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Yohei, a closer look
Aloha!
6/21/08 - There are so many good Japanese restaurants in the Waikiki/"Town" area these days. With the huge number of Japanese nationals living there, either permanently or temporarily, I guess the demand facilitates it being so. Outside this geographical zone there are fewer chances of finding traditional authenticity, but there are still top-knotch spots elsewhere, Yohei being one of them.
Located in the small shopping center across from Honolulu Community College on Dillingam Blvd. on one side and the City Square Shopping Center and Kapalama Canal on the other, this place has been quietly serving up traditional Japanese foods for quite some time. It's a bit out of reach for the familiar crowd of Japanese tourists or youngsters in language-school, college, home-stay's, or work programs, at least the bulk of them, so there are a lot more locals here than anything else (you may be able to tell by the next pic). Hey, we're in Kalihi now!
The dining room is a bit on the small side for the relatively healthy amount of traffic flowing through, as it can get quite crowded here on any day of the week except Sunday, when they shut down. When it does start packing 'em in, the tables can become uncomfortably susceptible to neighbors vicariously enjoying the conversation at your table.
The sushi bar is a main fixture in the restaurant, occupying a decent space and coming with a few chefs that don't quite fit the gruff samurai-chef sterotype (that's kind-of an antiquated view, anyway). Jay, the young man on the left, is personable and super-cool, and will help you with questions you may need regarding anything sushi. He sometimes also helps out at Maguro-ya in Kaimuki, which is owned by the brother of the owner here at Yohei.
The menu is on the small side and appears a bit shy on the number of combination sets offered, unlike most teishoku-available restaurants that allow you to combine two or three different main items in one set. Nevertheless, you still get several side's as well, and mine came with tsukemono (pickled vegetable), miso soup, pickled daikon strips, soba, and rice in addition to the main dish, which was a nice-sized slab of miso butterfish.
If you ever wonder why the Japanese are usually so thin, just take a look at the healthy benefits on this plate - daikon, cabbage, soy, fresh fish, and soba. Soba is an interesting type of noodle - this bad boy is made primarily from buckwheat, which is loaded with vitamins and minerals, including choline, which serves to regulate metabolism while lowering blood pressure and cholesterol. But the most distinct and powerful element found in soba is rutin. Similar to the good stuff in green tea and wine, it is a powerful antioxidant that also strengthens cappillaries and reduces high blood pressure, to name a few things. For a delicious soba noodle made fresh daily from scratch, try Inaba and especially Matsugen, both in the Ramen and other Japanese Noodle section.
Another interesting dish on my set was the miso soup, that normally standard starter found in just about every Japanese restaurant. It was very different here in that it came sprinkled with shungiku leaves and some type of chopped sprouts (the white pieces that look like noodles), and also came with a slightly nutty flavor that made me think of goma, or sesame seed. Some strictly savor the traditional ingredients like tofu and wakame, but I personally love when they start getting creative. It definitely worked for me.
The main dish on my set was a miso butterfish, and Yohei has one of the best anywhere. The huge, oily flakes are amazingly soft and tender, and comes with a delicious miso/shoyu taste that bursts with flavor. The high oil content in the fish makes it sooo much moister and juicier than ahi, mahimahi, ono, or other fish types common in the islands, and has an almost silky consistency that slips down your throat with the greatest of ease. I sit there amazed when I think about all the friends I have who have only tasted butterfish that came wrapped with pork and chicken inside of a lau-lau, and therefore have concluded that they don't care for it. If that's you, please head out to Yohei! You won't be dissapointed.
Wifey ordered a chiraishi, which is basically sushi except that the rice is all combined into a single bowl and the fish and other items are either placed alongside it, as presented here, or directly on the rice itself. I've been here many times and have never been dissapointed before, but this particular order of chiraishi was really weak, to be perfectly honest. The rice was, as always, fluffy and delicous, but there was only one piece each of all the toppings except for the ahi and raw yama-imo (mountain yam), and almost a third of the already meager serving was a filler of salad-variety vegetables. It was definitely not something that merited the $18 price tag.
To make matters worse, the hamachi was terrible and there was a piece of fish that kinda looked like a toro, but the thing had suji (the super-tough, white strings or ribbons of fatty tissue that are basically unedible) that was at least 60 lb-test. Like I said, Yohei is a great restaurant and I have never had this type of experience before, so I really don't expect this to happen again. This is one of the restaurants that places a healthy emphasis on bringing in a good deal of fish directly from Japan, where freshness and quality is of utmost importance.
Wifey still left on decent terms, though, as there was enough yet on her chiraishi set that still made it enjoyable - dashi-tamago, tobiko (fish eggs), ahi, yama-imo, ika, and a good miso soup and rice. Plus, in a reversal of roles, she did get a good portion of my butterfish, so all was not lost.
Next time you're in Kalihi, be sure to stop by and say hello to Jay - he'll make sure everything goes well. I'll leave you all with a parting shot of the humble-looking entrance, which is, by the way, recessed a little behind the stores directly facing Dillingham Blvd. Don't want you to get lost.
Have a wonderful day and take care!
Aku
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