Pono Farm Soul Kitchen

Pono Farm Soul Kitchen is like a Star Wars prequel: You show up in Hollywood, heart on your sleeve, ready to love it. And what's not to like about Pono Farm? It's a Japanese "soul food" farm-to-table restaurant in which much of the fare comes right from the owners' farm, where chickens and cows roam free on pasture land, ruled by only the hormones they were born with. Even the hay the farm uses is non-GMO. They butcher their own meats next door.

But then you sit down for the experience, and bewilderment begins.

Let's start by saying that basic meat dishes will be excellent, whether beef nigiri or pork loin tonkatsu. And should you want to treat the place as a steakhouse, you will be well-served. A 6-ounce filet is $26; a 12-ounce ribeye is $36. Sliced skirt steak topped with ginger chimichurri was cooked to a perfect medium rare: bright red inside, slight char on the outside, with gentle sauce. Flanken short ribs were likewise tender and lovely, if paired with a distractingly intense rendition of gochujang, a Korean hot pepper paste.

But on multiple visits over a two-month span, much of the rest of the menu ranged from rote to bizarre, with the service equally confusing. Though Pono Farm was mostly empty on a late visit (and remained empty until closing time), we were told that window seats in the airy, sterile space were unavailable because so many large reservations were pending. And the martial cadre of well-meaning staff removed table items according to obscure motivations that added up to a form of vaudeville.

Meanwhile, the New York strip carpaccio ($12) came swimming in a sticky soup of ponzu marinade, a sopping skin of meat coating the plate—a small-towner's notion of "fancy food" gone haywire. A congee containing king trumpet, maitake and lobster mushrooms ($15) had the flavor and mouthfeel of post-nasal drip. A squash and shiitake tempura ($8) was so overbreaded it was tedious to eat. Cocktails were sweet and underwhelming.

One item, however, was revelatory. A chawanmushi dish—Japanese-style egg custard—with Dungeness crab was tender and intensely sweet-savory, a wash of warm comfort unlike anything else at the restaurant. But sadly, it's been taken off the menu.

That dish signals that greater heights are possible for the kitchen, but the misses have been frequent enough to hope they'll concentrate on the basics they deliver well: excellent meats and well-sourced produce, served simply and prepared carefully with Asian accents. Which is to say, they should get back to the heart of the menu. Because the one thing this soul kitchen could use more of is soul.

1. Order this: Just stick to the things with “steak” or “loin” in their names.

EAT: Pono Farm Soul Kitchen, 4118 NE Sandy Blvd., 889-0885, ponofarm.com. 11:30 am-2:30 pm, 5-10 pm Tuesday-Saturday.

WWeek 2015