Men (noodles)

Fairly thick, and slightly heavy, it was far too soft and lacked depth of flavor.  The men was definitely the weakest part fo the ramen here.  Somewhere in between fresh and instant ramen noodles it lacked the flavor and texture that seperates restaurant ramen from instant ramen.  Both types of ramen were hurt by the men’s failure.

Kotteri Ramen

Soup

Extremely thick, strong chicken base soup, it has more in common with a white sauce than it does with soup.  I felt like I was eating pasta in a bowl.  I’ve never been to Kyoto so I don’t know if this type of ramen is common there but it didn’t taste like Japanese ramen to me.  I can’t stress enough how thick the soup is, it was like the inside of a chicken pot pie.  I’m sure if you haven’t eaten much Japanese ramen, and there by didn’t have many expectations, you could enjoy it.  It seems to be tailored to an American’s taste, an odd fusion of chicken noodle soup and chowder.  As it stands though, the Kotteri ramen soup is one of the worst I’ve ever had.

Kotteri Ramen

Toppings

Very simple; green onions, menma (bamboo shoots), and a very small piece of char siu that lacked flavor and was gone in a single bite.  Nothing special at all.  Half-way through I added some chili garlic topping that helped a bit (the waitress actually encouraged me to add it), but it was too little, too late.

Verdict

There’s no saving the Kotteri Ramen, it’s one of the worst bowls of ramen that I’ve ever had.  Considering that it’s Tenkaippin’s flagship dish I was expecting something unique and amazing.  It’s unique and amazing only in the sense of “what were they thinking?”

F

Soup    (light)   1   2   3   4   5   (heavy)

Men   (thin)   1   2   3   4   5   (thick)

Paitan Ramen

Soup

Standing in stark contrast to the Kotteri Ramen, the Paintan Ramen’s soup was quite good.  Still fairly heavy, though nothing like the Kotteri, it had a great Tonkotsu flavor.  In fact, the first thing we said was “this is Japanese ramen.”  I’m not saying it’s going to blow your mind or anything, just that it was very good and I have no serious complaints.  It still has the chicken base that is Tenkaippin’s specialty, the difference is that it finds a good balance between the chicken and pork flavor without having one over power the other.  Not having the density of clam chowder helps as well.

Toppings

The toppings were much better than the Kotteri as well.  Roasted sliced garlic, red ginger, and green onions all worked well to enhance the flavor.  Unfortunately the sub par char siu was here as well.  Adding the chili garlic topping was unnecessary and would have detracted from the flavor.

Paitan Ramen

Verdict

As you can tell, the Paintan was far better than the Kotteri and I found myself pleasantly surprised.  Regretably, even with the great soup base and toppings, the men detracts too much from the overall experience to ignore.  Add to that the pathetic char siu and there’s no choice but to relegate it to the slightly above average category.

C+

Soup    (light)   1   2   3   4   5   (heavy)

Men   (thin)   1   2   3   4   5   (thick)

On a side note, the prices were a little steep considering that the portions were a bit on the small side.  Expect to pay $8 to $10 for the ramen alone or $10 to $12 for a set menu that comes with fried rice, gyoza, or fried chicken.  Gyoza was entirely average, don’t expect much.

Tenkaippin Hawaii

Char Siu Tan Tan Ramen

I love ramen.  The first time I had it in Japan I fell in love and that love has only continued to grow.  Luckily, Hawaii is one of the best places in the states and outside of Japan to get this simple, yet surprisingly complex, dish.

A friend of mine in Japan once said, as he was approaching his college graduation, that he was either going to become an Air Traffic Controller or start up a ramen shop.  Lovers of ramen truly love ramen and they accept nothing but the finest.

The Ramen Hunt is my search for the best ramen in Hawaii.  I’m not going to lie, I have not found a single bowl of ramen in Hawaii that even comes close to it’s authentic Japanese counterpart.  That being said, they is still some really great places here and I still have hope that I’ll find something that can compare to the true thing.  So without further adieu… 

In our first episode of our hunt for the best ramen in Hawaii we head on over to Goma Tei.  Located in the Ward Centre next to Borders, Goma Tei has been around for about three years now.  Specializing in Tan Tan, spicy sesame flavored, Ramen it has carved out a strong following in it’s short time here.  Some of you may know Goma Ichi, across the street from Wal-Mart on Ke’eaumoku, which also specializes in Tan Tan Ramen.  Both have very similar tastes and would rate similar reviews from me but I personally prefer Goma Tei.

