Nico's at Pier 38 ▪ Honolulu

133 North Nimitz Highway
Honolulu, Hawaii
808.540.1377
website

Another meal inspired by Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. This time, Cee and I headed for lunch to Nico's at Pier 38, just outside Waikiki, for fresh fish. Nico's is headed by a French chef. It is set up like a large cafeteria. You order your dish and are buzzed when your food is ready. You seat yourself inside or outside.

Nico's Pier 38.

Cee was greatly disappointed that the opa fish featured on the Triple D video was not on the menu. We had to make do with ahi tuna, more specifically the furikake pan seared ahi tuna steak ($12.95). The dish came with two sides and we went the healthy route with brown rice and a salad.

Furikake pan seared ahi tuna steak.

I absolutely loved the ahi steak crusted with furikake (Japanese seaweed) and sesame seeds. The coating imparted great flavours to the fish. The ahi steak is cooked to order; mine below is probably medium rare. I also loved the dressing on the salad.

Medium rare ahi steak.

While ordering our lunch, we eyed the dessert counter which included cookies and cheesecake. While Cee went for a cookie, I had the passion fruit cheesecake that I enjoyed tremendously. The cheesecake was light and smooth, and the passion fruit topping was so, so fragrant. One might as well enjoy anything passion fruit in Hawaii!

Passion fruit cheesecake.

Nico's at Pier 38 offers fresh, local fish at affordable prices. The food was well executed and tasty. My only complaint is that I cringed when I saw that we were given styrofoam containers. This is actually discussed on Triple D as a good point "You serve fancy food in styrofoam?!" However, seeing such a large room full of diners, my environmental side really wished they used dishes.