Not all tempura are created equal.
To back track, a couple of weeks ago, waiting for The Cat, decided to dinner outside. Could’ve gone tempura, but decided on udon instead. Didn’t want to do a sit down dinner at the tempura restaurant, the udon place is more cafeteria style.
Udon
Ordered the “plain” udon and curry rice combo with a few sides.
Udon, Curry Rice, and Sides
The tempura bits, grated ginger, and green onions are on a table to add your own.
Mushroom Tempura, Inari Sushi, Sweet Potato Tempura, and Burdock Root Tempura.
Should’ve known better (but I was hungry), the tempura was sitting on a counter under warming lamps, not the best conditions. Sigh. At least the udon and curry rice were decent, it is a udon shop after all. Lesson learned. Udon shop for udon. Tempura shop for tempura. Oh well.
Jump forward to this past Friday. Late lunch. Determined to put the last tempura experience behind. The proper tempura restaurant.
Yay!
Tried to order “light”, we had dinner plans.
Vegetable Tempura Donburi
Sweet potato, asparagus, heart of palm, lotus root, eggplant, kabocha (pumpkin), Hawaiian kale. Meal came with miso soup, pickles, and small side vegetables. Posted pictures of these before, won’t bore you with the details.
So, the last time I was here, didn’t have quite enough rice to sufficiently last through the meal. My eyes were bigger than my stomach. New item on the menu, mini kakiage chazuke.
Mini Kakiage Chazuke: scallop, kabocha, and bell pepper fritter (tempura) on rice with broth
Condiments: wasabi, some kinda pickles, and green onions
Pot of Broth
Everyone in the pool
Needless to say, there was enough rice this go round. The Mouse was a little full, but satiated. 🙂
Dinner was here.
Sign
Been wanting to try this place for years (literally). But since we rarely get out to Waikiki, it has always been on the back burner.
As late as we went, still crowded.
Got the last table in the back.
The condiments.
Cute ya?
Pot of tonkatsu sauce, pickled ume plums, shichi-mi tōgarashi (Japanese pepper blend), and hot mustard.
Started of with Japanese style rolled omelet.
Appetizer
The Cat ordered the seafood mix katsu set (sorry, no pictures, The Mouse had a user error malfunction). The Mouse ordered the pork mixed set (Tenderloin, Loin, Minced Kurobuta).
But first, a small suribachi bowl of sesame seeds came with its surikogi.
Sesame Seeds
The Cat experienced this before, The Mouse did not.
After a few minutes of grinding, the sesame seed became pasty (think chunky peanut butter), tonkatsu sauce is added.
Sesame “Butter” with Tonkatsu Sauce
The Mouse’s Mixed Plate
Nom!
The highlight of The Cat’s experience
Rice!
Imported from Japan.
The Cat liked the rice so much …
Rice Paddle
She cleaned the rice paddle.
In retrospect, I shouldn’t have done the tempura and tonkatsu in one day … but The Mouse was happy anyway.
Daytime View
Enjoy. Eat well.
The Mouse
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