Happy to report that the filet-o-fish recipe is consistent in all countries lol. Also happy to report that the fries are still in these cartons versus the junk baggies we get in Hawaii now. Yum!
Had to try one more trend. Eating the Egg Salad sandwich with Famichiki. I only found this sandwich so well it was a mini sized try.
Here we go! So how was it? Well it tasted like an egg salad sandwich stuffed with awesome chicken patty. No complaints here man, what did you think would happen when you combine to ono things together? Yum!
I took a break from Japan posts and completely forgot that I have so much more pics to share! So I’ll slowly finish up some posts with you folks. This was Chan and I’s first meal in Nagoya! We tried out Moumou Tei which was conveniently located very close to our hotel and oh my gosh, it was so good. One of my favorite meals of the trip!
We were placed into a private room and seated right in front of a window? I have never had a set up like this before. Chan and I sat side by side staring out onto the street lol.
Banchan
I don’t know much about the restaurant but it seemed to be a fusion of both Korean and Japanese cuisine. No complaints here!
“Almost Salad”
Don’t ask me why they call it almost salad, it was from their website that was probably google translated. Just to let you know, it was fully a salad to me lol.
Beef Tartare
You already know I liked this. Come on.
Here’s the grill!
Mmm salted beef tongue…
Raw Japanese Yolk with everything!
Meat, meat, and more meat
Favorite dish of the night coming up…
Oh my goodness, I am salivating as I look at these pictures. The waitress cooked the block of meat for us and I wondered if it would be overcooked. Not at all. Look at how glorious and marbled this meat is. Of course we ordered the egg yolk! It was a great dish, my only regret is that it was at the end of the meal when I was feeling full already. I couldn’t enjoy it as ravenously as I would have liked!
You know the drill, Sushi Que is my favorite omakase sushi joint right now. We make a reservation every time we return. It’s pricey but not pricey for what you get! Good people running a really good sushi joint. If you are able to make a reservation, please do! It’s well worth the wait. The food and service was of course spectacular. Unfortunately there was a very loud and drunk party seated behind us which made it a bit harder to enjoy the night.
Seafood Bouillabaisse
SO GOOD. Deep in flavor and umami. Super super super oishi.
A newish dish! Haven’t had this before, I think it was like a crab roll. Oh my, every morsel was delicious. I loved it!
Assorted Sashimi
The usual Himalayan salt block with the sashimi slices for the night. I forget each sashimi but the torched piece was so good!
House-made Miso Butterfish
Super tender with a nice sweet miso sauce. Tasted like how I feel like home cooking in Japan would taste like. It was wonderful.
Octopus! One of my favorites because I watch the taisho throw each “sucker” down on the cutting board. It must be a method to make it tender? Not sure.
Saba!
Ikura!
Uni
Great quality uni – so sweet and clean tasting. I can get spoiled easily eating here!
Negitoro with Takuan Roll
Ankimo (Pupu Style)
This was an order after the omakase was complete. They don’t serve it up with ponzu sauce but hey, they way they make it is much better. They serve it with super thin slices of cucumber which offers a nice crunchy fresh taste contrasting with the rich creamy liver. Yum!
Otoro
Final bite! Also an order outside of the omakase, so good!!
Chan and I are graciously and generously invited to this fundraiser dinner by his dear friend. I think this is my third year coming and they upped their food game this time! It’s fun to be able to go to Stan Sheriff and dine on the “court.” They have a bunch of restaurants that set up tables around the perimeter and we get to eat some good grindz! Not much commentary, just pics of food!
Okay obviously I forgot where a lot of the food came from. As I type this up, Chan is laughing in my face because I didn’t do my “job.” I should have taken pictures of the booths so I could identify where all the food came from! Ugh! Free grindz is good grindz in my eyes okay? It was all very good! Usually we have our table to ourselves but they placed two volleyball players at our table this year. I don’t need crippling social anxiety with my meal okay? Nah nah, it was okay and they only stayed with us a little while. Had a good chat with them.
Back at one of my favorite sushi restaurants, Katsumidori Sushi Tokyo! I used to come every month with my friend so they knew me. I also used to ask for a totally random table which I think amuses them. I still ask for that table anytime I book! I haven’t been here in a while but when I checked in, I still got seated at “my” table so I was ecstatic! I’m hoping just a little bit that it was because they still recognized me lol. Anyway, it used to be super hard to get reservations for this restaurant. You would have to plan at least a month out. Nowadays, it’s quite easy to get a reservation (they’re on Open Table). If you like sushi, I plead that you give this place a chance and go! I don’t want them to close ever! Not that I need to worry too much, the restaurant still had a good number of diners! They are located in the Prince Waikiki Hotel so you don’t have to deal with the craziness of central Waikiki and they offer validated parking. No, I’m not sponsored by them. I’m not sponsored by anyone, I’d like to be given money to eat though. Let’s get it!
