Yusura Japanese Restaurant

FYI they’re closed for maintenance/​renovations for about a month. Hmm, no wonder… now they changed the name of the place!

Saturday night, 6 pm and no one is in there. Our party of 8 had the whole place to ourselves, so you’d think the service would be great, but when we have empty water glasses sitting there and the server came to our table twice and didn’t notice, the service was obviously lacking.
The ambiance wasn’t so great either. Upstairs must be a lion dance drum association that had practice that night. The entire hour we were there, a constant drumming to the beat of lion dancing was going on.
The food was below average. I had the pork tonkatsu, which was too thick a piece of pork which made it dry and tough. I also had chewy parts in there and had to chew it for 2 minutes because I didn’t want to spit it out in front of my friends. It was a big portion and I couldn’t finish it.
Parking is on the street, so that can be challenging. Single, unisex bathroom — it was clean.
The good: price is affordable, portions are big.
The not so good: ambiance, service, food (specifically pork tonkatsu).
Most likely won’t be back, unless my friends decide to go again.

One would think by the exterior appearance and restaurant name that you will see a completely authentic Japanese menu. However, the restaurant is Taiwanese owned because of Japanese settlement and influence for 10+ years.
Katsu, curry, ramen and gyoza. Nothing special in my opinion.
The popular menu item is the Taiwanese beef noodle: a twist between phở (vietnamese noodles in soup) broth and chinese beef brisket (pronounced as ngo nam in cantonese) with special variation of a noodle i have not seen before.
This is one of the 2 japanese restaurants i’ve tried in the Chinatown area. Small, quaint, in the corner of Smith and Beretania Street. Lots of street parking unless there is a downtown block party or art event.

I wouldn’t follow the 4-​star «Yay! I’m a fan» phrase attached to it, but Yusura deserves the standard 4 stars for its consistency, portion sizes, and prices. They’re standard in terms of teishoku and ramen spots (think Ezogiku and Sumo Ramen) and you definitely won’t leave hungry or disappointed. I almost always grab their tonkatsu even though I might start off craving ramen or yakisoba. They’re one of the few places that still offer tonkatsu and without jacking up the price.

i love their gyozas here.
the amount of food is plenty and the service is great!
they also serve some taiwanese food on the side so it’s a comfy place to find
some hometown cousine!
go give them a try. parking is easy, not difficult like finding a spot on the weekend at the cultural plaza.

I used to come here about once a month during my HPU years. There aren’t many (maybe even any) Japanese places in Downtown Honolulu that serve anything besides sushi rolls, so it was really the only other option whenever the usual got boring.
The menu is comprehensive enough. They have your essential noodles ranging from udon to ramen, single-​plate items like katsu curry and mapo doufu, and your lunch sets (teishoku) like tempura or butterfish misoyaki which include miso soup, rice, and Japanese pickles (tsukemono) on the side. My favorite is actually the Sanma Shioyaki set, which I always ordered on Saturdays when it would become that day’s special.
The sanma is salted on a fiery grill and presented whole on a rectangular plate with a lemon slice. While the outside of the fish is mildly burnt and crunchy, the meat beneath the scales is juicy and easy to pick off the bones. I clean one side of the sanma with my chopsticks before turning it over and repeating this precision-​eating ritual and my friends are always impressed, but seriously, sanma is really effortless to eat. The bones are easier to avoid than most fish and the sanma is meatier than it looks.
And oh, the meat. It’s salty to perfection and goes perfectly with white rice. Some shoyu with a squeeze of lemon, and you’ve got yourself authentic Japanese cuisine.
As far as Yusura goes, this is about the only thing they’ve really perfected. Everything else on their menu is decent, but I would avoid the ramen. The soup is on the bland side and tastes kinda the same across the ramen menu. The food at Yusura overall lacks the subtlety that true, homey Japanese food deserves.
I really wish Unilocal allowed for half-​star ratings because I think Yusura is better than «OK» but I’m not quite a fan, either. Service is prompt enough, but it could be so much better since I swear, I’ve never seen a particularly welcoming or thankful smile from these people. I do hope they keep at it though. Because whatever it is they’re doing right with the sanma is a shimmering light of a greater potential.

