a little over-the-top rich.  The sauce was delicious but thin and with no bread to mop it up, it laid to waste on the plate.  My general tendency is to avoid entrees on menus these days, and this dish just reinforced that inclination.

Now, the butter mochi.  Nobody really wanted dessert, we were all done if you catch my drift, but I HAD to have the butter mochi.  I'm not really sure why, but I HAD to have it.  It arrived in a little square pyrex dish and looked something like a custard, but it cut like a firm flan (okay, yeah, that's also a custard).  It was amazing, people.  It was both chewy mochi (think soft gummy bear texture with a sweet rice flavor) and buttery soft custard, AT THE SAME TIME.  Amazing.  I loved it.  I asked to take it home, but forgot the little box and was inconsolable once I realized my mistake.  Inconsolable.  Seriously, it wasn't at all rational and I'm a little ashamed of it.


I'd like to go back to Liholiho.  I'm not sure Patrick was as enamored as I was, but if nothing else, I need more of that butter mochi.