Asahi Grill family dining

We frequently go out to dinner with my mom. She prefers a casual, down-home atmosphere to anything fancy and pretentious. BYOB is a plus for her. So the first time I went to Asahi Grill, I knew she'd like it.

Asahi Grill is on Ward Avenue where there used to be a Burger King once upon a time. It's next to the Kanai Tofu Factory.



They have a some of Kapiolani Coffee Shop's recipes -- most notably, the award-winning Oxtail Soup (small $9.75, regular $11.95).

This one is the small, but it was pretty big. The flavor was good. Be forewarned, it was liberally sprinkled with chinese parsley. We like chinese parsley, so it wasn't a problem for us, though. We only wish they would've used meatier oxtails.

Kids seem to like the Fried rice (small $4.75, regular $6.25) with egg (costs extra), another Kapiolani recipe.

To me, the Fried Rice is just okay. There's lots of chopped mystery meat in there (in other words, I couldn't figure out what the meat was) and no real vegetables (like peas or carrots) to speak of. Maybe that's why the kids like it?

My mom liked the Chop Steak ($7.75). She said it had a teriyaki (shoyu with sugar) sauce on it. The day I had it, it was super salty. Almost inedible, it was so salty. I think they must have put salt instead of sugar :( and the onions were so raw I had onion breath for a day or two.


  

The Hamburger Steak ($8.25) is an 8 oz homemade hamburger patty with grilled onions, topped with gravy, served plate-lunch style (2 scoops rice and mac salad).  We thought it was only so-so. Kind of bland, tasted better with salt.

I like their Teishoku. I've had the Salmon ($11.75) before, but this time I had the Chicken Teriyaki ($9.50).

There are three chicken thighs, miso soup with noodles, pickles, tofu, salad, rice and mac salad.

I always thought Donburi was a bowl of rice with stuff on top with a runny egg over all, so I never order it. Hubby ordered the Spicy Ahi Don. No runny egg here! It was the sweet rolled up egg they put on sushi. In fact, the whole dish was like a huge handroll sushi without the seaweed wrapper: sushi rice, avocado, cucumber, sweet egg, ahi, tobiko and spicy mayo dressing.

There are always quite a few tables with kids at Asahi Grill. They also serve breakfast all day.

Asahi Grill

515 Ward Avenue

Honolulu, HI

Ph 808.593.2800

Hours: Sunday - Thursday 6:30 am - 10:00 pm, Friday-Saturday 6:30 am - 11:00 pm

Birthday Dinner at Gyotaku on King Street

I'm soooo behind on my blogs!  I have pictures from my birthday dinner in September.  I was trying to finish my paying work before my son's babysitter went on vacation for three and a half weeks in October. While she was gone, I totally had no time to blog and here it is, almost Thanksgiving!  But, good news: I was lucky enough to eat out.  Many times. So, here we go... my birthday dinner at Gyotaku.

My birthday fell on a Tuesday.  And since my three and a half year old son now eats close to a full-sized meal, Gyotaku's Monday & Tuesday "Kids Eat Free" special sounded good.

We don't normally order an appetizer, but since it was a special occasion, we started off with a Godzilla roll ($13.95).

There's shrimp and green onion tempura, spicy ahi, maguro, avocado and bonito, drizzled with a sweet shoyu-based sauce. It was huge and it was yummy! I had my doubts about tempura green onion, but not anymore. Deep fried green onions taste ono.

There are choices for the  kid's meal. My son got the udon and tempura (one piece shrimp, and one piece sweet potato). There are also lima beans and corn in butter and an orange wedge.  The meal also comes with two pieces of origami paper and origami instructions, a drink, dessert (either pudding or ice cream), and a toy. It's normally $6.50, but since it was Tuesday, it was free-ninety-free. Gotta love that!

Here is the tempura sashimi teishoku ($19.95):

That's four pieces of shrimp tempura, chawan mushi, miso soup, salad, pickles, sashimi and rice.

