Champion’s Steak & Seafood

I happened by this place when I was showing some family around. The place was empty. It was decorated very nice with bright colors and was really clean. The food was ono. We tried the chicken miso don, spring rolls, pork katsu, and the chicken katsu with curry. The curry tasted really good. I will definitely visit here again… especially if my husband (the pickiest person ever) liked it.

This is our first time since its changed hands. The chicken katsu curry was great. The katsu was light and moist. My son loved the udon too. Its certainly the best option in Hawaii Kai. The Chef was warm and personnable too and food came out very quick.
Best deal of the day for us!

Champions recently changed its menu and format. It isn’t really a «kids» place anymore. Its certainly a place you can bring your kids, but its not really catering to kids. We hadn’t been in before, so didn’t know what to expect.
We wandered in and they immediately offered us a sample of the two curries. They were both very good and the Chef stood there absolutely beaming with pride as we nodded and said we loved it.
We looked at the handwritten menu and made some choices. The menu isn’t huge, but there are a number of choices to add to your curry. We both had Majharana curry, which has over 27 spices. I thought it could have been even spicier, but it had a good depth and flavor. DH with Chicken Katsu that was perfect (crispy on the outside, juicy and tender inside) and I had it with a fried mackerel. Its served with rice too. We also had a side salad that has the most amazing house dressing… but they wouldn’t tell me what was in it! They said it was «secret sauce,» but trust me, its the best mystery sauce you’ve had! They also had an Udon that looked great and I’ll be headed back over for that one a cold night or rainy day.
We stayed, they treated us fantastic. We enjoyed the conversation with owner and loved that the Chef was so enthusiastic.
Its a no-​frills experience, but its also one of the warmest dining experiences we’ve had in awhile. The curries were quite good, the staff was warm and it was reasonably priced. We’re adding it to the Hawaii Kai crawl. They also said they would do take out. but they didn’t have a take out menu. I think they’re still getting their operations together. But the place is clean and the food is good, which sets it apart from a lot of places, so I can live without the takeout menu.
If you go, be prepared to love the curry, be curious about the secret sauce and meet a chef who is super proud of his work!

After a long hiatus from writing reviews, my first visit to this restaurant just stirred up all my dead writing brain-​cell as I sat there eating my dinner. No​.no​.no. Not in a good way tho (hehhee).I passed by this cute, bright little place a few times and I thought the place looks interesting with all the bright cheerful colors on the walls and the japanese characters and cartoon movie playing in the background wall. So I decided to just check it out last night with a friend in tow.
First of all, it was friday night around 7PM and the place is practically empty. just 2 customers in there. Hello… it’s dinner time, where’s everyone? But then again, we are in suburb Hawaii kai where normally it’s pretty dead around the mall after dark.
The 2 cute waitress greeted us and handed us their menu. Opened the menu and. yikes! They only have max 6 things on the menu and that’s including «sides of *rice, *miso soup, *salad» and 3 out of that choices were crossed out with «only lunch». So practically you only have 3 choices…1) steak, 2) chicken karaage 3) beef stroganof. and maybe the bento served up in a red-​car bowl. Hey where’s the seafood? where’s the sushi? I saw a small sushi bar, but it’s empty.
Ok.fine. I’d have the chicken karaage and my friend ordered the steak. As we’re waiting for the foods and coloring our little Champion’s character color sheets that come in every table along with a cup of crayons, I wondered how this place makes money. There’s not much to choose from the menu… hhmm, maybe they’re very very specialized at the limited menu that they offer and probably have the best steak and chicken karaage. Then again, the chef of this place is supposedly a trained chef from Japan who won few recognitions (you can check out the chef’s picture and bio on the back of the menu… yeah, it takes up the whole page… they need more food options, I dont really care about the bio)
Food came… good looking steak. kinda small for $ 14.99 but smells good. Then my karaage came. It looked pretty ok, a bit burned. The steak actually was pretty yummy. My chicken karaage though, was dry and a bit on burnt side. So I guess they’re not really specialized in their super small menu afterall.
Anyway, my final verdict is this place is lost in translations. I guess they were aiming for family-​friendly restaurant with simple menu that hopefully pleases children with their cartoon movie playing on the wall and food served on a red-​car bowl.
If that’s the case… could you please at least play a different cartoon movie or something that we can recognize? That yellow cat who looks like a fake Tom from Tom & Jerry just plain annoying :(.