Choco House

. Chiba-​ken across the street has much better service and food.

–Price: Too expensive for that quality
–Service: so-​so
–Interior: Izakaya style, cute decoration
–Ambiance: Noizy
Choco House is located inside the basement of Hawaiian Monarch Hotel. Since it is the hotel parking lot, ask the parking attendant for a hourly ticket. The restaurant will give you validation.
The food quality is below average. I was very disappointed that the rice was under-​cook. The fish quality was not as good as, it was dry. All the sushi menu cost per piece, not per two pieces. Uni cost $ 6… Shishamo was salty and cheese fried dumpling was not even appetizing to look at. Negitoro Bakudan tasted odd where the paste is like glue-​like sticky.
The way you order or call the server is to ring a bell on the table. However, if the restaurant is busy or noisy, they cannot hear your bell at all.
Overall, my experience here was not good at all. I do not recommend anybody to this restaurant even as a bar.

love this hole in the wall sushi joint in Waikiki. You forget you are in Waikiki!

Wanted to try this place for awhile and I am definitely not impressed. Ordered the rainbow roll for take out and it was not good. Fish tasted like it was previously frozen. The menu says the rainbow roll consists of ahi, salmon and yellowtail but instead it came with ahi, salmon, some other white looking fish and ebi. I would NEVER EVER eat here again. Disappointed.

Beware!!! Yellow card! Do not chance it with raw foods! You do not want to get sick. Also the service was probably the worst I’ve ever experienced. I went on Halloween. They weren’t busy at all. Refused to seat us inside even though it was empty in there the whole time. It’s ok I don’t mind fresh air. But they would straight up ignore all of our requests. No water at all. Forgot to put in multiple orders. One bottle of sake 2 glasses for 5 people. Ok… You get the idea. I won’t throw them under any more. Just be warned my experience was terrible and it seems many others had the same.

After getting turned away from one of our usual spots, we used Unilocal to locate a new sushi place in the area. We hadn’t heard of this place, and the menu looked decent so we decided to give it a try.
+ Seated right away! Yay, I’m hungry!
+ Ordered assorted nigiri, sausage, shishamo and it was all excellent. The fish was very fresh.
+ Our server was very nice and the food came fast. There is a little bit of a language barrier, but nothing that couldn’t be figured out.
+ Prices are reasonable.
— We weren’t sure about parking so we found a lucky street parking. There’s an attendant for the hotel but not sure of the rates.
— There is a bell on the table to call your server, however when we rang it, no one came.
Overall I can’t wait to come back! I think we are about to become regulars :)

We had dinner here on New Year’s Day 2016 and the food is always so delicious and wonderful!

Awesome lil’ Japanese hole in the wall Izakaya gem in Waikiki. AND happy hour till 7p on weekends!

I would have given this place a better review if one, didn’t tell me they «changed the prices» to a higher rate than what was shown on the board and two the lack of service from the waitress. It wasn’t too busy just a low key Tuesday night. The food was pretty good especially with the presentation but when it got to paying the check, I was looking at the prices right next to me on the board and all were raised to a higher price on my check I asked the waitress as to why they were higher on my bill and she just stated, «Oh we raised the prices.» I would have liked to have known that the prices were higher and wished she had given me the price that was shown. It was my first time actual dining there and it wasn’t the best customer service hopefully they change their board soon!

Okay so the food was really good, the place was definitely an experience as the décor & environment is super cute. Very private which I like and cultured.
However, the service was ridiculously slow that it made the whole dinner unenjoyable.
The water took ten minutes to come out. Then the first plate took twenty minutes then every 10 – 15 minutes a new plate came out. This is frustrating. I ordered miso soup. An hour and a half passed and I didn’t get it. After two hours and half of our orders didn’t come out, I was extremely over it. I wanted to yell and get a refund but I knew they were extremely busy and they weren’t rude so I just calmly paid & exited the building. I’m pretty upset they didn’t compensate for anything. I pretty much paid to sit and still be super frickin hungry & miserable & irritated.
Horrible experience. I want to go back cuz the food is good and so is the ambiance but I’m too scared of spending money on such a crappy evening

Delicious and fresh.
I know it’s Hawaii and all, but the place was SWARMING with Japanese tourists. Like seriously, am I eating sushi in Japan or America? Menu is in Japanese and English, not in that «look we’re authentic» way some places will do, but legit because of the clientele need it way. That’s awesome. And they all seemed to be enjoying their food so I’ll take that as a good sign.
We weren’t too hungry so we shared two rolls, I had a beer and my (then fiancé) had a soju cocktail. We had a negihama toro roll and a spicy tuna. Both were different in good ways. The negihama was with the melt in your mouth fatty portion, oh man so yummy. The spicy tuna, wasn’t made with spicy tuna mix, but used the heat from jalapeños and spicy mayo on top of a tuna roll.
Service is okay, not standout amazing but not burned in my brain as awful.
I later went back, drunk as a skunk and they were closed. Boo…(explains the multiple check-​ins I guess… lol).

