Went to E & O Trading Company for the office holiday dinner last night. Dark with earthy tones and Southeast Asian decor, this trendy Pacific-fusion restaurant takes over the empty space between Compadres’ and Borders at Ward Center once occupied by Jean-Marie Josselin’s Oahu branch of A Pacific Cafe. The server was polite and pleasant, but it seemed like the wait staff was overstretched – We would go many minutes without seeing our server on many an occasion. A brief read of the menu indicated that their culinary lean was toward South and Southeast Asia, with Indian, Indonesian, Thai, and Vietnamese influences. There were some Chinese and Japanese-inspired menu items tossed in for good measure too.
Starting in with appetizers, we ordered the Indonesian corn fritters, fried calamari, paneer-stuffed “nan”, and the satay platter. The corn fritters were not what I expected. I was imagininig bite-sized things made from cornmeal, but these came as two hamburger-bun sized discs with a dipping sauce. If you are one given to dislike corn kernels in your conrbread, stay away from these. The best description I can come up with is fried pancake batter with a can of niblets mixed in, served with a soy sauce-based dipping sauce. The calamari was good, period. Some people thought it was salty, but I didn’t detect that. The cheesy “nan” was good, but not really like any nan I’ve had before, being more thick, dense and chewy rather than the traditional light thin flatbread. There was a reddish dipping sauce (assumedly chili-based), and a yellow one (possible mango based). The yellow one was sweet and fruity. Stay away from that one and use the red one. The satay platter was hit or miss. The beef was tender and smoky. The portabello mushrooms were firm. The salmon was just perfectly rare and very fresh. The chicken was chicken. The prawns were skanky – obviously “once frozen”. They were “head-on”, but since they were not “fresh-caught”, the inside of the head had become a muddled brown liquid instead of the glistening, identifiable individual internal bits that should have been present. That funk suffusing the body of the shrimp, in addition to the lack of deveining and the dryness brought about by being “previously frozen”, yeilded something rather unappealing.
For the entree, I got the daily special duck. It was prepared “roasted”, but I’m guessing pan-seared and then finished in the oven. It was lightly flavored with “Anise and Chinese 5-spices” – isn’t Anise one of the 5? Oh well, whatever. The plating was pretty, with an enormous plate drizzled with various exotic flavored oils, unidentifiable crispy tendrils, and a mango compote. The duck was placed atop a bed of baby kai choi set on a base of flavored long-grain non-sticky rice. The whole stack was surrounded by a piece of banana leaf to support it. The duck was perfectly cooked, but the spicing was just a bit too subtle. The quantity was definitely a surprise. For $24, I’d expect a bit more than a single duck breast half the size of my palm. That’s OK – it left room for dessert.
Dessert was definitely the highlight. I had the Chocolate Silk Cake which was served with a scoop of espresso gelato. Plated with a chocolate drizzle and a few raspberries, the soft cake lived up to its “silk” moniker, melting at mouth temperature and releasing its bittersweet bouquet. I can’t say enough about this dessert (except maybe it would have gone great with some good coffee – had I even been offered the opportunity to order any). Sara W. had the cake too and concurred that it was the bees knees. Christian and Andy had the special bread pudding and ate about a third of it and the accompanying “Indonesian coffee sauce” – if that says anything. Jeff W. had the second dessert on the menu and liked it – for the life of me, I can’t remember what it was, but that was my second choice. It was creamy and served in a Martini glass…
A few of the dinner attendees said they had better food and service at this establishment on previous visits. There were some timing issues, like one satay platter coming out about half-an-hour after the first, and two people ordering the “spicy seafood curry” and one getting theirs at the beginning of the entree service, and the other coming out 15-minutes later (and cold). I don’t fault our server – I get the impression she was actually trying to do her best given the circumstances. I think it’s an organazational issue in the kitchen that’s at fault.
In general, I’d say give them a chance. Food wise, it was spotty – it would be hard to give a blanket recommendation, like “stay away from the seafood”, since half of it was really good, and the other half was rubbish. The prices are generally high for the quantity and quality (preparation quality or ingredient quality – you choose: it’s either one or the other that is lacking on any given occasion). The salads are super-tiny, even the >$5USD ones. I’d almost have to say go eat somewhere else, then go here for dessert and fruity cocktails and atmosphere.
Two-and-a-half Monkeys out of four
Here’s some little post-script notes:
The special that wasn’t the duck was a “whole wok fried snapper”. One of the other tables ordered it. When I was walking by on the way to the bathroom, I caught a whiff of that “not fresh fish stank” that turned my stomach. Guess where the smell came from…
When we were leaving, the Asian hostess didn’t even acknowledge us. She had said, “good night – come again,” to all the predominantly-caucasian groups leaving before us… WTF?!
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