Doraku Sushi Kaka'ako — Restaurant in Honolulu

I never left a restaurant comments or reviews in the past and never had believed in these review sites such as yelp or tripadvisor until now. Usually, when I don't like the food. I just never go back. Just simple as that!

But in this case, I believe I HAD to take some time to leave a review for PUBLIC SAFETY reasons. I felt I HAD a duty to let everyone know what I experienced at this restaurant.

First of all, I'm not a big sushi fan. I never liked the idea of raw fish that was caught months ago in fishing boats. These rotting carcass, not to say you can't be eaten, needs extra care to handle since it's eaten raw.

So couple weeks ago, a bunch of friends of mine decided to eat at Doraku at Kapiolani. I was told that it's one of the hottest sushi spots on the island. I never liked the idea but I just went with the flow.

When I got there, it was busy. So I told myself, what can really go wrong. The turn around of the food must be quick since it's a busy restaurant. Not like it was sitting in the refrigerator for weeks.

My friends ordered couple different dishes since I haven't been to this restaurant before. It seemed like a great restaurant, it was busy, everyone was having a great time. I had to use the restroom and that's where it hit me! That restroom was horrendous! I don't know any words in my vocabulary worse to describe that restroom. It was extremely unpleasant, and horrifying smell. The floor was completely wet from the piss that was overflowing from the urinals. Toilet paper everywhere and facets that wouldn't shut off. It was running the whole time I was at that restaurant. Seemed to me that restroom was not clean for months!

I should of know better to not eat at that restaurant when it was managed this badly. my stupid fault right? Well, when the food arrived at the table. It was pleasantly presented well. It was nicely plated also so that horrendous restroom experience subsided for the night.

Anyways, after dinner we decided to go for movies. We decided to go to Ward since it was the closest theater to the restaurant. Not even an hour has gone by and I started getting abdomen pain and chills. followed by stomach cramping and vomiting.

I originally thought It was only me but one by one, all of friends were experiencing similar stomach pain and cramping. It got so bad that we all checked into the hospital for that night. I thought long and hard before writing this review but after getting my hospital bill (co-pay) it got me a little upset.

I felt that I should warn the public about this place and also give the management of this establishment a warning about poor cleanliness and...

It is quite unfortunate that I write this review because it is a place within walking distance of our residence, food/atmosphere is great, and we have become loyal patrons. However, a business with poor customer service, especially coming from a manager, does not deserve our patronage nor our recommendation to family, friends, and visitors. Last Friday, my spouse and I had a long day of work and neither of us were wanting to cook. We decided we would go to one of our favorite spots down the street, Doraku Sushi Kaka'ako. It's Friday night so we called ahead. Per the hostess, they reached their limit on reservations for the night but happy hour starts at 8:00 pm (no reservations during happy hour so you can just do a "walk in"). We waited a couple of hours and headed to the restaurant. Upon arrival, we were greeted by the hostess and we asked if we could be seated outdoors. She was clarifying if they could accommodate us outside. The manager steps in and for no reason at all starts talking in a loud degrading tone "Tonight is all reservations!" We responded "We called ahead and the hostess said we could walk in during happy hour." Manager "WHO TOLD YOU THAT!" We're both looking at him in disbelief. My spouse is responding and he continues to interrupt mid-sentence. He goes on to say I can sit you inside even though it's reservations only tonight (like he's doing us a favor) -By the way....the restaurant is pretty much empty inside. We declined and my spouse and I decided to eat out elsewhere. Poor customer service and rudeness especially from a manager is just wrong and unwarranted. This place of business, regardless of of great food and atmosphere, has lost our patronage and positive recommendation. Feedback: Change your verbiage to customers because it doesn't make sense at all. "We don't take reservations during happy hour, it's just walk in. Sorry no walk ins, tonight is all reservations only." How about...last seating is at 8pm. Additionally, if you're checking the temp on your patrons "to be in compliance with COVID regulations", 1. Know the proper temperature parameters (94.6F) is not an accurate read. 2. Scanning the wrist is not a proper way of checking...

HAPPY HOUR REVIEW ONLY

I had originally had this place bookmarked because of their late night HH specials. But we happened to be in the area and I saw they have regular HH hours, so we decided to stop by. Happy Hour is Monday through Friday from 4 to 6. I'm not sure if it's at the bar only but we arrived just before 4 and saw that the bar was empty. I didn't think we'd have trouble just sitting by the bar at that time but the hostess took our names down and said it would be a 5 minute wait. No problem. 15 minutes go by and we're still not seated so we check in with her again and she said that our seats have been ready. Kind of annoying but whatever, we're just happy to be seated so we can relax and start ordering some drinks and apps. Unfortunately, we probably had one of the worst seats in the house because the two bar seats that sat us in was right next to the bathroom. So we were getting wafts of bathroom mixed with a hint of wet bar rags. Not exactly appetizing but we figure okay - we're here for a quick bite and then we will go to our actual dinner res afterwards.

For food, we went with the Ahi tataki, fried soft shell crab, and garlic chili wings and to be honest, we enjoyed everything. The ahi had these fried shallots (?), which was a nice contrasting texture. Soft shell crab was a good size and actually had meat in it. And garlic chili wings - can't go wrong with some wings. There were a few other items we wanted to try but 1. We wanted to save room for dinner (elsewhere) 2. We were waiting for our waitress to come around so we can order one more plate, but she never came around and by the time she did, we had to leave to make it in time for our resso.

Judging from some of these other reviews, it seems they need to get the service situation together. We came right before happy hour started. I can only imagine the mess if we were to come say, half an hour before it ended. Not sure I'd be back but if you're in the area and you have time, I still think it's worth checking out. Just make sure to request a seat away from...