Kabuki Kapiolani Restaurant

Small portions. Good to bring your grandma and older family too. But for those people that are young you may not find it filling.
Bottom line: food okay, no problems with service, experienced staff,
SMALL portions for me I’m not coming back here just because of that

The customer service is the WORST! They are rude and not somewhere I would choose to come again!

We usually go for special occasions and we’ve always had a good experience. However, this last visit the service is what was a letdown! Our family (5 adults, 2 kids) went for dinner here on a busy Saturday night. Despite having reservations, we had to wait for a table, and then wait again for our orders to be taken. Our waitress was not very attentive as we all had different dishes except for my husband and father-​in-​law but our waitress did not take it right and forgot my husband’s order. There was another half hour wait before his dish appeared, just when everyone else was finishing their dinner. Our waitress made herself scarse as we did not see her after that nor did she offer any apology. We are disappointed of our experience and their wait staff needs to be better prepared to handle large parties especially on peak, busy nights.

My mom and I come here on Saturdays. We always get the same combination bento, shrimp tempura and either teriyaki beef or teriyaki chicken. The tempura is always fresh and crispy. It comes with dipping sauce on the side that’s just right, not too sweet like most. The meat and chicken is always cooked tender and juicy.
The staff of older ladies are sweet and seem to know their stuff. Never a problem. We’ll continue to be regulars here.
The one thing that could be improved upon would be the overall décor. Needs updating.

OK so the décor isn’t great and it’s definitely not the newest restaurant on the block BUT if you love natto, I mean LOVE natto then this is a perfect place to come for the Natto Donburi. They make a great one with a raw egg, green onions lots of natto and nice thick slices of maguro. Other items on the menu may not be that authentic but like I said, Natto? I’m there!

There are very few places that serve fried scallops, my mom and my fave. They have it and it’s Ono! So yay!

Not a fan. I’ll be perfectly honest… My grandparents love this place, which is why we frequent this restaurant. I’m sure they appreciate the consistency and affordable prices. But of the five times we’ve been here, I’ve gotten tired of the snail-​pace, the sub-​par Japanese fare, and the dismal customer service.
I get the combination teishoku or the ribeye. The average age of their staff lends to their slow service, but it’s so hard to get mad at them (I mean c’mon, these ladies must be super sweet outside of their uniform). Our party of 15 got their entrees except for myself and two other guests. We waited 25 minutes before we got our meals, just when our family was finishing their dinner.
If there’s an error in the order, they grimace at the inconvenience you’ve just placed on them. No apologies. Just walk away. Come back in ten minutes with a plate of the mistaken item. Most recently, I tried their miso butterfish and got a serious tummy ache (keeping it sensitive to our Unilocal audience, the night did not end well). It’s not the worst Japanese restaurant I’ve eaten at, just nowhere near the best. Mediocre «meh”-nu.
Dessert is pretty terrible, whether it’s dried out mochi ice cream or a sweet potato ice cream sandwich. I could get the same quality at the 7 – 11 downstairs from my house. And while this review may sound a bit punchy, my concerns are valid. How does an establishment like this stay in business with such dreary workers and serious lapses in service?
They do have a happy hour menu of discounted combination plates before 6:30, but their regular teishoku menu is still pretty reasonable. Parking is ample and the foodie selection is what you’d expect from a 30-​year old establishment.

Went for lunch around 11:00 when they just opened. Lots of free private lot parking. I ate the nabeyaki udon with the shrimp outside of the soup, $ 13.99. The shrimp was excellent… it had like a ginger taste and it wasn’t oily at all! The tempura soba came with 2 shrimp came, carrot and something else. That looked like a deal $ 12.99 for all of that.
Waitresses and hostess were very pleasant.
Can’t wait to go back to try other food items.

If you have a choice of coming for lunch in this area, I would prefer to go to Yanagi. 3 choice Teishoku for Kabuki is $ 20. Yanagi is $ 28 unless you get the double combination which would be roughly $ 14.
Dinner at Kabuki was good. Top Dishes-​Fried scallop, sashimi, tempura, fried fish.
Quality-​8 of 10. The food was tasty and hot. The sashimi was great.
Quantity-​7 of 10. You always wish to get more food. But the portions were decent and fair.
Service-​7 of 10. I think each staff members that took care of their own section of close to 30. I could be wrong. This could explain why the service is a little slow at times. But I think the staff tried their best. It’s not like they are slacking.

