Hana no Sato

You can BYOB here! So definitely grab something at the ABC store around the corner! We came here on a Wednesday afternoon around 1:50pm. The place was kind of small but the time we came at was not packed at all. We ordered the sea food bowl and it came with miso soup! The food was good! It is the best sashimi place I had in Hawaii. The meat was so tendered, sweet and the cut was also good!
Service was ok. I had to ask for two cups of water three times.
But overall, good!

Down an alleyway, hidden from the hustle bustle of the main drag, this place was a peaceful oasis for my family to sit and enjoy some excellent food. It’s very small but it was just us. We started with a sushi sampler which was so good my sons ate the whole thing. Two bowls of ramen later we’re out the door happy, full and wondering if that quiet little Japanese garden of a restaurant really existed. A highlight of our trip to Honolulu.

reasonable pricing. fish quality was good not great. size of portions on the lower side. the shinshimo and free ginger were memorable. toro was a disappointment. i probably wouldnt go back unless i was stuck in the area and desperate for sushi. service was solid.

It’s unfortunate that this establishment doesn’t have enough heart to help someone in need late at night just before closing. Had a person sick back at the hotel that needed something very quick and simple. They weren’t willing to offer takeout and a quick sale. Desperately ran off looking for another option in the area.

Found my spot for fresh and authentic Japanese cuisine! Very low key, and, if you haven’t already guessed from the other reviews, veeeeery Nihon, everyone in the restaurant besides us were Japanese! Oh how I wish we had a place like this in SF!

I don’t like to give bad review to any restaurants or service in Unilocal.I always praised most of the restaurants I’ve been. Unfortunately, this restaurant fell to the category for the worst service, racist and rude. I went with my White American and German friends and they treated us so bad and push us here and there for seating and also grumpy staff. I recommended better go to next restaurant. Better service and good food.

Was very lucky to stumble across this little sushi shop… very authentic Japanese izakaya style sushi shop. I called and the hostess spoke only in Japanese until I started speaking English. My wife and I were the only non-​Japanese in the small restaurant (including small front patio), which is always a good sign. Very fresh sashimi/​nigiri and not too expensive compared to many other restaurants in WaiKiki/​Hawaii. As many of the other reviews pointed out, this is a bring-​your-​own beer/​saki place, so stop at the ABC store on your way! Highly recommended!

I brought my family here for dinner. I made reservations for 4. When I arrived, there was a lot of people waiting outside for a seat. I politely asked if they had checked in and they all said yes. I then went to the host and told them we had reservations in Japanese. They had my reservation and promptly seated us. One of the customers waiting for a table complained to the host that I got seated ahead of them but they did not have a reservation and he was angry and posted a bad review on tonight on Unilocal.
Besides this awkward moment, our dinner was delicious and I would go back again. The fried chicken was really good. Really flavorful sauce that I still don’t know what’s in it.

Came here on a lazy saturday afternoon. Got myself their sushi bowls. The fish was fresh and the price was reasonable given that it is in Waikiki. I definitely would come here again.

Several negative reviews of this place on Unilocal.They seem to be wrong. Great hole in the wall sushi place, very friendly service, tasty food, and BYOB! If you bring two beers at $ 2 each, your savings negate the Waikiki food prices and makes this place the same price as getting sushi in Denver or Seattle.
I don’t want kids or dogs in a restaurant! They didn’t seat you because you brought your kid or dog? Awesome! Go to your nearest tourist trap shithole instead.

The tuna in the tuna bowl is hard to chew.
The worst part of this place is that they charge tips upfront without notifying customers. When I asked the lady (seems to be owner), she explained that many Chinese and Japanese tourists don’t pay tips so they have to do it by themselves. WTF! You charge me just because I am Asian and look like tourist?! Should you just let customer know you gonna add tips before print it out on the receipt?

