Mud Hen Water - Niu

One of our favorite places. We love the food, the location, the ambience, and usually the people. We went there for an early lunch and the food did not disappoint. We had our personal bestie hapa fried rice and our toddler grandson had a grilled cheese with tomato soup. Were all great. The only not-so-great part were the two servers there. We were the only customers at the time when the restaurant had just opened, and our server was ok, but did nothing that went beyond what was required. Not particularly friendly, not particularly helpful considering he had no other customers then. The other server/bartender ? , who was there though not serving us, was as cold as ice, looking bored and unfriendly. We were surprised because they usually have wonderful people there. Maybe they had other things going on we are not privy to. Maybe we just went on an off day. I hope so.

Maybe the dinner menu here is better but we heard a lot about this place but only had time to go for the brunch. We ordered the banana pancakes and smoked meat carbonara. The banana pancake was quite tasteless and looked terrible and the carbonara was tough to chew on more undercooked than al dente. When my pancakes came out they said the whipped brown butter would be another 5 10 minutes wait. So were they just expecting me to stare at my pancakes until my condiments came…

Get the Lotus roots app and the breadfruit!!!!!! Sooo good. And then put the breadfruit and the aioli into the leftover sauce from the lotus roots!! Fn outstanding. The fried chicke was wonderful while we did really want more of the pickled veggies and salsa verde. Would definitely order it again. The Luau Porchetta was great but missing much of the loin and didn't have anything acidic to balance the richness of all the fat in the porchetta and the coconut luau sauce. I wanted 10x the amount of luau greens that were in the middle of the porchetta. Soooooo fn good. That sauce too. But left with a bit of an upset belly. Shoulda asked if I could order a side of pickled veggies. It would have balanced the dish into perfection. The sesame gelato live brownie is a wonderful combo. But the brand new to the menu basque cheesecake was a bit flat in flavor and the sliced mango on the side didn't have the sweetness to lift the cheesecake out of its flat density. The caramelized selling point was more just a bitter blackened top. While that is caramelization, I misunderstood the description and was picturing some magical combo of cheesecake with a. Creme brûlée top. It wasn't that. Even a drizzle of some local honey over the cheesecake and mango would have brought the two items together. But, I'm not the chef! So, I enjoyed the goodness as it came. Definitely look forward to eating there again and seeing what new goodness has been imagined!!

The host and hostess were great and welcoming. Unfortunately our waitress forgot one of our orders every time (forgot an appetizer, forgot a drink, forgot a dessert) and had to ask for them again when we could catch her attention. Really enjoyed the ulu (breadfruit)! The szechuan lotus roots lacked any szechuan peppercorn or flavor. Would get the mapo rice cakes again. Lu'au stuffed porchetta was mostly fat. Would go elsewhere next time for a special occasion dinner.

Shawn is the best waiter ever.Food was great, service was great, strongly recommend Peanut tofu, crudo, Szechuan lotus root, croquettes.