Men (Noodle)

Goma Tei’s men is average in thickness, leaning slightly to the futoi (fat) side.  Has plenty of flavor and a good texture.  It won’t win any awards for being amazing, it’s just a good, slightly above average men.

Shoyu Ramen

Soup

The soup is arguably the most important part of ramen, if it’s not good then the ramen is no good.  A shoyu (soy sauce) base soup is mainly used here, though they also have Tonkotsu ramen.   The shoyu by itself is pretty light and doesn’t have much depth to the flavor.  If you’re looking for something on the simple side you might enjoy it, otherwise don’t bother.  The Tan Tan soup is also shoyu based but it takes on a new life with the addition of the spicy sesame seed flavoring.  It’s more oily and, combined with the lightness of the shoyu base, has a very good balance.  It’s not too spicy, which depending on your tastes may be a good or bad thing.  I found it to be just right.

Char Siu (Roast Pork)

The char siu here is easily the best I’ve had in Hawaii so far.  Thick sliced with a good balance of fat and meat and so tender that it falls from your chopsticks and melts in your mouth.  No complaints.

Conclusion

Goma Tei is one of my favorite ramen restaurants in Hawaii and as such I highly recommend it.  It’s not going to change your life or anything (there are ramen restaurants that will do that) but it’s definitely worth checking out.  Give the Tan Tan Ramen a try but don’t expect too much from the other flavors.  On a side note, if you’re planning on getting gyoza be forewarned that it invariablely takes forever to come out and is overpriced and entirely average.

Tan Tan Ramen

B-

(light)   1   2   3  3.5  4   5   (heavy)

(thin)   1   2   3   4   5   (thick)

Shoyu Ramen

D

(light)   1   2   3   4   5   (heavy)

(thin)   1   2   3   4   5   (thick)

Goma Tei

*note on grading scale*

I choose to assign a letter grade due to the ambiguity that is inherent in a numerical/star system.  An “A” rating is given for the best of the best, “B” for really good, “C” for average, “D” for not very good, and “F” for complete garbage.  I am admittedly harsh in my reviews and as always they are based upon my own personal opinions.  ”Light” and “heavy” refer to how rich the soup is, “thin” and “thick” to the type of men (noodles).

From my table I could look out over the strip mall (they have a lot of strip malls in Hawaii) and see the mountains. It kind of reminds me of being in Colorado.

Its too funny not to be shared.

Well, on Mau’i there are many great restaurants. And the nice thing about dining out on Mau’i is that you don’t have to get dressed up. Not one location requires a jacket and tie, but don’t try to get into the fancier ones wearing beach attire. The have to draw the line somewhere.

I have three favorite restaurants:

Sarentos On The Beach

Located on south Kihei road, just north of the division line between Kihei and Wailea.. It is tucked in behind the Maui Oceanfront Inn and sits right on Keawakapu Beach. The fare is Mediterranean with a Hawai’ian flare. The thing that makes Sarentos so special to me is the service. When you are seated, your server introduces themself. The next time that you are really sure who that individual was is when the wallet, holding the check, is presented at the end of your dining experience. In between those two moments in time, you are under the impression that everyone in Sarentos is waiting on you. This is called “french style” and they have mastered the technique. perfectly. Book your reservation for about 45 minutes before sunset. You don’t want to miss the splendor of the view.

When I have mainland visitors, Sarentos is where we go to be spoiled.

Expect to spend about $55-$65 per person, not including alcohol.

What can I say about Mama’s that hasn’t been said before? It is great! I mean, where else in the world can you get fish that is so fresh that the menu includes the name of the boat and the name of the Captain of the boat that caught each of the fish selections being offered?. All fish served was caught that day. The only way to get it any fresher is to bring your own hibachi and hitch a ride on one of the fishing boats.

