While watching the female gymnasts compete during the summer Olympic Games, I started thinking about the relative merits of performing first or last. Having performed/competed in music and storytelling in the past, I’m at my best hitting a stage first. Sitting around and watching others makes me stressed and nervous. But, if one can conquer nervousness, and with skill sets being more or less equal, it seems the last to compete has an advantage in knowing the score to beat.
In that, Karai Crab may have an advantage over the three crab restaurants that opened earlier this summer, knowing they have to work harder to differentiate themselves from the pack. After all, when I heard about this fourth crab restaurant, my first thought was, “Oh no, not another one,” and others are likely to feel the same way.
My enthusiasm over the novelty of the first couple of crab restaurants that opened had given way to desire to see something different, and that was the feeling of the restaurant’s management after watching others beat them to what they thought would be a new concept for Oahu months ago.
The main lure for me was the word “karai” in the name, promising spice and heat. When I got there I saw that the menu was essentially the same as the others. Tasting is believing, though, and true to last-mover advantage and a desire to outdo the competition, this one turns out to be the best of the bunch.
The real edge comes with the newcomer’s association with The Willows and its long record of running restaurants. What it doesn’t have is the beauty of The Willows’ verdant grounds. Karai Crab a housed in a separate little building makai of The Willows. (Use the same valet service.) The effect is a small, boxy, mom-and-pop operation.
Where the operation is green is in its aim of being an eco-responsible company. Karai Crab doesn’t serve its seafood in plastic bags as other restaurants do, opting for eco-friendly bamboo bowls instead. The only plastic is the bibs that accompany the meals, but they’re looking for an eco-solution for that. In the meantime, diners can refuse the bibs without worrying too much about drips and spills. With the crab served in bowls, you don’t have the mess of digging into a bag, and there’s not as much sauce sloshing around. I’ve made huge messes at each of the crab houses in town, with photos to prove it, but here the table remained fairly clean by meal’s end.
Even cleaner, here you have the hands-off options of plate lunches to go. “No Mess” shrimp ($11) was especially appealing, served without the shell with sweet corn and a choice of rice or potato. As with the other shellfish on the menu, it comes with seasoning options of garlic butter, Cajun spice, Karai special sauce, Tropical Hawaiian (pineapple and coconut) and lemon pepper, with special flavors in the works. Where other restaurants currently offer a few rote sauces, Karai Crab’s chef Miles Miyamoto aims to keep things interesting by introducing new flavors.
So far, so good. The Tropical Hawaiian was initially created to appeal to tourists, but I enjoyed the light sweet-sour touch, and manager Garret Kamei said they were surprised that it’s been extremely popular with locals. A recent offering of lemongrass sauce was also appealing.
Other plate offerings include shell-on shrimp, crawfish (there’s very little meat there), clams ($12), mussels ($12) and fried catfish ($8).
Karai Crab may really find its niche with pepper fans who will be able to put its medium (cayenne), spicy (habanero) and extra-spicy (ghost pepper) sauces to the test. I can handle a fair amount of heat, so was disappointed in myself when I could barely manage the cayenne sauce on the “No Mess” shrimp.
On the Scoville Heat Scale, which measures the capsaicin levels of peppers, cayenne comes in at 30,000 to 50,000 Scoville units versus 100,000 to 325,000 for orange habanero and 800,000 to 1,041,000 for the ghost pepper.
Luckily, I had ordered mussels ($14 full order/$8 half order of about eight or nine pieces) with habanero heat before trying the cayenne, and I enjoyed its subtle citrusy flavor much more than the more pedestrian heat of the cayenne. The habanero left more of an all-over warm and fuzzy feeling than a tongue burn. It was addicting, and you can taste it better with the crab than mussels.
The ghost pepper sauce was equally addicting, though harder to consume in large quantities. Those fearful of peppers can opt to get the hot sauce on the side for controlled dipping.
Crab options include market price Dungeness, snow crab legs and king crab legs. Portions look smaller in a bowl than in a bag, but at about $30 per pound, that would be about four king crab legs.
If any of your friends are not into seafood, there is a fried tofu option.
To cut some of the heat, you might want to sink your teeth into butter-topped bacon-jalapeño cornbread (one square for $3). As for other sides, sweet corn here is delicious, at $3 for four small inch- to 2-inch pieces. Kukui sausage ($3) is sweet, not spicy. Garlic noodles ($7) deliver flavor as promised.
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Nadine Kam’s restaurant reviews are conducted anonymously and paid for by the Star-Advertiser. Reach her at nkam@staradvertiser.com.
