02Dec / 2024

Macheuya – Seoul, Korea

One of the rare shopping days Chan and I had, we checked out the Shinsegae Department Store in the Myeongdong area. Well, I got hungry soon after some shopping so we checked out their restaurant level. The pictures of Macheuya looked so good and I was super craving Japanese food so in we went!

Matseuya Set | ₩32,000

Chan’s set. Doesn’t that look onolicious? Tempura, big plate of sushi, small bowl of udon and salad (no one needs that one). And what a deal! With the won to dollar conversion, this must have been like 20 something bucks! For all this! Chan really enjoyed this set.

Zaru Soba Set | ₩29,000

I’m crazy for noodles so it’s the dumb soba noodles that caught my eye. Hahaha, I know how cheap and easy it is to make this dish yourself but I just can’t help myself. This was my set, small sushi set, full tempura and of course the SOBA. And you know what’s great? They don’t just give you a manini portion like restaurants usually do (which is crazy because soba is so cheap). I super enjoyed my dish too. Chan and I are already planning our return visit to this restaurant!

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14Oct / 2024

Recipe: Spicy Nametake Tofu

Not much of a recipe today folks. Went to a potluck and someone brought a dish similar to this and I loved it so much. The recipe was of course…oh just throw these things together (lol). So I had to just guess at what to throw on. I just got a block of soft tofu, a bottle of the nametake (seasoned mushroom) which I mixed with some crunch garlic chili oil. Oh brah, I can just eat this whole block of tofu in one sitting.

Look at how pretty! I usually buy the tofu from Sam’s or Costco so you know it doesn’t look like this. I bought this one from a grocery store, forgot the brand but if you want this one, just look at the bottom of the tofu package for this design and you will get this!

Yum yum yum.

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11Oct / 2024

Mixed Plate Friday

7eleven Kibun Sesame Tofu Noodle | $4.19
new, ready-to-eat tofu noodles with delicious sauce packet included. the noodles, made from tofu, are very simliar to somen noodles but lower in carbs and 0 cholesterol. healthy with only 110 calories and 7g of protein. can be eaten cold or warm by heating in the microwave for 1 minute.

I saw this at 7eleven last weekend and just had to try it. I was so curious how the noodles would taste. I almost didn’t get it because let’s be real, $4.19 for this little packet didn’t seem worth it. But something told me just go for it.

I opened the cellophane and drained out the water. I ate it cold with the sauce packet. Doesn’t look like much in this picture but bugga was GOOD. It really does taste like regular noodles. How do they do that! It was so good, but dang, I wish they would sell this in bulk at Costco or Sam’s so I can get a better deal. I would absolutely get this again.

When I sent a picture of this to Chan, he mentioned he had it in Japan before and really enjoyed it! They finally brought it over to us! Give it a try!

Sushi Robot Breakfast Bento | $5.00

I’ve talked about Sushi Robot before, they are located in the food court of Kaheka Don Quijote (the indoor one not the outdoor one). They used to be outdoors. Well, they are the only ones who open super early which helps me since I do my shopping early. They open at 6 but when they have some foods ready, they just open at 5 something.

I was actually staring from outside to see if they had food out but didn’t have…was about to leave when the lady waved me in. I reluctantly went in and she said she can make whatever I want. I said I wanted the portuguese sausage omelette bento. I didn’t know the real name but they knew exactly what I was talking about and put this together fresh for me! They already had all the different components cooked and ready to go. And yes, $5.00 total…this is with tax. Where else can you find prices like this???

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09Oct / 2024

Gyotaku Japanese Restaurant – King Street, HI

REDEMPTION POST HERE. I came back to Gyotaku after my recent disasterous visit and I can happily report that this visit was SO much better. Super good. And I got the right food! Also, my cousin treated me for my birthday so how can this meal go wrong?? FREE! Check it out!

