Tanaka Ramen & Izakaya - Windward Mall

Mahalo to our sponsor for the complimentary meal. All opinions are my own. 

We’ve been fans of Tanaka Ramen & Izakaya ever since they opened their Ala Moana location. Their original Kapolei restaurant was a little too far west for us to visit regularly, so having a more central option made us longtime supporters. So you can imagine our excitement when we spotted the signage for their newest location at Windward Mall a few weeks ago — finally, one of our favorite ramen spots right here in our own neighborhood!

This new location takes over the former Kikuya space. While we were sad to see Kikuya close, I was also excited to see Tanaka move in. It’s always nice when a restaurant space continues on instead of sitting empty.

One thing we immediately noticed is that this location offers several seating options. In addition to the indoor dining area, there’s also outdoor seating as well as tables along the mall walkway. When we arrived on a Saturday during early dinner hours, the inside seating area was already full, so we had to choose between outside seating or the mall walkway tables. We ended up choosing the outdoor area since it seemed like it would have a little less foot traffic.

Of course, outdoor dining comes with a few trade-offs. Between the nearby cars and the flies that showed up once the food arrived, it wasn’t the most peaceful setting. Still, we appreciated that they’ve added extra seating options to help accommodate the crowds because this location already seems very popular with the locals

One of the best parts about this Windward Mall location is that they offer the full menu. Some Tanaka locations have more limited offerings, but this one has a huge variety — and even some new items that aren’t available elsewhere, including yakitori sticks.

Honestly, the menu makes it too hard to decide.!They’ve got everything from salads and sashimi to ramen, donburi, curry, fried rice, and appetizers. After a lot of debating, for appetizers we ordered the pork gyoza, crab stick tempura, Brussels sprouts tempura, and a chicken yakitori stick to share.

For ramen, we tried the Tanaka Rich Garlic and the Spicy Creamy Vegan ramen. 

The son customized his bowl with half-and-half broth, beef sukiyaki, and thick noodles, which made for a pretty impressive-looking bowl when it arrived at the table. 

We also ordered the shrimp fried rice.

Everything was amazing — seriously, nothing was left behind by the end of the meal. 😄 My personal favorites were the shrimp fried rice and the Rich Garlic ramen.

 The ramen came with thick noodles, which I absolutely love because they really hold onto the broth and make each bite extra satisfying.

We’re so excited to have Tanaka Ramen & Izakaya in Kaneohe now. Between the expanded menu, and convenient location, this spot is definitely going to become part of our regular Windward dining rotation!

TANAKA RAMEN & IZAKAYA

45-056 KAMEHAMEHA HIGHWAY

SECOND FLOOR, near HawaiiUSA FCU

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L&R Drive Inn

 If there’s one place our family visits every week, it’s L&R Drive Inn in Kāne‘ohe. For the past few years, we’ve been picking up a plate of their chicken katsu to-go like clockwork. The boys absolutely love it — crispy on the outside, tender inside, and always consistent. We’ve tried a few of their other dishes before, but honestly, nothing quite compares to the chicken katsu.

When the boys’ birthday rolled around this year, we decided to keep things easy and cater instead of cooking for 15 people (including the in-laws!). Of course, the birthday boys requested their favorite — chicken katsu — so we ordered a whole pan of it. 

To round things out, we added beef with vegetables, fried noodles, and fried rice.

Everything turned out really good! The katsu was just as tasty as always, and the noodles were a surprisingly big hit — flavorful, perfectly cooked, and not greasy at all. I think we’ve just found a new weekly addition to our usual order.

L&R never disappoints — simple, local comfort food done right.

L&R DRIVE INN

45-582 KAMEHAMEHA HIGHWAY

KANEOHE, HI

808-247-8484

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Birthday Dinner at Zia's Caffe

This year, my birthday landed on a Monday — not exactly a party night, but I still wanted to enjoy a nice dinner without too much fuss. We decided to keep it close to home and headed to Zia’s Caffé, a cozy neighborhood spot that always hits the mark for comfort food and good vibes.

Zia’s has been a go-to for us for years, and it never disappoints. The service is friendly, the food is consistently great, and the atmosphere is casual — perfect for a low-key birthday evening.

We kicked off the meal with an order of garlic cheese bread, which came out hot and crispy. It was so good, it was hard to stop eating it.

We started off with the keiki menu for our son, who chose the spaghetti with meatball. 

It's the perfect size for keiki, and even adults!

The husband who doesn't eat meat ordered the Eggplant Parmesan, which was rich, flavorful, and perfectly crisped — a great vegetarian option that still felt indulgent. 

I treated myself to the Pappardelle alla Bolognese, one of my favorites on their menu. The house-made pasta was silky and fresh, and the hearty meat sauce brought everything together.

Of course, no birthday dinner is complete without dessert. I couldn’t resist their tiramisu, while the son enjoyed the scoop of ice cream that came with his keiki meal. 

All in all, it was exactly the kind of dinner I was hoping for — quick, delicious, and close to home. 

For more information on Zia's Caffe, visit their website. 

ZIA'S CAFFE

45-620 KAMEHAMEHA HIGHWAY

808-235-9427

 

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Domo Japanese Restaurant

It was Friday night and we were in the mood to celebrate the end of the week with a good meal! Domo Japanese Restaurant was one of those places that we would always pass by but never tried (mostly because it was closed when we were in the area). 

The restaurant was empty on Friday night at 6 pm. We had the entire place to ourselves!

