I had read repeatedly that Merriman’s restaurant in Waimea was the best restaurant in the Big Island, its chef having received quite a bit of recognition for his contributions to the new Hawaiian regional cuisine. I had decided against going as Waimea was a little bit out of the way for us and we had our 2.5 year-old along. So when I read that Chef Merriman had opened a cheaper, more casual restaurant at the King’s Shops shopping center in Waikoloa, just across from our hotel, we definitely wanted to go. Reviews of Merriman’s Market Cafe weren’t as positive as those of its parent restaurant, so our expectations were subdued, but we still managed to be disappointed. The service and casual trattoria atmosphere were fine, but the food was underwhelming in its quality.
We went to Merriman’s Market Cafe on a Wednesday evening at about 8:20 PM without making reservations. The patio of the restaurant (semi-opened to the King’s Shops) was packed but they had some tables inside and they were able to accomodate us there after a few minutes wait (the wait for an outside table was 40 minutes). The inside of the restaurant is busy and informal, somewhat noisy, with plenty of open windows and fans and abstract prints and boxes of pasta and other Italian products serving as decoration. It’s nice and inviting and not in the least formal – perfect for vacationers.
The brief menu concentrates on pan-Mediterranean offerings, including several fish, a few pastas and some more classical dishes. If the menu had any Hawaiian influences, I knew too little to spot them. Prices for main entrees where in the high-high teens to mid-twenties.
We decided to skip the appetizers as there was nothing compelling listed and go directly to main dishes. This was probably a mistake as the entree portions were rather small, clearly meant to be had as a part of a multi-course meal. Eating them alone left us hungry.
Mike ordered a fish tagine served on a bed of cuscus; their fish that night was mahi-mahi. He wasn’t very pleased with it, the fish had been condimented with so much harissa sauce that its was completely overwhelmed by it. You could taste nothing but the sauce. The kitchen really needs to pay more attention on matching a fish to its seasoning, and letting at least some of the fish flavor come through – unless, of course, this is exactly what they were trying to avoid. The cuscus was just cuscus.
My braised ribs were very tasty, but they had been served lukewarm. Indeed, some parts of the meat were cold and either the fat within it, or the butter with which they might have been infused, had started to congeal. There is no excuse for serving a braised dish cold, it’s slow cooked and it can be kept warm on its liquid for hours on end. Indeed, our entrees were brought to us so quickly after we ordered (within minutes) that I suspect that they had not only been pre-cooked (you expect that with slow-cooking dishes) but pre-plated. Otherwise they would have had not time to cool down so much before being served. That certainly should be a no-no for a restaurant of this or any kind.
I had been looking forward to savoring some of the braising liquid with my ribs, but very little of it came with the dish – another disappointment. The ribs were served with buttered noodles, which had been cooked al-dente (never my favorite) and had also started to congeal and stick together. Without much braising liquid to flavor them, they were a little tasteless.
Soft buns were served before the meal witha scoop of harissa, they were fine but not remarkable. Mike ordered a diet-coke but it was so flat as to make it completely undrinkable, he sent it back and got a bottled Root Beer instead.
Service was competent but rushed, our waiter didn’t enquire about our meal until we were half-way through and he then seemed uninterested in the response. We had to fetch someone else to have Mike’s drink exchanged.
All this said, I can see Merriman’s Market Cafe thriving if for no other reason than there is a distinct lack of competition in Waikoloa. Neither of the two other restaurants we visited at the King’s Shops were very good and hotel food is so overpriced as to make more reasonably priced alternatives imperative. That said, it’s sad that Chef Merriman is sullying his reputation by serving such carelessly prepared food at a restaurant with his name.
Merriman’s Market Cafe
King’s Shops
250 Waikoloa Beach Drive
Waikoloa
(808) 886-1700
Daily 7 AM – 2 PM, 5-9:30 PM
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