Seared Saba (Mackerel) Oshi | $10.30
I love this dish but it is also a very rich dish and very filling. We started with this dish and well it kind of filled me up for the rest of the meal. Still super good but just a fair warning…
Kobore Salmon Roe | $15.40
Deep Fried wrapped Shrimp Cake & Shiso Leaf | $7.45
Another must get dish for me. The title of the dish tells you all you need to know. I sprinkle some fresh lemon juice on it and dip it in a little bit of salt and voila – scrumptious shrimp goodness in my mouth.
The biggest reason we came! They are having a Crab & Shrimp Fair until the end of March 2026!
Red Shrimp Flight | $16.00 (From left to right: Butter Soy Sauce, Regular, Garlic)
This was Chan’s dish, good thing I didn’t order it. It looked good on the poster and I thought it would be cooked but it wasn’t. Chan enjoyed it! I watched in jealousy, hahaha
Ankimo (Monkfish Liver) | $10.00
Another favorite dish of mine. I freaking love ankimo with ponzu sauce. I don’t know what else to say other than that.
Assorted Tempura | $17.05
Great deal. This comes with two pieces of shrimp and a variety of vegetables. It’s fried light and crisp. Mm…man this post is making me want to go back already!
Engawa (Flounder) | $6.60
Engawa is an underrated sushi. I implore you, if you see engawa on the menu – order it and try it. It’s super good.
Scallop (left) | $5.45 Salmon (right) | $3.50
Spicy Tuna Roll (Half) | $9.00
Another one that I like to get. I don’t know why spicy tuna has a hold on me but it does. I enjoyed it and it was nice and spicy. I miss the old times when I used to go Genki Sushi all the time, I thought they had the lock on the best spicy tuna recipe. Hmm…I wonder if I should try them again one day. I’ve been massively disappointed the past few visits though.
Furi Furi Pudding | $7.50
Ehehehehe my favorite dish of the night. If you follow me on IG, you already saw my silly shaking video because this pudding is so BOUNCY. It was super good, like a strawberry milk pudding with chocolate sauce. I may be in the minority but no thank you to nutella and yes please to chocolate sauce all day long. Don’t take away my chocolate!!!!
It was a great visit and meal – hope to return soon!
Trying to find some snacks to chomp on at work that are somewhat healthy for you. Tried this. I’ll be honest, it’s just okay lol. It’s not bad but not great. Do-able. Sam’s Club has it right now if you’re interested.
Jack in the Box Jibbi Set
I never have good luck with limited time collectibles, especially when they are blind boxes! But Chan and I wanted to get all four of these figures (especially the one with the suit and tie) so we had to eat their Double Chicken Supreme Munchie Meals to get them! Guess how many of these meals we had to scarf down to get these 4 charms. FOUR. Yes, you did the math right. We got each charm exactly with the meals we ordered. Miracles! Do we need these charms? No. Was it cool to get all four? Yes. I’m the red spicy one and Chan is the blue icy one LOL.
In my quest to be healthier, I did sit down with a nutritionist about a year ago. I was hoping it was like a coaching program where she would oversee me for a few visits. It was only one visit but I tried to take notes and heed her advice (well, the best that I can). One of the biggest pieces of advice she had was to incorporate as much vegetables as I can into my meals. I found it super hard to prep all these different vegetables to try to add into my already made meals…which would make the prepped veggies go bad.
Well one day, I saw a recipe for soba salad with it’s own ginger soy dressing so I did it. I don’t like a lot of veggies raw but wanted the colors so I quick pickled red cabbage and carrots – quick blanched spinach, etc. I add some fish cake as a protein/meat for the meal and I haven’t turned back since. I’ve been eating this for lunch at work for 2 weeks now and I still haven’t grown tired of it. I love all things savory and noodles so this really works out for me. And you can easily play up which veggies to use as toppings which keeps things fresh. Here’s a quick write-up of what I do. The dressing is the most important part of this recipe.
