Chef Mavro restaurant

If you are a foodie, then this is your place. If you are simply looking for a nice meal, I'd pass on this restaurant. Food was interesting, fresh and local but not exceptional on flavorful and there was continuous pressure to order more. They emphasized, rightfully, that portions were small and repeatedly asked if you needed more or if you were ordering enough. With a small salad (15), fish dish (32) and fresh vegetable side (12), my $60 meal was not very filling, but I didn't see a reason to get more at that price. I would have given 3.5 stars if it was an option but 4 is fair when you factor in service. I have to say the level of service was exceptional! Staff are knowledgeable and kind with wonderful attention to the details.

A Chef friend of mine used to work here and highly recommended I stop by; this was the best decision I’ve made all week. Do yourself a Favor if you’re in Honolulu and get the Grand Tasting Menu & Wine Pairing. Not only is the food hyper Local and fresh, the wine pairing takes it to the next level. I’m already planning to come back; it’s worth it. Take yourself and your hunny out for a special occasion and you can take the credit. ;) thanks Chef Mavro + team!! What a stellar performance!!

A seven course meal that was underwhelming at best. Microscopic portions that were both pretentious in their description and disappointing in their taste. For example, the lobster was rubber and the beef vitually raw. The waiters and waitresses were polite, kind, and friendly. However, this very positive part of the dining experience failed to offset an otherwise mediocre menu.

I admit, I am more quantity over quality, so this place is a bit lost on me. A little pricey in my opinion too. I'm just not this bougoir.

Why 1 star: (1) there was hair in the main course that totally disgusted our appetite and ruined our anniversary dinner (2) there was no apology from the kitchen. In fact it felt like we were more sorry for them than they were (3) we paid for whatever we had up to that point in the dinner (2 appetizers worth $40. we decided to skip all the rest of the dinner). The house did not attempt to make any offer to compensate. Full story: My wife and I were very looking forward to having our anniversary dinner at this restaurant. We just flew from Maui in the evening and arrived at the restaurant at 8:34pm. It was Wednesday and the restaurant was quite empty. Hostess greeted us and congratulated our anniversary after presenting the dinner menus. We were a little surprised to learn that seating depends on which menu we choose (9 course prix-fix or small plates menu). We felt the 9 course would take too long to finish so we decided to go for the small plates menu. Our waitress congratulated us again for our anniversary and introduced the dishes. Our final selections were: seasonal salad, “2 lady farmers” pork, foie gras parfait, bouillabaille, perigord truffle risotto, cream corn, and one big plate to share: onaga baked in a salt crust. Total spending expected ~ $400. Waitress served house baguette and seaweed butter first. We then had salad and parfait. After that, we were served with the big plate to share (10 oz snapper baked in a salt crust). Our server cut it into halves and topped them with sauce. The cream corn came around the same time. So far so good. Just as we started on the fish, my wife discovered a hair from under the fish steak which was both surprising and very, very disgusting. We called our waitress as soon as we found it and explained the situation. She apologized and brought all our plates back to the kitchen. At that point we were completely shocked as this was the first time ever that we found hair in our dish, and it was at a well reviewed, upscale restaurant. We then heard there was a loud, but somehow amusing “oh no” voice from the back of the kitchen. After another few minutes, waitress came, apologized and asked if we want a new plate of the fish or continue the rest of the dishes. During the entire time, only the waitresses came and talked with us. Neither the chef or the man who cut the fish for us showed up, let alone to apologize for anything. Totally disgusted, we decided to skip the rest of dinner. And then we were “greeted” with the check that summarized the cost for the first 2 appetizers and the hot tea we had. It was just $40 or so, but we were very, very astonished that the house did not even attempt to make up for the terrible experience. Of course, at this point no one seemed to recall that it was our anniversary dinner anymore (they greeted us twice as we got seated earlier). We paid the check (left 18% tips) and promptly left the house. This was our worst dining experience ever. It was for our special occasion but we were left with disgusted appetite, empty stomach and we really felt like a fool. Having clean food is a basic for any restaurant, more basic than taste or service, but Chef Mavro failed on this. Moreover, our feeling of being ignored, and the fact that we were charged as much as it was possible, made us to believe that this is could be happening quite often at this restaurant and the chefs are not sorry about it at all. And apparently this is not anything about the locality either. Having dined at other upscale restaurants in Honolulu, we felt we were absolutely not coming back again. We are not active reviewers but we decided to leave this review to help other first time diners set the right expectation and hopefully the restaurant could learn something and do better, if similar incidents will happen again (quite likely!) Review also left on yelp and open table.