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Dining Editor

Dining Editor Mari Taketa spearheads coverage of the city’s dining scene for HONOLULU Magazine and its digital food blog, Frolic Hawai‘i. A 10-year veteran of traditional journalism, she traded in a career at The Associated Press in Tokyo and Hawai‘i Business Magazine for nonprofit adoption work in Ho Chi Minh City. Food brought her back to journalism, starting with Metromix Honolulu, The Honolulu Advertiser, Hana Hou and now HONOLULU. She is also excited by travel and periodically attempts to learn new languages.
So not boring, this supermarket chain: Foodland just announced it's opening a second bar at Foodland Farms Ala Moana, this one in the opposite corner of the store from the R. Field wine bar and featuring cocktails and new bar…
Now, chef Jon Matsubara is in the kitchen of one of the most buzzable new eateries in town—and it’s finally his.
The sun is shining a little brighter on Mokauea Street in Kalihi this new year: Alicia's Market, the three-generation poke shop that was gutted by a fire in 2018, is finally starting its rebuild. "We're looking at summertime" for reopening…
Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean: Here are the best places to start your Lunar New Year feast.
Today was Kon Ping Young's last day at the Crack Seed Store. Young bought the shop back in 1979 from its previous owner and ran it with his wife, Fung Tang, as they raised and sent their four kids to…
Musubi Café Iyasume sells up to 23 kinds of Spam musubi. Here are five different versions—safe and more adventurous—for your kids to try.
Chinatown's popular Viet-global restaurant opened to full houses on Thanksgiving weekend.
Foodland, the state's biggest locally owned supermarket chain, just announced it's opening a poke bar and restaurant Dec. 12 in Kakaako. Redfish, a 36-seat eatery at Salt Kakaako, will have poke and other dishes plus local beers, craft cocktails and…
Changes are happening across Foodland’s 33 stores, some gradual and subtle, others over the top. And there’s more coming.
While keeping the “small island feel.”
Did you even know the world needed 23 kinds of Spam musubi?
Spam musubi aficionados have 23 reasons to stop by a local eatery that’s building an empire on a mountain of rice balls.
Update 9/26: Both Natto Feasts at Feast on Friday, Sept. 27 and Saturday, Sept. 28 are SOLD OUT. The thing about Jon Matsubara's food is everything has a story, and somewhere in the story there's a twist. Sometimes it starts…
You who drove to Moiliili and fought for parking to eat Jon Matsubara's butter-poached crab and bacon sandwiches and fried chicken dipped in umami aioli and gochujang sambal, and you who never made it to his months-long Feast at Anasia…
I met Khun Sai, chef-owner of Chinatown's Rangoon Burmese Kitchen, at last month's Hale Aina awards. Or rather, Sai had just won Best New Restaurant - Editor's Choice, one of only two awards selected by the top eaters on the…
It's official: After months of rumors, Chinatown's Pig & the Lady confirms today that its first overseas restaurant will open in Tokyo this fall. The new restaurant will be owned by Tokyo-based Transit General Office, whose other restaurants include four…
Note: The July 10 natto dinner is sold out! So we've added an identical encore feast on Sunday, July 14, 2019. For tickets to More Summer Slime: 7/14 Natto Feast encore, order online at Eventbrite. There is slime, and there…
I couldn't believe the Instagram message from Jennifer Hee, chef at Kaimuki's Juicy Brew: "Hi Mari! Chef Jon Matsubara will be popping up here next week. Vegan Feast!" Matsubara, you may recall, was the architect of the $65 Ultimate Loco…
If you think Foodland Farms Ala Moana is a standard higher-end supermarket, you've either never been or you need new glasses. It opened nearly two years ago as the biggest of Foodland's 33 stores, just two blocks from the state's…
Note: The April 17 natto dinner sold out in record time. So we've added a second natto dinner with an identical menu at Zigu on TUESDAY, APRIL 23 at 6 p.m. Scroll down for the ticket link! Break out the…
Films that make you laugh, cry and hungry for fried chicken, cheese and soba — there's a lot packed into the Hawaii International Film Festival's April 5-14 Spring Showcase. Think 30 movies from 13 countries, including hits from the film…
Maybe it was when Waipahu's 72-year-old Highway Inn opened up in Kakaako in 2013. Or when Liliha Bakery expanded to Nimitz Highway the following year. After that, especially in the last few months, things have snowballed: Longtime eateries we grew…
Honolulu’s mochi makers combine Japanese tradition with unique, only- in-Hawai‘i touches.
Welcome to the table, vegans and vegetarians: Honolulu’s eating scene has come around to the joys of meat-free dishes.
The exact moment Jon Matsubara became one of my favorite chefs was when he put a bowl of foie gras-topped short rib and micro watercress greens in front of me, poured in hot broth and called it pot-au-feu — French…
Remember Frolic’s Honolulu PokeFest? The four-hour smorgasbord that brought the 14 of your favorite poke makers across Oahu together at Ala Moana Center in late September? It was a blowout success, thanks to the rabid appetites of Hawaii poke fans.…
Pig and the Lady’s Andrew Le is cooking with Eddie Huang and Roy Choi.
After closing one restaurant, the Iron Chef opened two more at the ‘Alohilani Resort: Momosan Waikīkī and Morimoto Asia.
Prices have gone up since the menu was revamped. As of June 2019, it's more like $20 happy hour. What can you get for $15 at happy hour? Like, beyond edamame and fries? At Dean & DeLuca, you get more…
Editor's note: The restaurant is no longer BYOB. There's a full bar with beer, wine and excellent cocktails. If it weren't for Hurricane Lane, I would have told you last week that Rangoon Burmese Kitchen, a new outpost of Moiliili's…
Editor's note: Basalt in late summer updated its menu: The $29 prime rib dinner is no more. Instead, that 12-ounce prime rib is now an entree choice in a $43 three-course Sunset Special dinner from 5 to 6 p.m. daily.…
You just don't get it, Aloha Poke Co. I mean, it's fine for you to sit there in Chicago and with no connection to Hawaii, open a poke shop, and then another and another until you have 15 poke shops…
Last Tuesday at Shokudo, in celebration of Japan's official Natto Day on July 10, natto fiends feasted on eight dishes dripping with the slimy fermented beans. Natto cheese and crackers. Natto gyoza. Natto dashimaki egg roll stuffed with unagi. Natto…
The new spot in Kaka‘ako has 100-plus sakes, Japanese beers and whiskeys—and parking.
Get ready to twirl your chopsticks, natto lovers, Hawaii's annual midsummer Natto Day dinner is coming up — on July 10, the same auspicious day when natto-loving Japan celebrates the stinky-slimy fermented bean! This one is definitely natt-yo average feast.…
Note: This dinner is now sold out. Even with natto, Japan's famously slimy, stinky fermented bean, some things must be seen to be believed. Like bone-in beef burgundy simmered in a red wine-natto sauce. Or a play on crab rangoon,…
Staff at Piggy Smalls, sister restaurant to Chinatown's Pig and the Lady, is still picking their jaws up off the floor after Sunday night's command performance dinner. The guests: former President Barack Obama, an old friend from Punahou, some staffers…
Agu, the chain of six ramen shops in Hawaii and six more in Texas, now has a seventh Hawaii slurp spot — and this one's serving up plate lunches. Agu Express opened in Kalihi last week with the chain's full…