My friends and I heard about a hot new restaurant in SF and tried getting reservations. The online reservation system didn’t show any openings for the weekend we were there.  One friend tried calling but could only get a 5 p.m. reservation.  Thinking that we were going to be at the Bay to Breakers Expo at that time, she didn’t take it. As we talked about it over the next 48 hours, we realized how much we wanted to go there.  So we called the restaurant back to try and take the 5 p.m. reservation but of course, it was gone. We then pulled out all the stops and called, contacted them via various forms of social media and tried to get in. All we got were some tips as to how we might be able to walk in or snag a last-minute cancellation. I signed up for the last minute cancellation wait list and hoped for the best.  Somehow through some stroke of awesome Hawaiian luck, we got in.

The chef, Ravi Kapur, of Liholiho Yacht Club is named one of Food & Wine’s Best New Chefs for 2016.  At the time of this post, Liholiho is up for a James Beard Award for best new restaurant this year (2016) and won Eater SF’s Restaurant of the Year at the 2015 Eater Awards in San Francisco. According to Eater SF, Liholiho Yacht Club has been making waves since the moment it said “aloha” to the SF dining scene. Continuously packed and super buzzy, chef Ravi Kapur’s hot spot has lived up to the hype, serving inventive fare, creative cocktails, and a particularly excellent housemade spam.As we walked in, we felt the spirit of aloha. We got a table for six with a perfect view of the kitchen. I love watching the action in the kitchen.

We ordered family style and shared everything that came to our table. We ordered so many dishes.

We started with the popcorn with butter and togarashi.Also tasted the tuna poke with sesame oil, radish served on a nori cracker.

There was no way we weren’t going to order the off-the-menu housemade spam.  It had a flavor reminiscent of Portuguese sausage. Delicious!This was the tuna belly misoyaki with snow peas and a tentsuyu sauce.Since we are from Hawaii and love rice, we ordered the fried rice with bay shrimp, spam, and abalone mushrooms.This salad with marinated squid, crispy tripe, cabbage, and peanuts was yummy.I wasn’t sure about the roasted octopus served with curried raisins, castelvetrano, butterball potatoes, and fresh coriander because I am not a huge fan of raisins in my food but it was ‘ono!When the ribs came out, it felt like a Flintstones episode.  Huge ribs! These ribs were flavored with a kimchi chili sauce, delicious cauliflower, and pickled red onions.This salmon was a special of the day and I can’t remember the preparation, but it was meaty, moist, and very tasty!

We ended with dessert, of course. The baked Hawaii with pineapple ice cream was perfect to end the awesome meal.Chef Ravi was willing to take a photo with the Hilo ladies during his busy dinner service. Go visit Chef Ravi at Liholiho Yacht Club.  You won’t regret it. #GetJag