Tanaka of Tokyo | Honolulu, Hawaii

Last night's date night was just awesome. The food was excellent and the service was absolutely AMAZING. Well, a little disclaimer here...we did receive VIP treatment because my mom knows one of the higher ups at this company. I didn't want to say anything, but somehow our reservation got flagged and we ended up with comped drinks and a little extra special care. It may have also helped that one of my former students happened to be the manager on duty. Small world.

Tanaka of Tokyo West
Ala Moana Center, Ho`okipa Terrace
1450 Ala Moana Boulevard
Honolulu, HI 96814
(808) 945-3443
Website

This place has always been a favorite of mine. We used to go to the one at the Wakiki Shopping Plaza all the time. Now there's one conveniently located in the Ho`okipa Terrace at Ala Moana, which is where we had dinner last night.


All of the meals come with miso soup and salad. I love the flavorful ginger-based dressing.


The chef is pouring the dipping sauce. The darker brown sauce is the ginger sauce, for seafood and vegetables. The lighter colored one is mustard sauce, which is supposed to be used for meat and chicken.


As you can tell from this shot, our chef was quite the clown. His name is Jonah. If you really want to be entertained, you should ask for him on your next visit.


Of course the show is a big part of the overall experience. The poor guy on the left looks like he almost lost his eyebrows - yikes!


So what does Wifey eat at Teppanyaki? Well, they have this vegetarian dinner. It's a block of tofu, seasoned and grilled, accompanied by grilled tomatoes. They don't have it listed in the menu, but it is on their website, which is how we found out about it. She said the tofu was even better than the one she had at Alan Wong's Restaurant.


She also got some carrots and mixed veggies.


This is what impressed us most about the dinner and I had to mention it. Because she ordered a vegetarian plate, the chef was conscientious enough to cook ALL the veggies first. That way, none of the meat touched any of her food! This is great news if you're vegan (Wifey is not, she's actually lacto-ovo).


A bowl of garlic fried rice rounded out the meal.


I ordered the Daimyo, which included a lobster tail, scallops and beef tenderloin. Personally, I felt like the seafood was a little over done, but...


The steak was a perfect medium-rare. I guess if you go to a Japanese steak house, you should stick with the steak.


Wifey went with green tea ice cream for dessert. Notice the two scoops.


I got A SCOOP (just one!) of pineapple sherbet. No, I'm not bitter or anything...