Watermelon-ade | $8.50
refreshing watermelon juice served over ice & topped with mint & lime

Not good. Not awful but it just soounds much better than it tasted. Maybe the watermelon taste wasn’t as strong as I would have liked…

Pele Lava Roll | $17.95
california roll topped with spicy ahi tataki, green onion, volcano sauce & wasabi aioli sauce

Yummy appetizer to start! If you know me, you know I love spicy ahi. We ate too much at this meal but hey, it’s my birthday and I’ll eat if I want to, eat if I want to.

Miso Soup & Salad

I don’t have to explain this one right? This is their signature! Signature for a reason, love their salad and dressing.

Assorted Poke Don & Tenpura | $33.45

YESSSS!! I got the right dish this time and it was heavenly. I’ve been missing this dish for YEARS. I am so dang happy they brough it back. It’s a simple sesame oil salt seasoning for the poke but I feel like the different cuts of seafood just creates the perfect taste and texture profile. You know? Plain ahi poke is boring to me, but this dish just has almost any seafood you can imagine. I love it. And it’s not just random seafood they plop in, it’s consistently the same seafood each time when I order it.

Hit you with the last shot. So good. The limu and sprouts work well with it too. Man…I want to eat it again…

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07Oct / 2024

Kokoro-Tei – Moilili, HI

Kokoro-Tei has been in the Moilili neighborhood for many years now. I am super glad they were able to get through the pandemic and thrive. I say thrive because when I went to pick up today’s meal, they had so many orders stacked up and ready to go. You used to have to phone in your orders but they now have online orders, thank goodness. Chan was treating his co-workers for a birthday and I got to jump in on the order! Check it out!

Nori Shrimp Salmon | $11.98
Plate upgrade | $3.00
2 piece chikuwa, 2 piece fried shrimp, 1 piece salmon

Three people ordered this! Chan nicely upgraded their bentos to plates. Not super sure what you get more…it looks like the proteins are the same size so maybe more rice and side dishes? Anyway, it was enjoyed by the diners!

MEGA NORI | $18.98
2 pc chikuwa, 3 pc karaage, 1 pc croquette, 1 pc deep fried shrimp, 1 pc white fish, 1 pc regular salmon with extra large white rice

Maybe my picture isn’t showing the size in true fashion. The description sounds mega! Sounds like a great mix too! Chan enjoyed it!

Steak & Vegetable Bento | $21.98
comes with multigrain rice

This was my dish. For some odd reason, I was feeling like red meat so I went for this. I was also super excited for all the side veggies! How was it? Sigh. The steak is super tough and overcooked. They don’t ask how you want the steak cooked. I really enjoyed the garlic tare (sauce) they serve with the steak but Chan thinks it’s just a bottled sauce you can buy. Well, I want it then! Anyone know the secret? I still enjoyed this a lot because some pieces of meat were okay and the veggies were good as always!

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19Aug / 2024

Gyotaku – Niu Valley, HI

A fair warning, Chan already wondered outloud how this post will go down. It wasn’t a great experience but as you know, I will be honest! We came to Gyotaku on a Sunday afternoon for lunch, it was almost 1 and they obviously had a few big tables. We got seated in a booth, all the booths have high walls so you can’t really customers in the booths you know? Well, we weren’t greeted at all. For a long time. Long enough for us to consider a walk-out. Then a waitress came by as she was putting out food for another table and apologized and told us she would be right with us. Okay, that’s fine. Only, she wasn’t. After another long while, another person, I assume the supervisor came by and asked us how we were doing. Well…I don’t know how you want us to answer that when we had no waters and no one has helped us in like 20 minutes. So I was a bit short and said, we haven’t even been helped yet (because I’m not sure why she was asking us how we were doing when we had nothing at the table). She apologized and offered to take our orders.

Okay, I’ll have to explain more about this experience through the post.

Miso Soup and Salad

Their salad remains consistently good. Their wafu dressing is the best and just works so well with the salad. This is something that has remained the same and should never change!

