Friday, December 2, 2011

Friday: I don't think I'm unreasonably picky

I would have pictures here, but my phone decided it'd be cool to do that thing where it pretends to take a picture, but then doesn't.

Since I've had way too much turkey recently, and plan on having more turkey this weekend, I wanted something different for dinner.  I've been kind of in a pizza mood since always, and decided to drive out to the Kona Brewing Company restaurant way over in Hawaii Kai.  My thought was to get a calzone, and have leftovers to eat for lunch tomorrow.  I arrived, and when I noticed that calzones weren't listed on the menu, asked, and was assured that they still make them, they just don't list them anymore.  Odd.

I started with the "Roasted Garlic Pupu," which had a nice half loaf of bread with two heads of roasted garlic and a melted Gorgonzola dip.  Very delicious, with the cheese being on the mild side of Gorgonzola, which blended nicely with the garlic.  Excellent start to the dinner.

Then things kind of went off track.

I was about halfway through the appetizer when my calzone arrived.  The online menu notes that calzones take thirty minutes to prepare.  At this point, it'd only been about 15-20 minutes since I ordered, which I thought was a bit odd.  I'd ordered the "Honaunau," which included mozzarella, smoked mozzarella, "Parmesan sausage," mushrooms, and just for funsies, more garlic.  I could see the sausage pouring out of the cut, which looked very good.  I noticed that the top was a bit burnt, but it didn't look too bad.  However, I then stabbed a bit of sausage, and discovered that it was cold.

A bit more poking and prodding led me to the conclusion that the reason it came out so fast was that they'd cooked it wrong.  Because the heat was too high, the outside started to burn before the inside had had a chance to cook fully.  Even the cheese on the inside wasn't melted.  I finished the rest of the appetizer, glad that I'd decided to get that in addition to the calzone.

When the waitress returned, I let her know, and she took it back to be boxed up (as it could easily be fixed in the leftovers phase).  The manager brought it back, and let me know that "the oven was too hot."  Yes, sure, but that's not the actual problem.  The kitchen is supposed to have someone checking that they're cooking things correctly.  If they can't actually cook something (say, calzones because they have the oven turned up too high all the time), then they shouldn't try.  If they do, then they're just going to end up buying me the calzone they can't cook.

In any case, I'm somewhat hesitant to go back.  Part of the reason for this visit was to see if it would be the kind of place to take my parents when they visit.  I've had good luck with their seafood before, so it's possible that as long as we stay away from the calzones, it'll still work.

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