Restaurant: Brown’s Beach House Restaurant
Location: 1 N Kaniku Dr, Waimea, HI 96743. (808) 887-7368
Date: April 2 & 5, 2019
Cuisine: International American
Rating: Good hotel food
This write up is from our five day early April 2019 visit to the Big Island of Hawaii.
Brown’s Beach House is the “top” restaurant at the Fairmont Orchid. “Top” in the sense that they have a bunch of more casual places and the 1-2 more serious ones.
It’s located down by the beach, with outside dining and a great view of the water and sunset.
The menu.
Breads I couldn’t eat (doing low carb).
Mai Tai (breaking the low carb). Very nice classic Mai Tai though.
Tomato and Strawberry Gazpacho. Pickled Waimea strawberry, cucumber, garden basil.
Miso Sake Clams. Clams, pork belly, miso sake broth, shimeji mushroom, green onion. Very nice appetizer of clams and “bacon”. Good slightly Thai, slightly Japanese flavors (lemongrass, maybe?).
Ahi Caesar Salad. organic gem lettuce, parmesan reggiano, bubu arare. My wife didn’t like the salad so deconstructed like this.
Kekela Farms Beet Salad. Goat cheese fritter, candied mac nuts, citrus herb vinaigrette.
Plain pasta for the boy.
Roasted Garlic and Cilantro Prawns. Maui onion, Waimea tomatoes, crostini (asked to leave it off). Shrimp were nice gambas pil pil style shrimp, just not that many of them.
King Crab crusted Kampachi. Hamakua mushroom, asparagus, sweet potato, poha berry sauce. A touch dry, but not bad.
Big Island Ka’u Coffee Venison. Carrot puree, honey mac nut tuile, tamarind sauce. Rich deep meat, but properly rare.
Chocolate chip cookie chocolate ice cream “sandwich.”
Shortbread cookies.
Matcha shortbread cookies.
The atmosphere at Brown’s is great, although it certainly screams hotel (as does everything on the Big Island’s resorty west coast). Service was good. I give them some credit for using local and Hawaiian ingredients in the food. And the menu design is good. Execution is good but not amazing or anything. Not bad or sloppy, but doesn’t feel like a perfectly on point kitchen either.
