Town in Kaimuki, Makino Chaya in Westridge Shopping Mall and Shokudo in the Ala Moana Pacific Center are the latest entries to make a splash on the local dining scene.

After only one month, foodies are buzzing about owner Ed Kenney's Town (3435 Waialae Ave., 735-5900), located on the corner of Waialae and 9th avenues.

"I've taken the taste of San Francisco and New York and plopped them down in Kaimuki," said Kenney. "It's rustic Mediterranean-style cuisine. The dishes here are driven by simplicity and the use of fresh local ingredients whenever possible."

The menu changes daily, but mainstays include some type of homemade fresh pasta and risotto.

Prices range from $5 for a mound of french fries to $6.50 for salt cod brandade fritters to $8 for a flaked tuna sandwich. Pasta and risotto dishes cost anywhere between $12.50 and $18.

Occupying the former Eastern Garden restaurant on the second floor of Westridge Shopping Mall, Makino Chaya (98-150 Kaonohi St. 486-5100) opened to a hungry crowd of Island residents this past Thursday.

The restaurant's all-you-can-eat lure apparently has kamaaina hooked, reeling them in for dinner with such seafood items as Alaskan king crab, half-shell oysters, snow crab legs, Dungeness crab, shrimp tempura, shrimp cocktail, sashimi, miso butterfish and 30 types of sushi, including uni, miugai, hamachi, ikura, unagi, ahi and salmon.

Lunch, which is served from 11:30 a.m. to, 2 p.m., is priced at $11.98 Mondays through Thursdays, and $12.98 Fridays through Sundays.

Available nightly from 5:30 to 9:30, dinner costs $23.98 during the weekdays and $24.98 on weekends.

Shokudo (Ala Moana Pacific Center, ground level, 1585 Kapiolani Blvd., 947-3701) owner Tetsuya Emura asserts that he wants the restaurant to be the Japanese version of P.F. Chang's (a popular national Chinese bistro restaurant chain).

In other words, look for other locations to sprout up in the near future.

Measuring 4,570 square feet with seating for up to 182 guests, Shokudo offers tiered seating — a first for Honolulu — as well as private and box-seat dining areas.

Somewhere between an izakaya — which is a Japanese pub of sorts where people gather to have tsumami (pupus) and swill a beer or two — and a sushi bar, Shokudo's menu lists more than 60 items and is divided into various sections, including pupu, tofu, salad, fish-and-meat, rice-and-soup, sushi, sashimi, nabe, ishiyaki, noodles and desserts.

"Guests can have pupus here or they can have a complete meal," said Emura, while flipping through the menu. "Or, they can come to the bar and just have a drink."

It's highly doubtful, however, that Island residents will be able to resist the menu, which offers everything from unagi rice to seafood dynamite to freshly-made tofu on the hour, every hour.