Oh man, I’ve been wanting to try Nanzan GiroGiro for the longest time! Since they opened! Thankful for an invitation for dinner here one rainy night – what a wonderful treat! Parking in this area can be a nightmare and it was storming (the great 2024 storm session, iykyk) but luckily we both got parking right in front of the building! Service was immaculate, dinner was superb! They change their menus monthly, we had the May 2024, 9 course meal ($168). Check it out!

Starter
blue fin tuna, shiso, fried tofu, asparagus, green, sesame soy sauce, wasabi

Perfect starting bite(s) – super fresh fish and wonderful flavors. I love me some shiso! Great dish!

Soup
black cod, sesame tofu, white miso, yuzu kosyo pepper soup, spinach

Can you ever go wrong with black cod? Perfect cooked piece of fish, lovely flavored soup. It was the perfect dish for a rainy night. And a nice portion of fish too!

Oshinogi
hamo eel, foie gras sauce rice, sugar pea, kinome sansyo pepper leaf, bellpepper

I know it’s a faux pas but I love fois gras. Lovely dish, perfectly fried hamo eel. Light and crispy. Loved this dish!

Vinegar
duck, lotus, root, tomato vinegar soup, kale egg tofu, pea sprout

This was a good dish, not the most memorable of the night but good! I enjoy duck so of course I will enjoy this. Good dish, just not memorable.

Main
beef, ayu and corn crocket, ankake soup, wasabi, sprout

Yikes, this was the main dish and I did not like it. Specifically, I did not like the ayu. I just looked it up and it’s also called sweetfish, what a name. This piece of was SO bitter. I couldn’t eat it. I ate around it like a good girl but the fish, no can!

1st of 9
otoro, uni sea urchin, eggplant, wasabi, dashi jelly, bok choi

Was this good? Yes. Yes it was. (end of story)

2nd of 9
lobster, bisque sauce noodle, caviar, mizuna

What do you want me to say folks? That this was junk? That would be a lie! Of course it was good! Was I getting full? Yes. Did I still eat this up? YES.

Rice
tai snapper, tai broth, heart of palm rice, mitsuba

Okay, I was like pretty full at this point. I gave my fish to Chan and had at it with the nice clean broth and rice. It was nice!

Pickles
hakusai cabbage, cucumber nukaduke, ume puree, wasabi

The pickles were served with the rice dish. Was good! I was too full to really appreciate it and enjoy you know? If this is too much food, you can always order the 6 course menu and then ala carte the additional items on the 9 course menu if you wish!

Sweets
baked vanilla cheesecake, mango sauce, lime jelly, blue berry sorbet and graham cracker crust crumble

There is always room for dessert. I ate this whole thing. Yup. It was soo good! They told us to eat the cheesecake all together. Like grab the cheesecake, lime jelly, crust and dip it in the mango sauce and then eat! It was yum!

Kyoto Matcha Green Tea

The matcha was nice and smooth. Perfect way to end the evening. They also have special wine pairings for the courses if you are interested! I had a cup of orange juice because they don’t serve soda here. LOL. It was a wonderful dining experience with great company and great food! I don’t know how often I would be able to make it out to this restaurant but I really enjoyed this experience.

Sorry for the week long unannounceed break folks. I’m at the tail-end of a crazy crazy semester at work and I’m just spent. I still feel spent by the way. Oh and remember how awful it was for us to go through termite tenting? We found frass again but then I started reading more, I get that there could be leftover frass in furniture that could appear later. My family of course freaks out, we are covered for five years and a technician was sent out. Then my family freaks out that furniture is not covered. I don’t know what to say folks, I’ve learned way too much about termites in the past few months and I really don’t understand why the process has to be this difficult. I’ll have to continue to monitor and call again in 2 weeks if we see new activity I guess. Ugh.

Sorry for the rant! I haven’t been to Tonkatsu Tamafuji in YEARS. And when I say years, maybe even over a decade. You can make reservations on their website but the reservations are like booked out for nearly a year out. My god, people must love tonkatsu. We came on a Thursday AFTERNOON for a 4PM dinner. Yeah, I actually beat my record for senior citizen eating time. And wouldn’t you know? The place was packed with us reservation holders and then a whole line of people lining up for the walk-in line. WILD. I couldn’t believe it!

Sesame Seeds

Were they the first restaurant to do this in Hawaii? You grind your own sesame seeds to add your tonkatsu sauce in. Mmmm, freshly ground sesame seeds smell so good!

Pickled Vegetables

Complimentary! I heard they change these up every time. Ehh, they were okay. Sorry if I’m being a hater. I don’t like cabbage tsukemono when it still has the raw taste you know? I was excited for the choy sum (?) tsukemono on the right but that was also just okay. Just a bit bland. And don’t hurt me, I don’t like umeboshi so I can’t judge that for you folks.

Jyukusei (Aged) Pork Loin Katsu Teishoku (240g) | $27.50

I went for the medium set, 180g sounds so manini. So when I was looking at the menu, I was asking Chan which pork is better cause get Pork Loin Katsu and Pork Tender Loin Katsu. From the name alone, you would think the tender loin would be the best? Nope, it’s this one, the Ro-su. Super good and moist because there’s some fat in it.

Yummy, perfectly fried. It was delicious. The teishoku also comes with unlimited rice (oh my god the rice!) and unlimited shredded cabbage. They serve the cabbage with a goma dressing and a ponzu dressing. You can choose the white rice, seasoned mixed rice or 5 grain rice. We all went for the white rice and that was a great choice. You don’t want your rice competing with all the flavors! You also get a choice of red or white miso soup with either clams and green onions or tofu and seafood.

All in all, a good dining experience! Kind of pricey but I guess you are paying for the quality and service. And if I could eat more, I would definitely be asking for more rice and cabbage. We dined here in mid-April and our friends were looking up the next available reservation and it was in January 2025. CRAZY STUFF. I think it’s also because you don’t need to put a credit card to hold your reservation, and I think the wait-list line all got seated so maybe it just all works out.