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Cafe Imperial, a closer look
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Don't just take my opinion! Check out a few other takes on Cafe Imperial (Kaffe Imperial) ...
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A Local-local-style Honolulu Blogger! |
A Professional food writers' view! |
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Aloha!
1/28/10 - L&L? Diner's? Pee Wee Drive-Inn? Grace's? Fuggedabouditt!!!
No offense to these plate lunch spots, really. There's some decent katsu in this group. However, being a step away from fast-food, and with plates and mini-plates usually ranging from $3.50 to $7, you can't expect a whole lotta quality every time. They're all fine when you're as hungry as a bear, when a greasy katsu is just the trick to get rid of the rumblings and promote a blissful episode of Kanak attack, otherwise known in the islands as Da Big Sleep after Da Big Meal! After all... Eat. Sleep. Eat. Sleep. Besides the bathroom and sex, these are the only things animals do, right? And we're pretty animalish at times, don't ya think? Forget to satisfy any of the four primal urges, and it's pretty simple - you die. Especially from the last one. Just kidding.
However, when not driven by guttural instincts, but by the ability to reason, as all of us two-legged creatures are supposed to have the faculties for, you'll see that all katsu's are not made alike, and thus your choices should be made accordingly - especially when entertaining out-of-town guests, as we were! For me, there are three classifications of katsu, as laid-out here in ascending order of quality:
1) Most plate lunch eateries.
2) Most sit-down Japanese restaurants.
3) Ginza Bairin and Cafe Imperial, the two restaurants on the island that specialize in katsu, as well as your own kitchen!
I know I've mentioned this so many times, but there's new folks hitting my site on a daily basis, so real quick - the lowest quality of katsu is one that is panko'd (panko is a Japanese breadcrumb, for those uninitiated), then refrigerated for longer than a day or worse yet, frozen, then finally deep-fried. In other words - most plate lunch houses. Better are most Japanese restaurants, who either apply panko right before frying or employ a minimum of storage time before frying. And finally, best of all, there's Ginza Bairin, Cafe Imperial, and your own kitchen, so long as you're doing it right! Having already visited the first restaurant, and having already done katsu on a few of the hibachi pages, that leaves us with just one more premium katsu option to explore - Cafe Imperial.
Now, I know a lot of folks out there simply won't go out of their way in finding an eatery they've never been to in a location they've never known. Exploring new territory is too taxing and mendo-k'sai, is all. I, myself, have scoured the internet looking for exactly the correct route for Cafe Imperial, and yet, before arriving, there were still a couple of dead end's and wrong turns taken, as mistakes can be made not only while driving, but also while walking to the restaurant after parking! But alas, no worries. Consider me your Restaurant-Finder for Dummie's. I'll even give you a map, courtesy of Google, with personalized directions. "A" is the Imperial Plaza, where Cafe Imperial is housed on the ground floor. The building runs the span from Kapiolani to Kawaiahao on the Cooke St. side of the block.
Metered parking alongside Imperial Plaza, partially in view in this next shot on Cooke St., is convenient but not always available. You've seen this place before, right?
Most likely, you'll be parking inside the building itself (validated), but just remember that the visitor entrance is only accessible from Kawaiahao St. Once inside, it's also important that you then:
1) Make your way out of the parking lot on the Ewa (Cooke St.) side, which will lead you to the scene shown just above, as the Diamond Head openings are only for residents.
2) Then make your way in the Makai direction (towards Kapiolani Blvd.), right alongside the ground-floor shops shown above, until you reach a right-side accessway with yet more shops and offices.
3) From there, you'll see Cafe Imperial on the right.
Yeah, that's a lotta time taken for directions, but its relatively obscure location has been a major stumbling block for many, including myself for a good while. Now, you have no excuse!
Once inside, finally, the place is reasonably modern and stylish, with Japanese shoji screens, Korean lanterns, granite counter-tops, and even a vacant sushi case, for some reason! Oh, and BTW, besides sake and shochu, drinkers take note: Japanese imports - $3.50; domestics and Heineken - $2.80; Bud, Bud Light, or Coors Light draft for $2.50, and we're not talking Happy Hour prices!
If you've been around long enough, you may have heard this spot going by the name of Kaffe Imperial. Don't worry - it's not your fault, but the owners. That's the original name, and this menu board posted right outside the restaurant continues stoking the confusion, both for still using the old name and also for the fact that there's a new menu now, with several other dishes not included here!
There's only a handful of new items, though, and these include dishes like gyoza, spring rolls, cheese tonkatsu, oroshi (minced daikon w/ponzu) katsu, fish katsu, and hamburger steak. There's even a few Korean-influenced dishes like manduguk, a rice cake and dumpling soup, as well as dduk bok gi, a common Korean street food consisting mostly of rice cakes (often cylindrical) in soy or spicy sauces. You guessed it - Korean-owned. Like most cross-cultural enterprises, it doesn't have the entirely correct tradition thing down-pat, and, in fact, doesn't pretend to do so, but who cares anyway, as the bottom line is - they have some really good katsu here!
