Aku Eats Oahu : a closer look : Kabuki, a closer look

Kabuki, a closer look

Morning!

6/1/08 - Headed out to my nephew's first birthday this weekend, and my brother guys' asked if mom could make all of her ono traditional grinds - nishime, kinpira gobo, namasu - stuff like that. When "da boyz" come over, they always gotta have moms home-made cooking! That means wifey and I had to bring her to Marukai to get all the ingredaments. While some of their stuff is expensive, certain oriental veggies like hasu, gobo, shiso leaf, and daikon are on the cheaper side and, I guess because of the large amount of older Japanese customers, there is a good degree of turnover so the items are usually fresh and in good shape.

Don Quijote is probably the next best thing, but for Japanese produce, the quality is usually not quite as good because of less turnover. It may be bigger and busier over-all, but the ethnic mix is more varied at Don Quijote so demand for these items are much less. Shirokiya can be good, but the produce section is tiny and especially expensive. As a last option, supermarkets or other ethnic stores like Palama Market (Korean) will carry Japanese produce, but quality not quite as much.

Anyway, that's all she wrote for Produce 101. Time for lunch! After filling a cooler's worth of Marukai goodies, we headed on over to Kabuki restaurant on Kapiolani, right at that building on the intersection with South King. It's been there forever. This is a low key, family-style Japanese restaurant that always satisfies.

Nothing flashy - just good, old-fashioned, down-to-earth Japanese foods.

It's all casual here at Kabuki, from the sweetheart waitresses (been there a thousand times, but only in the daytime so I'm not sure about evenings) to the decor, which was probably cutting-edge fancy way back when, but now has aged a bit to maintain a rustic Japanese/local-style charm. The Pearl City location is similiar, except the dining room is noticeably darker (lighting) and there is a waterfall/koi pond right at the entrance.

Laid back and casual.

Complete meals come with simple starter dishes like miso soup and tsukemono, or pickled vegetables. When thinking "pickled," you may think vinegar, but that's not always the case, as some of the veggies are just soaked in brine. Today it looks like a brine of cut chinese cabbage.

Instead of miso soup, they sometimes present a bowl of clear dashi soup with a little somen noodle and a touch of lemon. The clear broth carries with it a strong fish taste that had to come from a base stock of fresh fish parts, and the citrus adds a refreshing, very noticeable zing.

Simple starter dishes of o-suimono (clear soup) and tsukemono (pickled vegetables).

But enough of the small talk - let's get on to the main dishes! Let's get to the real reason I consider Kabuki one of my favorites of the casual Japanese restaurants in this category. I'll break you all in slow, nice and easy-like. Don't want to overwhelm you or anything.

Mom had a set of two mini-dishes, udon and sushi. As mentioned in the ramen and other Japanese noodles section, udon is a thick, white noodle coming in a clear, dashi-flavored broth. It's not quite as complex as the many different ingredients found in ramen, but has a clean, pure, traditional taste that many, including wifey and mom, need to have every once-in-a-while.

The sushi was a bit uninspiring, but then again, it was only a mini-set. It came with toppings of ahi, tamago (egg), ebi (shrimp), shime-saba (vinegared saba), and a white-fish.

I know you can't tell by the following pic, but Wifey had a teishoku set of miso butterfish and shrimp tempura, two stalwarts that are always great here. It's just that to wifey, that big 'ol bowl of chawanmushi that it came with kinda stole the show. This savory, dashi-flavored egg custard comes hot and with pieces of chicken, shiitake mushroom, and takenoko (bamboo shoots). Not sure why, but most times it also comes with a single ginnan (ginko nut) that is a bit bitter to the taste. Hey, it's healthy, and the fun of such a dramatic little contrast in taste just spices things up and makes it more interesting, I guess.

Custard with Shiitake mushrooms?

Will someone please tell me why I can't get a good chicken katsu donburi at most places? I've been asking this question for so long, all to no avail.

Before I lose you, let me explain myself. First of all, a bowl of donburi contains rice with a topping of cooked to partially-cooked egg and onion in a soy-based sauce, along with different kinds of meats mixed in. Some donburi meals, however, like shrimp tempura (ten-don) and unagi (una-don), don't come with the egg/onion mix, so be sure to ask if that's what you want.

Getting back to my question, a menu with donburi will always say katsu donburi, but it is always from pork (tonkatsu) and not from chicken or other meats - Why?... Why can't I have my chicken?!!! No one seems to know, but I guess I just gotta take it like a man and deal with this one of life's many hardships, right on the chin. We can't change everything, you know. Besides, there are a few places yet that bend the rules by making an actual katsu donburi with chicken, my all-time favorite being Yama-gen on South King.

Wifey tells me to stop the whining, so i'll move on.

Katsu donburi. With pork. Waaah!

After polishing that, I pounded a teishoku meal with shrimp tempura, fried scallops, and ahi. Just joking, this is another day. The tempura was, as always, great. The ahi, aaah... not bad. But the fried scallops, oh boy! What a nice surprise it was! I would normally not get such a delicate seafood like scallops in a brash, bold coating of panko, but that's the only way it came. No worries, though, because the pieces were thick, juicy, and tender, and perfectly cooked as to not lose its natural flavor and delicate texture. Definitely a winner.

Another great teishoku-set meal.

Kabuki used to have gas-powered, table-top grills and nabe pots, as you can see by the fixture on the table. They haven't taken 'em out yet, and who knows if they ever will, but are now using portable grills, instead. Our waitress was kind enough to let us see one of these new gadgets, which are used for either griddle-style cooking or nabe (hot-pot) meals.

Kabuki is very much similiar to Gyotaku, except Kabuki is more old-school while Gyotaku seems to be taking on a more modern, flashy tone, with huge, full-color menus of excellent Japanese meals. For a great over-all experience, I think Gyotaku has an edge, but when it comes down to just the food, I'd say Kabuki by a hair. Who knows, that may change in the future, as Gyotaku is getting more and more impressive, especially with their new location in the Niu Valley Shopping Center, and has a much, much wider menu selection.

For a casual lunch or dinner, Kabuki is worth a stop. As long as I'm taking mom to Marukai to grocery-shop, something tells me I'll always be coming back here.

Alas, I guess that's it for now. No dramatic endings, just a simple good-bye. Until next time, take care and Aloha!

Aku

Back to A Closer Look

Back to Japanese Family Restaurants

Post a Comment or just say hello! Don't worry about leaving REAL names if you don't want to! Changing to Code names are fine, but just stay consistent with your code names, allright? No e-mails will be posted without consent, either way! Hope to hear from you all!