Maikai Kitchen — Restaurant in Tokyo

I lived in Hawaii for over 20 years so I know my Hawaiian plate lunches and poke bowls. This place has the best and most authentic poke I’ve had so far in Tokyo.

I thought that finding good poke would be easy here in Japan. Lots of good and fresh fish. However folks here tend to stick to sushi or sashimi with simpler flavor profiles. It was pretty hilarious when I tried poke from a different restaurant, and it was essentially chopped up ahi with some kind of Italian vinaigrette dressing on it.

That being said Maikai kitchen breaks from the norm and actually has flavors close to what you’ll find in Hawaii. I tried a shoyu poke, salmon shoyu, and spicy ahi poke. All could have passed as a locally made poke from Hawaii. They were on the sweeter side, but we’re still thoroughly enjoyable. The rice was more Japanese - but that’s a good thing. It went well with the poke.

I also tried the mochiko chicken and while it reminded me of Hawaii flavors, it was cooked far too perfectly to be truly a Hawaiian plate lunch dish. 🤣 it was well fried and perfectly drained so as to not be greasy at all. I’ve never had mochiko chicken this light in Hawaii and I probably prefer this one. Japan has really perfected deep frying.

Make sure you check ahead of time to see if they’re open. They seemingly have random days when they close. Also google hours aren’t accurate because I think they close for a few hours after lunch. Possibly reopening for the after work crowd and then closing down again...

Really nice small shop with lots of choices for takeout; including entrees, sides, and various different pokes. The potato salad and macaroni salad are incredibly delicious, and are highly recommended; they come as sides with plates, or you can buy them by weight individually. The employees are really nice and professional. Highly recommended, and everything is quite delicious. You can even get Mochiko chicken or Mahi-Mahi fry as an add-on side to any plates for 50-100 yen. Great deal, and needless to say, highly...

I would say it’s a pretty legit Hawaiian poke shop. It’s in the alley hidden area of Tsukishima little off from main Monja street. I tired three different poke and macaroni salad. Especially the sweetness of the macaroni salad gave a flush back of Hawaii trip to me. I also got some Mochiko chicken to go also and they freshly fries them in the kitchen per order. It tasted amazing. I would go back and try all other...