Mama’s is located about 15 minutes east of Kahului airport along the infamous “Road To Hana”. The best time to visit is for lunch. The view of windsurfers and kite-boarders from nearby Ho’okipa Beach is extraordinary.

You come here for the food, not the view. And you never know what celebs you might be dining with. Located in the middle of Hali’imaile, you can’t miss it. It is the only thing lit up at night that doesn’t look like a wharehouse. The food here is to die for. Bring your appetite.

I thought about complaining because I felt this guy was getting preferential treatment:

But then I saw how the rest of his order came out (click on the images to enlarge!):

I guess Kazu, the sushi guy, was feeling a little mischievous that night. Don’t ask me where Tokkuri Tei is; I won’t tell you. It’s too crowded there as it is. Not enough room. Look how small they have to make the sushi.

For those of you that haven’t passed by UH lately, Players is no longer in existence there. Or if it’s been a really really long time since you’ve been by UH, Pizza Hut is gone. In it’s place is this very orange, very swirly looking place called Tsukuneya. It’s a Japanese restaruant serving Robata-yaki (Grilled food). To be precise, they serve Nagoya-style food. Now, I’m not a big fan of Nagoya-anything, maybe with the exception of Chanpon. But here, I was pleased to find out that most of their items were really not much different from the usual Robatayaki items you find nationwide in Japan.


So, the day after we go eat at this place, I find there is a review fresh off the press in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin . I decided to postpone my review until some of the fluff had settled…if you want to see what was said, you can read it here . There were points made in the review that I agree with, but for the most part (especially the taste portion), I think my muthaland palate disagrees.

To start off – it’s really cold. The restaurant. Is cold. Despite the “warm wood” interior, it feels like you’re hugging a Stainless Steel SubZero refrigerator. Bring a light jacket. Or parka. Trust me. Maybe if you sit in the outside area you’d fare better…but don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Have fun finding parking. I wanted to tell the Valet that, too. It was good we went on a weekday, I can’t imagine what it’s like on a Friday or Saturday night there. The entire parking lot is reserved for valet only. And when that’s full, I have no idea where the valet would park your car.

Now to the fun part. The experience.
We’re seated, and we’re freezing. We’re hungry. We smell good things…and then, we’re given this…storybook? The menu is full of illustrations and all this text about how to eat Tsukune, what is tsukune, blah blah blah. Oh and you even get to read about Nagoya. I’m hungry. I don’t want to read about the region and Toyota and Samurai. I want to read about your food. I decided to skip on to actual menu part and use the “educational reading” section while I wait for food to arrive. Well, no chance of that because as this waitress was clicking our order (she was using that PDA order tablet thing) our food arrived. Immediately. While we were still ordering. One by one, things appeared. It was strange and distracting, and our ordering frenzy fizzled into this awkward silence. We all looked at each other, wondering if that was a sign to stop ordering so much food. As one friend put it, we had no time to sit back and enjoy our cocktail, engage in some light conversation, and savor the moment. After all, it’s a birthday dinner! No, food arrived as we’re still talking to the waitress, and we felt we had to dive right in before the food freezes over.

Oh and as was mentioned in the newspaper review, you have to order two of the same Tsukune flavors at a time. Now, this is a bit confusing because the menu lists each item, ranging from $1.50 to about $3 but these are for one/single/uno piece. Why not just list it as $3, and say you get 2 sticks per order? I don’t get it. We each ordered different flavors: Garlic, Mixed Cheese, Piripirihabu (meaning, spicy herb), and Misonnaise. They all pretty much tasted the same, just with different sauces. Garlic was not very “garlic”, Cheese was..meh, the Piripiri was not spicy at all, and I tasted no herb whatsoever, and Misonnaise just tasted like I mixed miso and mayo. Nothing special.

