Nachos in Paradise: Gordon Biersch and the Cheeseless Wonton Nachos

When we found out Gordon Biersch added two varieties of nachos to their menu, we were stoked to go and try them. A couple of us went straight from work to take advantage of as much happy hour as was possible. We thought it was over at 6 and were pleasantly surprised to find out that it lasted until 6:30pm. Woo woo! Initially I ordered a glass of Malbec since I thought it would go well with the seaside sunset. While sipping my vino I noticed in the smallest print in all the land that there was a Thursday special of $5 Sauza margaritas. Damn it! I switched over to the margaritas on my next order and we let our server, Shayna, know to just keep those babies coming at regular intervals to maximize our happy hour consumption. Tom was reminded of that Wolves of Wall Street movie. The table we got was perfectly situated at the corner where we had such a lovely view of the cargo ships coming in and out of the harbor and we were even treated to a little hula when the Star of Honolulu departed for its sunset dinner cruise.

The nachos came out piled high and beautiful. The first thing I noticed was the ginger on the ahi nachos...I LOVE ginger! My second observation was the cheese, well the lack of cheese. There was no cheese on the ahi nachos which was not a HUGE deal since most of the ahi nachos I have had did not have cheese on them either. More important was the Southwestern nachos that had only minimal sprinklings of shredded cheese not melted atop the wonton chips. Perhaps a homemade queso would bind the toppings to the wontons? The lack of cheese made all the toppings (including the minimal amounts of shredded cheddar) just fall right off. The only thing that really stayed on the chips was the drizzling of sauces. If you are going to call something NACHOS, you should probably have one of the key ingredients of nachos, which is cheese. Otherwise it is just a pile of wonton chips, tasty yummy wonton chips but not very nacho-y. They were both beautifully put together and everyone agreed that the wonton chips were delicious. The exotic flavor combination of the pineapple, ginger, and ahi was something we had never experienced before in all of our nacho adventures. I personally could not get enough of it. Overall the flavors were good but the nachos did not score very high.

The group was small and intimate which is a nice break from the crazy nacho nights we have usually. We all got to catch up and share stories of life. Our server, Shayna, was awesome, keeping our drinks filled and splitting up our checks for us. It was such a lovely night I did not want it to end.

Ahi Wonton Nachos - $10.99 - Tuna diced and tossed in teriyaki sauce over crisp wonton chips, with grilled pineapple, pickled ginger, green onions and toasted sesame seeds. Drizzled with cucumber wasabi sauce and sriracha cream.

Southwest Wonton Nachos - $9.99 (+$1.99 for chicken) - Crisp wonton chips with black beans, cheddar & pepper jack cheeses, pico de gallo, red onions and cilantro, topped with smoked paprika and a drizzle of jalapeño ranch

Super stoked for $5 margaritas

#nachofriends

TANGO TANGO (2.875) - PRESENTATION: Looks great! Enough to feed 2 people, artful drizzle. RAD: Waterfront property! Amazing sunset, awesome service, $5 margaritas, great flavor combination. LAME: Seats hurt my butt, not enough toppings, chicken has boring flavor. TOPPING TO CHIP RATIO: 2. As amazing as the flavor combo of ingredients were, the topping to chip ratio was disappointing in the amount of toppings compared to the chips. So much potential if the topping portions improved. Top 10 on the island potential. Perfect harbor seating. Awesome service!

JESUS (soft 4) - PRESENTATION: Shayna is very accommodating, nice sunset on the water. RAD: Jack on the racks is naughty. Wonton chips. LAME: Not enough cheese. TOPPING TO CHIP RATIO: 3.5, not enough cheese. Quick service.

AMY (3) - PRESENTATION: Very pretty. RAD: The ahi, pineapple, ginger combo. LAME: Cheese not melty and need more! TOPPING TO CHIP RATIO: 2, the chips are fabulous but the toppings are sparse. Love the wonton chips, but definitely needs more toppings.

KIM (2.5) - PRESENTATION: Pretty heaping. RAD: Love watching the boats and barges. Ginger was great. LAME: Wontons make it greasier. TOPPING TO CHIP RATIO: 2, not enough toppings, chicken pieces were too big. GREAT SERVICE.

Shananigans (3) - PRESENTATION: Large enough for 2 or 3 people, beautiful drizzled, colorful. RAD: The pineapple, ginger, and ahi combo is heavenly. I have always loved pineapple on nachos but this ginger addition is out of this world. The jalapeno ranch adds a nice little flavor spike. LAME: WTF is up with the cheese? I get why there is none on the ahi nachos but seriously just a few crumbles of non-melted shredded cheese on the regular? No bueno. The toppings have nothing to keep them on the chips. The cheese needs to be melted, or be a queso and there needs to be a lot more of it. TOPPING TO CHIP RATIO: 2.5. These could be epic, but they lack key nacho qualities, like f#$%ing cheese. Fast service with a smile. Gorgeous water view for sunset. Slightly chilly when the sun goes down. Don't forget to read the small print for awesome happy hour specials.