We took the shuttle bus from Manele Bay Hotel for our reservation at the Formal Dining Room. After entering the Great Room at the Lodge at Koele, we went to the dining-room entrance. We were seated in the octagonal room by the fireplace. In the mountains in Lanai, the temperature drops at night and the fireplace was most welcome. The room is at least half floor-to-ceiling glass overlooking the gardens and the lake. The menu is considered rustic, upland old-Hawaiian style. Many local ingredients are used in its meal preparations. Many of the vegetables come from the hotel’s organic garden. Appetizers include seared foie gras on smoked apple-bacon corn cake with pineapple fruit relish, and entrées include seared Hawaiian snapper with marscapone cheese, lobster ravioli, and pancetta-wrapped venison with sweet potato hash and wild mushroom-and-mango cranberry relish.

My husband enjoyed the snapper and I had the venison. Both dishes were wonderful, and we were both too full for desert. A small tray of homemade chocolates were placed on the table with Kona coffee. This restaurant enjoys a ranking of the number-one restaurant in Hawaii by Zagat’s and Conde Nast Traveler.