Orine Sarang Chae

I found this place to be somewhat racist. There are sheets of this menu just in Korean and the prices are significantly less.
Atmosphere was great but couldn’t enjoy it since everyone was smoking cigarettes at their table. Isn’t this illegal by the way?
Food was okay, as a novice to Korean food, I would’ve loved some direction from our waitress who was nice/​sweet but didn’t have a full grasp of the English language.
I think this place would be best with a Korean person who knew exactly what to order. Seems like everyone around us had these lavish dishes and for the price, found that hard to believe. This restaurant is pretty expensive for what it serves.

I guess we shouldn’t have ordered the $ 109.95 Yakiniku special. This place is very expensive, most of the dishes are $ 15+ unless you get something cheap like mandoo.
The special contains rib eye, pork belly from black pig, assorted vegetables, choice of spicy stir fry octopus or spicy pollack soup, various dipping sauces, some pancake, some Salad, and picked vegetables.
The rib eye is fatty. the pork belly is really fatty and there’s bones on it. I had a filling redone on my teeth so biting into the bone of the pork made me want to cry. The ratio of beef to pork was 1:10. The spicy pollack soup was very fishy, salty, and disgusting. We were told to use the assorted vegetables to wrap the meat around it, dip it in the dipping sauce, and eat. There was no joy in eating it like that. The yellow oily dipping sauce wasn’t good. The red sauce that came with the pancake was salty. The salad was full of sesame oil. The only decent dipping sauce was the miso.
Also the plastic cup used for water was dirty. Our water wasn’t refilled. And the table is sticky due to the type of lacquer used.
I’ve never eaten so much disgusting pork fat in my life. Time to eat some Cheerios to lower my cholesterol.

Happened upon this place once and just had to come back for our rare date night. kinda chilly so perfect for grilling and was super romantic with the Xmas lit trees outside.
We were bothered with one B-​52 roach at the end so that aspect didn’t bother our experience at all.
The server was awesome! She kept bringing us more banchan for refills and new stuff for us to try. She helped us cook our food and replace the pan when it got crusty. 5 stars to her!
We had the:
Rib Eye– Big slab of beef; didn’t really care for this as when you cook it in one piece, it gets overcooked quick and when you try to cut it up before grilling, the scissors don’t really do a good job. Not very tender cut
Black Pork Belly — Yummy! Especially when cooked crispy; it was like bacon!
Big Vessel of Veggies– REALLY? REALLY? skip this. For $ 25, it was kinda silly to get this big ‘ol pot of veggies that you really can’t do much with. We tried our best grilling the watercress, bok choy, cilantro, lettuce, and choy sum but after a while grilling veggies in meat fat gets kinda gross. We took home the rest of the veggies consisting of; shiso, cabbage and lettuce since it cost us $ 25.
Banchan– had better; we got about 10 plates but nothing super amazing.
Great Service. Awesome atmosphere-​however if there were roaches, that woudl’ve changed everything, Skip the veggie platter for $ 25! Will be back again; love the outdoor grilling.

When a friend brought up Orine Sarang Chae, I immediately responded huh? Say that again? So since Orine Sarang Chae is a mouthful to say, I will hereby refer to it as OSC! It is a great place if you are in the mood for some Korean food and they offer a great menu, good service, and decent prices.
You have to appreciate a restaurant that has an item titled «Hangover Soup» and hang-​over isn’t korean for anything other than saying it is good for a hangover, which I understand why. The proteins complemented in a nicely salted and flavorful broth is simply divine. The meats are flavored well and the kalbi was nice cuts of meat added with that barbecued flavor that was complemented nicely with the smoky-​ness of the cooking.
The noodle dishes are refreshing and flavorful with the noodles cooked to a perfect tenderness. The side dishes good and a nice complement to your entrée choices. I love a good shoyu potato and they make one of my favorites in town.
The service is good with all of the korean aunties coming and going with your dishes in a quick orchestration and keeping you happy and content. The ambiance is lovely with indoor and outdoor seating. The outdoor seating can be a joy on a perfect evening with a soaring banyan and lights complementing a gorgeous evening.
Off the beaten path, OSC is a great choice for korean food or just a meal in general!

