Kahala has never been the hotbed of restaurant activity that neighboring Kaimuki and nearby Kapahulu are. And if you want to find a breakfast place in the vicinity, you'll count the choices on a few fingers and might end up driving elsewhere.

So Kahala residents must have greeted Tropical Garden with anticipation — a neighborhood eatery that serves three meals a day in the former Ye Olde Fox & Hounds location, near popular Olive Tree Café. But could it pack patrons in, the way Olive Tree's Mediterranean food does?

Most breakfast joints open early, around 6 a.m., to accommodate busy people going to work or getting off the night shift. Tropical Garden opens at a late 9 a.m. This was the first indication that the restaurant may have the right idea but has difficulty with the finer points.

Then there was the name. It's not that I expected a waterfall, but with a name like Tropical Garden, some greenery or other garden-like features might have been in order. Instead, what my eyes zoomed in on were the TV screens — a small one in the front dining room like those in hospital waiting rooms and a giant screen in the back dining area, often used by large parties. The restaurant is decorated in faux slate, and although it's not unattractive, with its bright white linens and a few outdoor tables, the overall effect is rather plain.

When I read over the breakfast, lunch and dinner menus, I was pleased to find such attention to detail as a choice of grilled pork chop or top sirloin for their version of a loco moco topped with fried garlic chips ($7.95). When it appeared, the food did look as I had imagined, but when I dug in, my anticipation flat-lined.

Smoked salmon Benedict ($7.95) arrived with tomato slices and fresh spinach along with fresh dill in its caper-studded sauce and breakfast potatoes — fried cubes. However, the color of the salmon was an alarming orange, the way Japanese beni-shoga ginger pickles are red, and the English muffin base was soggy soft. The fish's strong flavor was masked somewhat by all the add-ins that made me wonder if they were there to compensate for the quality of the salmon. I am an eggs Benedict lover, but would not come back for this dish.

At lunch, I experienced more disappointment when I tried the T.G. oxtail soup ($10.95), a big bowl full of oxtail chunks. The broth was bland and more lukewarm than hot. The oxtail meat was tough, not cooked until it's practically falling off the bone, as it should be. And the baby bok choy floating above it all was underdone. My companion's citrus-grilled salmon and 'ahi salad Nicoise ($10.95) was drowned in a piercing balsamic-citrus vinaigrette.

But it was at dinner that I really felt that somehow, between the expectations involved and the final product, vital components were lost.

Entrees in the $20 range read like fine-dining selections even though the setting isn't the kind of place where you expect lehua- honey-mustard-crusted lamb chops ($25.95). Even entertainer Freddie Alcantar, who belts out songs like Tony Bennett on Friday and Saturday nights, couldn't distract me into forgetting about the scenery and the food on my plate. As for the lamb chops, I soon discovered they had been left untrimmed of fat, which accounted for their plump size in the dim light. They tasted all right with their minted cabernet sauce, but the garlic-chive mashed potatoes that accompanied them were nondescript, and the vegetables on the plate resembled the well-done frozen sort.

I did come across certain dishes that were reasonably priced — a golden, deep-fried, dynamite soft-shell crab ($9.95) appetizer and a heaping somen salad ($8.95) in a crispy-thin, giant shrimp chip bowl. But these selections were exceptions.

On each of my visits, service was extremely hospitable, but I had to wait longer than I should for the food. So in the end, the friendliness, like Alcantar's singing, didn't make the bumpy culinary ride any smoother.

As I labored to sip an unusual, overly thick Okinawan sweet potato smoothie ($3.75) through a very thin straw, I struggled to find reasons to like Tropical Garden. While little chunks of potato and ice that that hadn't been demolished in the blender kept getting stuck in my straw, I realized that dining at Tropical Garden was like attempting to use a utensil that doesn't quite work for the task in hand. It shouldn't be so hard to sip a drink — or to enjoy a restaurant.

Reach Helen Wu at hwu@honoluluadvertiser.com.