Last night, Vince’s cousin, Cynthia, took us to a bar that was located downstairs of a restaurant called Liholiho Yacht Club Restaurant called Louie’s Gen-Gen Room. She’s eaten at the restaurant before but never downstairs. The cocktail bar downstairs is named after a family name Louie who had a market opened many years and visited the restaurant a lot. The owner wanted to name the bar after the family and decided to make a play off the word of genuine, calling it gen gen, to make it playful.
You have to walk through the restaurant and upstairs and take the stairs downstairs to make it to the bar. From there, you walk through the open bar/kitchen to the tables. You can make reservations on Yelp beforehand.
The place is decorated super cute with brick walls and aqua like paint. It gave off an industrial feel.
We started off with three drinks: two of The Last Mango in Paris (lillet, archambaud cognac, mango, lemon) and El Niño (arrette tequila, guava, amaro nonino, lime). While the drinks were very tasty, sweet and fruity, they were also very boozy and strong. I was already feeling it in my head a few sips in.
Potato chips. French onion, egg, chives, smoked trout caviar. This was my personal favorite! It wasn’t too expensive, just $13. The potato chips were very thin and crispy. The French onion was eggy and thick.
The spoon used for the dip is a mother of Pearl caviar spoon!
At the bottom we’re all the caviar eggs. The top was the dip mixture. I really like the light savory that the caviar eggs bring into the mix when bursted during chewing.
Pigs in a blanket. Homemade spam, pepper jack, dijonaise. This tasted very good. It didn’t taste like spam at all but the light savory of the meat was so tasty. The highlight was the cheese and dijonaise. It was served freshly hot and lightly crispy.
Hamachi Poke. Spicy mayo, black sesame, octo puff. This was one of everyone’s favorite. I really like the super thinly sliced radish leaf laid on the octo puff. The chip reminds me of the Asian chips that our parents used to fry. They were light and airy. We liked it so much that we even got a second order!
Kimchi-Cheese dip. Dungeness crab, yellow corn, tortilla chips. No one liked this because there was no kimchi flavor, but I liked it because of the crab, cheese and corn. It was so cheesy! Reminded me of Korean corn and cheese. They were also generous with the crab! So much real crab in there! And the chips were very thick and crunchy, which worked well as a vessel to hold the dip.
Bone marrow butter waffle. Smoked sturgeon, avocado green goddess. This wasn’t memorable to me so it was disappointing. I really thought I would like it and was intrigued because of the name. It tasted good! But it wasn’t memorable like the others. The texture of the waffle was soft, the meat tender and there was avocado on it. Oh well haha.
Overall, I loved this bar! I would come back in a heartbeat! Thank you Cynthia for showing us a place that satisfied Vince’s cocktail requirement and good food for me. 🙂
