Saturday, January 4, 7:00 P.M.
Members $95, guests $120

It's an old critic's truism that it's easier to write a bad review than a good one. The unpleasant fact is that good news is dull. Take, for instance, this headline that ran in Pacific Business News shortly after George Mavrothalassitis opened Chef Mavro in Honolulu: "No Surprise Mavro's New Place Is Superb." Yawn.

But try as we might, we could not find a single bad thing to say about Chef Mavro. We couldn't even find a mediocre thing. Truth be told, we couldn't uncover so much as one comment that was less than out-and-out sensational. Travel & Leisure described Chef Mavro as their "culinary Valhalla." The Honolulu Star-Bulletin's Nadine Kam, who gave the place four stars, observed, "What you get here is cuisine that is masterfully prepared, classic, and understated." Praising the "enchanting French-Hawaiian cuisine," John Mariani included Chef Mavro in his 1999 line-up of Best New Restaurants in Esquire. And Gourmet noted that "Chef Mavro marries Marseilles and Honolulu in brilliant ways."

We should tell you that Mavrothalassitis is a native of Marseilles who trained under Jean and Pierre Troisgros in Roanne and Alain Senderens in Paris, and had two restaurants of his own, all before moving to the States in 1985. In Hawaii, he made a name for himself at La Mer at the Halekulani in Waikiki. His reputation only grew at The Four Seasons on Maui. In 1998, he opened Chef Mavro.

Now where were we? Oh yes—the deluge of acclaim. "The cooking...is personal and almost invariably perfect," according to Gayot. Mavrothalassitis is one of "the two princes of the Honolulu gastronomy scene," penned New York Times gastronome-in-residence R. W. Apple Jr. (He named Alan Wong as the other.) "The parade of wonders seemed endless. By the time dessert arrived, we were in a giddy stupor," Joanne Fujita of Honolulu Weekly wrote, and judging by the rest of her review, she never emerged from it: "When you dine here, you don't wish that you were in some greater culinary city. All the best that can be had is here. Those who dine at Chef Mavro deserve the envy of the world."

Yadda, yadda, yadda.