Av Restaurant

I will tag this place as Asian influenced vegan/vegetarian tasting. We went to this place to celebrate the wedding anniversary. As said in other recent reviews, the place was empty. That means we had the entire restaurant for ourselves. We were asked to choose a table or bar, and we opted to table. Good things: 1. Food is loaded with flavors 2. Not all items are supposed to be eaten by chopstick. The crew provides specific instructions on how to eat. If you don't know how to eat with chopstick, don't worry. 3. Staff is friendly and enjoys conversations. 4. There is a happy meal option, in case you are not feeling filled. It is suggested a few items before desserts. It includes a plant based patty and fries and costs extra. A couple of downsides I noticed: 1. Service was too fast. Initially, it felt like they were rushing through items. We had to eat slowly to enjoy the flavors. 2. There are not many pairing options of wine other than sake.

Exquisite food- it is obvious a lot of time and effort go into the different courses. I really appreciated the variety of options and flavors we experienced. We did try the waffle dog- those were incredible! I’d recommend sharing one because they are very filling. All of the courses were dreamy except for the mushroom sandwich. That wasn’t great at all :( The restaurant was not at all what I expected for fine dining. I came here expecting a nice cosy experience where I could bond with my husband on his birthday and feel like we are in an intimate setting. Instead we were alone, under bright lights, facing the waitstaff kinda sharing conversation with her the entire night. She wasn’t vegan which was fine, but just kept talking about her opinion on vegan foods and made a lot of small talk which wasn’t what I expected for a nice dinner. We opted for the sake pairing not realizing it cost $65. So that would have been nice to have a warning on. With the price of the meal and it being a pairing I had assumed it would be included or added on for a small charge. It would have been nice to just have one or two glasses of wine or a cocktail as an option instead of water or $65 sake pairing… Overall, I definitely regret the amount of money spent on the experience. I love the concept and the food was amazing, but I would rather spent half the cost on less courses. To charge $150 and to have to make constant conversation with staff was very off putting/ unprofessional/ unromantic/ awkward. I’m sure a lot of the cost of making the food would be hard for us to conceptualize without being chefs, so I can appreciate that. However, for someone looking to experience fine dining for a romantic night out I left feeling kinda cheated and disappointed with many expectations dashed.

Wow, what an amazing experience! My first time eating at a Vegan only restaurant was incredible. I am a Meat and Potatos, steak is a staple for me but AV is so much more than just a Vegan restaurant, the food is all delicious and the experience of the Chef’s menu was awesome. I took a first date here and we had a great time. Staff was soooo friendly. Set Menu was perfect Two desserts was a shock and welcome A definite must experience place in Honolulu.