The hottest restaurant among the Japanese-speaking set is Rinka, where you can’t get in without a reservation, and even then, a twosome is likely to end up at the sushi bar, lest they take up valuable real estate at a four-top.

So, I approached this restaurant, fronting both Kapiolani and Makaloa streets, with high hopes, but found it a hit-or-miss experience, with the good mixed in with the merely "interesting."

Inside this innocuous-looking storefront restaurant is a windowless fortress, with contemporary smooth concrete walls that shut out the outside world to immerse you in the Rinka experience. A tatami room with sunken floor for larger parties adds a traditional element.

On the good side is the sushi and sashimi, with some of the best seafood I’ve had in a long time, from the basics of nigiri hamachi ($5.50) to such daily specials as shimaaji (two pieces of sushi for $10.50) and akaebi (two pieces of sushi or sashimi for $6), a sweeter and two-times-larger relative of pricier amaebi.

In addition to such specialty rolls as the rainbow ($10.75), dragon (unagi, $16.75) and spider (soft-shell crab, $8.25) rolls, special to this restaurant are the Rinka maki from the farm (vegetarian, $6.50) and from the sea ($12.50), with its mix of fresh catch plus tamago and cucumber.

It’s with the hot specialties that things get interesting. Here’s where dishes are less traditional, with a bit of a fusion aspect. Chawanmushi ($5.75) gets a makeover, served cold with potato salad folded into the egg mixture, giving it a grainy texture instead of the expected silkiness. Well, I like the egg custard and I like potato salad, so I could get used to this.

If you need that silken touch, you’ll get it with the lotus manju ($8.75), the ground hasu shaped into a soft ball with a pleasant warm, gelatinous texture. 

Friends also spoke highly of a beef tongue curry soup ($7.75), but I had my share of tongue a few weeks ago, and there were other dishes I preferred sampling first, such as one of the healthier dishes of salmon and potatoes ($8.75) steamed in foil.

Tuna, poke style ($7.75), is served like a Korean-style carpaccio, with an egg over easy, allowing the yolk to spill over the ahi and ogo.

Curry powder appears in some unexpected places, such as with an appetizer of shrimp paste crostinis, the shrimp paste folded into pastry squares and baked to a golden brown, then served with ketchup, tartar sauce and curry powder. It works.

The curry powder also appears with generous helpings of french fries, also served with ketchup and homemade aioli.

Also on the deep-fried menu is one of the most popular dishes, a croquette with abalone ($9.75), though it was hard to find any evidence of the shellfish in the creamy onion, mushroom and potato filling. Whenever I thought I’d fished out a piece of abalone, it turned out to be onion. It was tasty enough to order again, though.

In search of vegetables, I ordered the miso eggplant ($5.75), but the 2-inch-thick layer of sweet miso paste rendered it nearly inedible without scraping most of the paste off. Only the staunchest dessert fanatic could stomach this treacly mass as is. 

Although staffers are friendly enough, inexperience results in delays, mixups and confusion. Before getting our Rinka seafood roll, we received a farm roll by mistake. An order of deep-fried steak ($18.75) came as sweet-sour steak ($18.75), which I ate but didn’t care for.

To add to an order of yellowtail shabu shabu ($18.75), we ordered a side order of pork ($8.75). It’s only after we left that I realized the pork never materialized. But we were too preoccupied to remember it while waiting for bowls and spoons.

On two visits, the shabu shabu and a hot pot were delivered without the necessary utensils. To add to my dismay, while us two Asian women were left to fend for ourselves over the shabu shabu, two men were getting the hands-on service of a waitress cooking the ingredients for them.

If you come early enough, service is good, but it dissipates as clients start filling up the tatami room.

To compensate for some of the issues, sake pours tend to be generous.

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