Lanai~Lodge at Koele

Here are some pretty pictures of Lanai.

The Lodge at Koele. There's a golf course, a mini golf course, 3 croquet game areas, a game room, a music room, reading room....

Our room with a beautiful view. Equipped with a flat-screen tv, dvd player, and pretty much everything you need. Every time a maid or bellhop or anyone helped you, they knew your last name. It was crazy!

Yes, I took a picture of the bathroom. Why? I don't really know. The main thing that impressed me about the bathroom (besides the fluffy bathrobes) was that all the toiletries were from L'Occitane! I swear stocking that bathroom must run the hotel about $40. Just to give you an idea of this brands prices, I own a few lotions from this company and a 1oz hand lotion is about $10-15. Here's some pictures of the Manele Bay (the sister hotel of the Lodge at Koele). It's about a 30 minute drive from the Lodge at Koele.

Lanai~Afternoon Tea

High Tea at the Koele Lodge was one of my favorite memories from a family vacation we took to Lanai when I was little. Back then, it was a informal occasion for guests including tea, sandwiches, scones and cookies served buffet style. Oh, and it was free before too. On our honeymoon, Lauren and I decided to have tea on our last day there. We saw some people eating

delicious looking hamburgers a little while earlier, but decided to forgo a late lunch since we would be having tea. Perhaps I was just upset because I was really hungry, or because the lunch places were already closed and I kept thinking about that hamburger with avocado and bacon, but I did not have a good time. I'm always going to give my honest opinion, but to be fair here's a link to some people who did have a good time.

There were several noticeable differences in the High Tea. First off, it was now served in the Great Hall (Translation: Hotel Lobby) . Secondly, it cost $19, which is more than free. However, this still seemed reasonable to us for the whole "experience." Thirdly, the food was very elegant and dainty (Translation: limited, small, and smaller)
As you can see, the whole setup was rather fancy. I did think it was pretty cool that there were candles under the teapots. Unnecessary, but innovative. It's only a really good idea if you plan to sit and drink tea for several hours. Otherwise, it's not that vital to drinking hot tea. I think that if you did actually sit there for 3 hours or so, and the candle lasted that long, then your teapot would evaporate dry before you were done, even if you didn't drink anything. The teapots (like everything else) were small.....they're only slightly bigger than the cups themselves.
The tea service is started by picking your tea. There are all kinds of teas, and everyone gets their own teapot. Just as a side note, much of the same tea is served for free every morning in the complimentary coffee/tea station. The tea was actually pretty good, but it was no better than the one I had for free in the morning.
On to the food. For clarification, please remember that even though in the picture, the food fills up the plates, it's because all of the plates were really small. The food was also very small.
Starting with the top tier. Sandwiches. There were 3 varieties of sandwiches for our gastronomic pleasure. First (bottom), the cucumber sandwich. Tasty in my opinion. Lauren didn't like it and I ate hers. It was a paper thin slice of cucumber (so thin that there was no crunch in the cucumber) in bread with mayonnaise on it and probably some salt and pepper. Secondly (middle) there was the cheese cracker. It was cheddar cheese with apple pieces mixed in mayonnaise on a toasted (stale) piece of bread with garnishes. I like cheese, so I thought it was tasty. Again, Lauren was less than impressed, and I finished hers. Lastly, there was the smoked salmon sandwich. Nothing special here, just cream cheese, smoked salmon and bread. All in all, the sandwiches tasted good in my opinion, but were nothing special, and I was disappointed by how small they were. All of the sandwiches (Lauren's and mine) could have been made out of 1-1.5 slices of white bread. Each person gets less than 3/4 of a slice of bread.
The second tier looked more promising. Cookies, a lemon/white chocolate dessert, and chocolate. Both chocolates were pretty mediocre (Lauren and I didn't finish either). The shortbread cookies were rather good.
Lastly, the scones. What High Tea would be complete without scones? These scones weren't that great. They were very heavy, with very little taste. They were served with lemon curd, berry jam and Devonshire cream. The lemon curd and jam were very good, but it didn't make up for the rest of the Tea. Lauren licked those bowls clean (not literally), without using her scones.
This is probably the most negative blog I've written to date, and I hope the last for a while. The experience was just not up to par with what I expected.

How Much Would I Pay?

Mike: $10 because it was fancy. And only if there wasn't a Burger King around the corner.
Lauren: $14, because Tea is expensive in general. My advice is to go to Tea at 1024 instead.

Lanai~ Cafe 565

Lauren and I were going to go and eat at another fancy restaurant to celebrate our honeymoon, but we were tired, and decided to sample more of the local cuisine. We tried our luck at Cafe 565, because we saw a friendly couple eating food that looked pretty good outside. Their food, some kind of chicken sandwich and ceasar salad, looked amazing.

