Today was my choice. I selected Hinone Mizunone on S. King Street near Keeaumoku. I have passed this restaurant on a number of occasions and decided it was time to give it a try. The boys and I got there around 11:30 AM (the place opens at 11) and the parking lot, which is pretty small, was already filled to capacity. We were fortunate to find a metered parking stall nearby.
The restaurant is a lot smaller than I had imagined it to be and there were at least 6 parties ahead of us crammed into a small side room. We were assured that a table for 3 would be ready in about 20 minutes. We decided to wait (outside) and in about 15 minutes we were seated. During our wait, people kept coming, but they were also going--though this is a sit-down restaurant, the impression was one of fast food; the customer turnover was extremely rapid.
We were seated by 12:00 and there was already a sign that announced the daily special (teriyaki chicken for $8.50) was sold out. Wow. The menu was not as extensive as I had anticipated but it did feature some classic teishoku plates: tonkatsu, chicken karaage, misoyaki butterfish, grilled salmon and so forth. There were several udon/curry combinations as well. Our waiter was efficient but his brisk, businesslike attitude unintentionally (I am assuming) indicated that building a warm and fuzzy server-diner relationship was pretty low on his list of priorities.
C ordered the tonkatsu teishoku with ponzu, I ordered the misoyaki butterfish teishoku and T ordered the shrimp tempura udon and curry combo. The prices are reasonable; teishoku meals average $10-14 and T's combo was about $15. T also ordered a green apple soda which he really enjoyed.
The teishoku plates were attractively plated and came with an individual rice container, miso soup, gobo, takuan and kabocha. My meal came significantly ahead of the boys' though. I thought that was a bit strange. The miso soup was very tasty and full of small cubes of tofu and bean sprouts. C enjoyed the flavors of the tonkatsu and ponzu and said he preferred it to the traditional tomato-based katsu sauce so many other places serve. He also liked the kabocha a great deal; I thought it was good but a tad on the sweet side. The butterfish was moist and delicious and T's udon filled him up so much that he couldn't finish the curry. He enjoyed them both though.
I didn't take pictures of the boys' meals because C gave me one of his Mom-is-embarrassing-me looks when I snapped the photo of my teishoku and T's green apple soda.
So overall: on the plus side the food is very good and the prices are reasonable; service is efficient and brisk. On the down side: parking sucks--the lot is small and the street parking during the weekday is only 1 hour; this means I had to drop another quarter in midway through the meal (we had that 15 minute wait at the beginning, remember?); daily specials sell out extremely quickly (judging by today anyway); the noise level is very high since the restaurant is pretty much one large square with lots of wooden surfaces and the high speed service does not make this a place you would feel encouraged to linger and chat in (we were out in under an hour). Since the chatting is a big part of the dining experience, at least for me, I felt slightly cheated somehow.
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