The zaru soba, california roll, tempura combo


which came with a salad, spicy tuna roll and miso soup.


An adult udon, inari norimaki, tempura combo ($15.95)

It also included a salad.

And finally, the Gyotaku Combination Bento 3 (three choices). This one is a katsu, miso butterfish, tempura combo for $19.95.

It also came with miso soup, salad, pickles and rice.

Obviously, our family likes tempura...

The menu with prices is on their website: http://www.gyotakuhawaii.com/PrintMenus.html

We had Gyotaku cater my son's birthday party and they did a great job. Everything was ready for pickup on time, and neatly packed in serving dishes. They even included serving utensils (tongs and rice paddles). The food was as good as eating in. Gyotaku is very consistent in their food quality. I don't remember everything we had for the party, but I do remember the yakitori (teri chicken kabobs) and yaki soba, both of which were very good.

Gyotaku King Street
1824 King Street
Ph 949-4584

Hours:
Sun-Thurs 11am-9pm
Fri-Sat 11am-10pm

Gyotaku Niu Valley
5730 Kalanianaole Highway in the Niu Valley Shopping Center
Ph 373-2731

Hours:
Sun-Thurs 11am-9pm
Fri-Sat 11am-10pm

There is also another location in Pearl City.

Ramen with creamy broth?!

There's been quite a bit of press lately about three relatively new ramen shops in town: Nihon Noodles on King Street in McCully, Goma Tei in Ward Center and Tenkaippin on Kapahulu. We tried Goma Tei over a year ago on a friend's recommendation and weren't impressed. (Maybe they were having an off day. We'll have to give them another chance and do a blog.) We tried Nihon Noodles' sampler trio a couple months ago. It was our first experience with broth made creamy from long, slow cooking, but we thought that, too, was a little bland and overrated. So, now it was time to try Tenkaippin.


We had to wait outside for a table to open up, but there was seating available and the wait was pretty short. Service was pretty quick, even considering we had two fussy children with us. (No, that's not me in the picture. I was behind the camera.) To keep you entertained, there is a really big flat-screen tv on the wall above the entrance to the kitchen and it plays Ultimate Japan, a TV series hosted by Tenkaippin owner Scott Suzui. The show reminds me of Soko Ga Shiritai, except it's hosted by a local boy instead of Japanese nationals.

The hubby and I both ordered ramen sets: his was miso ramen with fried rice, and mine was kotteri ramen with fried rice and gyoza. Pictured here is the miso ramen with the fried rice and gyoza.

Now before you start judging me as a woman who eats more than her man, I'll have you know that I was sharing my meal with my son...


The fried rice was okay. Not much flavor except sesame oil. It was served with shoga (shredded red ginger) on the side.


The gyoza, too, was okay. Nothing special. Three pieces, a little light on the stuffing, but the texture was good. The sauce selection helped: koteri, vinegar, chili paste, and a (raw) garlic chili paste.

But the broths were terrific!

The Kotteri Ramen broth was so thick it was like gravy, or like a butter and cream sauce with a little bit of grit, and it had a good, but unusual chicken flavor. Supposedly, women in Japan flock to the Tenkaippin ramen chain because the collagen in the broth is good for your joints, bones, and skin. The roast pork was kind of dry and not worth mentioning. The menma (bamboo shoots) were tasty. There were plenty of green onions.


Hubby liked his miso broth as well. It was topped with roast pork, bean sprouts and green onion.

The noodles seemed like plain old Sun Noodles you can buy at Costco, but with broths so tasty, you know you didn't come here for the quality of the noodles.

Sorry for the blurry pics and lack of menu and price information. My kids were fussy and I got totally distracted. I'll update the blog when I have a chance to go back.

Tenkaippin
617 Kapahulu Ave. (between Good Guys music shop and Papa Johns. Use the parking lot on Mooheau St.)
Honolulu, Hawaii 96815
ph 808.732.1211

Hours: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays to Thursdays, to 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.

Be prepared: cash only!