Here's a picture of me. As you can clearly see, I'm grumpy. It's because I'm tired and hungry. Luckily, we got our food soon after the picture was taken, and went back to our hotel room to eat and watch the Olympics.
Lauren got a Crabcake plate. It was $8.50. She thought it was pretty good. She liked it better than her fancy dinner at the "Main Dining Room." I didn't like it. It was made of breaded canned crab. They added a lot of sugar. I thought it was too sweet. It tasted like really sweet frozen shumai. Lauren really likes shumai. Also, there was no dressing on the salad.
I got a Greek calzone for $9. It looked good, but was actually (dare I say it) a little too cheesy. The first third was delicious, but it started to taste weird after that. I think it was a little too salty. There was a lot of feta mixed in with other cheeses. There were also artichokes, chicken, olives and spinach in it. Lauren liked eating the crust.

How much would I pay?

Mike: Crabcakes - $4, but I still probably wouldn't eat them, Calzone - $7.50, because it was big
Lauren: Crabcakes - $4.50, Calzone - $8

Cafe 565
408 8th St
Lanai City, Lanai, HI 96763
808-565-6622

Lanai~Blue Ginger Cafe

On our first day out and about in Lanai, Lauren and I ate at the Blue Ginger Cafe. It came highly recommended, and we were excited to go there. I had been there when I was really young, but couldn't remember anything about it.

Here's a picture of the front counter. It's a cozy little restaurant, with lots of food. It is pricey, but that's to be expected in an outer-island. A plate of chicken katsu is $10, and they don't give a lot. Lauren and I settled on fried saimin and calamari.
The fried saimin was $4. I thought it was tasty, but heavy on the sesame oil. The portion was pretty small. In flavor, Zippy's is comparable and maybe a little bit better. As much as I'm complaining about the high prices in Lanai, it probably cost the same at Zippy's.
The calamari was also $4. There were only 8 rings. That's $.50 a ring. Plus, they weren't that good. Crunchy and freshly fried, but just not that good. At least it came with lettuce!
Blue Ginger was disappointing, but maybe we should have tried a burger or a plate lunch. I guess it's also tough for them because I'm comparing them to Oahu restaurants that can afford to give far more food for the same price.


How much would I pay?

Mike: Fried Saimin - $3, Calamari - $2.50
Lauren: Fried Saimin - $4, Calamari - $4, but only because it was on Lanai. $3.50 for the saimin and $3 for the calamari if it was on Oahu

Blue Ginger Cafe
409 7th St,
Lanai City, Lanai, HI 96763
808-565-6363

Lanai~Lodge at Koele Restaurant

Lauren and I honeymooned on Lanai at the Four Season's Lodge at Koele. It was beautiful. I hear that Oprah bought out the whole place the week before for a retreat. For our "fancy" dinner," Lauren and I went to the (drum roll please!) "Main Dining Room." When I first found it online, I kept looking for the restaurant's name. 10 minutes, and one call to the Four Seasons later I was finally convinced that the "Main Dining Room," was in fact it's real name. I guess they spent so much building the rest of the resort, that they didn't have any money left over to hire someone to come up with and original name.
Our first course was an amuse bouche of cold potato cream soup with smoked salmon in it. Lauren thought it was too heavy and tasted like someone put salt in heavy cream with a few pieces of salmon, then brought it to the table. I didn't like it at first either, but I thought that the dish worked when you ate the salmon with the soup.
Lauren had pan-fried Onaga, topped with radish sprouts, on a crab artichoke slaw, in a Worcestershire sauce reduction, topped with an onion chip. Lauren really liked the slaw, and I agreed. In my opinion, the flavor was great, but the fish quality was mushy. I thought it was like eating overcooked potatoes. Lauren says, if you want to eat good fish, go to Roy's, Alan Wong's, or Nick's.
I decided to go for the gusto, and have the lobster. It was served out of its shell, in a hollandaise sauce, over mashed potatoes, garnished with asparagus, and caviar. Tasty, but small. I think there was the equivalent of 2/3 of an asparagus stalk in it, and it was a really small lobster.
Our meal was finished with a small desert for the two of us to share. Two pistachio cookies, and two chocolates. That pretty much summed up the entire meal. Nothing special. I was more tempted by the bacon and avocado burger I saw someone having the next day when we were having tea. (see other blog post)

How much would I pay?

Mike: Fish - $25 (I'd pay $42 for it if they used a quality piece of fish), Lobster - $30, Tea - until I become rich, I'll never do it again
Lauren: Fish - $20, Lobster - $25