Ahi Poke Don & Tenpura | $32.45

Sigh. When I used to frequent Gyotaku, my absolute favorite dish was their Assorted Poke Don (it used to be called the Mixed Poke Don) and I was massively depressed when they stopped carrying it after Covid. Well, imagine my surprise when I got to the restaurant and saw it back on the menu. I was sooo happy. Chan and I both ordered it. So what is it that you are looking at up there? Yeah, it’s plain ahi poke don. Both of us got just plain ahi poke so I flagged down the waitress and asked her if we got just plain ahi poke dons. She apologized and offered to take them back. Well, I certainly don’t want two big bowls of ahi poke dons get wasted. Maybe if I was the only one that ordered it and it was wrong, I might have said okay. I just told her, it’s fine, just charge us for the right item and ate it.

Karaage Chicken | $9.25

This one almost got me over edge. We ordered Karaage Chicken with Fries as an appetizer and this was what was dropped at our table. Yup, no fries. I was about to flag the waitress down again and just ask to be charged only for the chicken when someone else came by and dropped a big plate of fries…

Whew, that saved me from anger. The supervisor actually came by afterwards and apologized for the mix-up with the food and that they recently revised their menu so the kitchen might be a bit confused. She mentioned that she is only charging us for the karaage chicken and gave us a bigger serving of fries. She also gave us free drinks and even offered up dessert which we declined. Why oh why was I so full?? My Chinese soul is taking a beating for not taking up something free.

So all in all, not a great service experience but in the end, the supervisor did her best on service recovery and it was fine. I appreciated the effort. I am still missing the assorted poke don so I think I’ll have to pay them a visit again, sooner rather than later.

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16Aug / 2024

Mixed Plate Friday

Sushi Robot Breakfast Bento | $4.77

When Sushi Robot first closed down, I was sad! They were a great place to swing by to grab food after my early morning Don Q run for work. Well, they reopened in the mini food court on the side and I was elated! They are open early and serve up super cheap foods.

Richie’s Drive Inn Mini Mushroom Chicken | $10.14

Oh man, to watch Richie’s go down like this is sad. I know they changed ownership recently but I still wanted to give them a chance. My laziness loves that they have a drive thru option even though it’s a hot mess system lol. I decided to give their mushroom chicken a try this day. It’s basically their chicken katsu smothered with mushroom gravy. Was salty and not good. And their mac salad? OH THE BIGGEST HEARTBREAK. They used to have one of the best mac salads around, now they add big chunks of potato and olives? It’s so odd. Did not taste good. Their chili dog plate still seems to be good so I will probably just get my bro that from here on out since that’s his favorite.

Somen Cone Sushi

What is the official name for this dish? I made this for a get-together last week. Was a hit! Family loved it, office loved and the friends loved it! I’ve seen variation of this dish but I made it a little different. It has taegu, ocean salad, imitation crab, cucumbers, tropics dressing, etc. And you can’t forget the fresh sprig of cilatnro on top. What a pain to make, it’s easy to cook up but stuffing over 40 of these? It took like over an hour, my back hurt. Anyways, delicious!

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09Aug / 2024

Mixed Plate Friday

Fort Street Cafe Pad Thai with Garlic Chicken | $12.45

We did a lunch order in Downtown recently, this wasn’t my dish but man oh man I got to eat a piece of the garlic chicken. They still do it so well. I think the pad thai is a bit sweeter than most, maybe I would just go for the garlic chicken.

Wowsers. I was at Windward Mall and decided to try a beef corndog. This was pricey, I think it came out to about 12 bucks for the hot dog and drink combined but boy oh boy was it good. A freshly fried corndog, I haven’t had that in eons. It was so good. Worth it!

Fukuya Nori Chicken and Cone Sushi

No prices on this because I got to eat it for free! I haven’t had Fukuya in a long time, nori chicken is good as always and the cone sushi is bumboocha! Nori chicken is so good, always worth it to buy outside because prepping and frying this on your own is a major pain.