Feels like the backstreet Izakaya of Tokyo the kind I find in the older part of business districts like Kanda. Nothing fancy, with about 70 items on the menu. Kind of slow in terms of food, but quality is good & some interesting dishes like ‘takosabi’ and natto dishes — all of which cater to real Japanese. Nothing fancy but the price is inexpensive and many sushi roll choices for western taste available. In glad to finally find a cheap ochazuke and onigiri spot to satisfy after my midnight drinking.

This place is quite unassuming, but it is well worth trying! The happy hour is respectable. The food is great, the fish is fresh, and the décor is fun! Plus, $ 6 happy hour pitchers of Asahi! Can’t go wrong. The service leaves a little to be desired, but still well worth it.

Very authentic. It was good but take someone that understands the staff to order for you. Menu was interesting.

As you walk in, you will first notice a very cool interior decorated with surf boards on the wall, and Japanese pop music. To me, it looks like a restaurant from Okinawa. Sake, beer and shochu are their alcohol selection. ‘Dynamite’ is a very popular menu in this restaurant. Staff is super friendly. Food is even better. I recommend you to try takowasa and umekurage, which is jellyfish. Watercress salad is something you should give a try as well if you like to try something new. They have variety of sushi and they won’t disappoint you. Price is reasonable. This is one of my favorite places to eat out and I hope you enjoy this restaurant too!

The service was terrible. The waiter forgot to give us water and none of the servers bothered to check up on us while we were eating.
The food however, was fantastic. I would probably only go back if I really wanted sushi.

As you can see in some of the photos people have posted, Choco House is a hole in the wall joint with some kind of funky tiki bar décor. At first glance, I wanted to keep on walking. With some trepidation… I went inside. It seems this place is run by a Japanese family, which is a good sign considering lots of sushi restaurants are not these days. It’s also frequented by lots of Japanese people — another good omen. The sushi turned out to be very fresh. Oh and the big bonus — Japanese beers on tap! I’d come back again!

Been eyeing this place out since ever since but my friends and I usually get out of work too late and they close. Tonight we finally tried it and boy do we wish we hadn’t…
When we first walked in we were immediately confused with the «outdoor» seating and no one to greet us… We stood at the outer entrance for a couple minutes before deciding to poke our heads in to look for assistance. Some guy saw us and told us to seat ourselves outside. The tables are preset and as we start looking through the menu I notice it’s very bright, colorful, and full of pictures which was nice to see. After a while of deciding, we’re ready to order but our server hasn’t even come to the table once! Finally when she does show up, she quickly asks if we’re ready and before we could respond she says ok I’ll be back later. Good thing we stopped her right then because I don’t think she’d come back… ever. There’s a bell at the table for you to ring but you would think they’d at least come to check on you once… So we order a few things and wait for our food… A surprisingly long time for izakaya standards.
The food arrives! Grilled Beef Tongue, Dynamite, Hamachi Kama, a Korean style Ahi Tartare served with crackers, and a side of Rice. I’ve never had tongue cut so thick and cooked so long before… It was pretty hard to chew and the taste was just ok but had a really salty finishing taste/​aftertaste. The salad that accompanied it was simply delicious though. The dynamite arrived on fire and was an interesting sight to see, but upon first bite each one of us found a raw piece of food whether it was the fish, zuchinnis, or mushrooms! It was flavorful but really just OK. Again! And we found ALL the vegetables were undercooked. Highly disappointing considering it is their number one dish and highly recommended on Unilocal too. Hamachi kama was small and rather bland, again, nothing to rave about, however they apparently can’t scale a fish properly because we kept finding scales on the skin while eating. Last and least favorite dish of the night, the ahi tartare… So incredibly flavorless!!! Like how did they even take out the flavor of the fish?! The dish was all sorts of confusing to our taste buds and we ended up just finishing the crackers.
After having to chase the taste of bland and overly salty food out of our mouths after every bite with our drinks, we were left high and dry for the longest time with no beer, no shochu, and no water! We hit the bell several times before someone came to check on us and even then he wasn’t there to check, he was doing last call for food. My friend ordered a Tamago Nigiri and 2 cups of water and a refill for my water… Shortly after he comes back with the egg nigiri but no waters. We ask the server lady again for waters and its about 5 minutes before she comes back with 2 and no refill for me.
I was really hoping this place would be a hidden gem but it was a complete disappointment! Terrible to OK food, terrible service, but I did dig their interesting décor…