I live in Downtown and I never knew that this place existed. Now I know and I will walk through the sketchiness of Chinatown just to come here.
The restaurant offers various teishoku/​combo sets of which you can choose from mixed tempura, tonkatsu, chicken katsu, pork belly, butterfish, soft-​shell crab, ramen, gyoza… etc. etc. etc. You can eat good for $ 10 or less or get the teishokus for roughly $ 15 (or add $ 2 for soft shell crab or butterfish).
For dinner, I ordered the taiwanese style pork belly & ramen set (comes with 4 pieces of gyoza) and kim chee fried rice to share. Food was really tasty, especially the pork belly. It was really tender and flavorful with every bite. If you’re watching you’re figure, ask for lean meat; however, expect to still see some fat on it… but that’s where alot of the flavor is stored. Ramen was simple yet tasty and not overloaded with noodles. Gyoza was alright, but came with the set. Kim chee fried rice was pretty good as well with lots of kim chee and meat.
Overall, the taste of the food was pretty good and I had little to complain about. Portion size is really generous, so you will not be leaving hungry when you come here. The place was pretty clean despite its Chinatown location and service was really on the mark… super friendly and really attentive (no empty water or green tea glasses here). The best thing about this place is the reasonable prices that they charge here. Definitely worth whatever you’re paying for and it definitely made me a fan.
They also have a bonus card here. For every entrée purchased, you’ll get a stamp. Once you obtain 10 stamps, you get a free meal of your choice (but at $ 10 or less). Just another reason to entice me back.

Lunch service here is quick and efficient, which is important as Yusura is so close to downtown. The staff is friendly, and they remember me and DH because we are kind of regulars there by now and we always order the same things!
My favorite is their Chicken Crispy Noodle– I order it everytime I go there. The sauce, veggies and chicken are a perfect complement to the very crispy noodles! Usually the noodles are perfectly crispy, but a couple of times they were not crispy and kind of stale. They have since fixed this, which is great, otherwise I may have stopped going back.

I eat here regularly for lunch and dinner more so before than now, but still one of my favorite places, especially for lunch. As with other reviewers, I have to agree that they were better before renovations, but not a whole lot.
Food:
My favorite here are their ‘mini ramen sets’, where you get a bowl of ramen (mini size), 4 gyozas, and a selected rice, in my case the Chicken Teriyaki rice; this will fill you up. If you pay attention to the cooks in the back pre/​post renovation, you will notice that prior, there were two guy cooks; both make great food! But now, there’s a guy and a gal cook, who switches every now and then. Well, the reason I bring this up is because depending on who cooks your food, will determine if you will get great food pre renovation, or only good food post. (note: gal cook is learning the skills from the guy cook so hopefully it improves as time goes by)
Overall, food is still great here in my opinion.
Service:
Waiter/​waitresses are quick and friendly. Water and tea fills up w/​o asking, and food comes out quick!
Ambiance:
Nicely lit place and more of a family place. AC seems to be turned on high so bring a jacket if you get cold easily. Restroom’s are pretty clean so that’s a plus!
Tips/​Recommendations:
I recommend the ‘mini ramen sets’ as they are great for the value. Dessert is no longer offered here so plan ahead if you got a sweet tooth! Unfortunately difficult to get free-​parking around Chinatown, unless it’s weekends or after 6:30pm (that means street parking).
Otherwise you have an abundant choice of municipal parking.

This time, I tried the Gomoku Ramen (around $ 8) and the Kim Chee Fried Rice (around $ 8). Gomoku Ramen — Shio ramen with wakame (seaweed), vegetables, fish cake and char siu. I really enjoyed the ramen, the booth was good, not too salty. The fried rice is okay. But what I really like about this restaurant is that «it has good ventilation», you don’t come out stinking like a restaurant. Good and fast service for lunch.

