Monday, 23 November 2009

• J.J. French Pastry

  3447 Waialae Ave
  Honolulu, HI 96816
  808-739-0993
  http://www.jjfrenchpastry.com

  Most of the local restaurants are far from the tourist area of Waikiki Beach so you'll need a car, taxi, or lots of patience with the public transit.  Unfortunately I did the public transit and spent a lot of time walking.  The restaurant I had been planning to visit was closed even enough their posted hours on their door said they were supposed to be open.  This was the second restaurant I made a considerable effort to visit to only find out it was closed.  I suggest calling ahead to any restaurant you plan to visit in Hawaii. 

  I was not looking forward to walking 45 more minutes on an empty stomach so we found the closest thing that wasn't something we'd typically eat:

  

  The basic interior:

  

  The interior is mix of everything making it just a big confusion.  You have classy soft pastel paintings of French chefs with French foods and a nice dark wood effiel tower design around the door ways.  However this is thrown into confusion with a large dark circular wooden Asian or Indian-like wall ornament, blinking Christmas lights all over the restaurant, and really cheap plastic chair seats (you can see some of it at the bottom right of my above photo).  Water is served in colored cups.

  Fisherman Pot Pie - pastry puff with seafood in green curry:

  

  I could count the seafood I got: 2 mid-sized scallops, 3 small shrimps, 2 small slices of salmon which 1 had a bone.  The vegetables were fresh and crunchy.  Just not a lot of it.  The pastry puff was very crispy and light.  The green curry was light and generally watery but had enough flavor to make things taste good.  Too bad my bottom pastry got hard and soggy with the curry.  This dish was priced very low for a seafood dish at $11.95 but the corners they had to cut to get that price was not good.  I would've preferred they charged $5-8 and do it right.

  Lao Pot Pie - Chicken, potatoes, carrots with Ragu sauce served on puff Pastry shell:

  

  There was too much vinegar in the tomato sauce.  Chicken pieces were small, hard, and overcooked.  It tasted like microwaved food.

  Probably the stronger sides of JJ French Pastry are their desserts:

  

  Their signature dessert is the chocolate pyramid which, in retrospect, I should've ordered but I had a few nights of chocolate molten lava cakes so I needed a day off from chocolate.

  Chocolate Lilikot:

  

  I still ordered chocolate but this was a lot lighter on the chocolate and more on the mousse.  Priced well at $3.95, it's a basic orangely mousse with a dry cake bottom that had very little chocolate flavor. 

  The walk to the washroom:

  

  There's one more hallway after that turn that looks just as bad as this hallway.  You even see a door opened looking into the back of the loading area.  The bright newspaper reviews really don't brighten up this hallway enough.

  The food is medocre but saved by only the light fluffy pastry.  It's priced low but I guess you get what you pay for.  I would've gladly spent more to get something much better.  The inside is a confusion of decorations and the hallway to the washroom is not pleasing to the eyes.  The only thing that saves this restaurant is the friendly and nice family owners of the restaurant.  They were easy to talk to definitely helped me out to get a cab.  I'd visit again to try their chocolate pyramid and pastries but I'd avoid dinner.

  Tummy Points: 2.5 out of 5

  

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