Senia – Tasting Menu @ Chef’s Counter

 

Famous chef Anthony Rush

Senia is a fine dining restaurant in Honolulu Hawaii, with ala carte dining daily and tasting menus on Friday and Saturday nights. We chose the tasting menu, which is $275 a person before tax and tip, and $574.70 for 2 after tax and tip. The tip was a mandatory 23%.

There is just one seating per evening (Friday and Saturday only) for the tasting menu, at 6:30pm. The experience lasts a few hours and is quite enthralling. We watched as Anthony Rush magically prepared each dish in the kitchen. Anthony Rush, who is British, had experience working in famous restaurants like Per Se, Fera @ Claridge’s, and The Fat Duck (which I'm visiting later this year!).

The tasting menu changes daily. There's an optional wine pairing for $110/person. We didn't do the wine pairing, and opted for a couple of cocktails instead. The cocktails here are very fun and unique. I went with "The 007", which has a Union Jack Flag on top, paying homage to the chef's origin.

The 007

The 007 is made with Hendrick's Gin, chili vodka, cucumber, elderflower, yuzu, and egg white. This was so good.

Course 1: Spicy Tuna Taco

Spicy Tuna Taco

Spicy tuna taco with avocado and smoked trout roe. So delicious and visually very pleasing.

Before moving on to the next course, Anthony Rush presented to us some of the foods that were going to be cooked tonight, at varying stage of preparation, and detailed explanation of how everything was prepared. We have been to many tasting menus and chef's counters, but this practice is quite new to us and makes this restaurant absolutely one of the best experiences ever. 

Course 2: Senia Reserve Caviar

Senia Reserve Caviar

Senia Reserve Caviar

This dish came with house creme fraiche, sunchoke, and shiitake. Delicious and amazing presentation with the smoke and the big reveal!!

Course 3: Fish & Chips 

This dish is making fun of chef's English background. We have all heard of Fish and Chips from UK, but this is really more Hawaiian/Japanese than British. This is made wish hamachi, English pea, Banyuls vinegar. 

Course 4: Foie Gras Torchon

Chef Anthony Rush must know me very well. I can't believe I've been given a raw fish, caviar, and foie gras. This is so amazing. This dish has lychee and lilikoi in it. The fruitiness of lychee and lilikoi balance perfectly with the foie gras.

Course 5: Culurgiones

This is one of the dishes that Chef Anthony showed us in progress. Here they are before being cooked.

Curlurgiones in progress

This is what it looks like on the plate:

Curlurgiones

Curlurgiones are basically stuffed pasta. These pastas are stuffed with potato, prosciutto, and black truffle. There's also cheese in it, so the chef made mine differently. (I have an aversion to cheese.)

My curlurgiones without cheese

Mine was very good, but I got a little jealous watching others salivating over theirs. Oh well.

Course 6: Big Glory Bay Smoked Salmon

Big Glory Bay Smoked Salmon, with bouillabaisse, rouille. This was so good. The salmon was very tender and there was a lot of flavor. 

Course 7: Guinea Fowl

This was one of the dishes that chef Anthony showed us beforehand as well, which really got my mouth watering. This is what it looked like before the oven:

Doesn't that look mouthwatering? This guinea fowl had lots of porcini mushrooms in it and kohlrabi greens. I liked all of the ingredients, but the flavor was pretty strong. I actually don't think this would be everyone's cup of tea.

Intermezzo

This was a pallet cleanser before moving on to the desserts of the night. This was light and good but I don't remember what's in it. 

Course 8: Parmesan

As the title suggests, mine is altered again and is without the parmesan. This delicious lemon sorbet had kumquat and pistachios in it. 

Course 9: Mango

I know I've had sorbet-ish things for 3 courses but I'm NOT complaining. This mango sorbet came with lilikoi, hibiscus flowers, and lime. It's so good.

Course 10: The Septagon

The Septagon is a 7 sided box that opens to reveal a little secret truffle inside each crevice. This complex design of a wooden box is by famous woodworker, Nick Hunsinger, and is absolutely the most perfect way to end this amazing meal. 

The Septagon opened

Once opened, the pastry chef explained to us what each truffle flavor was. Every single one was delicious and different. I don't know who the pastry chef is, but she was amazing the whole night as we watched her making different desserts all night long. Amazingly, she completely worked on her own - never had any help or direction from anyone. 

Like many of these tasting menu experiences, we were given some gifts at the end. I don't remember what they were - I think they were chocolates but I'm not sure. This was hands down one of the best dining experiences I've ever had.