Oh, How Sweet It Is!

Amazing food and service paired with an outstanding view of the crashing waves along Waikiki Beach that are so iconic to Hawaii are a given at 53 By The Sea. The establishment has an array of seafood and tan-tantalizing delicacies that are sure to make your mouth water, and the desserts are no different.

While the restaurant is working on a new menu for August, there are a couple of desserts on the current menu that are must-haves.

Kamiya Papaya and Seasonal Fruits Soup ($9) features a lilikoi and mango puree with chunks of pineapple and papaya, topped with berries.

“It’s like a fruit salsa,” says executive chef Thomas Ho. “It’s pretty refreshing.”

Chocolate Cake ($10) is served warm with vanilla gelato, raspberries and whipped cream. This flourless chocolate cake is a staple at many restaurants and 53 By The Sea serves this up with a perfectly crafted cake, topped with chocolate sauce.

As a new dessert menu is in the works, Ho and pastry chef Isabella Nunes-Baptista were generous enough to give Dining Out readers a sneak peek of what’s to come. (The following desserts are not yet priced.)

“Some of these will be on the menu, some will not,” Ho says. “We’re just experimenting right now.”

Green Tea White Chocolate Mousse Cake features layers of white cake and green tea ganache. This light dessert stays true to the traditional green tea flavor, and thankfully Ho says this one will most likely be on the future dessert menu.

Nunes-Baptista also outlined four desserts that possibly could make an appearance on the fall menu, and all of them are simply to die for.

Her Coconut Rum Chocolate Cake plays with the flavors of lilikoi and raspberries. The dish is beautifully garnished with a strawberry cup filled with lilikoi sauce. “All the flavors in the cake you see on the plate,” she explains.

This marriage of flavors carries out into the rest of her proposed desserts as well.

Triple Chocolate Mousse Cake features layers of dark chocolate and white chocolate with mango ice cream in a chocolate basket and mango sauce artfully displayed on the plate.

Nunes-Baptista’s Mango Mousse Basket showcases mango mousse, fresh man-goes and raspberries. The highlight of this dish is the colorful dragon fruit ice cream in a white chocolate clam shell, because as Nunes-Baptista says, “We’re by the sea.”

The last proposed dessert Nunes-Baptista presented was her Fruit Boat. This dessert truly is a work of art and features a salted caramel foam (salty like the ocean) and chocolate (the sand). Atop the chocolate sits a wonderful rum truffle that represents Nunes-Baptista’s take on Diamond Head.

53 By The Sea has some wonderful desserts that will grace its menu in the near future. Make sure to stop by, try some amazing culinary masterpieces and save room for dessert.

53 by the Sea

53 Ahui St., Honolulu
536-5353
Lunch: Monday-Sunday, 11 a.m.-2 p.m.
Dinner: Monday-Sunday, 5-10 p.m.
Bar: daily, 4 p.m.-midnight; Friday-Saturday, 4 p.m.-2 a.m.
Happy Hour: daily, 4-6:30 p.m.; Thursday-Saturday, 10 p.m.-1 a.m.