You know, every so often when the moon is full, the stars are bright and all the planets are perfectly align I feel like being treated to a nice dinner. I had never heard of Tanaka of Tokyo before. Shane said it was like a Benihana’s in the sense that it’s totally table side service and all the food is prepared right there in front of you.

Luckily Ray was smart enough to make reservations. There was a small wait when we got there and then we were escorted to the inner cavity of the restaurant where I all the action went down. It was like we went straight to an underground gambling casino. The place was dark with not a lot of decor on the walls just a bunch of Asians sitting around a large round table, waiting to be dealt out some serious food. The chef puts on a show deals out the food and then, next round of food, deals it out and so on. There were lots of Asians, and commotion going on. Yeah, like I said, It definitely felt like we just stepped into a secret underground casino. How exciting is that.

Everyone is started off with a salad. I suggest you ask for the dressing on the side. No dressing is better than whatever it is that they are using. Even I, the salad whore, could not eat this, pat-tuey. I also ordered a tropical drink, to the right of my salad. It comes with the glass but no worries, a clean one is given to you at the end of the meal so you don’t have to take home a dirty one. Cheers!

This was our chef. Since this was table side service putting on a big show and making your guest laugh is key.

The food, the food, the food is on fire, we don’t give a fuck let the mother fucker burn, burn . . . Just having a little fun.

I don’t remembered exactly what we ordered but I can tell you it was two combination seafood deals at about $40.00-$50.00 each. So this is how it went down, were sat at a round table with strangers. You can make nice with them or ignore them, either way, your sitting with them. We threw everyone a smile and nodded to let them know we were friendly but for the most part we ignored them and they ignored us, this is probably due to the fact that we don’t speak Japanese and like all Japanese they pretend not to speak English. Waiter comes by to takes everyone’s order. Since I’m so use to sharing I was like, “we’ll order this now and if were still hungry we’ll get more later. ” “Uh, yeah, it’s not sushi honey, you have to order everything now,” Ray informs me. He was right, you have to order everything at once, the chef then is given the list and collects all his raw materials in the back, brings it to the table, then kindly introduces himself. When the chef returns everybody shuts the fuck up because we know at places like this it’s more about the show than it is about the food.

Everyone must of ordered the same damn thing because everything our master teppan-yaki chef prepared was dealt out to everyone. He better not be giving our food to everybody else, and if he is he better give us some of their food because sharing is caring bitches. I don’t care if you have a chef knife in your hand I will Shang-hi your ass.

At the end of the meal we were given a choice of green tea, vanilla or chocolate ice-cream to choose from. I got green tea and my honey got vanilla. The green tea was definitely better than the vanilla but my honey begged to differ, which was fine because I didn’t want to share any of it. Overall I am quite pleased with my experience here. The chef was skillful at presenting the food with great flair. Sometimes it’s wise to throw the cheap card out the door.

I forgot to mention that at the beginning of dinner a photographer comes over to the table and takes group photos of everyone. “What the fuck, I’m role playing here and I don’t want evidence of me up in a secret underground casino you dumb fuck, what do you think this is Disney Land? Fuck off,” I gave the photographer my best poker face and kindly took the photo anyway. At the end of dinner he comes back and distributes the freshly developed photos to each group. As he handed me our photo I did what any respected cheap ass would of done if they were in my shoes, I whipped out my camera with a quickness and with the skill of a nimble ninja took a photo of a photo. That’s right bitches, I still had my cheap card the whole time.

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Tanaka of Tokyo
131 Kaiulani Ave
Honolulu, HI 96815

Get Directions(808) 922-4233

Here are some photos I’ve found of my last trip to the Golden Palace.

I know this looks a bit slimy, but it was more silky than slimy, chicken wrapped in won ton skins with gravy

This was my least favorite. The inside was filled with way too much mochi and very doughy.

I still think it’s crazy when I tell my friends about dim sum and they’re like, “dim what?” I was brought up eating this stuff and I’ll never get tired of it. Where else are you able to sample little bits of everything without breaking your wallet? As a matter of fact, dim sum has been probably one of the cheapest, most fulling meals for me. When Ray and I go I don’t think we ever spend more than $15.00. What a steal.

