First Course: Kona opens with a menu of steak and seafood, but there's a good place to start.

Regulars from Bill Lee’s previous restaurants have their favorite dishes, from ribs to bread pudding. As eyes scroll down the menu at Kona Steak & Seafood, squeals of elation burst from tables. Every once in a while, a low “they don’t have…” mumble can be heard.

There’s no disappointment, however. The Islands-inspired list offers too many temptations for that.

Yet getting to the promised steak and seafood part of the menu requires one to dig in against those urges. There at the top is crab Rangoon—not the aimless, sodden appetizer plugged with cream cheese, but a dollop rich with shredded shellfish. The wonton floret is nutty and crisp, providing a neat contrast to the sweet salinity of the crab mixture. Almost appearing out of nowhere, a mist of earthy heat pricks the palate.

Lee and his kitchen team apparently like a sneaky wave of spice. The honey butter melting into strips of griddled cornbread sparks with an unexpected heat that is welcome against the mellow sweetness. The cornbread itself is almost radiant—golden, ruddy, with deeper streaks scorched from the grill.

Both are part of the pupus menu. And the starters can easily mount into an entire meal: a six pack of ribs, a bowl of Maui onion soup under a warm blanket of Gruyere, meaty coconut shrimp, duck tacos and more.

Kona Steak & Seafood has been open less than a week. But it’s clear that Lee is pleased with the soft opening. While the usual hiccups of the early going happen, the staff are attentive and free Lee up to work the room, greeting regulars from the past and first timers with equal pleasantry.

The restaurant fills the old P.F. Chang’s space in Monterey’s Del Monte Center, neighboring the California Pizza Kitchen—Lee’s 12th place (and, as he tends to promise, his last) in a career spanning five decades. So he knows how to arrange a place.

It’s a handsome dining room dark wood, cool blues and greens, soft and warm orbs of light overhead. It begins to feel like dusk on a Hawaiian beach.

In other words, Kona is inviting—which is a good thing. It may take a few trips to get past the appetizer menu.

Kona Steak & Seafood is at 1200 Del Monte Center, Monterey. 375-0143, konamonterey.com.