I swear I remember it being A LOT better before their renovations! =/
BUT I do love to eat here. .. For the most part the food is amazing. :) I really like their chicken katsu, it’s sooooooo ono. Their shoyu and miso ramen are AWESOMEEEEE. I think it’s probably got one of the better shoyu ramen’s I’ve tasted so far.
I do give them three starts for messing up our order. My friend ordered the miso ramen and I ordered the chicken teriyaki mini set. But our food runner totally screwed up our order. She gave me the miso (which @ the time, I didn’t realize was miso) and she gave my friend my shoyu ramen. We kind of didn’t realize what was happening. We asked the lady if my friend’s ramen was miso and she said yeah, when it wasn’t! O. o
Overall, I would recommend trying Yusura. They have really good food. :) Just make sure the food runner doesn’t get your order wrong. :)

They just Changed ownership and I just happened to come in on the Grand opening day I do have to admit the service was quick although they apologized for taking a little while on my Tonkatsu (it was quite thick)
which really wasn’t that long. Nice presentation and reasonable prices the Tonkatsu I got was almost a inch thick and cooked just right it came with a small salad with pickles and miso soup
I will come back to visit again.
Parking being downtown is at the municipal lot or at the Chinese cultural center the restaurant looks as it always was and the menu almost the same with a few more items.

They are CLOSED for Renovations

I like the food here. Nice clean place. You can see from my pic, that I got the Katsu and Tempura combo. Fried rice was good. Pleasant casual atmosphere. I almost forgot about this place. I’ve been slacking on the reviews!
G

Mini ramen combo with fried rice and four piece gyoza has to be one of the best value meals in Chinatown/​downtown. If you are hungry and on a budget this is the place to go.

I’m not sure ramen is the strong suit at Yasura. The portions are certainly generous and the Yasura ramen has a very nice presentation with chicken katsu, shrimp tempura, boiled egg and steamed veggies. But the broth is lacking a little flavor. I think the teishoku sets and katsu don are a better bet.
Family friendly service and great value.

I’m too positive (or convinced) as to why this place hasn’t received at least a 4 star review. Perhaps my standards for ramen are different than the rest of the world. Granted there is nothing special about this place, but for the price and serving size (and TASTE!) it’s actually not anything below 3 stars IMO.
I usually order one of 3 things from here:
Yasura Ramen — loaded with lots of pork and veggies, only $ 7.
Appetizer Sampler — includes fried and battered crab — the entire crab too! they’re small ones with all the guts left inside for maximum flavor. Included w/​the sampler are 3 pieces of gyoza and some tempura.
Mato Tofu — Ramen — with a broth made from curry and what tastes like beef drippings — so good/​bad.

You will not be hungry after eating here! The food is yummy, portions are enormous, it’s reasonably priced, and the service is friendly.
I order the Oyakodon almost every time I come here. I highly recommend it. It’s easily one of the best I’ve had on the island, and I eat a lot (A LOT) of oyakodon!
Chinese people running a Japanese restaurant in Chinatown, whodathunk?!

This is the second time I’ve been to this restaurant and this time it blew me away! I had the Shrimp Tempura Set which ran $ 10.95. It was a very decent amount of tempura and they were pretty big shrimp. They were all fluffy and crispy without being super oily. The set came with a scoop of rice, small salad, pickled daikon and miso soup. I also ordered the gyoza on the side ($ 1.95 for 4 pieces) which was also very yummy! And a green tea ice cream that followed which I was informed was Bubbies Ice Cream. Yum!

I went to Yusura for lunch with a friend last week. I hardly explore the downtown/​chinatown area so it was nice to venture over there :) I love combo meals, it’s so fun to try lots of different things. We both got the katsu curry combo which came with a bowl of ramen, 4 gyoza and chicken katsu curry and rice. The amount of food was plentiful (enough for a take home box of curry & rice!). The ramen was just average. The chicken katsu was small but tasty. Curry was really good. Gyoza was super good in my opinion, it had some kind of vegetable (cabbage?) in it, which some people might dislike as a filler, but I really enjoyed it. Overall I was impressed for the amount and quality of food for the cheap price.