Growing up gay in Hawaii and having a preference for older friends, I’ve hear a lot of stories about what once was and no longer is. One of those things I hear about a lot is the old Hula’s and Hamburger Mary’s. Built charmingly around a banyan tree, with unobstructed views of beach goers in their speedos and bikinis.
Where the hell is Tim going with this, you may ask?
Orine Sarang Chae brings this description to life. I’ve never been to the old Hula’s, but I sure can experience something similar here. Although not overlooking Waikiki beach, it has the cozy comfort of the banyan tree I had imagined from all those stories.
Ambiance alone, this tree starts off my review at 3 stars. There’s no way this place can disappoint, unless something goes terribly wrong.
I’m not a big Korean food person, but I have been really getting into it thanks to Ah-​Lang and Duck Butt. So of course, when I eat here with my family, we look at the menus with big question marks over our heads.
Our waitress suggested we get the Chae Special, perfect for the 3 of us she said! In it we had Kalbi, Polluck Soup, and Mung Bean Jun (we substituted this over the Kimchee Jun). Plus all the extras were nice too– the banchan, the insanely huge veggie basket, the steaming hot miso.
The yakiniku Kalbi was impressively a lot. 8 enormous flanks of meat over a foot long. The waitress expressed concern after watching me struggle with the fatty meat around the bones and demanded that I give it back to her for her to cut.
The mung bean jun was awesome. I’m glad I took everyone’s advice on Unilocal.It really reminded me of a classic Vietnamese comfort food of mine. Every new years, we make Bánh chng, a steamed mochi rice cake with pork and mung bean. After a few days of losing its freshness, we’ll fry it — the mung bean jun TOTALLY reminds me of this and I’ll be back for more fosho!
Everything was pretty delicious, though it was too much food! Our waitress either thought we were fatties (and we are on occasion!) or trying to swindle us into buying more food and/​or stop asking questions about the menu.
Good food, mama-​san waitress, and THE TREE! I’m a fan :)

If there was an ultimate food showdown in Honolulu, it would have to be between Korean and Japanese food. These two regions are showing themselves as the driving force here for foodies… so long Pacific Rim!
DINNER experience:
We came with another couple so we could try their dinner set, we chose the set with Kalbi, Beef, Octopus in a spicy sauce with the large vegetable basket. As we later found out, the vegetable basket is used to make rolls with, much like you would a lettuce wrap/​spring rolls/​etc. Bits of Kalbi wrapped in lettuce and other goodies + sauce and extras made for a whole new dining experience.
The combination we got was $ 85, we also added the Black Pig belly, which they cooked in front of us and was delicious. The corkage here is only $ 10 so it is well worth it to bring a bottle or two of your favorite wine.
I am more and more impressed these days by good Korean food, I think the abundance of fast food take-​out has put a cloud over Korean food as being a true dining experience. If that’s your view… it’s time to go on a Korean binge and find your favorite not so fast, not so take-​out place. The hunt is still on for me!

On a second visit we ordered this «vegetable basket» that everyone’s raving about. Sounds perfect for a vegetarian right? Well, unless you want to pay over $ 20 for a giant, and I do mean giant, basket of assorted greens that no one could possibly finish, I’d pass on it. Unless you have very hungry pet rabbits, who would be delighted with it!
Otherwise, I still love this place. We had the same server, and he remembered me from last time, which was nice.
Oh yeah, now I’m recalling the bathroom situation. Pretty scary. No soap, and a sign saying not to put t.p. in the toilet. Apparently the norm in Asia, but freaked me out a little…

After being introduced to Orine Sarang Chae by my lunch bunch buddies, my family decided to eat there for dinner. Though, I wouldn’t have known about this place because unless you know it’s there, it’s behind all the other stores, next to the supermarket on Keeamoku.
At first, when we went in, we looked at the menu, and they did not have any meat jun or fish jun, which my son was adamant about eating, so we left. We checked out the supermarket right after since it was new, then checked out the kimchee store right on the side of it. The kim chee store had a prepacked fish jun, so we bought that for my son, and walked to Sarang Chae to see if they would let us in with outside food. At first, I think they thought we just wanted to use their tables to eat the fish jun, but when they found out we were also ordering, they let us bring it in for our son. The food is a little on the pricey side, but it was really flavorful.
Panchan — 4 star — not your everyday, type panchan you get at the take out places like Yummies. Kimchee tastes sweeter than your usual kimchee, and they had different other vegetables than the usual.
Soon du boo — 4 star — very tasty, not salty like other restaurants. You really taste the seafood flavor in it. Made just right, and not too pricey, about $ 9. I usually don’t eat this soup because it’s really spicey and not too much flavor at other restaurants, but it wasn’t as spicy and very flavorful, that I could eat this one at Sarang.
Assorted meats — 4 stars — Kalbi, bulgogi, chicken and spicy pork served to you on a sizzling platter. The blend of the sauce was just right and mixed really well, not like your usual kalbi served at other restaurants. Even my kids loved it. Although it’s $ 25 for this dish, the flavor is worth ordering. The dishes came with 3 bowls of rice, which was enough for us.
Service — 4 star — only because they were nice enough to let us bring in outside food for my child, and they were really patient and nice to us when we couldnt’ decide to eat there. However, we had to flag down our waitress several times for water and tea, but it’s so small, all we had to do was call her.
Though, the only thing that bothered me was that the bathrooms are outside, on the other side of the store next door to them with no soap, and the tables were a little sticky. Other than that, the food was great and the service was ok. It’s a one stop place to walk to the kimchee store or supermarket, then eat at the restaurant. Parking is free, but only for an hour, so we had to rush to do all 3 in a little more than an hour.

