Ninnikuya

for many years now, i've always wanted to try this restaurant. love garlic! i wasn't as happy as i thought i would be. garlic didn't seem too overpowering, just right. it was good, but nothing i would write home about. service was actually good and everything came out at just the right time. we started off with a cocktail. i had a blueberry martini which was very delish! our first dish was the garlic caesar salad. like a good normal caesar except it had pieces of salami and sliced boiled eggs, which gave it a good flavor combination. the croûtons were slightly soggy and i like mine to be a little more crispier. then we had the escargot. i expected it to be in a butter garlic sauce, but instead was in a creamy garlic butter sauce. i felt it was a little too rich. however, we did score a couple extra pieces as a couple of holes had 2 escargot. next we got the foie gras. this was probably one of the better dishes. 2 big chunks melted in your mouth like buttah. it was in a port red wine reduction sauce placed on baguettes with fresh fruit. yes it sounds a little odd, but it was actually very good. arteries are now super clogged! maybe more of a drizzled sauce would've been enough. next we had the filet mignon on a sizzling platter. it came whole and pretty raw then it was sliced by the server and cooked more to your liking on the hot plate. it was accompanied by garlic mash and vegetables. the filet was okay, i've had much better and they lathered on soooo much garlic butter! arteries are waay clogged now. last we had the garlic rice. i was quite surprised to see that it was like the korean purple rice. it was actually pretty good because they sprinkle sea salt so you're crunching down on salt grains. yum! now i have high blood pressure. we didn't have room for dessert, way too full. all in all it was just a mediocre restaurant. it's not somewhere i would go back to. just a good try. 3 stars. cheers!!

Yohei

this is one of our favorite sushi restaurants. service is always good, waitresses are nice, sushi is always fresh and best of all kazuto, the owner knows us. we always order omakase (chef's choice) because anything and everything he makes is good. most of the fish is flown in from japan. this restaurant is very authentic, they don't really serve maki style, only temaki or nigiri. they don't have spicy tuna and all those other outrageous rolls. they normally tell you if you need shoyu or not and they don't put wasabi since it's already in the sushi. their deep fried moi with tsuri daikon, green onions and ponzu. this is so good! they cut the fish like that so it is not fried too long, just a short while in super hot oil. their ahi rib karaage is deep fried and served with ponzu sauce as well. why waste the ribs of the fish when you can make this dish? nothing beats good sushi with a cold orion beer! we always finish off with an order of tamago. it seems to cleanse the palette cause of the sweetness of the egg. don't get me wrong, they do have other great choices on the menu like tempura, butterfish, unagi, udon, etc. but we always order sushi and an appetizer. reservations is a must as their small restaurant gets filled pretty quickly. enjoy! 5 stars, most definitely! cheers!

Tokkuri Tei

we went to one of our favorite izakaya restaurants, tokkuri tei! at one point we were going here once a week! although they serve sushi as well, we always order izakaya style and share. now dinner is getting very expensive as my kids eat all these things too. the first is the yakitori (grilled teriyaki chicken). this is the first time we ordered this cause the kids wanted it. it was okay, wish it was a little more charred. next is the ume maki. it's grilled chicken, drizzled with ume (plum) paste topped with bonito (shaved dried fish) flakes. the salty, sour taste of the ume pairs perfectly with the grilled chicken. next is the tan shio (beef tongue). this is absolutely my favorite! it is thinly sliced, salt and peppered and grilled, then you squirt lemon. it is sooooo good and the more charred the better! next is the shiso (ume leaves) maki. they roll the shiso leaves with thinly sliced pork and salt and grill. top it with a little lemon and it is yum! next is the shimeji maki. this is shimeji mushrooms wrapped in thinly sliced pork drizzled with a tsuri daikon and maybe ponzu sauce?? don't know what the sauce is, but it sure is delish! to top it all off you have to eat this all with an onigiri. they mix the hot rice with some salt and shape into musubi and wrap in nori. you can just eat the musubi with the yellow takuan and you'll be satisfied! this place is definitely 5 stars! enjoy this place! cheers!

Bento-ya Iyasume

so again, trying to figure out where to eat for lunch. i've always wanted to try this bento place next door to one of my favs, tokkuri tei. you get to pick from about 20 different combinations of bento. the place was pretty busy so we thought must be good! kinda small, only can seat about 10 people max. i ordered the garlic fried chicken and a friend ordered the shrimp tempura. you get to pick your own sides (1 for mini and 2 for regular size) and all bento come with miso soup! our sides were potato salad and hijiki and miso nasubi (eggplant) and kinpira gobo. it's a good size bento for the the price ($7.50-$8.00). i wish the sauce for the garlic fried chicken were a little more sweet. i was very surprised that the chicken had very little fat. i think they spend the time trimming the fat before cooking. i always find myself sifting through the pieces separating the fat from meat. this place was okay, but will be back to give it another try. cheers!

Raraya Ramen

this restaurant took the place of a japanese restaurant we used to frequent. there are so many ramen/noodle places popping up all over honolulu these days, it's hard to keep track of them all. this particular restaurant is a iekei ramen bar chain, that specializes in yokohama style noodles, which is thicker and flatter. they use pork and shoyu (soy sauce)as the base for the soup. The bowl usually comes with slices of roast pork, nori (seaweed) and spinach, but you can order a variety of toppings such as egg, menma (bamboo shoots), wakame (seaweed), corn, etc. Customers may also adjust the amount of oil, shoyu and the hardness of noodles (usually in three levels: plenty, normal, and less; or hard, normal, and soft). their gyoza (potstickers) are to die for. there's this crispy, thin layer of "don't know what you call it". it sorta taste like a mild cheese, but the waitress said it wasn't. the noodles are on the chewier side nothing like those other ramen places, where the noodles are thin. the broth is a little oiler than expected. i always get the ramen with the soft boiled egg. it is yummy! it's interesting to have the 3 sheets of nori and it actually works well once it is soaked in the broth, it gets soft. the only thing i would recommend is to TURN UP THE A/C and please put more ice in the water!!! it is always so warm in there and even hotter when eating piping hot ramen! enjoy this place! cheers!