Rinka — Restaurant in Honolulu

We were first introduced to Rinka on April 27th, 2024. We were amazed by the quality of the food, the attentiveness of the host and hostesses, the true humility, and the sincere desire to help us navigate the menu with accurately stated descriptions and suggestions. We’ve made four reservations with Rinka this year, each worsening in service and food quality. Our bills have been between $300 and $500- a waste of money.

Waiter: Richard T. Check no. 62 Date: Jan. 2nd, 2025 Time: 5:30 PM

April 27th, 2024: Great Service and Food May 11th, 2024: Great Service and Food June 26th, 2024: Mediocre Service and Food July 31st, 2024: Mediocre service and food, now becoming more pronounced January 2nd, 2025 Below par service and food.

We have decided to stop making reservations from Rinka and will cross you off our list of go-to restaurants for guests and families we wish to entertain.

Food: The sashimi was watery and tasteless. The tempura was tasteless, cold, and soggy. The tempura sauce was also tasteless and bland. The snow crab coquettes were oily and tasteless. Likewise, the coquette sauce was tasteless. The Tofu Salad with sardines was mushy, salty, and soaked in oil.

Service: The waiter (Richard T) condescended at every interaction. He was inattentive, rolled his eyes when asked for suggestions, offered the worse suggestions for our mainland family, hesitated before responding as if he had to control himself, or he would snap at us, and be saccharine sweet, yet comfortably portrayed a sense we were a bother and a nuisance with his snappy rushed answers. When we asked for a fork for our mainland family, it took three times and almost ten minutes before someone responded. We asked Richard, then another waiter, and finally, the hostess. No one answered, so we had to ask the third time, and since we had the view to watch the waiter and kitchen, it was discernable we had been ignored as other guests were taken care of first before a fork was even dropped off at our table. We had to ask for the dessert menu three times before someone responded. The dessert menu was not offered to us until we asked. In both instances, it wasn’t our server who initially helped us; it was someone from the support staff. We had to ask for the check three times and waited over ten minutes. After enough time had passed, we told our guests to leave and meet us at Whole Foods while we waited to pay the bill.

We had been told to leave by 7:15, but due to the inattentive service, we finally...

The world tour duo dined at Rinka Ward Village. I just returned from 3 weeks in Japan so it would be a stern test … Japanese food in Hawaii versus that from various locales in Japan. We were seated at a small table for two so we asked our wait staff to space out our food orders. This was partially successful. One of our pet peeves is restaurants rushing food out; it’s one thing if we’re dining on a large table but we were hard pressed to deal with just two dishes at a time; three was impossible.

I ordered a half bottle of 2021 Kenzo Estate asatsuyu, a wonderful Sauvignon Blanc, full of fruit, with depth and body. We started with Toro and Green Onion maki sushi and the Roast Beef Salad Japanese Style; the latter not a perfect pairing for a white wine; more about this to come.

The remainder of our order consisted of Grilled Beef Tongue, Grilled Miso Butterfish and Fried Tofu with four kinds of miso. I ordered a half bottle of one of my favorite Napa Valley wines, a 2019 Kenzo Estate rindo, a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon (62%), Merlot (22%), Petit Verdot (9%), Cabernet Franc (4%) and Malbec (3%). This wine exudes notes of dark fruit, soft tannins and chocolate.

I wish the kitchen did a better job of releasing dishes in an order that matched the wines on the table. I don’t know if it’s the responsibility of the expeditor or the wait staff but this was a miss for me.

As to the food; the Negitoro sushi was okay; the rice was a bit too mushy in comparison to the rice I had in Japan. The Roast Beef Salad was excellent; no issues of any kind. The Beef Tongue was good but by the time we got around to trying it, it was cold. Again, an issue of dishes being delivered too quickly. The miso butterfish was sublime, perfectly prepared a generous portion. The fried tofu could have been grilled a little longer … I had a similar dish in Tokyo that was exquisite; the offering from Rinka paled in comparison.

We ended our meal with a Strawberry mochi for me and a Mochi with Green Tea Ice Cream for my tablemate. Both were very good.

Final thoughts: The food is good to very good; my major complaint was the dishes not coming out in an appropriate sequence and at a pace that would have allowed us to savor each dish at its peak. We’ve experienced this issue at other Ward Village restaurants … this is what separates the good from the superlative restaurants. 4.25...

Update June 2025: we’ve came back for its lunch for the first time. It has a lunch set menu (and a la cart as well). I had the cold noodles and it was quite good. We each get to pick two small sides with our set lunch. You can taste the difference here as the kitchen staff clearly cared about their crafts. The price and quantity were quite reasonable. Though unfortunately, it didn’t serve Wagyu beef sets during lunch. I just have to come back again for dinner.

Update: we’ve returned for the second time in a week. The sushimis were still very fresh and the Wagyu (I had the yakiniku today, which came in thicker slices and a different dipping sauce) was still tasty. Yakiniku was good, but I liked the grilled Wagyu a bit better as the cut was more marblized than the yakiniku. I also had a caramel pudding, which was excellent.

This is a newish Japanese restaurant that serves traditional dishes of sushis, sashimi and beef. The sashimi had both local (otoro and salmon) and as well as Japanese imports (yellowtail, snapper, uni, etc.). Our order of sashimi platter was very fresh and very well sliced. We also had the grilled wagyu set that came with standard sides such as a salad, rice, pickles, miso soup, candied yam, tempura (2 pieces of shrimp and a bit of veggies) and 4 small slices of sashimi. The beef were thinly sliced and we had to grill them ourselves. The wagyu was fresh and tasted good. The service was attentive and the sitting area was pleasant. Parking can be found across the alley in the Ward Center’s large parking structure. All in all, it was a very...