Mari Taketa

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.

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Articles

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…

My two seconds of (almost) fame

The email came in the middle of an insane week. It was from someone I didn’t know named Sarah.“I’ve been working to develop content for a Travel Channel Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern show set to film in Hawaii this…

Did this: Honolulu’s first Dishcrawl

Honolulu’s first Dishcrawl happened last night, a high-buzz progressive dinner that was so secret, nobody knew which restaurants were involved until we ended up inside the doors. And until last night, nobody really knew what a Dishcrawl was, either, but…

New eats: Hiking Hawaii Cafe

I found a sandwich I liked so much, I’ve had it three times in three weeks. The only reason I didn’t get it the fourth time I went to Hiking Hawaii Cafe was because the remnants of the third were…

Did this: Dessert Fantasy

It happened yesterday, the yearly homage to sugar, in the form of Dessert Fantasy 2012: 54 desserts from 42 bakeries and restaurants across the island, available for unlimited sampling in as much quantity as you could physically tolerate for two…

Foodscene: November

All of November: National Peanut Butter Lovers MonthI don’t know what to do with this except to tell you, because I find it strangely exciting. Slather, people!Nov. 1: Shochu DayDistilled from barley, sweet potatoes or rice, 25 percent alcohol by…

World Pasta Day at Prima

6 p.m. last Thursday, Prima in Kailua. Thirteen fellow pasta fiends and I have converged on one of the island’s best restaurants for our specially created, this-time-only World Pasta Day celebration dinner. Course after course of carby goodness — that’s…

6 newbies + beer: Friday’s Eat the Street

If you’re a regular to this site, you know we usually preview Eat the Street with a closer look at one or two newcomers. This month that goes out the window: A record six newbies ranging from a new Russian…

Did this: 3@the Table

Farm to table: righteous. Farm-to-table cooking on dishes by local potters: Righteous goes one better 3@the Table ◄ Back Next ► Picture 1 of 12 Thursday night in Kakaako: The furniture and accessories store Fishcake wafted very nice smells. jQuery(function($)…

Did this: More Joy

The way More Joy went down last night, you knew that 1) Honolulu sake fans were thirsty for a party, and 2) thirsty to know more.Three months after the Joy of Sake filled Pier 2’s terminal hall with 1,200 sippers,…

Foodscene: October

Oct. 3: Oktoberfest – Premiere of New BeersVice NightclubWard Centers, 1200 Ala Moana Blvd.5:30 p.m.Nonstop Honolulu and friends (that’s you!) try the lineup of new craft microbrews at Vice — made on-site by the former brewmeisters of Brew Moon and…

Happy World Sake Day!

It’s World Sake Day, people!That’s right, sake has a day all its own, and it’s planetary at that! If you love sake — or even (yes) sake bombs — today’s your day: Raise a glass and know that across this…

Eat the Street preview: Bites of cheese & sausage

At long last, cheese! And because cheese needs a partner, sausage to boot — just in time for the (slight) chill of autumn in Honolulu. Both gooey, meaty comfort foods prevail tonight on our favorite block in Kakaako, with food…

The secret about Ringer Hut

I don’t know where I first heard about the tonkatsu. But it was enough to get me researching, and I found out Ringer Hut, the newish Nagasaki champon shop in the Waikiki Trade Center, is not just famous for its…

Did this: Food & Wine Makahiki

At Saturday’s Hawaii Food & Wine Fest Makahiki, the whole night sounded like this:“Oh my god, it’s Marcel!”“Todd English is looking goood.”“Robert Irvine, can you flex your bicep for me?”All that came out of my mouth. Of the media passes…

Outrageous pork at Eat the Street

It was mega-pork time in Kakaako Friday night, dozens of trucks and street food booths selling everything pork. Bacon pop tarts, pork belly bao buns, maple bacon gelato, pork-stuffed malasadas — and these in the photo gallery below, highlights of…

Foodscene: September

Sept. 1: Wine season beginsProbably the most ignored first-day-of-season ever. We’ll drink to that!Sept. 1 & 2: Okinawan FestivalKapiolani Park9 a.m. to 5 p.m.Bon dance Saturday 5:30 to 9:30 p.m.Andagiiii!! Okifest’s crunchy fried donuts are among the best on the…

Beyond falafel and hummus: Go

As good as Da Falafel King’s Israeli-style falafel is, stuffed in its whole fried brown glory into fluffy pita pockets with deep-pink cabbage, fresh slaw, pickles, diced tomato and cucumber and tahini, the small menus at the Waikiki kiosk and…

Anybody up for Israeli BYOB? How about noodles and tonkatsu?

Before you ask me what Israeli food is, have a look at this menu. Da Falafel King’s sit-down restaurant is all about what owner Yanir Yosef calls “Israeli-style fast food”: spring-green falafel, roasted shawarma, garlicky fresh hummus and all the…

Food pics: Latin Nights tapas pop-up

It’s become one of Streetgrindz’ missions to surprise Honolulu, from time to time, with the haute levels achieved by certain food truck chefs. Which is why tonight and tomorrow, if you peek into a certain warehouse in Kakaako, you’ll see…

Eat here … or here … or here

A year ago, pop-ups were so new to Honolulu they were like first bites that left us wanting more. We had only three: Pig and the Lady at Hank’s Haute Dogs, Addis Ababa at J2 in Kaimuki, and Off-Premise, popping…

Foodscene: August

Aug. 3: August MoonHonolulu Academy of Art900 S. Beretania St.6 to 9 p.m.Tickets $85 online presale, $95 at the doorThirty wineries, 13 restaurants and food vendors and artists doing live art team up in this benefit for arts educationAug. 3…

Way beyond tacos and burritos

Remember this? It’s what Baja Style brought to last summer’s Eat the Street: Pig Out! Every time someone ordered a taco, this pork was pulled into fresh handmade tortillas, until by the end of the night the pig had been…

Eat the Street Spicy Fest

Spicy = popcorn, poppers and O.M.G. that ceviche. Check out the range of reactions when the monthly Eat the Street food truck-and-street food rally celebrated fiery heat in Kakaako Friday night.Spicy night in Kakaako: Highlights Eat the Street Spicy Fest…

Eat the Street debut: Caribbean Spice

Spicy? You want spicy? How’s 43 food trucks and street food booths serving up spicy crispy shrimp, kimchee wings, spicy ahi hand rolls, cayenne pepper popcorn, spicy salmon dynamite, chocolate chili gelato, spicy watermelon gazpacho, fresh roasted corn with jalapeno…

Joy of Sake: What to eat, what to sip

It’s the world’s biggest sake-tasting celebration outside Japan, people, and it happens right here in Honolulu. Joy of Sake is this Friday, a record 360 premium sake set out for as much self-serve tasting as anyone can manage in 2.5…

All the glorious cheese

Picture this: Foodies all of us, lusting after the promise of locally made cheese and the chance to fund more, two dozen of us drive to the back of Lualualei Valley Saturday night and descend on tiny Naked Cow Dairy.We…

Naked Cow cheese dinners: le menu

Finally! The first dinners at Naked Cow Dairy featuring Oahu’s first locally produced cows’ milk cheeses are upon us. It’s been a long time in the making — not the dinners but getting to the point where we can eat…

Midsummer Natto’s Dream

How do you tell the story of a 10-course natto dinner on July 10, Natto Day? It’s epic, almost, the stuff of legend, practically — I mean, I was there, and I still can’t believe I ate 10 natto dishes.It…