Combo Meal - chicken karaage, ahi vegetable tempura ... 

and mini udon

combo meals are served with miso soup, tsukemono, edamame and salad

Salmon Ikura Don 

the son's favorite - salmon nirigi

tempura soba 

The food was delicious and portions were generous! It's not super authentic like Rinka (Ward Village), and there's not a lot of ambiance or interaction with the server, but it's a great place for Japanese food if you're in the Kaneohe area. There were a few people who came in to pick up take-out orders. 

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DOMO JAPANESE RESTAURANT
46-028 KAWA STREET
808-234-5000

 

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Adela's Country Eatery

At a recent get-together with friends in Kaneohe, we ordered take-out from Adela's Country Eatery for dinner.  Adela's is known for housemade pastas using local ingredients such as ulu, avocado, and  taro. They top their pastas with savory proteins and veggies such as garlic shrimp, lechon and portobello mushroom.   We each chose a plate and enjoyed them all family-style, since we wanted to try the different menu items.

We each chose a plate and enjoyed them all family-style, since we wanted to try the different menu items.

Angel Hair with Marinara Sauce and Portobello Mushroom

Pork Belly with Garlic Rice

Ulu Pasta with Garlic Butter and Shrimp with Garlic Butter

Taro Special 

The ulu pasta with garlic shrimp was my favorite, as I love garlic, shrimp, and this dish reminds me of the garlic noodles from my favorite restaurant in San Francisco (Thanh Long). I also liked the garlic rice! 

Ube, Matcha, Lilikoi, and Guava Cheesecakes

 For dessert we tried a variety of cheesecakes - they were all very rich but delicious. I'd say the ube was my favorite, and also their best seller (and also very Instagrammable!).

Adela's is open 6 days a week (closed Sunday). Customer parking is available right in front of the restaurant. Take-out only.  I recommend calling in our order ahead of time - all items (except for desserts) are made to order.

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ADELA'S COUNTRY EATERY
45-111 KAMEHAMHA HIGHWAY
808-404-8884

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Saito & Pho

Lately I've been trying to get the family to try new restaurants on our side of the island. Today we tried Saito & Pho in Windward City Shopping Center. The restaurant features Vietnamese and Japanese favorites, which made it hard to decide on what to order! Actually, the boys had a hard time narrowing down their selections, which is usually not the case, so we ended up sharing most of what we ordered, since they wanted to try a few items each.

Summer Rolls

Tempura 

Udon

pork and chicken gyoza

Wafu Steak

We were really impressed with the serving sizes (huge!) and friendly staff. Now that we know about how good Saito & Pho is, we'll be coming here more often.

Online ordering is available! Visit their website.

45-480 KANEOHE BAY DRIVE

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Kizuna Japanese Sushi and Grill

If you're on the Windward side and craving Japanese food, Kizuna Japanese Sushi and Grill is where you need to be. It has a very wide offering of Japanese cuisine: sushi (over 25 specialty rolls!), teppanyaki, bento boxes (teishoku), Don Buri, noodles, (udon, soba), appetizers, and desserts.  It's perfect for our family, as we each like to eat different things.

The husband ordered the Chirashi. Look how fresh it looks!

D found this "Salmon Combo" from the Sushi Bar Entree menu: 5 pieces of nigiri and 1 salmon roll. He loves salmon and he looked no further once he saw this on the menu. 

I love teppanyaki, so I tried the Shrimp Teppanyaki. It was served with miso soup, salad, dipping sauces. 

There are no chefs or teppanyaki grills in the seating area - it's all prepared in the kitchen. It's also not authentic teppanyaki, but it was still tasty! My son ate most of my fried rice - he tried one spoonful and there was no turning back after that.

Service was quick and very friendly. We were too full to order dessert (I really wanted to try the fried banana but no one wanted to split it w/me), and the desserts looked huge. 

 Reservations are highly recommended as this place is popular in Kaneohe! Parking can also be difficult to find as Times Supermarket, Goodwill, laundromat, Firestone, Dominos Pizza, and 7-Eleven are also in the same lot.

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KIZUNA JAPANESE SUSHI AND GRILL
45-934 KAMEHAMEHA HWY
808-234-1688

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Kaneohe Dim Sum Station

We finally have a dim sum restaurant on the Windward side!

Kaneohe Dim Sum Station recently opened in the Windward City Shopping Center, next to Subway (across from McDonald's).  The owners have two other dim sum restaurants in town - Kapiolani Seafood and Honolulu Seafood. 

It's not a traditional dim sum house where carts of dim sum are pushed throughout the restaurant. Instead, all orders are placed at the cashier. If you're dining in, they'll bring your order to your table (they have tables and chairs for dine-in customers). If you're getting it to-go, they'll call your number when your order is ready.

I came here twice during their first week of business. The dim sum is excellent! Here's what I tried:

Crispy Green Onion      |     Seafood Bean Curd Roll

Shrimp Look Funn

Shrimp Dumpling (Har Now)

Abalone Sticky Rice

Seafood Bean Curd Roll from second visit

cross-section of the seafood bean curd roll

I still have a lot of exploring of the menu to do, but so far everything has been amazing. I will say though that the 'crispy green onion' was not crispy at all, but I still liked it. The shrimp look funn is one dish that I will always order when I come here.

The portions are large and that is reflected in the price. But, the dim sum is good and I think people will keep coming back here, especially since it's the only dim sum restaurant in Kaneohe. 

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KANEOHE DIM SUM STATION
45-480 KANEOHE BAY DRIVE
808-247-8928

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