CASSIS BY CHEF MAVRO - HONOLULU

CASSIS BY CHEF MAVRO

Honolulu, HI

Located downtown in the old Palamino space, Cassis is the second restaurant for famed Chef Mavro.  Mavro is a legend in Hawaii cooking.  His flagship "Mavro's" has received many awards throughout the years.  Why he went out on a limb with Cassis is beyond me.  I think the place is wrong for the location and will not last too long unless the prices and menu change at lunch time.  I was treated to lunch here by a very nice sales rep.  If not for the rep picking up the tab, I would not have gone.  To put it simply, the food is just too expensive for the lunch crowd downtown.  My co-worker and myself ordered the beef dish for lunch.  It was a whopping $28.  This is for a lunch entree mind you.  Add a side salad or soup and drink and you are easily hitting $40 for lunch PER PERSON.   This is just not right.  The beef is good but not great.  It is served with a nice sauce with onions, a green something that is kind of like a salad and some french fries that are yummy.  Our rep friend ordered the chicken and another friend ordered the mini burgers.  The chicken was fantastic according to our  friend.  The mini burgers looked good, but the price was $14 or $7 a piece.   You can tell the local downtown crowd is not buying into these prices by the size of the lunch tme crowd.  The place was nearly empty at 12:00 noon.  The bar was empty too.  During the Palamino days, the place was packed day after day.  Mavro is a great chef.  The food is good, but you cannot expect the working class to pay these prices for lunch.   I think this place could do allright if Mavro came up with some lunch dishes around $8 to $15 bucks.  This would bring in more folks like me on a regular basis.   UPDATE:  ONE WEEK AFTER WRITING THIS CASSIS CLOSED THEIR DOORS.