Your Ultimate Guide to Japanese Food in Honolulu
The best izakayas, sushi, ramen, okazuyas, mochi and more.
Mari Taketa
Articles
Did this: Eat the Street Bacon
Does Honolulu love bacon or what? The air wafted with the scent of smoky pork goodness Friday night in Kakaako, with dozens of trucks and food booths dishing up savory and sweet bacon dishes to one of the biggest crowds…
Your guide to Night Market: Green
It’s Earth Day and it’s green — a dual symphonic theme of sorts for this week’s Honolulu Night + Market, starring living architecture, music with a reggae touch and, uh, green food.We’ll get back to that food. You know by…
Sneak peek: Taste of Marukai
Tickets are sold out for Thursday’s Taste of Marukai, a first ever for the eight-year-old fest. For the 800 of you who’ll show up at the wholesale chain’s Dillingham store for one of the quirkiest, most fun showcases of Japanese…
Japanese Food Guide: Best Tonkatsu in Honolulu
Our three favorite places for deep-fried pork cutlets
Foodscene: April
April 1, 8, 15, 22: Maui Lamb Mondays12th Avenue Grill1145C 12th Ave.Reservations: 732-9469If we eat more parts of the lamb, would raising lamb be more sustainable for local ranchers? 12AG tests the waters this month, with lamb leg roulade April…
Pig and the Lady’s “Spirited Away” popup
Pig and the Lady is in my blood. I’m there Wednesday nights at the Blaisdell farmers’ market, Thursday nights in Kailua if I miss Wednesday; and every other Saturday, when they set up Noodle Bar at Taste in Kakaako, I…
Did this: Eat the Street Japan
Flavors of Japan hit Kakaako Friday night, with 42 food trucks and street food vendors outdoing themselves to provide Nihon-themed eats. Yakisoba hot dogs, sakura dango mochi pops, sushi, yakitori, okonomiyaki — hai! All on our favorite mega-block on South…
Eat the Street preview: Simply Ono
Yes, people, it IS the last Friday of the month already, which for the food-driven among you means one thing: It’s Eat the Street night in Kakaako. Tonight’s theme: Japan, meaning every one of the 40 food trucks and street…
Did this: Joy of Sake Aftertaste at HASR
It’s not just the midsummer mega-party the Joy of Sake puts on. Honolulu’s appetite for the ricey brew fuels monthly Aftertastes, samplings of 40 sake at a time at different restaurants around town, and if there were any doubts about…
Did this: Alan Wong’s Farmer Series dinner
Alan Wong’s puts on its Farmer Series dinners only two or three times a year, always supporting local producers, always delivering for a worthy cause. Last night’s showcased a range of microgreens and herbs from FarmRoof, the local project that…
Eat here … or here … or here
Forgive me if I’m missing something, but dang, these popups just keep coming. I’m in the midst of confirming a spate of three choice popups this week when one more I’m keeping an eye on comes through, as in hot…
Your guide to Saturday’s Night Market
Time once again for the Kakaako block party that blows up the ‘hood, with more than food, more than shopping, more than fashion, street performers and live music. This time Honolulu Night Market stretches down Auahi from Keawe to Lana…
Naked Cow bringing back cheese dinners
You read right: Eight months after debuting locally sourced gourmet dinners featuring its homemade cows’ milk cheeses in Waianae’s Lualualei Valley, Naked Cow Dairy is back with more farm dinners. Even better, starting with next week’s series, the dinners will…
Why I’m going to Fatboy’s
For the longest time it was hard just passing Kapiolani. Most people know the medical center as a giver of life; for me it’s the place that cushioned the slow ride to the end of my mom’s. I don’t even…
Foodscene: March
March: National Caffeine Awareness MonthWhat is there to be aware of? Caffeine is good. Caffeine jump-starts intelligence. Caffeine makes the world go round. March should be National Caffeine Appreciation MonthMarch 1: Honolulu Festival Friendship GalaHawaii Convention Center1801 Kalakaua Ave.6:30 to…
It’s tomorrow: Aloha, Byron’s Drive-In
Whoosh, what a ride. Forty-eight years, countless shrimp burgers and deep-fried Oreos, Saturday lunches and late-night runs later, Byron’s Drive-In closes tomorrow night, and it’s a sad good-bye.Byron’s opened by the airport May 10, 1965. It’s the last restaurant of…
Cocktail Week: Grey Goose & St. Germain tasting
Come by! the writeup said. Try a flight of three cocktails featuring Grey Goose and St. Germain and complimentary food.Really? At Brasserie du Vin, for $20? On this last day of an intense and heady Cocktail Week, we were so…
Cocktail Week: Reverse Pairing
Create the cocktail first, let the food follow. In this reverse pairing, Southern Wine and Spirits mixologist Chandra Lam Lucariello led the way with three creations. Each was paired with appetizers crafted specially by Moana Surfrider chef William Chen for…
Thanks, Sheldon
Dear Sheldon, I wish you’d won. I know many Top Chef fans in Hawaii who feel the same way, and more beyond these shores. From the beginning of season 10 you brought the show home, flashing the shaka with a…
Cluster truck: Kapahulu’s new food truck pod
I’m driving down Kapahulu, hunting for a saimin truck, of all things, when I come upon this: not one, but five food trucks, lined up in the lot just below Winam and above American Savings Bank.What the truck? I think,…
VIDEO taste: Natto again!
