La Hiki Kitchen

A CLOSER LOOK AT THIS WEEK’S HOUSE SPECIAL: BARBECUE PORK RIBS ( $ 3 9 )

As Kapolei continues to expand, filling up with new homes, budding young families and a slew of up-and-coming businesses, there is a need for more places to eat on the west side, and for kamaaina across Oahu to explore what this area of the island has to offer.

After opening last year in May, Four Seasons Resort Oahu at Ko Olina may not seem like the ideal place for locals to enjoy a meal, but, in fact, its restaurant La Hiki Kitchen totally is. If you don’t believe Dining Out, trust La Hiki’s head chef and local boy, Jobbie Domenden.

The Molokai-raised chef recently put out a new dinner menu at the restaurant that focuses on casual, relatable, local cuisine.

“A lot of the dishes on the menu are inspired by all the friends that I grew up with — everybody being a different ethnicity and coming to my house to have a barbecue and a potluck,” Domenden explains. “And that’s why a lot of these dishes are big, meant for sharing. That’s how I grew up.”

Along with the menu changes came a name change for the hotel eatery, which sits at the edge of the breathtaking serenity pool with sweeping views of the ocean.

Once called La Hiki, the restaurant now is La Hiki Kitchen, conforming to the new, relaxed concept. Domenden also hopes that with new items such as shareable Barbecue Pork Ribs, Chef’s Burger, Banana Cream Pie and Miso Butterscotch Milkshake, locals will see that dining at this spot feels just like a having a local-style potluck with loved ones.

There’s room, of course, for gourmet touches as well. Chef’s Burger, for instance, is $27 worth of an 8-ounce beef patty jazzed up with Sriracha yuzu aioli, bacon jam, aged Gouda, pickled cabbage and two large pickles, all sandwiched between brioche buns.

La Hiki Kitchen is open for breakfast (a la carte and buffet) and again for dinner at 5 p.m. (except Wednesdays and Thursdays when dinner is not served.)

La Hiki Kitchen

Four Seasons Resort Oahu at Ko Olina, lower lobby
92-1001 Olani St., Kapolei
679-0079
Breakfast: daily, 6-11 a.m. (buffet ends at 10:30); Dinner: Friday-Tuesday, 5-9 p.m. (last seating at 9); closed for dinner Wednesday and Thursday