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Golden Palace
111 N King St
Honolulu, HI 96817

Get Directions(808) 521-8268

Searching for a good Vietnamese restaurant? With so many to choose from where should one start? I’ll tell you where, Pho To-Chau, that’s where. Word on the street is Pho To-Chau is the place, and when I say “the place” I mean “the place” to go for some really good pho. This place lies at the boarder of China Town and I don’t know if you guys have noticed or not but this place is popping. Every morning there’s a line streaming out it’s door that puts Studio 54 in 1977 to shame. Seriously, there’s always a crazy line and not only that but this place is sandwiched between two other Vietnamese Restaurants that seem vacant; no way, they’re open, I couldn’t tell.

So I mentioned it to one of my co-workers and she goes, “oh girl, this place is the shit, I use to go every Monday with my ex. They have the best pho on the island.” Really? Best pho huh? I’ll be the judge of that.

This is the line we walked up to. It was about a 30 minute wait.

This place had two rooms, roughly about the same size and was packed. I think I saw a total of three female workers. One was the waitress/host, another was the cook/waitress, and then the busser.

It didn’t surprise me to see that service sucked ass, but this place isn’t known for their stellar service. Actually, I thought it was a bit amusing. First one lady comes and takes our drink order, “what do you want to drink?” I order the iced coffee with condensed milk, $2.75 and Ray gets some water. She walks away, no thank you or smile, just completely emotionless. No one should ever get offended or upset over service like this, especially if it’s a hole in the wall and especially if it’s an Asian establishment. Old school Asians, particularly the Chinese/Vietnamese don’t really understand customer service, that’s not their business. Their business is pho, at least it is in this case and it’s about working as efficiently and productively as possible to get you your pho and make them money. At places like this tips stand for, To Insure Prompt Service, so if you get prompt service you should still tip well. Alright back to my coffee, if your a lover of coffee I highly recommend iced coffee with condensed milk from a Vietnamese restaurant. It usually comes out hot and compressed in a dripper with an extra cup of ice on the side. At the bottom of the ice is condensed milk. After the coffee is done dripping you dump it over the ice and mix. It’s sweet and strong and has the best coffee flavor ever. I love love this stuff.

They brought us a pitcher of water because obviously they weren’t planning on coming back to refill.

We ordered spring rolls for appetizer, $3.75, shrimp, pork, fresh herbs, vermicelli rolled in rice paper with special sauce. Each roll was cut up in four pieces each and were nicely and tightly roll. I didn’t like that they were cut in so many pieces. It made me feel like I was eating sushi. I prefer the traditional half cut.

Fuck, I got so excited when I got my pho that I forgot to take a picture right away. It didn’t come so green with basil and mint, that’s just how I like mine. In my opinion the soup is what makes the pho. A lot of people don’t even pay attention to the soup. When I get my pho, the first thing I do before I fuck with it is taste the soup, this lets me know how much I will be enjoying my meal. I loved the soup here. It was really authentic and hearty in flavor. I could tell that the soup was made from scratch and with real beef bones. I was so excited, I knew this was going to be a really good meal. I can’t tell you how much meat they put in here. Wow, these ladies don’t skimp on the meat at all. When I ordered my food they asked if I wanted my meat separate, which means raw on the side, or in my soup. I’m not really of fan of raw meat so I said in the soup. I did see them serve the meat raw on a separate plate to another table and the meat looked really good and fresh to me. It was nicely cut with good color. I was impressed. But the one thing I wasn’t impressed with was the beef ball. I love beef balls and the balls here suck, but they made up for it in everything else.

The pho came with plenty of basil. I love basil. After our lunch I boxed the rest of it up for later. They charge .25 cents for a to go box. Whatever, it’s a quarter and lunch was pretty cheap. When I had my leftovers later I was still so surprised to see how much meat was still left. I haven’t been to a lot of pho restaurants on this island but I think my friend is right, Pho To-Chau has to have the best pho on the island.

This was the line when we left. I guess I’m not the first to discover this place. If you decide to come here, come early or be patient. Also they have weird business hours, They are only open for lunch and close at 2:30.  By the way, the pho cost $6.95.  What a deal.

Pho To-Chau

At the corner of River and N. King.

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Pho To-Chau
1007 River St
Honolulu, HI 96817

Get Directions(808) 533-4549