XO Seafood Restaurant

This review is a "first taste".  XO Seafood Restaurant only recently opened and when I stopped by with a friend, the dish that I had wanted to try, was already sold out.  The restaurant is clean and the interior is unlike most Chinese restaurants that you're likely to encounter here. 

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Located at the former Dunkin' Donuts site across from the Hawaii Convention Center, XO Seafood Restaurant opened quietly within the last couple of weeks.  I stumbled upon this place, by accident, while driving down Kapiolani Boulevard on the way home from shopping at Ala Moana.  I called a friend, who quickly came down to meet me for dinner.

Since it was already 9:00 pm, I wasn't surprised to find very few diners in the back of the restaurant where I was seated.  There was a nice sized crowd up front though, and by the time my friend arrived, I had looked over the menu and decided on a dish to order.  Sadly, when I made an attempt to order one of the house specialties, the Mongolian lamb ribs, I was told that they were already sold out for the day.

Not one to give up, I looked over the menu a while longer before making my selections.  The first dish to arrive, about 15 minutes later, was the crispy sweet and sour fish fillet (US$8.00).

Pieces of fish were battered and deep fried until golden brown.  They were served on a plate that had been coated with sweet sour sauce.  Taking the first bite, I discovered that the pieces of fish weren't crunchy at all, even though they were still extremely hot.  The sauce was thick, gooey and extra sweet with almost no sourness to be found.

When we were three quarters of the way done with the fish, the next dish arrived at the table -- Chinese broccoli stir fry with crispy fish chips (US$8.00).

Now when I saw this on the menu, I thought it sounded interesting.  I was more curious about the crispy fish chips than anything else.  When the plate had finally made it to the table, I discovered a mix of broccoli AND Chinese broccoli (gai lan).  When I questioned the server, he told me that they didn't have enough Chinese broccoli to provide me with a full serving.  After eating a few of the "woody" stems of Chinese broccoli, I happened upon a few "burnt" tasting crispy fish chips, which were no more than flattened pieces of dried fish that had been fried.

And finally, the last dish that we ordered was the three flavor chicken casserole (US$9.00).

Arriving just as were finishing the two previous dishes, this dish arrived at the table in a small pot. We were served the equivalent of approximately 1/2 a small chicken  and there were bones here that had been crushed to tiny pieces, making this dish a challenge for us to eat.  Flavored with soy sauce, whole cloves of garlic and lots of fresh basil, I throughly enjoyed the flavors of this dish, even though I found it salty.

Even though there were lots of employees around the restaurant, the service was quite slow.  Food took a long time to come out from the kitchen, and water was refilled only once during the hour we spent there.  The food seemed a bit average overall -- some of it was overcooked, some of it was undercooked, and some of it was over seasoned.  All in all, this time around, I was slightly disappointed. 

XO Seafood Restaurant
1718 Kapiolani Boulevard
Telephone:  808.942.2020

Comments

[sherry]

supposedly they have some kind of special "xo" sauce that i hope you'll be able to try on your next visit. just found your website by the way and absolutely love it.

[Marvo]

I pass by this restaurant every time I head home from work. How's the parking? Can you park in the Quicksilver store parking lot? Also do you miss the Dunkin' Donuts that was there before?

[FatMan Seoul]

Was it any good?

[Kirk]

Hi Reid - The portions look kind of small. Bummer that they were sold out of what you wanted.

[milgwimper]

Hmmm I have to say the serving looks a little small, but what I really want to know is how did everything taste. :)

[Reid]

Hi Sherry,

Welcome to my blog and thank you for the compliment on the site.

After having dinner there, I mentioned my visit to one of my co-workers. She told me about the special "XO" sauce that is used there, so I'm definitely going to have to go back.

Hi Marvo,

Thank you for stopping by the blog and for leaving me a comment.

You are able to park in front of Quiksilver as long as the store is closed. Miss Dunkin' Donuts? I wasn't really a fan...

Hi FatMan,

Nice to hear from you again!

The food was average, but I'm thinking that since they were only open for a couple of weeks at most, there were still kinks that needed to be worked out. I'll be back again in a couple of months. I'll be sure to let you know how it goes then.

Hi Kirk,

The portion of chicken was quite small, but the three dishes were enough for the two of us.

Yeah, it was a bummer about the Mongolian lamb ribs...I really wanted to try those.

Hi Milgwimper,

The servings weren't extremely small, but they were just right, I would say. Any more, and I would have certainly overstuffed myself. =P

The food here was just OK. I'll be back for a second helping in a couple of months after the dust settles.

[Julia]

Hi Reid,
I think they definitely have lots of kinks to iron out. Not enough Chinese broccoli? They should at least have asked you if it was ok to substitute part of the serving with broccoli. I also don't quite like the sound of the thick, gooey sweet and sour (apparently not) sauce.

[Kirk]

Hi Reid - I agree with Julia; substituting/cutting regular broccoli to stretch GaiLan seems to be in bad taste. If the restaurant would do that without telling you, or hoping that it would fool you would make me wonder what other "corners" are being cut.

[MBS]

You know, it seems that the Chinese restaurants back home are always "okay" compared to the Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese places. Why is that?

[Reid]

Hi Julia,

I think they have a lot of work ahead of them. When the gai lan dish was placed on the table the waiter let me know about the substitution. I didn't mind, but I was a little peeved because a lot of the gai lan that was on the plate seemed old.

As for the sauce, it was almost as thick as molasses. I think they used too much cornstarch to thicken it. Too bad.

