Our first evening at the Hilton Hawaiian Village

Once we felt settled and rehydrated, Dad and I set out to wander the grounds in order to kill time before dinner. We visited the ABC store for some snacks to keep in the room. Once back in the room we made reservations for the four of us at Bali Steak and Seafood and confirmed that there was no dress code short of no bathing suits. I'm so used to switching from shorts to slacks at least before heading to dinner on cruises that it felt weird to not have to change here. We met up with Adam and Amy in the lobby and after a couple wrong twists and turns, found our way to the restaurant. It turns out you need to climb stairs to the 2nd level of that particular area to access the restaurant. I noticed some areas of the property were either without handicap access or they had signs posted saying you'd have to go to some other area and use the access there to get up to the right level and then come all the way back to where you started. We checked in for our reservation and they had us sit out in a sort of waiting room area until we were called to our table. Isn't that the point of a reservation is to have your table ready to sit at when you arrived? They encouraged us to enjoy a drink while we waited and Adam offered to head to the bar for all of us. Adam and Amy both wanted sodas but Dad and I planned to stick with the ice water we knew would be on the table with our dinner. We got called to the table before Adam even finished at the bar and he ended up getting us glasses of ice water when he got their sodas. The wait staff did a decent job keeping drinks refilled but our waitress took a brief leave of absence it seems mid meal and we had to ask another employee to find her.

Click here to view the menu for Bali Steak and Seafood

Both Dad and I ordered steaks but I chose the "Certified Angus Filet" whereas Dad went with a larger cut. I ordered my steak as I always do, medium well, and not only does it look like someone took a cookie cutter circle out of my steak and brought me the cutter's contents as the sole item on the plate but it sat in a small pool of deep pink colored juices. Having any bit of pink left in my meat is a pet peeve of mine but I've gotten more lenient over the years when some were just below the level I asked for and turned out to taste better than it would have had it been cooked all the way. So when I saw this pool of pinkish juices I didn't speak up in order to give it a chance. Sure enough, once cut into, this steak was definitely barely medium and nowhere near medium well.

Disclaimer: Between the dark night sky and the dimly lit restaurant, my camera flash focused on the bright white of the plate making it nearly impossible to see the pink juice. Those brown specks are not part of the plate design though.

I thought the steak would be significantly bigger than this so I only ordered the Truffle Potato Tots as a side. I love the Truffle French fries in Princess Cruise Line's Crown Grill specialty restaurant so I'm always going to try similar versions on other menus in my travels. 

The menu describes the dish as having boschetto tartufo and prosciutto but except for the melted cheese holding the container in place on the plate, I wouldn't have guessed either was in this dish. That's a banana leaf keeping the top contents from spilling out the side. Despite that, I really enjoyed these potato tots and felt they were comparable to the truffle French fries. The only major critique I have for these is that they were super fried and crispy almost to the point of being hard to crunch and chew. I'm particular about not only presentation and taste but also texture when I try new foods. I did end up swiping a scoop full of Dad's mashed potatoes as all sides came served family style. I kept trying to offer the rest of the tots to everyone else at the table but we were all stuffed by then.

With plans for an early morning and a long day tomorrow, we decided on a meeting time for tomorrow's tour and headed back to our separate hotel rooms to turn in for the night.