Nice little Korean BBQ (and kitchen) place tucked away on Keeaumoku.
Like a toucan, I followed my nose to the KBBQ hidden behind the main drag and saw only a Korean sign and an english pronunciation of «Orine Sarang Chae»… Not sure where the front entrance is, we start wandering in to the patio area.
Unfortunately, we didn’t get to sit outside which was a huge bummer, but I’m glad I got to try this little place out.
As Olivia mentioned, the meat menu is relatively short, but they have the basics. Me and GF did one order of kurobuta belly, an unspecified number of raw oysters (the server literally did not know which turned out to be 10), and a kimchi pajan.
As there was no Hite, we got a glass of Cass and also got the lemon-​infused soju which went well with the meal.
Grills are all portable and propane-​fed. There are no fans or vacums, so if you are here to grill, I recommend going outside, just watch out for the cockroaches that will fly off with your pork belly and first born child if not strapped in.
Pajan was crispy and delicious. The sides were all great and the pork belly was frozen, but decent. The oysters were served as fresh, but one of them had a unthawed middle, so we decided to just grill them and have «yakigaki.»
Price for the aforementioned was $ 66+ tip. Service was very friendly, but a bit busy on a Saturday. I’d come here again to grill, but only outside next time. I’ll try the beef next time as the pork was OK.
One last thing, the Korean folks sitting next to us took off without eating much of their raw fish order or their sundoboo, not sure if they were having an awkward fight and stormed off, or if the food was bad… Just thought I’d throw that out there.

Absolutely LOVED the spicy lobster hotpot here. The miso soup base was very tasty and the lobster was juicy and succulent and just the right level of spiciness. The side order of brown rice was perfect!
We also got a serving of kimchee pancake which was yummy. The banchan is nothing to rave about, but the entrees more than made up for it.
The restaurant has a cute courtyard and is in the middle of nowhere Keeamoku. Awesome!

Went to this place today because I woke up too late to eat breakfast and met my mom at the McDonalds at Keeaumoku. After looking at the Dining Out section of the Star Advertiser after some analysis paralysis I decided to walk across the street and eat here. I love some good Soondooboo.
It was a nice little restaurant with a nice tree above, and the same owner of Ducky’s in Manoa from what I believe. There are tables outside which makes you forget you are in a parking lot and inside looks nice and cozy, and they have few articles from the Star newspaper saying how got about a 3 ½ star rating on the walls. The menu has lots of typos and The «Lunch Specials» are from 10 am-​3 pm and I had the Seafood Tofu Soup for $ 5.99. It came with rice, 6 veggies, and the Soondooboo was served in a stone pot and the portion looked bigger than other places, and I should have asked to make it more spicy. It came with generous amounts of Tofu, egg already inside, looked like 3 clams, and some small pieces of squid. I was stuffed after everything. The ~ $ 50 yakiniku meals for 6 people sounds interesting too, and I would like to try it.

I went with my Korean family so naturally, I had a great time.
First time there and I want to be unbiased in my report about this place. Service was speedy especially if you wanted anything. When we ordered seconds on our yakiniku, the meat came out in minutes! The meat was really tasty for this type of restaurant in Hawaii. Usually those kinds of places cater to the Americanized tastes, but this place kept true to their heritage making this a good spot for some pork and (what goes great with pork except for raw garlic?) soju! The seating under the banyan tree also is very authentic since a lot of places I have been to in Korea that are pork belly houses sit outside as well. What else can I say? Good service and good food gives this place 5 stars! Take it from a Korean who just came back from Korea, this place was authentic both to tastebuds as well as atmosphere.

