Honolulu Weekly

Baci Bistro / It’s the one question Winwardites are asked by their townie counterparts at least a few times a year: Are there any good places to eat in Kailua? Then comes the pause. Does Foodland count?

The answer is Baci Bistro. Where casual dining (emphasis on the dining–read: not merely eating) is concerned, the Kailua town favorite is worth a visit and a nosh, though from the street it looks like it might not be. Baci, not so tucked away on the ground floor of the Kailua Professional Building, is to passers by but a dimly lit cafeteria that carries on its roof floors and floors of dentists’ offices. With an illuminated set of red lips to light the way, there’s no telling what waits inside. The lips, by the way, are the restaurant’s logo and the visual translation of baci, Italian for ‘kiss.’ From Italy with love? Maybe. But the back-lit, faux stained-glass rendering of the female mouth does little to get diners through the door. The food–fresh, fairly priced and made to order–gets them there. The wine and the tiramisu keep them there.

Start with the Carpaccio di Manzo ($7.50). Good carpaccio does an Italian restaurant make, and chef Reza Izeri’s paper-thin slices of mild beef generously dressed with fresh lemon juice and olive oil, topped with parmesan shavings and capers, are the gem of the antipasti menu. You don’t miss the arugula or radicchio leaves that traditionally accompany the raw beef, and the cheese shavings, which here come thicker than most versions of the dish, only add to its fullness. Even fearful palates can rest assured that this undercooked beef is well done.

Carpaccio ingenues may want to temper their first time with other more familiar flavors, such as the blandly titled tomato salad ($9.95) that should be every local Italian eatery’s replacement for the caprese salad. Red and yellow tomato wedges are drizzled with a balsamic reduction and served with a heap of creamy, mild gorgonzola. The tomatoes burst in your mouth and when their acid meets the sweet dressing and the piquant cheeseÖthere’s a chance you’ll never again settle for a tomato with Ranch. The tomato salad is a recurring special, available only when tomatoes can be found that meet the chef’s standards.

At Baci, it’s the recurring specials that really shine. Weekly offerings of lamb shank ($24.95) and osso buco ($26) keep the place humming on Wednesdays and Thursdays–and with good reason. Both dishes, served with alternating flavors of risotto, are braised to perfection. The lamb, on a recent Thursday evening, came settled on a mound of mushroom risotto that went ignored in favor of finishing off the spoon-tender shank of meat that would prorogue even the loudest it-tastes-so-gamey complaint from the I’ll-just-have-the-chicken-marsala set. Don’t get the chicken marsala. Not on a Thursday, anyway. And not on a Wednesday, either.

The Wednesday-night veal–sometimes it’s osso buco, other times it’s braised veal cheeks–is perfect every time. The same can’t be said about the risotto. The saffron risotto that accompanied the veal cheeks last week was spotty–undercooked, crunchy grains amid too-soft ones. But when the main player is as good as these medallions of meat are, no one’s paying attention to the sideshow.

But what of the pasta? This is an Italian restaurant, after all. Baci’s menu touts its Ravioli Del Giorni (pasta of the day, $16.95) as its specialty, but on a number of visits, the house-made pasta pockets were doughy and dense and their filling (it varies daily) could have done with a bit more spice. Go with the Gnocchi Con Gorgonzola ($13.95) instead. Though also more dense than pillowy (and there are good arguments to support both ends of the spectrum), the potato dumplings come tossed with garlic, fresh tomatoes and Gorgonzola cheese–simple, clean and satisfying. The Bucatini alla Puttanesca ($13.95), tossed with black olives, anchovies and capers is also a solid dish.

Perhaps most impressive about this casual, small-town eatery is its long wine list. With selections from the light and fruity Dr. Loosen Johannisberg Riesling (glass: $7.50; bottle: $28) to the everyman’s Chianti, Davinci Chianti Classico (glass: $7.50; bottle: $28) to a 2003 Crognola Tenuta Sette Ponti (bottle, $75) to a 2001 Michelle Chiarlo Barolo Tortoniano (bottle, $115), the Baci cellar is nothing to turn your nose up at. Add to those its selection of ports, limoncello and grappa, and the little restaurant across the street from the local laundromat is a bistro indeed.

Don’t leave though without trying the tiramisu. Where most places take on the traditional dolci as an Italian version of the Midwestern trifle (how dare they?), Baci treats it right–each layer separate, but all coming together perfectly on the fork. The lady fingers are moist, not wet; the mascarpone layer is light, not cheesecake-like; the amaretto is complimentary, not overpowering or seeping out from under the cake in such copious amounts that children should be discouraged from taking a bite.

The answer is simple: When in Kailua, eat at Baci Bistro.

Baci Bistro

30 Aulike St., Kailua (262-7555)

Hours: Lunch, Mon-Fri 11:30am-2pm; dinner nightly, 5:30-10pm Recommended: Osso bucco, lamb shank, tiramisu Payment: AMEX, MC, V

Honolulu Weekly restaurant reviewers dine anonymously, editorial integrity being our first priority. Reviewers may visit the establishment more than once, and any interviews with restaurant staff are conducted after the visits. We do not run photos of the reviewers, and the Weekly pays the tab. The reviews are not influenced by the purchase of advertising or other incentives.