Before we dive into my updated review, here are my updated credentials:
My then boyfriend is now my husband.
My mother-​in-​law is from Japan and cooks like a goddess.
I’ve had the pleasure of visiting Japan & have eaten at Tsukiji market.
I’ve also had the privilege of eating at Michelin star Japanese restaurants.
Back to the update. The last time I was here, it was around 2010. I remember thinking this place was phenomenal and my previous review didn’t do it much justice, so I’m rewriting one.
For cooked items, we had the nanba chicken and saba (mackerel) shioyaki (grilled). The chicken is similar to karaage, but without the ginger. It was pretty good, especially with the sauce on top… But I might have enjoyed karaage more. I’m a huuuuuuge fan of saba, and their saba was so deliciously moist! I would’ve enjoyed more salt on the saba — and I think that’s what I meant in my last post regarding their saba too. However, the flavor of the fish really shines through.
For nigiri, we ordered (in order of most favorite to least) :
Uni ($ 10): from Santa Barbara, which you can get in the bay area… But the quality is mind-​blowingly out of this world. I was seriously having a foodgasm from the moment it touched my tongue until the devastating moment that I swallowed the last bit and no longer had any left.
Salmon ($ 5.50): O… M… G… I wasn’t expecting much especially for $ 5.50, but again… Blew my mind. Soft texture that melted in my mouth, perfect ball of rice underneath to meld the tastes. It was beautiful.
Ikura (salmon roe, $ 9?): also a great choice. It was not overly salty or fishy as it tends to be. Great little pops of joy in your mouth accompanied by the perfect amount of rice and toasted nori.
Hamachi ($ 6?): solid choice and would definitely order again. Didn’t induce a foodgasm though.
Chu-​toro ($ 11): here is where my past comes into play the hardest. I’ve had some really damn good o-​toro and Chu-​toro and this particular pair just didn’t cut it. It was good, don’t get me wrong… But it wasn’t phenomenal, as I expect Toro to be.
Whole bill was $ 60. BYOB.
They didn’t have saba nigiri or tamago the night I went (was very disappointed!), but I may venture there a second time to eat some more.
The atmosphere: small hole in the wall mom and pop joint, surrounded by the dynamos of modern cooking in Waikiki… reminiscent of Japan. You can tell the staff (family?) puts great value, thought and pride in the food that they serve. The service is impeccable and I wish every restaurant took the same amount of pride in their food and service.
Bottom line, for the price point, quality of food and level of service, it’s an excellent dining experience. I felt like I was in Japan all over again and the nostalgia swept over me. I highly highly HIGHLY recommend this place! Make reservations beforehand, it’s a small joint!

One of the best Ahi Poke I’ve ever tried. Rainbow and spicy tuna rolls were delicious as well!! service was excellent as well. Even though it’s a small place you get to enjoy authentic Japanese food.

This one star review is for dinner.
We came here twice at lunch time with 2 kids and 2 adults. Both time service and food were decent.
However, dinner is run by different crew of people. I will give 0 star if I could.
If you have kids you are not welcome by this place at dinner. They refused us twice while there were still tables available. The first time we all showed up (2adults 2kids) they told us someone reserved the (2 empty) tables. The second time I showed up first and almost got me sat down but when they saw my husband and kids showed up the lady talked to the guys in Japanese then told us they ran out of rice and told us to leave. I meant we never said we will order something with rice. This kind of service is so rude that It just ruined our vacation mode. Even my nine years old son felt so offended. We don’t understand Japanese but we can tell from the look of their face that they just didn’t want to serve us.

After strolling around all day, and finishing a workout, I walked down there from the hotel for a light dinner. We stumbled upon it using Unilocal while we walked.
It’s a small spot that is super simple. They don’t serve alcohol, just Japanese food and sodas. We ordered the grilled squid, seaweed salad, poke, and uni. The seaweed was super seaweed-​y tasting, but that’s how authentic the place is. I enjoyed the squid even though I’m not a fan of tentacles of any kind. For the most part it’s cut off but I swear I tasted some suction cups. I don’t like that…
The service is fast. The food was simple and decent. Don’t think I would be back here though. Just wasn’t feeling it. Perhaps it’s because I wasn’t super hungry?

Horrible service.
We’re in Honolulu for vacation. This place is a hole in the wall and hasn’t expanded from its hole for a reason. We arrived at 9:44, the place doesn’t close until 10:30 and the waitress working told us last call was 10:00 and was hesitant to seat us because she didn’t want to serve us even though we still had 16 minutes left until their kitchen’s last call. She asked what we wanted to order without handing us a menu for us to check our options first and we said we were probably just going to get some sushi before she finally agreed to put down seat settings for us.
We looked around and there were only Japanese people seated in the restaurant, which the waitress exchanged friendly words with as if they were welcome to stay past 10:30 if they’d like as opposed to the way she corresponded with us like she wanted us to leave before we could sit down. Another non-​Japanese couple came by a few minutes later and the waitress actually refused to seat them this time even though it still wasn’t 10:00 yet. I want to say we got lucky but I really wish she had just refused us as well since I felt like it was a waste of my appetite at the end of our meal.
We ordered the tuna set which was tuna sashimi with a side of rice. In the same category on the menu was the salmon set so we ordered that as well, naturally assuming it was salmon sashimi with rice … which the waitress attempted not to serve us because she was muttering about it needing to be defrosted and then confirmed with the chefs it was okay to serve that to us. I was confused about that defrosting bit until she brought out cooked salmon for us and when we told her we thought it was sashimi, she brought back out the menu and pointed at it as if it was now clearer than the first time. I’m sure it said in the Japanese part that it was cooked salmon but they somehow never figured out that it would be confusing to tourists who couldn’t read and weren’t Japanese, which they clearly had a preference to when it came to who they would rather serve.
Predicting this will be the worst meal of our trip and we still got another 4 days left before we head home. Don’t come here unless you’re Japanese.