I went by there today because I had a serious craving for some naeng myun (Korean buck wheat noodles in cold soup). Can’t get it in downtown and even if you could, it would probably be gross.
So I went and ordered the naeng myun at $ 7.95 and the nok doo jun (see below) at $ 4.99. The naeng myun was disappointing. They didn’t give you a few slices of beef that is standard in most naeng myuns. The cold soup base was tasty along with my vinegar and hot mustard to suited to taste. However, the mixture of veggies seemed kind of unprofessional. The radish slices were great but there were some squash slices that were coarsely cut. A good naeng myun will have these very thin and meticulous slices that serves as a subtle topping, but also is artistic. The buck wheat noodles were OK but the serving was woefully lacking. In about 5 minutes, I had a whole steel bowl full of naeng myun soup (and coarsely cut squash).
Now what saved the day today was the bean jun, in Korean called nok doo jun, and elsewhere like in L.A. called bin dae duk (translated loosely, «bean cake»). Last time (see my earlier review) I thought I was getting a bean cake but wound up with kimchi jun, which was actually really good, but still the jun is flour based. The bean cake is made out of pureed beans in a blender and has a more dense feel to it. It was flavorful and excellent, and something that’s somewhat hard to find in Korean restaurants in Hawaii. Now it was a little thicker than I am used to, as I like the really floppy kine right from the frying pan (it literally melts in your mouth), but it was satisfying nonetheless.
What’s also great about Orine is the banchan. As you can see from my uploaded photo (see the naeng myun, nok doo jun and ban chan), it’s just a few pieces of banchan and not overloaded with stuff, but it was nicely done. You can tell they put a lot of time into the preparation and it was tasty and had an artistic quality about it. This is probably what distinguishes Orine from the others. And if you go there for dinner, I am sure the volume will be plentiful as well as there will be more banchan items at your table. But because of the average naeng myun, it gets 3.5 stars today.

Phok already… Will & David STOP telling people about this place the parking lot is too limited for the crowds.
I will leave food descriptions to the Korean experts… all I can say is I look forward to eating my way through the menu.

I wanted to like this place — I really did. BUT, as much as I loved the cool outdoor seating underneath the big banyan tree, food was just okay. Maybe you had to do the full on BBQ to appreciate eating here? We kept it simple and just ordered 3 items: bibimbap, kalbi plate and naeng myun. Kalbi was passable — LA style strips but very fatty and hardly any taste. Bibimbap was homey but nothing to come rushing back for. Only saving grace was their naeng myun! It didn’t look like much but boy oh boy, I could not stop slurping its cool vinegary refreshing broth so much that my companion wanted to order me a second bowl! I’d go back for more naeng myun and maybe try some of the offbeat items on their menu like squash flower chigae.

I love yakiniku, but what I love more is yakiniku & B.Y.O.B ^_​_​_​^
I really enjoyed the outdoor seating, because unlike other yakiniku places you don’t end up smelling like grilled meat! The service was great and they have delicious panchan!
I definitely will be coming back soon~!!

After several Unilocalers independently PMed me to gush about the virtues of Orine Sarang Chae, I had to try it. I eat Korean yakiniku so often, it’s probably unhealthy, but I wanted to try it here after everyone raved about it.
Based on the Unilocalers’ suggestions, my friend and I ordered the $ 55 yakiniku set and a kimchee pajun. The set came with a 3 meats, 1 slice of onion, Korean miso soup, seasoned lettuce and green onions, banchan, garlic and miso on the side, and the sesame oil and salt for dipping. I was disappointed that it did not come with the big basket of assorted herbs and lettuce that my friends had raved about. The basket we received only had lettuce and fresh perilla (sesame) leaves.
Here is where I start comparing Orine Sarang Chae’s yakiniku set to other places.
The cons:
At OSC, the servings of meat are very small. There are only 3 different types – tongue, marinated kalbi, and bulgogi and the portions are tiny, especially because everything is thin-​sliced. You could go to Million and get way more meat and veggies (and Million has my favorite – harami skirt steak) for about $ 43.
The banchan was not exciting and had a small variety.
The complimentary Korean miso soup was super salty and concentrated. Even after we dumped a whole cup of water in there, it was just too salty to eat.
The pros:
The service was very polite and attentive. The lady even came to cook our meats for us several times, which was good because I tend to start talking and forget about eating!
If you’re not having yakiniku, the prices are very cheap. Next time, I’ll just order something off the menu.
Pro and Con:
You get to have dinner in a cute, romantic outdoor area under a banyan tree lit up with Christmas lights. This is especially good if you’re having yakiniku because you won’t smell too smoky/​meaty/​delicious when you leave. HOWEVER, at night, GIANT FLYING COCKROACHES – and I mean GIANT! – come out and terrorize you. After I squealed in fright, the nice waiter came running over to stomp on it, but I had trouble relaxing after that!

