Last night, Pere and I decided to have dinner at the (relatively) new Roy's Hawaiian Fusion on Chandler Blvd. I had just finished talking to my brother about his honeymoon in Hawaii, so that had me in the mood. We got there around 6:30 and were immediately seated. The building housing Roy's used to be a Copeland's, but from the interior, you would never know it. The interior was really nice and tastefully decorated without being over the top Hawaiian.
Once seated, our waitress promptly appeared with menus and asked if we would like anything to drink while we looked things over. Pere ordered a Hawaiian martini (vodka, vanilla vodka, Malibu, and fresh pineapple juice) while I opted for a pomegranate martini. Both drinks were excellent.
Pere and I both love poke, so when we saw it on the appetizer list, we had to order some. The version Roy's serves is made from yellow fin tuna, avocado, tobiko caviar, and wasabi aioli. We also started with an order of the Kahlua and shrimp lumpia. The poke came served in a martini glass and was good, but there was just a bit too much wasabi aioli. By the time we finished, there was still a big gob of it in the bottom of the glass. The pork and shrimp lumpia was fantastic. Lumpia is very similar to egg roll, only this one was much tastier. It came with a very nice (if mild) habanero sauce for dipping.
For entrees, Pere went with seared diver scallops over lobster scented risotto with wasabi foam. I was in the mood for fish, and the Thai pesto steamed walu with wild mushroom ravioli sounded really good. We both wanted wine, but I was in the mood for red while Pere was thinking white. She was all set to order a glass of some Pinot Grigio neither of us had heard of before when the waitress suggested she try the Trimbach Pinot Blanc instead, claiming it was a bit smoother than the other. Pere mentioned that she had never had either, so the waitress offered to bring her a tasting of both to help her make up her mind. Fantastic! After tasting both, Pere went with the Trimbach as suggested. I decided on a glass of 2003 Benton Lane Pinot Noir. It was well balanced and had strong plum and berry notes. I thought it was pretty good.
The presentation of Pere's entree was really nice. There were four scallops, each placed on its own bed of risotto and foam and garnished with drizzles of sauce. I had a bite and thought they were pretty good, although some of the rice grains were a little too al dente. My fish was another story. It was a nice sized piece of walu topped with pesto sitting in a shallow pool of sauce, with four ravioli accompanying. The first bite of fish had me saying "eck"! I don't know exactly what it was, but something about the pesto left an astringent, metallic taste in my mouth. Just to be sure, I scraped the pesto off of another piece of the fish and tried the fish alone. It tasted fine. Next, I tried the pesto again and wound up with the same metallic result. This makes the second time in my life that I've had pesto that was just foul. I probably should have sent the dish back, but I didn't. I just scraped all of the pesto off and continued on from there. The ravioli were excellent. The pasta was cooked perfectly, and the wild mushroom filling was very flavorful. I could have skipped the fish and just had an entire bowl of ravioli.
By the time we finished our meals, neither of us had room for dessert. We had our leftovers wrapped, paid the bill, and headed out. We were very happy with the ambiance and service at Roy's, and the appetizers and drinks were excellent as well. Neither of us were thrilled with our entrees, but we both felt we would be willing to have dinner there again, or perhaps just have appetizers at the bar. Unfortunately, though, this isn't the end of the story.
After we had gotten home and put our leftovers away in the refrigerator, we decided to watch some TV. About 15 minutes into the movie, I felt a rumbling in my stomach, followed by that sinking feeling that things were about to go downhill. Let's just say that the next 3 hours weren't much fun. I wouldn't have thought much of it if Pere didn't have the exact same problem within 10 minutes of me. We figured it had to be something with one of the appetizers we had. Since the lumpia were freshly fried, I doubt it was that. More than likely, it was mishandling of the tuna in the poke, or something similar. I probably should have called the health department, or at least the restaurant, but it was late by the time I had recovered and at that point all I wanted to do was go to bed.
So, bottom line is that Roy's was pretty decent, but the combination of my disappointment with my entree and the food poisoning episode that followed have me a little skittish about returning in the immediate future. I'll probably give them another shot in a few months, though, as there aren't too many restaurants around here with a decent number of seafood dishes on the menu.
