Ono Hawaiian Cafe turns successful Kanak Attack catering business into a restaurant
February 23rd, 2008, 6:34 am Hobbies And Interests
Once in a great while, you run across a taste sensation that leaves you struggling to describe it. You want to do it justice, to give it that absolutely dead-on, oh, yeah, nailed it, perfectly worded thumbs up.After gnoshing a few meals at Ono Hawaiian Cafe, it was a done deal. Literally. The name of the place says it all: “ono” means delicious in Hawaiian. Michael Mohica’s restaurant, open for lunch and dinner, is an offshoot of his wildly successful Kanak Attack Catering Service, which specializes in bringing a Hawaiian luau, complete with hula dancers, to your door. The restaurant and catering service share quarters on Broadway in the old Berryhill %26 Co. digs.’BOOK UM DANNO’Executive chef Mohica says opening the restaurant is just the beginning. Seems folks are crazy about it - at the grand opening, 300 to 500 were expected; a whopping 3,000 showed up.”We’re doubling our business every month,” Mohica says. “We’ve got too long of a line at lunch and on weekends. We don’t have enough seats.”To keep the hungry hordes at bay, he’s already added a Kanak Attack kiosk at Bogus Basin’s Nordic Lodge on weekends, and there are plans for more at Boise State University and Downtown. This spring, the restaurant will add Aloha Fridays, featuring Hawaiian food specials, hula dancers and musicians from Hawaii and a Hawaiian-infused brunch menu, complete with a SPAM station. “You’ve got to pay respect to Hawaii,” Mohica says, laughing.KANAK ATTACK ‘DA BOMB’Mohica, 30, hails from Oahu and graduated from the culinary arts program at Boise State University in 2000. Kanak Attack literally means “when the food is so good, it makes you want to take a nap.” It was one of Mohica’s school projects that just took off. Mohica has stamped several menu items with the moniker that everybody seems to like to say.”Anything we name ‘Kanak Attack,’ those are always the most popular,” Mohica says. At Ono, which has a lot of fish - think ahi - and a full sushi menu at night, all the seafood is flown in daily from Hawaii. To keep the island spirit going, Mohica paid tribute to Hawaiian places where he grew up, as well as surfing and plain ol’ Hawaiian trivia. There’s “Wipe out” and “Book um Danno,” salads; “Sunset Beach,” “Waimea Bay” sandwiches; and a slew of burgers are named for - and spiced in honor of - the islands.”These are all the flavors I grew up with,” Mohica says. It’s a fusion of cultures - Hawaiian, Philippine, Japanese, Chinese and Korean - from people who came together “back in the day, in the sugar cane fields during lunch hour.”ONO, I’M HAVING A KANAK ATTACKMy husband, Bob, and I stopped in twice at Ono’s - once for lunch, once for dinner. The two menus are totally different and crowded with possibilities - one regular said he’s ticking off each item, lunching at Ono’s at least twice a week.By the way, the place is a blend of tiki and minimal elegance - which makes it feel kind of like you’re on a big date in Hawaii.For lunch, after eavesdropping on a few other orders, I pulled a “Harry and Sally” and ordered “Pearl City,” grilled Kalbi short ribs, basted in a Kona lager beer, slathered in tangy sauce and served with Ono’s signature coconut infused rice, the Hawaiian style macaroni salad as my side.Bob got the “Hukilau,” a Kalua pig pulled-pork sandwich with a bourbon pineapple sauce and horseradish aioli, Maui onions, Kauai tomatoes and lettuce; “Gnarly fries” - a crunchy mix of yam and Idaho potato fries on the side.About 10 minutes later, our plates were clean.”Maybe they call this Kalua pig sandwich because you can’t help but make a Kalua pig of yourself when you eat it,” Bob said.All I can say is, the ribs were finger-lickin’ good and, oh, they make that macaroni salad so “ono.”When we returned for a nocturnal visit, we went hog-wild (sorry).First, I have to give a shout-out to Mik Lose, our impeccable server. Lose doubles as a hula dancer, and here’s a fun fact: He just graduated from BSU. He played fullback for the Broncos and his final game was at the Hawaii Bowl. How does he like working at Ono?”I’d sleep here if I could. It’s a great place to work.”The dinner menu consists of sushi, PuPu platters and poke (a sort of Hawaiian ceviche). It’s all finger food and fun.We started off with a Kanak Attack sushi roll, an inside-out version crammed with ahi, salmon, crab, shrimp, lobster, barbecue eel, cream cheese, scallions and furikake (a Hawaiian condiment). It came plated as a domino-stack, sprinkled with a shimmer of red, black and green Tobiko. Lose kept the food flowing. After sushi, we tried Wok Seared Ahi Poke - seared ahi tuna loin, marinated in a yummy sauce with fresh ginger, shoyu, scallions, soy and more.It was a dish right out of the pages of a foodie mag, confettied with thin ribbons of sauce, the ahi molded into a circular tower, interlaced with crunchy seaweed.It was really de-lish, but personally, I like my seared ahi ruby red or pink in the middle. I’ll try the Shoyu Poke (with raw ahi) next time.”Da King” Crab Rangoon with Tangerine Fire Sauce was next. Plump fried dumpling pillows filled with Alaskan King crab and Asiago, smoked Swiss, cream cheese, scallions and ginger. Out of this world.We ended with two more we couldn’t resist: Macadamia nut-crusted chicken with Tonkatsu sauce and “Da Bomb” lobster rolled in sweet coconut on lemongrass skewer with tropical fruit salsa.The tender, juicy chicken came skewered and bejeweled with the crunchy nut crust. The Colonel would weep.My favorite, though, was the lobster. The sweet tails, coated with coconut and deep fried, peeking out from under a drizzle of mango, cantaloupe, kiwi, honeydew, pineapple and Serrano pepper salsa, sitting on chewy plantain chips had me at “hello.” Jeanne Huff: 377-6483
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