Thursday, February 12, 2009

Dinner at Jinroku

After reading some positive reviews on Metromix and on Yelp, I really wanted to check this place out. It's located on Kuhio Avenue, in the lobby of the Pacific Monarch Hotel and I gotta say...I really enjoyed my meal there!

The place just opened in the latter part of last year so the interior is very stylish, clean, and modern (think orange upholstery...I wish I'd taken a pic of the interior). As soon as we walked in to the restaurant, I noticed that there were many Japanese nationals dining there (including some very attractive young women!) so I was thinking this place has got to be doing something right!

First off, gotta have a drink! They feature a full bar with tons of choices for alcohol. I just wanted a beer but they provided excellent service by pouring it for me in a chilled glass (which I always love) and then came by to fill up my glass with the beer remaining in the bottle. My friend ordered a lava flow and she loved it so much she ordered 2!
The first dish to arrive was the beef tongue. Oishi! It was seasoned very simply, probably just some salt and pepper but had a very nice texture and went down very well with my ice cold beer.
Then out came the garlic chicken. Again, a pretty simple dish but executed well. Pieces of lightly seasoned chicken covered with fried thin garlic chips and sauteed green onion. The dish also came with 2 dollops of mayo for you to dip the chicken in. This was winnahs.
One of the house specialties is okonomiyaki. I'm not the biggest okonomiyaki fan but had to try, right? We ordered the seafood tama okonomiyaki and this was also pretty good. Very thick with lots of chunks of scallop, shrimp, and squid.
I'm a yakisoba lover so had to order one of these. They have about a dozen different types of yakisoba to choose from and I chose the curry yakisoba. The soba noodles are coated and stir fried with a curry sauce and mixed in with vegetables, shrimp, pork, and covered with a fried egg. So ono!
On top of the good food, the service was also top notch as several servers and either the manager or owner stopped by to check on us and see how everything was and everyone served us with a smile and very friendly approach.

If you're looking for something new to try out, I'd recommend Jinroku!

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

HonToo?

the food does not look good.
I guess they are not going for presentation..


NeoStyle

2/17/2009 2:00 PM  
Blogger Kelly Belly =9 said...

I heard that place is awesome too! One thing I miss about Hawaii is good Japanese food. Have you been to Izakaya Nonbei on Kapahulu? That's one of my fav Japanese restaurant/izakaya among many others.

2/18/2009 3:41 PM  

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