This is a tiny space, but has excellent food!
My husband stuck with food he knew from eating before, but I (with the help of the waitress) got pretty brave and tried things I hadn’t tried or even heard of before. I was not disappointed!
Don’t come in expecting perfect English or expecting to be able to spread out while you eat. Somewhat hard to find and BYOB.

Small cozy sake bar (actually it’s not really sake bar because they don’t provide liquor at all) located in the quite street in the famous Waikiki beach area, I came here on the first night while we just arrived our hotel. I was so happy that we can find a BYOB japanese restaurant because Japanese food is usually pricey, so BYOB really helps to bring down the cost of a meal.
We ordered tuna set, sashimi combination, grilled squid and steak, we really enjoyed all of them. They are not fancy meals but the ingredients are fresh.
The only thing I don’t really like is the steak had too much fat and a bit overdone, but the size of steak is huge and the flavor is good.
The owner is very polite and friendly, he speaks perfect English. His wife is also very sweet, it is funny that while we asked for bill, the wife came and asked us «can we add 15% tips on your bill? «
I am not sure why did they ask this question.
Anyways, they definitely deserve more than 15% tips for the excellent service!
Since we only stayed in Waikiki beach for 3 nights, we didn’t have chance to visit the restaurant again, but this is definitely a place I will come back again if I have ever returned to Waikiki beach.

Parking: none
The cost: $ 11 for lunch chirashi
The food: lunch seafood bowl
Restrooms: none
This is a small and unassuming place located in Waikiki. It can seat 4 people at the bar and maybe 10 or so people in the dining area. It’s one of those small mom and pop places. The lunch chirashi was underwhelming but a good deal. The fish was fresh but I just didn’t think that it was too exciting.
Overall, kind of mediocre to be honest but not bad for cheap lunch

Es el lugar adecuado si buscas algo sencillo, el lugar es pequeño, típico de comida japonesa. Atendido por el dueño, excelente servicio, muy amable, buena variedad de platillos, alimentos frescos y buena presentación. Excelente relación precio-​calidad.
Un detalle muy importante, No venden bebidas alcohólicas, pero puedes llevar tu propia bebida, lo cual resultó muy conveniente porqué tenía una botella de vino enfriando en mi hotel.
Definitivamente volvería.

The boyfriend and I have a bad habit of procrastination when it comes to dinner. Fortunately, Hana no sato is a short walk from my apartment and they are open pretty late (until 10:30pm). More importantly, they have great Unilocal reviews.
I realized that the small restaurant is located right next to the iyasume musubi I frequent, but I never bothered coming because they were always understandably closed when I would go to iyasume for breakfast.
There are literally four small tables, 5 counter too seats and a couple outside tables. It’s a very tiny operation, but at 9:30pm, it was packed. We took the last table and scanned the menu optimistically. The specials on the boards throughout the restaurant were all in japanese, so that was out of the question. They have a specials menu in which they mark down which dishes they have at any given time. Kinda messy, but efficient!
We ordered a few rolls, the steak set and an order of hamachi nigiri. Remember how we procrastinate? As it gets later and later into the night, we get pretty hungry. The sushi was definitely good. The steak was good too, but a little fatty and cooked well done (they didn’t ask, and I was expecting a little more pink). With tax and tip, our bill came out to about $ 60 for the two of us. A little steep, but for the service and quality of food added to the ambiance of this tiny, family owned business feel, I’d come back.
The service was great, the 2 person waitstaff was very friendly and attentive. It’s also BYOB!!! No parking, but that’s not a problem for me since I live so close! :P actually, I think there’s a flat rate lot next door.