In Search of Seafood: Blue Water Shrimp and Seafood Market

Restaurant reviews generally appear on the third Sunday of each month.

  
This month's Waikiki restaurant review continues our series on the unexpectedly difficult search for top-quality fresh seafood eateries. We tried the Blue Water Shrimp and Seafood Market, located in the food court of Waikiki's International Marketplace, and we came away pleased. (Despite the name, it's definitely a restaurant and not a market.)

Located in a corner of the food court that used to house a pizza place, Blue Water offers a limited menu of familiar favorites. Like most food court restaurants, there's a walk-up counter where you order, pay, and then wait for your food. On our latest visit, the food court was packed, as there was a high-quality stage show going on and as with all the shows in the food court, admission was free. That's something we love to see because the tourists really appreciate a good, free show.

Blue Water dishes aren't free, but they are relatively inexpensive. We had the macadamia-crusted opakapaka which was covered with a spicy mango sauce, and came with rice, salad, a small piece of corn-on-the-cob, and a slice of pineapple.

The fish was delicious, with a crunchy crusting and a moist and tasty interior. We thought the mango sauce was a little too strong and heavy and tended to overwhelm the flavor of the fish, but we would definitely order this dish again, and it was a fine value at $12.95 for a very large serving.

We also tried one of the combos: steak and ahi.

The ahi was coated with furikake seasoning and grilled; while the ahi was of good enough quality, it was cut rather thin and got slightly over-cooked and dry. The steak was nicely marinated, flavorful, and tender without the loss of texture commonly found in meat dipped in tenderizer (we don't think this meat was so treated). It was grilled and served in medium-thick slices, and the combo dish came with the same accompaniments as the opakapaka. Once again, the portion size was huge and a steal at $13.95.

We were also impressed with the elegant presentation, with the dishes served on large, colorful hard plastic plates instead of the styrofoam that is ubiquitous at food courts.

The menu is not large and extensive, and there is no pretension at all in the food and service at Blue Water. But we're more than pleased with a small menu of dishes that are prepared well, and if we want pretension, it's readily available elsewhere--- at about three times the price.

We only wished that the music had been a little less loud and that we would have had less trouble finding an empty table. But happy crowds are what we want to see in Waikiki, so we're not complaining!

Blue Water is definitely worth your time and money, and we recommend that you give it a try and tell us what you think.