Japan Cuisine Hawaii Restaurants - Kobe Japanese Steak House
My experience at the Kobe Japanese Steak House in Hawaii's touristy city of Waikiki was okay. I attended the Japanese style outfit with my husband and 3 kids. When pulling up to the storefront it was nice to have the valet boys waiting graciously to park our car for us.
I ordered the steak and lobster combo which was a whopping price to begin with (55 dollars!!). Although I expected to be entertained by a chef cooking at my table, the fact that the chef would hack my lobster into bite-sized pieces completely escaped me and he was less than entertaining more like working for his hourly wage. When I saw the chef pulverizing my succulent lobster before my eyes to be stir-fried in oil and MSG, I had to catch my breath. The lobster turned out to be a little too salty for my tastes but the steak was cooked to perfection.
They offer two dipping sauces to go with all of their dishes- a ginger sauce and a sesame sauce with a hint of wasabi mixed with a bunch of other great stuff. There was also a pineapple sauce, hey come on we were at a Hawaii Restaurant, but I recommend that you don't waste a drop of your food in the ginger sauce and go straight to the sesame sauce.
This food is way too pricey and the portions are too small to waste it on the ginger sauce. They don't serve miso soup so don't ask for it. A Japanese restaurant with no miso soup! Overall, there's nothing special about this steak house other than the fact that your food is cooked at your table. You're basically paying a high price for the ambiance, rather than the quality of the food. However, I just know you'll enjoy the volcano made out of onions and sake. My four year-old loved it.