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29Jul / 2024

K&M Drive Inn – Kalihi, HI

I am writing this post with a heavy heart because I know K&M Drive Inn is a new locally owned family business but it wouldn’t be my blog if I wasn’t honest with my own experience. They are located in the same building as Alicia’s Market and I thought their food looked good in pictures and the menu prices? Spectacular! In fact, I was actually considering an office lunch order from them for a training. Something told me that we needed to do a dry run before committing, and good thing we did.

First of all, we wanted to call in our order before heading over so it would be ready when we arrived. It went from the phone ringing non-stop, to the phone ringing shortening (I’m assuming the denial of our call) and then finally, just straight to voicemail. That experience alone did not help me want to trust them with a bigger office order.

When we got there, there were a bunch of people at the window. Good sign right? Sure. I guess an office had put in an order earlier that morning and they all walked down to pay for each plate individually. Oh my. That took…quite a while. Also, the food wasn’t not ready when they requested for it to be ready when they called it in early in the morning! The other office folks were very nice but after I waited out all the payments and finally could order at the window, there was no apologies for the wait or anything. In fact, she seemed like she didn’t even want to help us. Did not feel good.

In the end, I’ll judge the food as is. By taste. None of us were pleased with our dishes…I’ll just share the pics below.

Fry Pork Ribs | $10.95

Not my dish, but was not enjoyed by the diner. Dry and flavorless, the sauce they serve with it was also weird. It’s supposed to be a hot chili sauce but it was just spicy and somehow flavorless too. How do you acheive that??

BBQ Chicken | $10.95

My dish. So I ordered this dish expecting BBQ chicken like you get from other Drive Inns, you know? Just boneless chicken thighs that is grilled. This one was sliced chicken thighs in an American BBQ sauce. It was odd. It didn’t taste bad but when you were expecting something else, it’s a little jarring you know?

HBS (Hamburger Steak) Plate | $10.95

Okay, this person enjoyed the hamburger steak but do you see the garnish? They garnish all their dishes with green onions and cilantro. I find it kind of funny and think people who hate cilantro (which is probably a lot) would not like or expect this addition. So if you don’t like cilantro, make sure you tell them you don’t want it.

Lao Sausage | $13.95

The way their menu is laid out, it looked like lao sausage was a protein option for their chow fun stirfry so that’s what I was trying to order. I was told it was only a plate. Okay, I got the plate. The sausage itself is good and spicy! The sauce, it’s the same sauce as the pork ribs. Spicy yet flavorless. It was so odd. And I am a saucy person (wink) and I just threw it out. What a waste, and I hate wasting but it was that inedible to me.

In the end, a disappointment. Maybe I’ll give them a try again later when they’ve adjusted to running this restaurant. It doesn’t look like they are hurting for business, their prices are great and the food is okay. I just don’t think it’s worth the drive out there for me.

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10Jul / 2024

MW Restaurant – Kapiolani, Hawaii

I haven’t been to MW Restaurant since they were in their original location by Don Quijote. I think I went there when they first opened. I tried their sister restaurant Artizen a few times which has been good so I was excited to try! MW is now located in the Velocity Honolulu Building, fancy digs means…fancy prices. Artizen has parking stalls but MW does not, you have to drive up the ramp and pay for valet parking. $6 for Valet and that doesn’t include tip.

Beautiful interior

Mango Peach Iced Tea | $8.00

The table shared a bottle. I got myself this tasty sounding tea. It wasn’t sweetened, DOH! Sorry, I was all excited for a sweet drink. And I could barely taste any mango and peach? Huh? Yeah, I wouldn’t get it again.

