Longhi's Restaurant to replace Chuck's Steak and Seafood in Ko Olina Resort

[Munro_Murdock]

This is interesting news just out as well about Longhi's restaurant coming this year to replace Chuck's Steak and Seafood in Ko'Olina at the Marriott Ko'Olina Beach Club at Lagoon 3. Chuck's to close by April 1 and Longhi's to open by about May 1 is what the article states. I think they will do a great job and with all the new resorts coming to Ko'Olina there is only an increasing need for excellent dining options in the resort.

http://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/...restaurants-expanding-to-ko-olina-resort.html

Full text from this article pasted below as some users may not be able to view entire article online.

What are your thoughts on this?

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Longhi’s Restaurants plans to expand to West Oahu with a new location at the 642-acre Ko Olina Resort in the Chuck's Steakhouse space at Marriott's Ko Olina Beach Club, its owner confirmed to PBN this week.

Peter Longhi, the son of the late restaurateur and Longhi’s Restaurants founder Bob Longhi, told PBN that it is scheduled to take over the Chuck's Steakhouse space on April 1, with an opening anticipated on May 1, after some renovations.

"The space has a beautiful ocean view with indoor (air-conditioned) and open-air dining," Longhi said. "We will start with dinner service, which will be followed by breakfast and lunch. We hope to be serving all three meals by the summer."

He noted that Longhi's is planning on interviewing the employees of Chuck's, so as few as possible are displaced by the changes of ownership.

Longhi recently registered “Longhi’s Ko Olina LLC” as a new business in Hawaii.
Established in 1976 on Maui, Longhi’s has three locations in Hawaii, with one on Front Street in Lahaina, one at the Shops at Wailea and another at Ala Moana Center in Honolulu.

The award-winning restaurant chain has gained quite a following, including the patronage of such celebrities as NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and wine entrepreneur Robert Mondavi.

Last year, the Travaasa Hana resort in East Maui ended its contracted services with Longhi’s, under which Peter Longhi ran the food and beverage outlets at the resort as a separate entity from his family’s Lahaina restaurant for the past five years.

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Duane Shimogawa covers energy, commercial real estate and development for Pacific Business News.

 

[shoeie]

From my time at Ko Olina, I can only think this is a positive development. We ate at Chuck's once during our first stay, and ... it ... was ... terrible! $150, two people, and I would have rather ate fast food!

 

[Quadmaniac]

From my time at Ko Olina, I can only think this is a positive development. We ate at Chuck's once during our first stay, and ... it ... was ... terrible! $150, two people, and I would have rather ate fast food!

I would second that opinion. I would have to be pretty desperate as it is terrible for the price.

 

[dioxide45]

Are there any truely great restaurants onsite any Marriott timeshare property. From our experience, most are average or below. Haven't run across any real gems yet.

 

[Luanne]

We've eaten at Longhi's in Wailea (Maui). I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. Probably the most disappointing meal we had that trip.

 

[MauiLover]

We've eaten lunch at the Lahaina Longhi's on every trip for over a decade. Always enjoy it, but it does seem to have slipped in the last few years. I think we keep coming back mostly for the tradition and the view. The food and service is secondary, but for the most part pretty good. My guess is that it will be an upgrade over what it is replacing, based on our experiences at both establishments.

 

[larryallen]

Have eaten at Chucks at Ko Olina many times and been disappointed EVERY single time. Always hoped it would be good and never left happy.

Have eaten at all three Longhi's locations and been happy each time.

Definite improvement.

However, as indicated above, Longhi's might have slipped a little in recent years.

Looking forward to our next trip!

 

[Werner Weiss]

This is very good news.

We've dined in Maui at Longhi's in Lahaina and at the Shops at Wailea. I remember these dinners as being excellent experiences. It's been quite a few years since we've been to Longhi's, but it's still high on my list of restaurants I want to return to.

We've also dined at Chuck's at Ko Olina several times. It was so convenient when staying at Marriott's Ko Olina Beach Club. The setting at the bottom of Hale Kona is terrific. But our dinners were never particularly satisfying. In 2015, we had a 15-night stay at Ko Olina. We didn't bother to go to Chuck's even once.

The strange thing is that Chuck's was trying to do something similar to Duke's Canoe Club in Kauai at the Marriott's Kauai Beach Club -- relatively simple meals involving a salad bar, fresh fish (or beef), and a side. But while Duke's is always a pleasure, Chuck's somehow managed to disappoint us.

 

[frank808]

In all our stays at mko we have eaten at chucks exactly twice. After the second time of an ok steak i find grilling my prime ribeye on the grills much better tasting than chucks. I think chucks is not using choice meats and using a grade below that. They are definitely not using prime cuts meats.
Just stop at costco and buy a prime pack of ribeye and grill it on the grills by the towers.
Longhis used to be great. Ever since their expansion into ala moana shopping center there quality of food has slipped some. Used to go longhis every chance when in lahaina and went to the one at ala moana when it opened. It was great in the beginning but in the past few years the food has slipped. With that in mind we will be definitley trying out longhis when they come to mko. Gotta give it a shot to see what it is like.

 

[davidvel]

In all our stays at mko we have eaten at chucks exactly twice. After the second time of an ok steak i find grilling my prime ribeye on the grills much better tasting than chucks. I think chucks is not using choice meats and using a grade below that. They are definitely not using prime cuts meats.
Just stop at costco and buy a prime pack of ribeye and grill it on the grills by the towers.
Longhis used to be great. Ever since their expansion into ala moana shopping center there quality of food has slipped some. Used to go longhis every chance when in lahaina and went to the one at ala moana when it opened. It was great in the beginning but in the past few years the food has slipped. With that in mind we will be definitley trying out longhis when they come to mko. Gotta give it a shot to see what it is like.

The recent Yelp reviews certainly seem to reflect this.

 

[Luanne]

We've dined in Maui at Longhi's in Lahaina and at the Shops at Wailea. I remember these dinners as being excellent experiences. It's been quite a few years since we've been to Longhi's, but it's still high on my list of restaurants I want to return to.

Our last (and I mean LAST) visit to Longhi's at the Shops at Wailea was March, 2015. It was terrible. Worst meal of our trip. We hadn't been overly impressed the first time we'd gone, but thought we'd give them another chance. Service was iffy, food mediocre (my dd said her pasta was so oily she couldn't eat it). The only thing that saved our meal was going to Lapperts for ice cream afterwards.