Now open for a few years in Honolulu, the claim to fame for this small Japaneses restaurant is that they serve fresh housemade soba noodles. Location is on S. King Street on the left just past Punahou St. For the oldtimers, it’s where Dairyu used to be, go past where Cinerama used to be, in the small group of stores that includes the Obama Baskin Robbins. It’s a small space with about six tables and a counter, cozy, you won’t have any problems flagging down service. 
Visited twice, first time had the tenzaru soba, a standard that should be good to judge by. Noodles correctly “al dente”, tempura crisp and light, side dishes nice, tokyo negi for your noodles, the wasabi looks to be high percentage of real wasabi. Not the usual mystery mostly mustard/horseradish green paste. I don’t think it’s fresh grated, but it might be the 100% real from tube wasabi. Second visit I had the Battera Gozen with the upgrade to standard size noodle portion of the hot soba. The battera is wonderful, just the right amount of vinegaring.
Archive for the 'Food' Category
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Pours with moderate head, a dark amber. An interesting ale. Distinctive aroma that I have a hard time describing. Smoky flavor coming from the featured peat smoked hops. Bitterness that tapers, an almost astringent middle, then lingers. A pretty robust brew, but not thick like a porter or stout. I’d give it close to 3 of 4 peat smoking monkeys.
Pours with a medium head, medium amber with a red tint. Aroma of hops detectable, but not strong. Likewise a fairly strong bitter element that does linger for a bit. Also a touch of sweet feel, but not to the point that I find objectionable. Perhaps not my favorite of the pack, but still pretty smooth and drinkable, although I prefer it with some food rather than drinking it alone. 2.5 out of 4 monkeys.
Sam Adams has become so ubiqitous that it now often gets passed over in the search for more “exotic” brews that I haven’t had. However this variety pack perked my interest as it had many varieties, almost all I haven’t had, in one convenient case. And I’m happy to say, it was a good thing! 5 of the 6 varieties I have now sampled and all get my thumbs up, and the final one is the Boston Lager which is a known good quantity.
I’ll start with the last and most recent that I just had. A seasonal, the Noble Pils. Pours light yellow with at most a moderate head that quickly dissapates. Pretty strong floral notes, as expected since it’s a Pils and the whole tagline is that it is made with all 5 Noble hops. It also gives it a good citrus note, without really having any citrus adjuncts. I’m not a huge fan of Pils and strong hops, but it works quite well here. Could it be that my love of Wernesgruner has given me a taste for hops now? Regardless, the SA Nobel Pils is nicely balanced, crisp, and clean. The hops emphasis give it a fairly high bitterness, but it does not linger. Mouth feel is light and clean. I have to give it a 3 of 4 tipsy monkeys.
Well, the Sapporo Soup Curry Yokocho has all but dwindled down to two shops. The one I used to go to is gone and another new garishly appointed shop stands in its place. Boo. Luckily, I found another place that is actually better than the old place even closer to Oodori. There is another new shop out toward Maruyama to try next time. The one closest to where I am is pretty terrible.
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What? More beer? This time another Hitachino variety I haven’t had yet, the XH. Labeled as matured in sake casks. Pours cloudy dark brown with extremely strong head. Sorry, I passed out before I could write a review so my thoughts are a bit cloudy on it. I blame the high 8%ABV. I didn’t really detect the cask flavors. I recall the sweet then sourness. It reminded me again of drunk juice malt liquors that I do not like. I can’t say I’m having a very good track record with the Hitachino’s, 2.5 out of 4 booze sleeping monkeys.
Catching up on a past brew here! Seasonal brew, pours with small head, very dark. Pretty strong roasted flavor, pretty effervescent feel on tongue, dry, lingering bitter from the roast. I like, but not an intensely complex beer. 5.3% ABV, not high. 3 out of 4 dark roast monkeys.
Discovered at Foodland Farms this Hitachino variety I haven’t seen elsewhere. Pours with a pretty good head, cloudy medium dark brown. Touch floral aroma and hint of spices but not strongly hoppy. There’s some sour in there, and a bit of lingering bitter. Reading the label tells of vanilla, corriander, orange peel, but this is no Hoegarten, which I just happened to have had one earlier. Though not offensive, it does not appeal to my tastes. High ABV of 9%. Not quite 3 out of 4 drunken monekys.
There is no better way to antangonize anything than to threaten it’s food, and us humans are no exception. So it was this Saturday evening at Windward Mall IHOP. I had heard rumours of bad service, but I had no idea until experiencing it first hand. This night after a Cruise night found us in need of some food, the IHOP was conveniently located, and pancakes sounded good. We thought there might be a wait, but stepping inside that wasn’t the case. It wasn’t that crowded inside. What we didn’t realize that this also seemed to apply to the staff, there aparently wasn’t enough staff. Or so we would like to hope. It took an hour, at least, from when seated to getting our food. Tell me it takes that long to make a bunch of pancakes, steak & eggs, omlette, and sausage. I actually didn’t have much to complain about the food, it was tasty, the steak was tender, eggs cooked properly, but it took ridiculously long. Five minutes longer and we would halve walked. 
Hana hou? I sure as heck hope not! And I am sure not going to give them another chance! 1 out of 4 raving mad hungry monkeys (Moe “I want some cake” anyone?) because the food was decent for what you expect from a place like this, but the delay was simply unacceptable.
Popped into the newly remodeled and opened Foodland Farms at Aina Haina. It’s kind of a mini “Whole Paycheck” market. They borrowed a lot of aspects with the areas of higher end products, deli, and prepared foods, but not quite as extensive. The beer selection is also pretty good with some items I haven’t seen elsewhere, but again is nowhere as extensive as Whole Foods. What I did spy was this Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Ale. With a name like that I simply could not resist. Pours with a pretty strong head, simply popping the cap produced bubbles in the bottle neck. Color is a medium dark somewhat cloudy amber. Immediate floral aroma without even taking a sip. It is strongly hoppy, the bitter hits you from the begining, it’s no aftertaste here! I guess Bigfoot like drinking flowers? 
It demands to be drunk while eating something hearty and strongly flavored, I had it with a herbed roasted chicken and it worked well. I don’t know if I could handle drinking this by itself. Thankfully it doesn’t have the syrupy sweet that immediately turns me off, although I have to wonder how they achieved the butt kicking 9.6%ABV, and the label does say barleywine style. I only now coming off the buzz from that one bottle. I have a hard time rating this. I enjoyed it with my meal, perhaps the ABV helped, but I had a hard time finishing it after my food was done. I guess go with middle of the road 2 out of 4 bigmonkeys?