Shortrib & Foie Gras Won Tons | $18.00
kabayaki sauce

I think $18.00 is only for 3 won tons, but we asked for more since we were a table of 5. It’s a good dish, fried up nicely. I’ll just go out on a limb again and say when it’s good innards like shortrib and foie gras and it’s ground into a filling for dumplings, something gets lost. It tasted good, don’t get me wrong!

Pork Hash Dumplings | $18.00
truffle bacon dashi

Not sure how many dumplings comes in the original order but they upped it to 5 for us again. Well, this dish was good. If I was alone, I would have probably slurped up that dashi. Or added like somen noodles. Carb queen.

Farmer’s Salad | $14.00
metro grow butter lettuce, yuzu miso vinaigrette, assorted local vegetables

Good salad! I didn’t each much of it but I did try it and enjoyed it. I guess it’s a bit deconstructed because the assorted veggies are splattered through the plate.

Truffle Braised Shortrib | $67.00
roasted vegetables and potato, truffle sauce, seared hudson valley foie gras

16 oz Brandt Brand Prime Ribeye Steak | $85.00
garlic butter, potato gratin (served separately), mushroom medly

Miso Honey Glazed Butterfish | $49.00
kimchee potato salad, taegu

Not my dish but it looked so good! I would definitely get this dish next time if I return!

Surf and Turf | $70.00
hapa new york strip, seafood fried rice

Chan and I shared our entrees. Here is his dish! How was it? Okay. The fried rice did have a good amount of seafood in it! Thought the fried rice was a tad bit salty. I can’t get over the price of the steaks here!

Seafood Bouillabaisse | $65.00
stuffed lobster, calamari, crab, clams, scallop, tomato saffron broth, toast

MW likes to mix it up a bit with their menu offerings and they used to serve a similar dish but paella style. Being the carb queen I am, that’s what I wanted. They didn’t have it and this was the current dish. I think for what you get, this is a decent priced dish! And you know what? It was DELICIOUS. The broth was so good and the seafood was tender and succulent. The lobster head is made with stuffing while the body meat is left intact. Yum. Chan and I enjoyed this dish a lot!

Mud Pie | $18.00
japanese hibiki ice cream, coffee ice cream, milk chocolate crunch

Strawberry Shortcake “Pavlova” | $16.00
souffle cheesecake, laie vanilla panna cotta, strawberry yuzu sorbet, shiso strawberries, crispy meringue

Brulee | $16.00
lilikoi sorbet, custard, lilikoi “gummies,” haupia tapioca, tropical fruit

Chan’s dessert. I didn’t read the description before taking my first bite and I was taken aback by the sour lilikoi! I love lilikoi and it’s a fun way to do this dessert. Usually creme brulee is very rich so I think using the lilikoi really helps to cut the sweetness.

Banana Cream Pie | $18.00
butterscotch pudding, banana, ulu pate brisee, kohana rum ice cream

I don’t know what a ulu pate brisee is. Is that the crust they created? Look it doesn’t matter, this dish was so good. I loved it! A nice take on the banana cream pie. I enjoyed that there was both slices of fresh banana and caramelized banana. I really enjoyed it!

So verdict on MW Restaurant? Definitely a restaurant if you want to treat yourself or splurge. I took a look at the Artizen menu and actually found more dishes I would want to try on that menu. And one of the dishes they serve, I think it’s the mochi crusted fish with somen noodles is almost half the price for lunch take-out. I’m sure it’s a different portion and all but I think I want to try Artizen so I can see how they fare!

I almost forgot! They still do end the meal by giving every diner their own cookies to take home. The cookie is so delicious.

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Tag Archives: Japanese Food

Macheuya – Seoul, Korea

Recipe: Spicy Nametake Tofu

Mixed Plate Friday

Gyotaku Japanese Restaurant – King Street, HI

Kokoro-Tei – Moilili, HI

Gyotaku – Niu Valley, HI

Mixed Plate Friday

Mixed Plate Friday

K&M Drive Inn – Kalihi, HI

MW Restaurant – Kapiolani, Hawaii