Hawaiian cuisine, such as it is, is getting good.
When we reviewed Zippy’s, we weren’t particularly complimentary, especially considering the irrational exuberance over the place. But 808 Café was a vast improvement, so when we read a highly positive review of Ai Pono on a San Francisco news site, we took notice.
Ai Pono (“Good Eats” or “Eat Right” in Hawaiian) Café is one of the sit-down eateries at the Eat Your Heart Out food hall at Durango.
It’s the brainchild of Hawaiian-born and -raised Las Vegan Gene Villiatora, a 30-year local who’s cooked at numerous restaurants around town and had a mostly successful run on “Top Chef: New York”; he opened the first Ai Pono in Orange County, California, in 2019.
The word is out about Durango’s Ai Pono. We were there at 4:30 on a Saturday, figuring to beat the dinner rush. No such luck. We waited a few minutes to order, but behind us, nine people were in line.
The menu is amusing, with names like Mento Bento, Dim Sum and Den Sum, Crackhead chicken (“everyone keeps coming back for seconds in one sitting”), and Ham Buggah steak. Most dishes are a major carb fest, with two scoops of rice and one of macaroni salad, along with some Asian slaw.
But the proteins and sauces are the stars of the show. The Crackhead chicken ($17) is sauteed in Ai Pono’s “secret batter” and topped with a coconut-garlic miso glaze. You’ll also find guava-chili chicken, Japanese chicken in a katsu sauce, and Korean chicken in a truffle sauce ($17 each), pork chops in a spicy garlic barbecue glaze ($18), mahi mahi in a garlic-butter-white-wine sauce ($18), and Korean short rib ($20). You can also get bowls ($14-$16), sampler plates ($20-$23), and add-ons such as kim chee, lumpia, potstickers, and lollipop shrimp ($5-$10).
We sampled the garlic shrimp in a cilantro-citrus-chili sauce, which comes with a fried egg on the rice, and the OG beef, hibachi-style slices of striploin marinated in “black-magic” teriyaki (both $19). Each ushered the Zippy-style Hawaiian plate lunch into a whole other dimension— a very good thing. Our bill, including a pickled-mango lemonade (delicious), came to a reasonable $48.77 (including tax, not tip).
The verdict: This is the kind of menu that, beyond our reviewer responsibilities, tempts us to go back and try everything else that looks so good. Villiatora claims that Ai Pono is on its way to becoming the standard of Hawaii fast-casual and street food and it might just succeed.