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There are a ton of great Japanese places, here a few I'd suggest depending on what kind of Japanese you are looking for (some of them I've reviewed on my blog if you wanna check it out):
Yakiniku: Gyu-kaku -- Really popular in Japan and on the mainland. Lots of celebrities dine at the California locations.
Home style Japanese cooking: Hakkei, go to their website hakkei-honolulu.com and look at their daily special menu for lunch. The chef is from the Hakkei hot spring in Japan (I went there too) and makes very good country style Japanese.
Sushi: Sushi Sasabune, Mitch's (beware these two are EXPENSIVE!)
Japanese fusion: Nobu's -- Expensive but good. If you love raw seafood (sashimi, oysters, etc) get the "omakase" and let the chef prepare dishes for you with what he's got that night. It's expensive at $90 per person, but I thought it was worth it.
I'm sure there are tons more but those are just a few. Hope that helps.
Yanagi's quality has degraded over the years from what I've seen.
And I actually boycott that restaurant now, because one of their employees damaged my grandfather's car and they refused to pay for the damages, so we had to actually threaten legal recourse. Pretty bad for a business that relies on public image.
Yanagi's quality has degraded over the years from what I've seen.
And I actually boycott that restaurant now, because one of their employees damaged my grandfather's car and they refused to pay for the damages, so we had to actually threaten legal recourse. Pretty bad for a business that relies on public image.
That's too bad. My experiences were from the 80's when it was a shining star.
Life is what you make of it...so please read the instructions carefully.
sometimes you get what you pay for. i agree with dyasu, craig, about yanagi. imo, they used to be really good. i used to go there a lot but haven't in several years now. gyu-kaku to me is just okay. i'd rather go to kunio. haven't been to most of the places mentioned, but can't wait to try them out!
off topic: whatever you do, i do NOT recommend the beachhouse restaurant at the moana. way over priced. one of my friends had to send her steak back (over done), the shellfish platter was way skimpy and my fish was overcooked. the waitress didn't know much about the wines. the best part of it all was the company and the music.
Last edited by kani-lehua; March 14, 2008, 05:07 PM.
"chaos reigns within. reflect, repent and reboot. order shall return."
If you like Kunio (haven't been there myself in years) then you'll probably like Akasaka, Yohei and Maguro-ya. I'd go to Akasaka for the sushi or yosenabe, Yohei for sushi or their butterfish teishoku, and Maguro-ya has a teishoku called "Magurozukushi" that's a sampling of different preparations of maguro.
hi this is sansei and i once liked Gyotaku and hifumi the one that closed a few year's ago where they now have a gas station in it's place and cant remember the name and they had the best tendon Tempura over rice and now Gyotaku has now the best tendon and i truly enjoyed it when we went there so i hope this may help?
As far as I know and remember, there's been only one Hifumi. The original was located by Diners in Kalihi. The original owners were a Japanese couple. The service was slow but they packed the crowd in. The same recipe for Tempura is still being used by the current Hifumi Restaurant today.
Auntie Lynn
Be AKAMAI ~ KOKUA Hawai`i! Philippians 4:13 --- I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
I've eaten at Futaba a couple of times, although its been years since I've been there. The restaurant serves up some good simple Japanese dishes at a reasonable price. The taste is quite good. Not what you'd expect from how it looks on the outside (and its location!).
An interesting little tidbit about that place is that the head chef was one of the Head Chef's for the Japanese emperor's wedding! Pretty high up if you ask me.
Any good suggestions for an Okazuya? I have fond memories of Kabuki Okazuya in Waimalu - getting a box lunch from there meant you were going on a field trip that day! Can you think of the best ones in Hawaii?
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