The first time I visited Farmhouse Cafe, everything on the rustic Mediterranean-style menu proved so tempting, I was back the next day for more. I would have returned a third day in a row, but the next day was Sunday, when the restaurant is closed. So I was back on Monday instead.
Chef Zouhair Zairi, or simply Chef ZZ, was born in Morocco and worked in restaurants from New York to Tokyo before settling on Maui as a house husband to raise his son. Divorce a little more than a decade later brought him to Oahu and back into the kitchen as a partner in Farmhouse Cafe.
It’s a charming venue with an interior of reclaimed and natural wood, with room for about 30, plus two small tables out on the sidewalk.
For now, the restaurant’s short menu comprises mostly sandwiches, burgers and tartines, with egg dishes for breakfast, but the chef promises more to come. He suggests this initial menu represents an awakening and educational stage, a prelude to culinary experiences “the likes of which people on Oahu have not seen.”
Normally, I would think this manner of speech mere hyperbole, but just based on a small sampling of his most casual fare, it’s clear Zairi has the world-class chops to back his claim.
He employs simple but well-chosen ingredients that go into a juicy, cinnamon-infused Barnyard Sandwich of wagyu brisket, as well as a wagyu gourmet burger with onion jam and demi-glace, served with delicate mille-feuille potatoes that take two days to perfect. Those potatoes ($3 a la carte) also show up as one of three add-on options to breakfast eggs. Get them! You might also consider sides of cured salmon ($4) or Rosette de Lyon ($4), thick cuts of French-made, country-style salami.
Also imported is acorn-fed black Iberian pork, which Zairi slices at the counter for guests craving the Portuguese and Spanish specialty, ordering it up an ounce ($12) at a time. It made me wistful for travel and the simple pleasure of enjoying jamon Iberico in a small cafe with cheese, olives and a glass of sangria. You can get cheese on a charcuterie platter ($18) here, but no alcohol is offered so diners may bring a bottle of wine, with $20 corkage fee.
Study the menus in advance and watch your times; breakfast and lunch begin at strict times and menu items do not overlap.
On the breakfast menu are acai bowls ($10), open-faced breakfast sandwiches ($8.50) on English muffins — essentially eggs Benedicts minus hollandaise sauce. The basic sandwich is topped with tomato slices and Gruyere cheese. As with the eggs, you can add sides of salmon, salami or mille-feuille potatoes.
The eggs are described as a soft scramble ($13), but arrive as folded omelets that are on the dry side, but still flavorful, full of Parmesan cheese and herbs.
Lunch arrives with a series of artisan sandwiches, such as a Kurobuta pork croque-monsieur ($14) that transforms into a croque-madame with the addition of a fried duck egg ($3).
After trying the croque-madame, Barnyard and Portobello Plus sandwiches, I was asked to name a favorite. They’re so different it was hard to decide, but on that particularly warm day, I enjoyed the light, refreshing air of the mushroom sandwich ($14) accented with feta, roasted bell peppers, onion slaw, sprouts and aged manchego cheese.
A carrot and fennel soup ($10) was amazing — honestly, seeing it on the menu beforehand is what brought me to this restaurant. Few places in Hawaii offer a soup like this, and to me, it suggested someone not from here at the helm, with a different perspective on food than the same-old. The soup did not disappoint. Rich with saffron, it tasted every bit as sensual as a lobster bisque, but left the fresh taste of carrots on the palate.
Another of my favorite lunch items is The Rancher, a quartet of Maui Nui venison meatballs in a caramelized onion and tomato jam accented with cooked cherries. Be careful with those — the pits are still in them and you wouldn’t want to crack a tooth.
On Saturdays, the brunch menu encompasses all of the breakfast items, plus a quiche plate ($16), brioche French toast ($14) in a pool of Ghirardelli white chocolate sauce, and simple crepes ($8.50) with butter, lemon zest and powdered sugar. Add-ons include almond butter (75 cents), fresh fruit ($1.50) and shaved chocolate (75 cents).
Because different pastries are offered for dessert every day, I never got around to trying the classic beignets, but enjoyed a glorious apple tart, blackberry frangipane tart and, finally, a bite of a lemon madeleine that brought me closer to understanding it’s spell over Proust.
FARMHOUSE CAFE
808 Center, 808 Sheridan St.
Food: ****
Service: **
Ambiance: ***
Value: ****
>> Call: 888-2055
>> Hours: 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mondays to Saturdays, with breakfast 8 to 11 a.m. daily and brunch from noon Saturdays
>> Prices: About $30 to $40 for two
Ratings compare similar restaurants:
**** – excellent
*** – very good
** – average
* – below average
Nadine Kam’s restaurant reviews are conducted anonymously and paid for by the Star-Advertiser. Reach her at nkam@staradvertiser.com.