A few of my good friends from the Mainland really love the stuff, so this is the spot I settled upon, since Tonkatsu Ginza Bairin in Waikiki, though excellent, would have been half to double the cost or more, depending on what's ordered. Our day began with a simple salad of spinach - yeah, straight out of the bag from Costco, but who cares? The Oriental dressing was a zesty shoyu mix, and the fresh tomatoes, sweet and luscious:
Like any great katsu/tonkatsu house, Cafe Imperial uses their own tonkatsu sauce, a very important element in the panko-crusted world. Not sure if they make it from scratch or if they've enhanced an established version, but the sauce here is definitely fruitier, richer, and much tastier than supermarket varieties, that's for sure. And while we're on the subject, take a look at this tonkatsu sauce shoot-out, which is, guaranteed, the wildest, most descriptive, most incredible tonkatsu sauce contest ever made available to man! It also shows how to cook katsu yourself, an easy but time-consuming process you'll do over and over, once you know how! Thanks Pomai at Tasty Island for the dizzying report!
Just to let ya know, most of these katsu versions come looking almost the same, as they are all covered by the same deep-fried panko crust. The two most popular types anywhere are either chicken or pork, pork more so when they offer special grades or cuts of pork, as both Ginza Bairin and Cafe Imperial do. The first uses the famous and expensive Kurobuta pork, but there is no such mention of the trendy pig here, as their more expensive version is explained only as pork tenderloin. From trusted personal sources (not the links above!), though, I've heard that there's not too much difference between the best Kurobuta pork at Bairin and the best here, called hirekatsu ($11.70), except to say that you'll be paying triple the amount at Bairin!
Regarding pork, however, I may be a biased and unreliable source, as when it comes to katsu, I simply prefer chicken over pig, no matter how quality-oriented. With pork, it's been my experience that there's either too much fat, or too much dryness or toughness involved, aspects almost never involved with a good chicken katsu. The one pork version I've actually tried here is the standard cut, which was only part of a mixed plate ($12) also containing a single shrimp and chicken, as well. Still, as with my own past experiences, all of us at the table preferred the chicken:
Shrimp here doesn't compare at all to Ginza Bairin, where they are huuuge, delicious, and expertly panko'd. These were on the small side and just ok.
The fish katsu, however, for $11.75, was killer! The menu says they either use ahi or tai, but on this particular day, our kind server/hostess said the fish used was mahimahi:
Included was a single, folded filet, along with a shorter but much thicker piece. Both were absolutely tender, flakey, and perfectly cooked, the insides moist as can be and without any sign of fishiness at all. Great job on this one!
Like food writer David Choo's (he has a blog, too, called Choo on this) take on meat jhun, the Korean egg-battered, fried meat, in which he rails indignantly against separation, or where batter separates from meat after the cooking process, much the same thing applies to a good katsu. Previously refrigerated katsu can oftentimes pull apart, but when panko'd and fried fresh, you'll find no such separation, as you see here on this beautiful piece of chicken katsu ($9.50):
Here's a couple more chicken katsu pics, both plates ladled with liberal amounts of that great tonkatsu sauce available here at Cafe Imperial:
At these prices, where all katsu plates are between $9.50 and $12, you just can't go wrong. The extra care afforded this particular dish is obviously on a much higher level than any plate lunch house, and also better than most sit-down Japanese restaurants, as well, who carry katsu as simply one of a host of other menu choices. I guess when you specialize in one thing, and continue doing business for any amount of time, you will end-up doing it better! Everything, except perhaps the shrimp, was cooked perfectly, the various meats done with care and not dried-out and tough. The panko flakes used are not as large as Bairin, where they use the larger flakes normally found in Japan today, but, besides the positive fact of lacking of any separation, the crust was still light, crispy, and highly indicative of all things fried that guys like myself love so much! And the fruity, bold, house-made sauce is a great enhancement, as well.
Ok, ok, you won't find the fancy wire platforms of Ginza Bairin, where your katsu stays extra-crispy instead of getting a bit soggy on the bottom if left for too long, and the atmosphere is nowhere as chic and stylish, but if you want a good katsu that you won't be ashamed of, even with friends from the Mainland or elsewhere, Cafe Imperial is a great option. If prices are of no concern, and perhaps if you're faced with a snobby Japanese guy who thinks only the Japanese way is best, no matter what, then yeah, go to Bairin, but for normal folks, on a normal day, Cafe Imperial is sure to make you happy.
Hope you all enjoy the new features! They'll be standard on every Closer Look from here on-out, and if I have time, I'll even implement them in older Closer Look pages, as well.
Enjoy your week, and make the most of whatcha got!
Take care, and Aloha till next time!
Aku
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