Kamana Kitchen

I've had Kamana Indian Cuisine on my mind since March 2018 but have finally gotten around to trying them. What brought us here to try them was our visit to the recent Honolulu Magazine's Best Of... Festival and their award-winning Biryani rice.

We wandered into this restaurant around 11:30am when it wasn't quite yet crowded with other downtown workers. Since there were only the two of us, we were directed to sit at a table for two either along the front window or along the wall away from the entrance. What struck us immediately was the very warm temperature in the restaurant which we figured to be because the outside temperature was so hot and our humidity just sat on our chests like an elephant. But, there was an air-conditioner that was doing its best to cool down the space.

As we were walking to our table, our server followed us while bringing menus and glasses of iced water. She was friendly and asked if we've eaten Indian food before or if we needed suggestions. We did peruse both the regular menu and the lunch specials even though we already had in mind what we planned on ordering.

FOOD: -Biryani with chicken: traditional aromatic Basmati rice tossed with herbs and spices with chunks of tender chicken. The portion was huge, as my husband and I paired it with the lunch special, we had left overs. Indeed, this Biryani rice was flavorful and reminded us of what we've eaten at Singapore's Tiffin Room (Raffles) and Little India neighborhood or Los Angeles' Badmaash Restaurant. We agreed with Honolulu Magazine's voters for awarding this dish as a winner. $15.95

-Saag Paneer (Lunch Special): served on a Thali (compartmental metal tray), generous portions of saag paneer, yellow dal, vegetable curry of the day, achar (Indian pickles), half naan and basmati rice were steaming hot and appetizingly aromatic. It was a good call to order this lunch special to pair it with the biryani as we got to sample more dishes than to have just ordered an additional entrée of saag or curry or mixed grill. After all, it was lunch time and we didn't want to overeat and fall into food coma. $9.99

Food flavors, portions and value are excellent here. Service was friendly though a bit spotty as the restaurant filled but still good. There seemed to be more people ordering and picking up their takeout than dining in. Perhaps they had already experienced the warmer room temperature of the restaurant.