We quickly moved on to dishes that sounded a bit more exciting. The homemade tofu (Zaru Tofu) with yuzu was good. We were a bit annoyed that 2 different waitresses came over to explain how to add the flavor to the water. Um, duh. But hey, it’s probably their job, right? But why two people, in succession, to explain? Did it seem like we didn’t understand the first time? Then we realized, this must be the way they do things here because for the Kamameshi and the Yakionigiri (Grilled Rice Ball with soup) we went through the same drill. We still had no opportunity to sit back and enjoy our meal. The restaurant was half-empty, but we felt they were tyring to rush us through the meal to get us out of there. The best item for me was the Unagi Kamameshi. Most unagi dishes I’ve tried in Hawaii have been mediocre at best. Very thin slices of unagi that lightly cover the rice. But this dish here was a pleasant surprise at that point in the evening. Thick pieces of unagi, and lots of it! And cooked just right. Now if that waitress would stop coming to our table to recommend that I pour some fish stock over my precious unagi rice…

The seafood dynamite was a hit as well. Big chunks of fresh crab meat smothered in sauce and baked…yum. Fried tofu was so-so. It’s just fried tofu with some sauce. Better to order the homemade tofu instead. Ebi fry? Just some sticks o’ shrimp and veggies stuck into what looked like an incense holder. Again, don’t bother unless you’re a hardcore fan of fried shrimp. Order something else instead.

Ah, dessert! We love dessert. And hey! It’s a birthday dinner! We have to have dessert! And besides, desserts are guaranteed fun! We ordered the cheesecake, which turned out to be Japanese-style cheesecake (not anything close to New York Cheesecake) served with some whipped cream and azuki beans. It was good, and I prefer this style over the heavier New York cheesecake, but it was good plain.

We also ordered something called the “Fried Monkey”. The description on the menu said it is a “deep fried banana served with ice cream”. We all had images of banana chimichangas or banana lumpias dancing in our heads. We were excited…until it arrived. Looking at it, we thought we had the wrong order. It looked like a corndog smothered in chocolate sauce. We dig in, and find out that not only is the banana battered with something like a pancake batter, but it’s a not-quite-ripe apple banana. Oh and they “ran out” of silverware so we were given plastic forks. Hmm. It was hard, there was no other flavoring except for the chocolate sauce and ice cream, and we actually did not finish it. Up, down, up, down…that was our experience at Tsukuneya. It was a rollercoaster ride of emotions and expectations.

I don’t feel that Tsukuneya deserves the rating it got in the newspaper review, but I’ll give it another chance. Maybe it’s just too “new” and they need to figure out their timing and menu. Still, I’m in no hurry to go back for that second take. Oh and I was told that their “buffalo wings” were good, even though the food critic didn’t like them. I think you have to order them knowing that they are not going to be “buffalo wings” but rather, chicken wings seasoned Nagoya-style. Or something like that.

And I did take a pic of the bar but we felt too harried to order a few more cocktails…so no review there. Oh well.

And then, the magic happened:
(Excuse the poor picture quality, I only had my camera phone.)

At first glance, the breading on the katsu made me think, “oh no it’s another crappy piece of katsu”. It was thin and did not stick to the katsu well. However, after just one bite, it proved me wrong. This katsu is fabulous! As all katsu teishoku should, it comes with a little suribachi with white sesame seeds. You grind them and mix it into your katsu sauce. Very nice. I wish they toasted the seeds first, though. You can barely taste the sesame in the sauce.

The tempura and katsu combo was pretty good. It’s basically your typical assortment of shrimp and veggie tempura, and a smaller portion of my Hire Katsu.

The Misoyaki Butterfish made Wasabi Bistro jump onto my friend’s “Top 5″ list. She hates it when the fish is smothered in miso, as if it’s smothered chicken. At this place, she was served a sizeable piece of fish and it was more “glazed” with miso than smothered. She really appreciated that.

Overall we were pretty impressed. The food backed up its pricing…the service could be a bit better, but we were still satisfied in the end. And that’s pretty impressive, because I’m notorious for getting terrible service, or just plain terrible food (you know, those random acts of finding extra goodies in your salad and such). I finally found a place that serves a decent Hire Katsu ! We’ll definitely be back again. I hear Imperial Kaffe is famous for HIre Katsu, too. That just might have to be my next “review”. Oh great, now I’m hungry.