Hi Kirk,

I couldn't agree with you more. And to think the owner of this place used to own Won Kee.

Hi MBS,

I kind of think that too. And really, I have no explanation for it. Maybe it's because most people don't mind, as long as the food is cheap. Who knows...

[boo_licious]

When I saw the sauce for the fish - I thought they had poured chilli sauce on the plate for you. Looked really bad and I will hate it if they give me woody stems for my veges.

Hope the XO sauce is much better.

[Reid]

Hi boo_licious,

I think I'm going to have to try something made with the XO sauce next time. Funny thing is that I don't recall seeing anything like that on the menu.

*sigh*

[happyoblivion]

We went and it took us an hour to get us our food. During this time, they totally ignored us. Food was okay, but I definitely wouldn't go back since they don't seem to care about their customers.

[Reid]

Hi Happyoblivion,

Thanks for dropping by the blog.

An hour?!?! I can't believe it took that long. When I was there, the dining room wasn't too crowded so Raymond Chau came by the table several time to chat. I'm almost certain that one of the waiters saw me taking pictures.

The food, in my opinion, was just OK. I can't believe what the press is saying though.

I'm going to try and go back to see if anything has changed since my first visit. If not, I definitely won't go back.

[Mai Ling]

My personal 10 comments about XO

First the things that need work:

1. The dishes come in odd sorts of orders. You might get your apitizer after you get the main dish. Very often one party is given food and the other party has nothing to eat and has to watch.

2. They have a bad habit of "substituting" main dishes without telling you until the dish arrives. So they serve say your freind, then they ask if its all right to give you the replacement dish that they are holding.

3. The tea system is not cleaned or maintained well. It often makes your mouth and teeth taste "dry" which means its been boiled too long or old tea is mixed in with new.

4. They absolutely do not recogize return customers with any type of nicer portions, free apetizer or the like. In short loyalty is not rewarded in any way.

5. They have problems with their CD music system. Some days there is no music, some days its american songs or japanese or chinese, or classical. It seems to depend on who works the counter that day as for the type of music or if the place just gets dead quiet for a while.

6. The dishes do come cold at times, and sometimes taste like they have been overheated or burned also.

7. Unfortunately, like many chinese places now, no matter how much food you order you still have to pay for white rice. So if you order 60 bux worth of food, expect to pay for the white rice to go with your dish.

8. They use "jasmine??" rice and it doesn't work well with many of the dishes. Jasmine is just too mushy and soft and not really good standard rice for a chinese food place especially since many of the dishes are already wet.

9. You have to ask for condiments, which seems strange. And the salt and pepper shakers are rarely filled.

10. The table cloths are often stained because they are white and the food stains cannot be removed.

11. (bonus complaint) The skimping on food shows. Fillings are small amounts, shrimps used in dishes are scarce and the food is very carefully rationed to save cost.

Things I like about XO,but with reserverations:

1. The wait staff (except the really young people) are very courteous. They all have a very good disposition. The young people are too young and goofy to work there. They don't "fit" into the environment, more in a rock band.

2. The food is of a "fair" value for the waikiki area, but not good. You can't leave for under 30 unless you really try.

3. Paying for steamed rice stinks but it "is" unlimited once you pay. Still it should be free.

4. You dont have to pay for tea. Too bad its of a low quality leaf. I can't quite place it. Its not jasmine for sure, and its not of a good quality oolong. It seems to just be low quality brand.

5. This place is overall clean and good looking. Its not "too" modern, but tasteful. They "used" to do fruit displays and such but seemed to have given up on that which is a shame.

All in all, this place just BADLY needs a real general manager, who understands respecting return clients and who has had some fine dining experience.

It does seem the owner is starting to tire of the whole thing and the quality "is" dropping, which is a shame.

[Bianca]

My friend and I went to the restaurant recently and I was actually very pleased. Yeah so the waiters are Chinese and can't speak English very well. I still thought the service was good and they were very friendly. They always made sure everything was okay. I ordered three dishes.. the assorted shellfish over funn noodles, steamed fish, and the 8 treasure tofu casserole. If you are a seafood lover, the assorted shellfish is something you should order. I saw several other customers order it which is why I decided to try it. The presentation just made it look very appetizing. The dish contained scallops, crab, shrimp, squid, clams, and fish mixed with XO sauce over funn noodles. It was quite tasty. The steamed fish and tofu casserole were enjoyable as well. No complaints. Another thing I really liked was that the price was very reasonable. Yeah so you have to pay for rice.. it's a family style restaurant. Besides it's all you can eat rice for just $1.50. I also heard the black bean crab is good.. so I will probably go back sometime soon to try it.

[Irene]

Thanks to everyone's negative feedback, we had a wonderful lunch yesterday. The restaurant and bathroom is very clean (whew!); it was nice and quiet (no clanging of pots and pans and no talking story amongst the waitresses); the table cloths were nice and white; the tea actually tasted like tea (not watered down like most restaurants) & the teapot was clean & we had several refills; the jasmine rice was not mushy at all (you have to pay for rice at most restaurants anyways); service was awesome (the owner stopped by, the waitress was so friendly & brought lots of napkins & they changed our plates several times); and with all this service, the price was reasonable and the food was yummy and hot. The peking duck wasn't greasy, the pork chop was soft, & the calamari was different (which is great) and tasty. We will definitely be back to try the other dishes. The food was tasty, different, and didn't leave you feeling like a grease ball.