Breakfast is not that interesting. Many breakfasts, no matter where in the world you are, will be similar. In fact, there are only a few times I will go somewhere for breakfast:
- to experience some sort of local culture related to breakfast
- as a “party brunch”
I prefer simple breakfast. Coffee and fruit or a pastry like a croissant or nothing at all. Hawaii is a place I tend to deviate from this plan. Being born in the Philippines, having spam for breakfast is a reminder of my childhood (not to mention its delicious and good for your soul). I guess its part of my #1 above.
Anyway, we decided to check out Basalt which is located inside Dukes Lane Market as it was beside the hotel. We started with a papaya which was served with lemon. The server told us this was the way locals liked it. It was interesting and brought out the flavors of the papaya (I also like salt on some of my fruit like pineapples). Anyway, the colors of this simple dish were beautiful:
For main, I had the loco moco. Traditionally in Hawaii, this is white rice, a hamburger patty, a fried egg and gravy. In this case it was a wagyu patty (dry), on bacon fried rice (good), and mushroom gravy (good). Overall, the dish was good but I think that if you are into Hawaiian food, or are a local, there are probably places to get a better one for less cost. There are some dishes that just don’t do well when made fancy because the original “street” version has way more soul, flavor and is cheaper. I think this is one of those dishes.
My wife had the charcoal buttermilk pancakes which were unique in color.
Overall, service was good, but I probably would not return. It a nice place to go have a sit down breakfast, but you can also grab some spam musubi from the market that the restaurant is in and head to the beach or find a local hole in the wall. There are also a number of popular brunch/buffets which we were not able to book.