Do-ne Japanese Food gets basics right

There are a number of people who are always ready and willing to stand in line for the latest and greatest new restaurants the minute they open their doors.

But there’s an even larger population who never bite. They must have a good laugh over those singing praises over foam essences and fish pastrami, or cooing over the latest trendy ingredient — be it beets or kale — while they go on wearing their favorite boro T-shirts around the dinner table, or enjoying tried-and-true hamburger steak or teriyaki beef from their favorite haunts.

The past couple of years have delivered a whirlwind of cool and novel places to eat, but this time around, I’ve found a place for the other half. 

There’s not an ounce of hipster reinvention about Do-ne Japanese Food. The word "food" says it all. This is not fancy cuisine. This is not about restaurant expectations. This hole in the wall simply offers a stripped-down menu of humble, home-style cooking from Kyushu, where "do-ne" is their way of asking "How are you?"

Do-ne is a few doors down from Frog House Restaurant, and there is a small parking lot in the back of the building, accessible to those traveling makai on Kalakaua Avenue. The narrow entrance is just past Do-ne’s doorway.

The restaurant has a cozy, no-frills interior, and guests are welcome to B.Y.O.B.

Do-ne is open for lunch and dinner, and the lunch menu is nearly identical to the teishoku entrees on the evening menu, at about $3 less by day. You’ll just be missing out on the various side dishes.

Within the short-and-sweet evening menu is a fair amount of variety, with fried and grilled meat and fish, sashimi and rice bowls.

Pupu range from simple edamame ($3.50) to spicy gizzards ($6.95). In between there is fresh pink cuttlefish that looks more like intestines than the straw-colored, shredded dry specimens we see most often in grocery stores. Once you get past the appearance, the cephalopod is comparable to squid in flavor and texture.

On the heavier side are a pork and kim chee stir-fry ($7.95); popular asparagus, potato and bacon stir-fry ($7.50); and simple shoyu-based fish and daikon stew ($9). The fish used most recently was one of the best, the sturdy, fatty hamachi.

Also available as an appetizer is pork belly stew ($10.95), but don’t commit until studying the entire menu, because the dish is also available as a main course ($15.50) in one of the elegant teishoku dinners.

The slow-cooked shoyu pork stew reminded me of Okinawan rafute, which is logical in the geographic sense. Merchants traveling between the southernmost of Japan’s main islands, Okinawa and Kyushu, introduced such vegetables as bittermelon and nabera (loofah) that at one time were eaten nowhere else in Japan.

Each teishoku set also features miso soup, a small salad, rice, a couple of pieces of sashimi and, when I visited, in place of typical pickled vegetables, beautiful, fresh bell peppers in red and orange, asparagus, carrot and kabocha.

Other teishoku selections include grilled mackerel ($12.50), grilled salmon ($12.50) and various donburi. 

Choose from an ahi-topped rice bowl ($13.50), salmon and ikura ($13.50), katsu ($12.50) or mixed seafood ($15.50), with cut pieces of ahi, salmon, hamachi, cucumber and more appearing like multicolored confetti over the rice.

It’s hard to go wrong with simple comfort foods.

Nadine Kam’s restaurant reviews are conducted anonymously and paid for by the Star-Advertiser. Reach her at nkam@staradvertiser.com.