Good place to go for a fun Korean dining experience. I’ve been here 3 times now (twice for dinner, once for lunch) and the food has been great each time.
For dinner, I’d highly recommend sitting outside in under the huge tree. My friends and I likened the outdoor dining experience to eating in Korea. It’s just a lot of fun grilling meats, drinking soju, and talking story with friends.
The last time I went for dinner, we ordered one of their set meals that came with pork belly, rib eye steak, mung bean pancake, and stir fry octopus. We also ordered soondubu and extra orders of pork belly on top of that.
The meats were really good and tender and honestly, if you’re Korean, what beats grilling your own samgupsal and washing it down with a glass of soju? The mung bean pancake (nokdujun aka bindaedduk) is also the best I’ve ever had. Not too many restaurants serve it here in Hawaii and at just $ 2.50 per serving, it’s a definite treat. The stir fry octopus was also excellent and even had pieces of dduk (mochi) in it which I thought was a nice surprise. The dwenjang jjigae (miso stew) was a bit salty but the soondubu was very good. And I love that they give you so many leafy greens to wrap your meats in.
At lunch, yookgaejang (beef flank soup) was only $ 5.99, which is at least a dollar cheaper than nearby competitors. They also had several lunch specials for just $ 3.99 if you can believe that. The indoor seating was also very clean as well.
The service here is also very good, with attentive wait staff that tend to you regularly. If you’re grilling meat outside, they’ll come by to flip your meats for you if you already haven’t done it yourself. And did I mention it’s BYOB? When I brought my 7 bottles of soju, the waiter immediately dumped them all in ice as well as the soju glasses to ensure that everything was chilled perfectly.
I highly recommend Sarangche. Good food, good service, good atmosphere, and good prices!

this place is awesome…
The outdoor seating is where it happens — gas burner-​powered tabletop grills and huge umbrellas covering the tables under a huge tree. BYOB (there’s a liquor store around the corner)… they gave us a bucket of ice to store our 12-​pack in. Shoju was ubiquitous at the neighboring tables.
It’s in a parking lot (literally), off Keeaumoku St — kinda hard to find, but look for xmas lights wrapped around a large tree.
Now for the food:
Extensive menu, with many choices of combo specials, and they’ll substitute a certain meat, if requested (we had the Kalbi, beef tongue, and black pig pork belly –substituted for the brisket) — the specials come with miso soup and a «vegetable basket» with the salad and chiso (sesame) leaf — my favorite. Enough food for 4, but you might want to order an extra side of meat if you’re famished.
We also ordered kimchi pancake (small, $ 5) and kimchi soup.
Large variety of banchan. I really liked the kimchi and the pickled cucumbers.
Everything was very flavorful — perhaps the miso was a bit on the salty side. The pancake was crispy, and the meats were delicious — high quality all around. I choose the black pig, but not being able to compare it to the «regular» pig, I’m not sure I can recommend it — it was very good, however.
The nice lady came around to our table and tended to the grilling. Our party being only 25% korean, I can see how she could easily mistake us for rookies in the preparation of korean bbq? I think I prefer to grill my own, as I usually like it slightly on the rare side (it seems Koreans like it well done?)
Fortunately it was a breezy night, and the smoke from the grill quickly dissipated into the outside air, but be warned that the grill will be sitting fairly close to one of you at the table, as it is not built into the tabletop.
There doesn’t seem to be a large turn around at the tables, so we lingered for a while and finished our beers without being rushed.
Totalled about $ 20/​person, with tip — cheap eats, and good times.

This is a wonderful new Korean restaurant. Barely open over a month, they are filled with Korean nationals.
Orine Sarang Che is hidden in the parking lot behind GoShiGo has a wonderful lit up tree that anchors the outdoor seating. Sitting outdoors, cooking and sharing food with friends at this little oasis in the middle of Keeaumoku just feels so right.
Their specialty is yakiniku grill meats. They bring a gas grill to your table and we ordered their $ 55 special set with kalbi, thin sliced beef & beef tongue with a giant bowl of fresh vegetables. The bowl of veggies is impressive! Not just your standard red leaf lettuce, but a variety of herbs and different types of lettuce. Our meal came with wonderful little side dishes, complementary bean paste stew and pa jun. More than enough food for the three of us. Their kalbi is highly recommended.