Kabuki is a great restaurant for a casual night out with the family. The workers are not always the fastest (or best at English) but they do their job well, are very nice, and the food is consistently delicious!
This was a great holiday experience for our family as it is across the street from the Honolulu City Lights.

Summary: a good place if you’re already familiar and accept the pros and cons of the setting. A bad place for a new visitor, or anyone that is checking Unilocal to see if they want to try this restaurant. This is not a Unilocaler or tourist place. Tourists probably would be very dissatisfied, so you’ve now been warned.
Pros: price is fairly low for the quality of food you receive. The kitchen is the backbone of this restaurant, and most of the food is well prepared and agreeable to the locals’ palates.
Pros/​cons: lots of crying babies, and the noise echos in the dining room. This is good or bad depending on who you are or who you are with.
Cons: Wait staff service is so so so slow. The wait staff are old-​timers, and they have basically given up trying to impress anyone. They are mostly friendly, sometimes rude. Sometimes your order is wrong. Always slow. I tip below average here, not to be mean, but because its simply bad service.
Cons: Ambiance is fluorescent lighting and torn and haggard plastic shoji. Benches are uncomfortable. This is not a place to bring a date you are trying to impress. I believe the lighting and ambiance makes the babies grumpy and even cry louder.
I still come here sometimes, although rarely nowadays, because it is so consistently and predictably bad service. Im a local.

I find myself coming here more and more in the last couple years. I really like coming here for lunch instead of dinner. The lunch teishoku has a decent amount of food. I’m definitely a fan of their tempura.

What a disappointment! After finding out a couple of places we would have preferred to eat at were closed, we decided to give Kabuki a try. We should have kept driving and went somewhere else.
Parking was easy, the parking lot was big and there were quite a few stalls available. The restaurant wasn’t busy for a Monday night and we were seated immediately. The décor is outdated and old and is displeasing to the eye.
The service wasn’t very good. The servers were nice enough but inattentive, and seemed rushed even though it wasn’t busy. We asked for a few more minutes to look over the menu and the waitress just dropped the paper on our table and walked away, it was kind of rude. After she brought out our food, she didn’t check back with us until we asked for the check. No second round of Asahi for us:(
On to the food… the California roll had too much mayo, the spicy ahi roll had a weird sweet flavor to it, I didn’t like either roll. The hamachi sashimi was ok, definitely had better. The ika and chicken karaage were basic and tasted ok. The highlight and only good thing was the steamed moi. It was very good. Our total was $ 88. A little pricey considering the food wasn’t very good.
We could get better food and service somewhere else. We are definitely not returning here!

So after a long day and a quick bite needed, decided to give Kabuki one more shot. What a mistake. We stood by the register for a good ten minutes while three different employees walked past us and didn’t say a word. The restaurant wasn’t very crowded and I saw three open tables. After watching these employees continuously walk past us without seating us or saying a single word, we left. It was worth it to drive down the street to Gyotaku (King Street).
Sorry Kabuki, you’ve served me some pretty good meals in the past and I like your location but the last two times I’ve been here the service absolutely SUCKS.

Unilocal may want to edit their business hours. They are NOT open throughout the day. I think dinner begins and the restaurant opens at 5 PM or 5:30 PM.
This is a restaurant for people (locals and tourists) who aren’t picky about the «quality» of food. More like nostalgic (feels like the interior has not been renovated for decades?) Just… feels outdated. The rice paper (shoji screen) sliding doors — the screen is so old that they’re turning brown. The hand written «Today’s Special» board… The carpet seems worn out. Tables and booths, chairs… definitely looks like it’s been around for ages. The first thing I noticed walking in, were stacks of white plastic buckets (like the kind you get at Home Depot) on the left side of the entrance — maybe bring things like that in the back, or into the storage room?
Yes, they’ve got sushi, rice, miso soup, tonkatsu, chicken teriyaki, mochiko chicken… but it isn’t «authentic» Japanese food per se. Your basic plate lunch «japanese style food» Not a lot of choices in alcoholic beverages either. 3 types of cold sake? Two very low quality, and one (I think it was Hakkaisan) that was of decent quality… that’s it?
I ordered the chicken teriyaki and port cutlet combination. Laughed when they placed little pickled cabbages in one of the larger medium squares of the bento box (and not in the tiny little pickle space in the center). The salad is just lettuce and a thin slice of tomato with very light (bland) dressing. The Port Cutlet was «okay» No frills. The chicken teriyaki wasn’t bad.
The miso soup was, eh, it was okay.
The servers seemed friendly and the service was pretty good. But then the place wasn’t crowded. We’ll have to see how they’re like when we’re there during their busy hours (if we ever decide to return)
For the quality of food you receive, I felt that the price was on the high side. Looked at items on the menu too and felt the same way. Appetizers, etc — kind of on the expensive side.
Overall… I suppose it is «okay». I wouldn’t miss this place if I didn’t go back again.
On a positive note — lots of spaces to park in the parking lot. At night, you can even park where it says «reserved parking» (where you can’t park during the day).