Healthy Vegetable Soba Salad
Ginger Soy Dressing (enough for 5 servings):
¼ C rice vinegar
3 ½ T vegetable oil
3 T soy sauce
2 T honey
3 t sesame oil
1 t grated fresh ginger
Salad Ingredients:
Blanched spinach – throw in boiling water for 15-30 seconds, drain and squeeze out excess water
Red cabbage, shredded and pickled (salt/sugar for 15 mins) – rinse and squeeze out excess water
Carrots, shredded and pickled with cabbage
Edamame, cook according to instructions
Chikuwa, sliced (4-5 slices)
Green Onions, sliced as garnish (a must for me)
1 bundle soba per serving, cooked according to package instructions
Other topping ideas: wakame, cilantro, dashi tamagoyaki, bell pepper slivers, cucumber slices
I like that it’s my own homemade dressing. I like that it’s a cold dish so I don’t have to heat it up in the microwave. It just ticks all the boxes for me.
Yakiniku Like is a newish restaurant near Ala Moana. This is a chain restaurant from Japan and they offer up premium meats at a good value price – they also offer up a smokeless grill environment. I didn’t even know that was part of the restaurant until I was there and I was pleasantly pleased that I didn’t smell of grilled meats when I left! That’s a big plus. They have a lot of great value set menus, the only thing I didn’t like is that you have to pay right when you order. It’s a QR code ordering system (of course it is) so they do not take cash, you have to place your order on your phone and pay right away for them to prepare it and bring to your table. So yeah, you basically have to pay tip before you even get any service. No good. The service was pretty attentive so I was okay with it – I don’t give a huge tip for restaurants that I cook my food myself. Especially this one where they drop the food and that’s it, not like an AYCE where they have to constantly bring you plates and plates of food.
Also, they have a $9.99 special every month which comes with 2 choices of meat, rice, soup and salad. We didn’t go for the special, we wanted to try the other meats!
Beef Lovers Set!! | $19.95 kalbi short plate (100g), misuji (100g), and harami (50g)
Best Duo Set!! | $19.95 kalbi short rib (100g) & pork belly (100g)
We got both sets and shared the meats! I think the beef lovers set is the better deal and for the same price! The quality of the meat is pretty good and the grill cooks pretty fast. We enjoyed our meal! I think it’s worth it and I would return (maybe not soon soon but one day). Their parking lot is junk – get chance if you go super early, if not, good luck with street parking.
Totoya opened a few months ago with pretty big fanfare, I didn’t dare go because of the long lines! They are a super small shop so unless you lined up early, you would have to stand and wait for the next seating. I came on a random weekday for lunch the other week and luckily for us, even though we came 30 minutes after opening, we scored our two seats! Had more seats open after we sat too…so I guess they aren’t as busy as before. They also opened a second location by Ala Moana.
Totoya specializes in rice bowls – specifically negitoro or kaisen bowls. In other words, if you don’t like raw fish, don’t come here. So was it worth the hype? Check it out!
Nagomi | $22.90 Add Egg yolk shoyu | $1.50 original negitoro, red shrimp, salmon (2pc), scallops, tobiko, nori (2pc) aosa seaweed miso soup
Matsu Negitoro Bowl | $34.90 Add Egg yolk shoyu | $1.50 tuna, scallops, cucumber, kazunoko, green onion, tobiko, nori (2pc), sesame seeds Matsu: luxurious bowl topped with sea urchin and salmon roe aosa seaweed miso soup
Miso Soup
Shoyu Egg Yolk (honestly, not needed)
This was my bowl. Ooh…it’s a lot of food! I liked it the first few bites and then it was just…too much? Too much rice? Too much stuff. I think since it negitoro – it’s also very mushy. We also added the shoyu egg yolk and well, that’s just triple mush lol. It just becomes a bit too much at the end. It was good but nothing I would return for. I think I’d rather go to a sushi restaurant and eat sushi by the piece! If you love negitoro and rice bowls, please have at it!
A visit to Snoopy Museum means a visit to Grandberry Park and our favorite kaiten sushi place, Nihonbashi SUI! Machida and Grandberry Park is such a cute neighborhood, I’ll bet it’s expensive to live here too. If I was rich, I wouldn’t mind living here! Not much to say in this post, just look at al the food we had. We really go crazy at this place. This time, there was no line. We were the first ones there but it did get busy after we started to eat.
Look at this shrimp tempura! The shrimp was HUGE. It was so plump and bouncy – super good!!
One of my all time favorite fish – flounder! It’s so good and tastes so well with shiso leaf. Highly recommend!