Yes, it slimed. Yes, it wafted. And yes, it was in every dish. NATTO AGAIN!, Nonstop’s latest foray into the world of the odiferous fermented soybean, featured natto in ways the world likely has never seen, thanks to the mind…
Shakeup at Tsunami’s
We’d heard Wade Ueoka, until recently chef de cuisine at Alan Wong’s, was taking over the kitchen at Tsunami nightclub. That’s right, Tsunami’s. So when Tsunami’s called and invited us over for a sampling, half of Nonstop showed up at…
The new block for healthy
My second time at Greens & Vines, the newish raw vegan restaurant across Blaisdell Center, I’m trying to decide between living lasagna and zucchini pasta. One’s sun-dried tomato marinara and spinach pesto layered between zucchini strips and topped with a…
Foodscene: February
Feb. 1 & 2: Punahou Carnival1601 Punahou St.11 a.m. to 11 p.m.It’s the first weekend of February, which means the teriburgers, crusty malasadas and mango chutney you wait for all year are finally here. Don’t forget the rides, white elephant…
NATTO AGAIN! The un-Valentine dinner
Family-style rice bowls heaping with maguro-natto goodness. Spicy Korean natto kimchee stew. And dessert, people: natto cheesecake with honey ume.Are you ready for Nonstop’s third all-natto dinner? The stinky bean returns on Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14, with an all-new menu…
Eat the Street Pro Bowl preview
Biggest. ETS. Ever. Seriously? We had to count twice — 53 food trucks and street food vendors, every one tonight serving up an iconic dish from an NFL city. And since this one’s an official Pro Bowl event, that means…
M&M eats: Monkeypod Kitchen
Happy new year, people! Nonstop’s M&M opens the year with a girls’ night far from our usual townie haunts, out in Leeward Oahu for a look at Peter Merriman’s new Ko Olina spot.The place was buzzing on a recent Friday,…
Sunday’s Ohana Fest: What to eat, see, do
Are you going to Sunday’s Ohana Festival in Moiliili? After missing it last year, and then flagellating ourselves over all your Instagrams, Twitpics and Facebook pics of the glorious eats and more, we are so there. This year we’re primed.…
Foodscene: January
Jan. 4: Kasbah Events popup dinnerTASTE667 Auahi St.5 to 9 p.m.Last night of a three-night a la carte pop-up by Moroccan-born chefs Moumen El Hajji and Christopher Hajji and French-trained Holly Hadsell. No tickets, just show up and order from…
Eat the Street @ Party of the Year
Happy 2013, people! Kakaako rang in the new year as only Kakaako can, with 30 food trucks and street food booths anchoring the Party of the Year at Kakaako Park, plus fireworks every hour on the hour, a ferris wheel,…
Kimukatsu vs. Bairin
Happy Friday, tonkatsu fans, happy one week since the battle of the tonkatsu giants came to Shirokiya!I’ve found that in Hawaii, asking who likes tonkatsu is like asking who likes Spam. So this is momentous: Waikiki’s Kimukatsu debuted in a…
It’s ba-ack: Pig and the Lady’s haute pop-ups
The menu came out on Monday, and after ‘paiai with inamona and grapes,’ I don’t remember anything else. I booked for opening night.Sashimi with water lily, banana blossom and kaffir lime sauce from Pig and the Lady's first pop-up last…
A Christmas gift idea with heart
Kathy Sills has heart. She had a dream about an ice pop tricycle and made it come true, crafting local fruit and chocolate ice pops by hand and selling them from her tricycle-driven cart. She did this while running her…
VIDEO first look: Vintage Cave
Probably everything you might have heard about Vintage Cave, the new restaurant opening under Shirokiya next week, is true. Fantastical, but true:It’s one man’s dream. Takeshi Sekiguchi, whose developments span Maui’s Grand Wailea Resort and Four Seasons to Ko Olina…
Did this: StarChefs.com’s Rising Stars gala
StarChefs.com brought its star power to Hawaii Tuesday night, shining the spotlight on a new-generation crop of 13 chefs and one mixologist at a tasting gala that sold out at $95 a ticket. All were picked from a field of…
Foodscene: December
Dec. 1: Midnight Madness with Lee Anne WongTASTE667 Auahi St.7 to 10 p.m.Tickets: $45 onlineUnique Eats’ Lee Anne Wong is back to join forces with Mark Noguchi in the second Drunch (“You drink you munch, it’s dinner it’s lunch”) event…
Did this: Yelp’s Holiday Hoopla
Have you ever been to a Yelp party in, oh, say, a typical place? Like, somewhere you’d expect to have a party? Assuming you Yelp, as much of this town does, making Honolulu a red-hot Yelp site, the answer is…
Would you wait in line 38 minutes for ramen?
Sunday night I sucked up my hatred of lines and stood on a Chinatown sidewalk 38 minutes for ramen. Sun Noodle, you see, is legendary to noodle fiends for making just about every kind of Asian noodle Hawaii eats, at…
