Tatsu succeeds with minimalist decor, menu
By Matthew Gray
Advertiser Restaurant Critic
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| Tatsuo Iizuka, chef and owner of Tatsu Restaurant on East Manoa Road, serves tempura to customer Dora Ramirez. The 3-month-old restaurant, which took over a longtime plate-lunch spot, offers a small menu that focuses on meat, fish and shrimp dishes, noodles, donburi and curries.
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser Tatsu 2908 E. Manoa Road Lunch; Mon-Sat 11 a.m. — 2 p.m. Dinner Mon-Sat 5-9 p.m. 988-2134
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Having taken over a longtime plate lunch spot, these folks have done a fine job with the artistic touches inside. It's minimalist decor, serene and an altogether appropriate setting for a tasty repast of traditional Japanese dishes.
Their small menu focuses on meat, fish and shrimp dishes, noodles, donburi and curries — but no sushi.
Dinner is a busy time, what with only about a half-dozen tables. The chicken and pork items are all $8.95 and include the entree, salad (with a miso vinaigrette), rice, vegetables and pickles.
There's a subtle and tender chicken teriyaki, a crunchy and hot chicken karaage (deep-fried), chicken or pork cutlet, and my favorite, ginger pork. Although not drop-dead tender, this generous serving of ginger pork is very flavorful, dosed up with thinly shredded onion and ginger.
Shrimp tempura ($11.95) and soft-shell crab tempura ($12.95) benefit from a good dipping sauce. Salmon teriyaki ($9.75) really delivered; two fillets were juicy and delicious in a light teriyaki glaze. Butterfish miso-yaki ($13.50) was even better, each bite promising a reward of high-end flavor, texture and aroma in return for the low potential of finding one of those inedible pin bones.
Donburi dishes are various grilled, fried or steamed entrees served over rice.
Una don ($9.75) offers three big pieces of eel, soft and sweet, over a mound of rice, perfect for absorbing the random flowing juices. Chicken or pork katsu don ($7.75) also are offered, in addition to oyako don ($6.95 — oyako means parent and child, reflecting the use of chicken and egg in this dish).
For about $2 more, you can build a small combination and receive a small order of udon noodles with your donburi dishes.
Speaking of udon, the sexiest noodles on Earth, you can get them several ways here.
Kake udon ($5.25) comes with wakame (a sea vegetable, leafy and mild in flavor) and green onion. Kitsune udon ($5.50) comes with bean curd, tempura udon ($8.50) is self-explanatory, but the big-daddy nabeyaki udon ($9.75) is off-the-charts good. Inside this one you'll find chicken, cabbage, egg, bean curd, green onion, fish cake and shrimp tempura swimming in a luscious dashi-driven broth. Wow!
The curries are mild here. Pork curry rice ($6.50) and chicken or pork katsu curry ($7.95) round out the choices.
Lunchtime offers several specials starting at $4.95. You'll be happy if you enjoy sashimi, because a combination teishoku platter is only $8.50. Many other affordable choices are available, combining the dishes described above.
Tatsu has a nice feel. The food is good, not complex, just simple, honest Japanese fare brought to you by a family grateful for their customers.
Reach Matthew Gray at mgray@honoluluadvertiser.com.
