Fall Back the mmm-yoso Way - Brunch at the Red Lion Hanalei Hotel

*** The Hanalei Hotel is now a Crowne Plaza Hotel, and the Sunday Brunch is no more.....

Coming from Hawaii, I've always thought the time changes for Daylight Saving Time to be quite strange. I've read about the Rationales for DST, and well as the criticisms. To most of us, it just means changing our clocks. Over the last 3 years or so, we've found a new rationale for DST, or at least the "Fall Back" portion. After thinking about whole process, we had come to the conclusion that gaining an extra hour during the last Sunday of October meant, not an extra hour of sleep, but an extra hour of digestion......get the drift? Thus, we've made a sort of tradition of having Sunday Brunch on Fall Back Sunday, and putting that extra hour of digestion to good use.

We rarely partake of Sunday Brunch, but have 2 favorite brunches in San Diego, one a bit more on the expensive side, Le Fountainebleu at the Westgate Hotel runs about $40 per person, and the Sunday Brunch at the Red Lion Hanalei Hotel, which runs about $25 per person. I won't go into great detail about these brunches, mainly because I'd just be going over what you can find at Jim, The Sunday Brunchmasters Site. Jim goes over the info and offerings at the Red Lion Hanalei Brunch here.

I'll just post a few photos.

As with most brunches of any price, you mileage will vary. At this brunch, we're not particularly fond of the shrimp and crab legs, nor the "sushi"...but, the shrimp is peeled, and the crab legs are already halved, and if you love "rolls" you might find the sushi to be pretty good. We also are not big fans of the chafing dish items.

But as those photos above show, one of the items we love at this brunch is the smoked salmon.

The Missus will eat about a pound of the stuff. We also enjoy the Kona Coffee, the Champagne(sorry don't remember the brand), and most of all, the service. We've always had good service at  the Red Lion Hanalei. For example on this visit, it was quite packed, and we didn't want to deal with the crowds, and since it was a very pleasant morning we were seated outside. I asked for a ramekin for the "Jus", and not knowing that it's not among the plates, the very nice young man, told me to hold on a second, ran into the kitchen and brought me a ramekin, before I had a chance to tell him not to go out his way. The Missus went so far as to ask the Young Man manning the carving station for the bone from the leg of lamb....for guess who? Let's just say "Da Boyz" loved it, and when our Server found out She brought us a "doggie bag"(literally) for it. And to top things off, when we were presented with our bill, the Young Lady told us that she had a few extra $2 off coupons, so She used them for us! How's that for service!

Here's Frankie's bone.

Today the Lamb was very good, better than on our previous 2 visits.

Of course you can't forget about the desserts.

I don't have a real sweet tooth, but the Missus says the selection is nice. And of course the chocolate tower. The Missus needs to be under supervision whenever She gets close to one of these, I'm always worried that She'll stick some chicken or shrimp under the fountain and make me eat it. She has been known to cause fountain malfunctions by using too much chocolate, and the Brunchmaster was a witness to one of these incidents.

Just ignore the rice in the photo...it's a long story. For dessert I just had some pineapple to help me optimize that extra hour of digestion.

Overall I think we made great use of the extra hour, what do you think? How did you use that extra hour???? Oh and what about losing that hour in March? Well, you just have to eat faster! LOL!

All the info you need to know for this brunch can be found here.

Thanks for putting up with this silliness and indulging me. Tomorrow it's back to stuff like this:

Comments

[clayfu]

did you have to make a reservation for this?

[Chubbypanda]

Kirk,

You can't show me things like that. Do you have any idea what it does to me? What it does to my diet? And yet... I love it. Gods help me, I love it.

- Chubbypanda

[cathy]

Thank you so much Kirk, for showing there are no rules regarding buffets...take all of what you like and leave the rest. I would have done exactly the same with the smoked salmon...

{The rice on the dessert plate looks eerily similar to mine, except mine has mashed potatoes...}

[Jim]

Hey Kirk,

I warned you to keep the Missus away from all chocolate fountains! You do remember the last fountain she sabotaged; I think she was banded from the Le Fontainebleau that dark day.

And she just had to get the bone! She is the only one I know that leaves a buffet brunch with a doggy bag. Pretty women get away with murder; don’t they?

I spent my extra hour (and then some) at the Shore’s brunch; which was quite tasty.

[mizducky]

That lox does look excellent ... though I have to say, as a nice Jewish girl from New York, that the bagel looks pretty darned sad. But you guys already know the solution for that: forget the bagel and just eat lots o' lox! :-D

[Kirk]

Hi Clayfu - I'd recommend reservations unless you plan to get there at 10 when they start, which is not a bad idea.

Hi CP - Sumimasen CP-san, please forgive this intrusion on your diet. But what the heck are you doin' checking out a food blog if you're on a diet, that's torture! LOL!

Hi Cathy - Well all you can...means as much as you can, any way you can.....doesn't it? ;o)

Hi Jim - Yes, like flies to a flame... It always amazes me,what She can pull off!

Hi mizducky - The Missus had it right...1/2lb of smoked salmon on half a mini bagel!

[clayfu]

in case anyone wants to go here.

today was their last sunday brunch indefinitely.

they are combining the two restaurants and they dont know if they are coming out with it again

[Kirk]

Hi Clayfu - Wow, that's news to me! They were doing some major bang-up business when we were there last Sunday.

[Jim]

I guess I just don’t understand the restaurant business at all! This brunch was my personal favorite and the Doubletree was my wife’s favorite (gone away as well). Another one I liked quite a bit was Loew’s; but they cut back to a breakfast buffet only…no more fish or lunch items. The horror of it all!

[Kirk]

Hi Jim - Since you're the expert on this...I guess it's true. Bummer, we really enjoyed this buffet, and it was always busy.