Choco House is located in the Hawaiian Monarch. It is kind of a grungy, old place, but it is most well known for Cream Pot on the corner. Choco House validates parking completely if you park in the hotel/​apt complex. The older parking lady who doesn’t wear a bra is kind of rude, but just take a ticket and forget her.
Choco House is located on the very lowest floor. It’s a little hard to get to from the parking lot. Luckily someone was with me who knew where we were going. The décor is kind of strange. It looks like a kind of sketchy, tiki themed, tacky place, but I went with some Japanese nationals and they love it and don’t think it’s weird at all. The interior has a bar and then filled with sectioned areas to eat. Each table has some privacy because it is separated from the other tables by these grass mat things. It doesn’t help with the noise, the music is loud and if your neighbors are loud, it gets hard to hear.
The food and service is good. We tried the california roll, the potato salad, ramen and a shabu shabu beef dish with onions, mushrooms, bell pepper and zucchini. The food was delicious and I want to come back to try other offerings like this famous salmon dynamite sushi that everyone is talking about.
The servers speak Japanese, and because I was with my Japanese friends, I didn’t talk to the servers all that much. They were friendly and attentive and our table was equipped with one of those bells you find at reception desks, in case we needed to summon a server.
I think this restaurant caters mostly to Japanese people, and I might feel a little awkward if I went alone or with my non-​japanese speaking friends. The menus are in (relatively good) English though, so if you are looking for a izakaya place in waikiki to experience a very different style of dining, I’d recommend Choco House.

From the exterior, this place looked pretty dingy and sketch… But the SS and I were pleasantly surprised.
Re: the décor — not sure, but perhaps the Japanese folk are drawn to tacky and outdated décor. IDK.
The only real flaw was the active baby roach, which our server snatched with his hand while opening our bottle of sake. The SS and I half-​joked about how we had hoped that our server didn’t mistakenly/​purposely drop the baby roach in our bottle. The lighting was pretty dim, so it’s still uncertain whether he did or not. LOL.
Roast Pork ($ 8)
Tender and flavorful. This was probably my favorite dish of the night. I love roast pork, so maybe that’s why… Or maybe bc it was just freakin’ that delish and tender! I will definitely order this again if/​when I return.
Sushi Combination ($ 17)
8 pcs of Chef’s choice & 1 miso soup
Great to share, but this combo came with 8 different types of sushi. …So, depending on your taste, you and your date may be fighting over the same one (s). And it comes with 1 miso soup. But that’s more of a filler anyway…
Watercress Salad ($ 8.50)
Not the best watercress salad I’ve had, but the dressing complemented the watercress superbly. It was really a nice balance of flavors. There’s no other toppings aside from the dressing and a bit of sesame seeds, but I still enjoyed it (bc I love watercress salads). I probably would order it again, but it’s not something I’d order every time.
Grilled Turdan Shells ($ 8.50)
The SS and I ordered it bc of its name. When he first mentioned it, I thought he had said, «TURD AND Shells.» We were told that it was some kind of sea snail creature. It was good! It had the texture of somewhere between abalone and mirugai… So on the firmer side. I would order this again.
Dynamite
This Dynamite was dynamite! (Lame, I know… But I had to.) The fire was cool. Anyway, this dish was tasty. I would order this again. No doubt. I loved the various types of seafood in it. And the zucchini was a nice touch! (TRY THIS!)
VERDICT
Choco House is a cute, unpretentious, hole-​in-​the-​wall Japanese restaurant with tacky décor and good food. This is a great spot for a low-​key date with friends and fam. Don’t let the exterior fool you! This place is worth a try. The portions are pretty generous and the prices are reasonable, especially for Waiks. Not sure how the other dishes are, but I liked what I tried. And even though I hate, Hate, HATE roaches, I’m still giving this place the benefit of the doubt.