What during its lifetime has been an ocean-front disco, a casual restaurant, a comedy club and other incarnations has been transformed again into what hotel managers hope is a one-stop restaurant idea where people can enjoy no fewer than four
What during its lifetime has been an ocean-front disco, a casual restaurant, a comedy club and other incarnations has been transformed again into what hotel managers hope is a one-stop restaurant idea where people can enjoy no fewer than four different types of cuisine in four distinct settings.
The Sheraton Kauai Resort’s Galleria of Ocean Front Dining & Entertainment celebrated its grand opening last week, offering four restaurants, all ocean-front, all side by side, but offering a variety of food choices, including Japanese, Italian and American.
The Galleria of Ocean Front Dining & Entertainment’s newest restaurant, Amor Ristorante Italiano, offers a varied menu of traditional Italian cuisine, featuring an array of pasta dishes, prosciutto, pork and veal, three types of Italian bread, special lasagna, lobster ravioli, and more.
Diners have a choice of indoor candlelight or casual, cafe-style seating.
Shells Steak & Seafood Restaurant, a relocated Naniwa Japanese Restaurant & Sushi Bar, and The Point, Cocktails, Etcetera, where new and enhanced menu items are being served, round out the choices.
The new restaurants have a new executive chef, Steven Falsetti, a master of Pacific Rim and Italian cuisine who brings his expertise to all four venues.
Formerly the executive chef of Encounters, the futuristic, space-age restaurant and icon of Los Angeles International Airport, Falsetti brings a wealth of experience in creating culinary masterpieces.
Falsetti has worked around the globe, including Bermuda, Las Vegas, Palm Springs, New York, Chicago, Cancun, Hawai’i, the Philippines, Korea, and Thailand.
It is Hawai’i, he said, where his experiences had the greatest impact on his professional development.
“Hawaiian cuisine is the result of years of mixing cultures and cuisine to fuse a Pacific-Rim style that is unique and has become very popular the world over,” he said.
Shells Steak & Seafood Restaurant has an expansive la carte menu, including a wide selection of varied cuts of steak and beef, including Black Angus filet mignon, New York strip, rib eye, T-bone and prime rib.
Traditional favorites join a brand new menu, including local seafood favorites and a fresh catch of the day local fish platter, all served with Kaua’i-grown fresh vegetables.
If something from the East sounds good, step through the noren-graced doorway to Naniwa Japanese Restaurant & Sushi Bar, which focuses on the delicacy and artistic culinary style of this Asian culture.
Chef Edwin Mizuno, master sushi creator who has over 16 years experience in the preparation of fine Japanese cuisine in Hawai’i and Japan, prepares both favorite and extraordinary sushi to order from both Kaua’i’s best selection of fresh seafood as well as specialties air shipped daily from Japan.
“Naniwa’s spectacular oceanfront setting deserves a four-star, fine-dining menu and service,” said Mizuno. “The combination makes Naniwa not only the best Japanese restaurant on the South Shore, but island-wide,” he added.
Mizuno favors the Tokyo-style, deeper-flavored recipes, and said the Naniwa menu has been enhanced with a variety of dishes, from traditional favorites like tempura and sashimi, to soft shell crab salad and otsukuri dinner with seven varieties of seafood.
The Point, Cocktails, Etcetera, the resort’s lounge, offers an 180-degree view of the ocean horizon. It also offers a nearly endless list of exotic tropical drinks, as well as a full bar and assortment of appetizers.
The Point, Cocktails, Etcetera also serves an all-day menu of fresh salads, seafood, chicken and steak sandwiches, quesadillas, and other light favorites.
Each day at 5 p.m., the resort’s torch-lighting ceremony is performed during the everyday mai tai punch hour for resort guests. Live Hawaiian music and a colorful hula show at the Point’s Terrace join the traditional atmosphere.
In the evening hours, The Point, Cocktails, Etcetera explodes with island sounds or disc jockeys spinning the latest tunes. It is one of Kaua’i’s few nightspots where live entertainment can be enjoyed from the dance floor or from your seat, with the music ranging from Hawaiian contemporary to jazz, rock and Top 40 hits.
The 413-room Sheraton Kauai Resort is located on Po’ipu Beach, and is owned by Obayashi Corporation and managed by Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Inc.
The Sheraton Kauai Resort is one of 14 Starwood Hotels in Hawai’i, including the Princeville Resort. Sheraton’s Hawai’i Web site is www.sheraton.com/hawaii.
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. is one of the leading hotel and leisure companies in the world, with more than 750 properties in more than 80 countries and 110,000 employees at its owned and managed properties.
For more information, please visit www.starwood.com.
For reservations and more information on the Sheraton Kauai Resort restaurants, please call 742-1661.