what: japanese restaurant!
something good: yummy food and great service! we came here for an early dinner and so the restaurant was pretty mellow when we arrived! it’s a great place for a casual dinner, sake and yummy food! also, it’s a great place to come with friends since the environment is mellow and no one is really rushing around! i had a combination of misoyaki butterfish and shrimp tempura! both were so yummy and i love when the food is presented in bento box style!
something not so good: nothing that i could think of!
something to try: misoyaki butterfish and otokoyama sake !

This restaurant was great! It wasn’t too busy by the time 8:00 p. m, and the food was delicious. They brought out a soup for us, that was light and yummy. I ordered the chicken Katsu and tempura combination, and it was perfect. The tempura was crunchy and the Katsu was cooked right. Although it took about 20 minutes for the food, it was definitely worth it.

We came for lunch on a weekday and it was pretty packed. I ordered the short rib and shrimp tempura combo which was alright. The short-​rib was pretty tough even by short rib standards but the tempura was good and crispy.
Unfortunately there wasn’t any Kabuki show on at the time though some of the patron’s (one group in particular) were sporting some drastic make-​up which was quite fun.
The service was slow but courteous and outrageously polite. The décor is traditional and apropos.

I haven’t been here for years but recently I started working down the street so it’s a few blocks walk away from me. If you want to relive those days of the Suehiro’s, Kuni’s and Westeria of old, than Kabuki is the place you want to go to. Mom and Pop style nostalgic comfort food.
The waitresses during lunch are very nice and catering, almost as if your aunties and grandma was serving you food.
The food itself isn’t overtly «wow» some nor does it disappoint when you’re hungry. If you want consistency and comfort then you should come here. The prices aren’t too bad considering what other Japanese Restaurants charge nowadays. Take your parent and your grandparent here, they’ll be sure to reminisce in the days of old.

I love coming here whenever I’m in town across the street. Today I’m a bit under the weather and kinda feel like soup. A special treat is today Joie Y. and I can finally grab lunch together — yay! :D
This is going to be a typical experience review, one that I enjoy and look forward to with each and every visit at this restaurant:
The atmosphere is peaceful quiet. Beyond the entrance doors, the main area contains booths set up in two rows. There are more seats off to the right and left sides with an elevated larger room at the far wall. Japanese-​looking shoji cover the windows add to the Japanese ambiance. I wonder if they’re going fix the cracked shoji (they’re plastic) but decide it’s always a nice and calming experience to be here.
We are seated right away off to the right side behind the check in/​cashier desk that’s to the right of the entrance. It’s very quiet here too despite the main area being slightly crowded :) In no time, the waitress brings water and menus :)
We order our food and the waitress makes gentle recommendations when we ask. Very pleasant experience.
She brings green tea/​cups and won bok tsukemono for us, miso soup for Joie Y., and we clear our palate and drink and talk until our orders arrive.
Our food arrives hot and fresh also in no time. Lunch is very exquisitely Japanese. Everything is light yet filling and oh so delicious. I am again thinking: Aww :) This is such a pleasant eating experience.
Joie Y. has the oyako donburi and udon (slightly smaller than mine); I have the udon with tempura (2 pc each of shrimp and 2 smallish pieces of veggie).
My tempura order is perfect: light crunchy and tasty not oily (it’s always this way) and the udon is cooked to perfection al dente served in broth that’s both light and flavorful.
[ Oops; yikes — I forgot to ask Joie Y. what her oyako donburi is like but she says it’s good :) ]
We talk and eat and eat and talk, and without incident, our water cups are filled from time to time.
The check arrives just as we are about to finish and the waitress retrieves it shortly so that we can leave.
I love this typically enjoyable experience even tho they really are just very quick moments — you know, it’s lunch time ;)
I return to my work day, tummy happy and quite a bit full, once again pleased about my enjoyable dining experience here at this Kabuki restaurant.
Thank you again for lunch and see you next time, Sis Joie Y.