Ginza Bairin Tonkatsu & Yoshoku Bistro — Restaurant in Honolulu

Now this was a very impressive meal! In general I am not the biggest fan of Japanese food, but this was one of my best experiences. My biggest dissatisfaction was that I wish I had a little more meat, since I had so many ways to eat it that I ran out of pork before anything else. I tried the deluxe set of the 200 gram pork katsu:

Katsu – A nice piece of meat covered well in crispy breading and fried. The meat was very properly cooked, not rare at all and still juicy and tender. It can’t be cooked better. Unfortunately, the bottom side of the breading still ended up getting soggy despite the metal wire stage holding up the pork. The sides and top were very good, crispy but not crunchy, holding up to the addition of sauces but not requiring extra force to eat. The fat cap on one end was a bit rich since there wasn’t much meat to balance it out. The mustard on the side was my favorite topping. I don’t have a high wasabi tolerance and the mustard’s nasal effect was a bit strong, but I really enjoyed the flavor in combination with the pork.

Miso soup – flavorful, savory, not too salty Egg custard – sort of a steamed egg with toppings of mushroom, veggie, and a piece of chicken or something. Very light and interesting, egg texture was like silken tofu. Rice and barley rice – not the biggest difference I think, the barley rice has a bit more texture and nutty flavor but the white rice is softer and more aromatic. Sesame seed katsu sauce and curry – deep, savory additions to the pork. I was dunking every other bite in them and still didn’t manage to finish it. I also wish a could have ground up my sesame a bit more fine, but the little pestle was taken from me before I was quite done.

Sesame ice cream – this was not listed as on option on the menu but was presented to me as a choice by the server, so I had to try it (I believe the menu options were green tea and lilikoi, but the green tea had run out). It was probably served a little too cold since it was solid and not very fluffy, but still the sesame flavor was strong and it wasn’t too rich or sweet.

We also got the edamame appetizer (garlic and anchovy version) even though it supposedly was not available after 6:00p ( we ordered a few minutes after), which was refreshing and had great savory flavors...

Extremely frustrating reservation process, and lack thereof. Called the restaurant on Monday night 6:45pm to inquire about a party of 5 adults and 2 kids. They mentioned they can accommodate at 8pm, so we agreed. Called back at 6:48pm to confirm we will be there (I run restaurants in SF, so wanted to ensure they have us down in case they "give the reservation away"). This was our family's first time visiting and wanted them to try a place we previously frequented before having kiddos--it's already hard enough going out with the entire family. We show up at 7:45pm without checking phones because we are on vacation and they could not seat us despite half of the restaurant being empty. Manager was at the host stand not acknowledging we called and him never explaining they require credit card information to hold the reservation. He never asked for phone number or credit info first time we called at 6:45pm. Then when we confirmed at 6:48pm, he once again never asked for credit info besides phone number which sends you texts in Japanese. We did not bother to translate or look because we already confirmed twice via phone. We show up and were denied service due to all this confusion despite being proactive about giving them notice we will show up. What would happen if we never gave them a phone number the second time? Would we be seated or denied? We will never know. What if you do not have a US number, texts would never go through; what if your phone is out of battery, how will those reservations be confirmed? We do not plan on recommending or visiting ever again. We purposely delayed our dinner just for this reservation we never got to eat. Will agree with below Carlos on this one: Overrated, pretentious, preferential service towards customers from Japan. Go to Tamafuji instead. Made reservations, at time of reservation got shuttled to next door overflow side where we were not even serviced, made you feel like they were doing you a grand favor for...

It has been one month since our visit to O’ahu. My daughter, a sweet girl at the age of seven asked me to give this katsu restaurant a review to reflect our HORRIBLE experience. It is nothing about the food but the way we were treated by the store manager at the beginning. We went to the restaurant directly from the Waikiki beach. My daughter was dressing in a bathing set of a tank top and shorts with tutu skirt. We did towel dry her and felt it is appropriate for her to go to lunch in that outfit with us. At the moment we entered the restaurant, the manager approached us, assigned us a table and suddenly blamed my daughter and me for her wet bathing suit. She said loudly that if my daughter sat at the chair, the next customer will not be able to sit at the same chair with the risk of getting wet. I swear my daughter’s bath suit is slightly wet but not dripping wet. I tried to talk to the manager to figure out a solution, such as further dry her bathing suit with paper towels or put a few paper towels on her chair. The manager did not listen to me while kept saying she is responsible for all the customers and cannot allow us to eat there in a very loud and rude way. All other customers started to stare at us and that was a traumatic experience to a girl at the age of seven. I stayed calm and asked her what we can do. After a few rounds of complaints, the manager finally said we need to buy a beach towel from ABC store next door. I wish she said so when I tried to figure out the solution at the first place. Finally we were able to sit down with a new beach towel on the chair. My husband tod us then that the manager was super nice to him and apologized for the inconvenience. What an opposite experience for me and our daughter. We were scolded, yelled and humiliated. I do not know if there is any gender discrimination there. I just feel sorry for our daughter to experience such a drama during her school break. One star for the manager of...