Tenkatori Hilo — Restaurant in Hawaii

Hilo - Holy cow, I mean chicken, this is chicken karaage on another level. They’re only on big island now in Hawaii. Hopefully one will open on O‘ahu soon because I don’t live in Hilo….

If perfect chicken karaage exists, it would be found here. Big, plump, juicy on the inside, perfect crisp on the outside, well seasoned, nothing more they need to do. Their wings were also out of this world. Love how they only serve the flats. The curry powder was so flavorful sprinkled onto the perfectly crisped skin.

The whole bento was just delicious. The rice was well cooked. The sides were yummy.

Ask staff from bathroom. They’ll ask you to walk around as the Bathroom entrance is around and behind their kitchen through a side door. Not the most convenient so try to use the bathroom before coming here.

Plenty of parking in the lot! I imagine it can get busy. We got there on a Saturday a little before 11am right before they opened. People kept coming in nonstop since then.

I’m only sad because I can’t have this more often as it requires me to fly to eat there… I’ll definitely stop there when I’m...

This is for the Owner ;-) I’m giving 1 star not because I want their business look bad , because i hope this can help their management and business . Today I ordered 2 order of chicken thighs ! Which is 5 pieces of each order . Unfortunately when I arrive to pick up I got completely different things ! I got the breast fingers or strips .. whoever answer the phone call either he took wrong order or he accidentally gimme the wrong order , I clearly told him chicken thighs 5 pcs . 2 of those. The breast finger is by weight !!!! Since I mention 5 pieces you should know is not gonna be the breast … however this local young man he is very friendly very nice but unfortunately only being friendly is not enough to handle business. It was not even busy just 4 customer total include me . However this is for the owner again just wanna help you improve...

Co-founder of America's first premium sake brewery, SakeOne, so spent a lot of time visiting Japanese restaurants. Very few of them were actually owned and operated by Japanese. Tenkatori in Hilo is Japanese owned and operated with almost everyone speaking in Japanese. They were very customer oriented, full of smiles and anticipating how to help you BEFORE you ask. We focused on the chicken thigh karaage and it was excellent. I loved the innovation of offering you a variety of dipping sauces which I rarely see in Japan. Well done. Doing. To be done. P.S. They also had a nice display of high quality sake as part of the decor, which to me is a sign of a quality...