O'Kims — Restaurant in Honolulu

The world food tour duo stopped in at one of my food partner's favorite haunts, O'Kims on Nuuanu. Chef Kim treats her so well ... we sat in the side room, adjacent to the main space. It was much quieter and more peaceful there.

The September specials sounded intriguing but I had the Truffle Mandoo and the Abalone Salad, while my tablemate opted for the Strawberry Mojito and the Miso Eggplant. Our server brought us bowls of a delicious soup with seaweed and pieces of meat (from Chef Kim). That was a very delicious bowl of soup!

The mandoo came without a dipping sauce but there were squares of takuan and what appeared to be jellied soy sauce. I first tried a mandoo "as is" and found it too subtly flavored for me. I then broke one in half and inserted a couple of jellied cubes and it became delicious! So artfully subtle!

The abalone salad featured seaweed, okra, some beets (I thought they were potatoes), mushrooms, rounds of cucumber, lettuce and a tomato wedge. The abalone was cut into bite-sized pieces and placed in a shell. The dressing tasted like it was made from a combination of the innards of shellfish and a miso or sesame seed dressing. Whatever it was, it was delicious. I ate every bit of both plates.

The eggplant was cut up into rounds and grilled and served over a generous helping of purple rice and topped with crisped slices of lotus root. It came with a small green salad. It looked delicious too!

We enjoyed our meal at O'Kims; there was a crowd of people standing outside as we exited. Thank you Chef Kim! Highly...

This is not your typical Korean restaurant with the old Auntie in the kitchen cooking up classics that gramma used to make. It is a fusion contemporary twist on Korean food that is out of this world.

The location is small, yet cute. Tucked in an older building in Chinatown which gives it even more uniqueness and flare. Not exactly the best part of town, but far enough away for the sketchy parts that you don't feel uncomfortable going there.

Menu is not large, but there is enough of a selection to appeal to just about any tastes or moods. The dishes are all beautifully plated and full of color from the variety of accomplyments. I just love how they use the purple rice verses plain and boring white rice.

The Spicy Ahi Poki Tartlet was a great starter and perfect for 2. A good amount of very fresh ahi mixed into a perfect poki topped with caviar and uni was creatively served in a tart pastry. For entrees we enjoyed the Seaweed Salmon which was cooked to perfection and hand amazing side flavors from all the different accomplyments and dressings. The Pork Belly was just over the top richness and decadent yumminess.

The service was very friendly and attentive. Food came out quickly but enough time to finish the appetizer without cluttering the table with dishes. The value for the over all quality and presentation of the dishes was surprisingly inexpensive. It was a great overall experience and really...

10/10 loved the food, had unique options, and put their own spin on classic Korean food to make it even more delicious! Favourite thing we had was the elote ice cream (it's corn shaped!)

We had the lobster ramen special which was the special for February and was absolutely delicious - the broth was very rich with spice and soaked with lobster flavour, and the noodles were chewy and felt fresh and homemade. Definitely reminded us of one of the top ramen places we had in New York - the noodles here were that good.

The other dishes we had were the kalbi steak which was juicy and went really well with the sweet shoyu sauce; along with the truffle mandoo (dumplings) had the perfect crunch on the outside with the jelly sauce.

Dessert was the elote (spicy mexican corn) ice cream - omg this was my favourite thing ever. They made it looks EXACTLY like the real thing (corn shaped) and the ice cream was creamy and smooth and really really good paired with the white chocolate powder on top. It even had corn flakes sprinkled inside to give it a good crunch. If you're worried about spice - it's not spicy at all, just had a mild yet creamy sweet corn...