Rave Reviews: Yoshi, Chez Kenzo, Golden Pork

PREMIUM SELECTION | JAPANESE B.B.Q. RESTAURANT YOSHI

The Yoshi experience manages to be both delicious and educational, as knowledgeable servers guide you through the appreciation of various cuts of rib-eye, inside and outside skirt steak, knuckles and more obscure cuts of beef.

The star of the cook-it-yourself yakiniku menu is a superb A5-grade Japan wagyu, Crazy Rib Eye, with its candy-stripe streaks of red meat and white fat. Connoisseurs consider A5 wagyu the best in the world, and Yoshi showcases it beautifully. Crazy Rib Eye Yoshi is the one dish that must be prepared by your server to ensure it’s cooked just right. After grilling, it’s dredged through a mixture of yam and egg that adds to the silky consistency. Even on a full stomach, you will want more.

A range of U.S. Prime tongue, Snake River Farms Gold Grade American Kobe beef, Japanese rib-cap A4- and A5-wagyu, and black pork cook up quickly on an electric grill.

The morsels might appear small after cooking, but the marbling adds up to a richness that will leave you satiated.

1316 Young St.; 784-0067

Dinner. $$$$

——

CHEZ KENZO BAR & GRILL

I’m always leery of big menus and chefs who try to take on more than they can handle. Pride aside, it’s better to win accolades as a one-hit wonder with a single fabulous claim to fame than to put out a full menu likely to include a handful of the restaurant equivalent of bloopers. Plus, it’s hard to know where to start when it comes to a 100-plus-item menu.

Chez Kenzo Bar & Grill is one of the exceptions, with a full range of Asian-style tapas, pastas, salads, meat, seafood and fried specialties. It’s a great casual, go-to place for groups because the large menu ensures there will be something for everyone, with a bigger sampling for sharing the pupu-style dishes. Even at the "meh" moments, the dishes are very good. That underwhelmed feeling comes from having sampled something exceptional minutes before.

Kenzo Tokeshi and Ken Kawasaki carry out the work they started at Waikiki’s Genius Lounge, and fans will recognize some of those more popular dishes, such as pumpkin stir-fried with bacon, yuzukosho (yuzu and chilies) chicken, pasta with mentaiko (marinated roe) or uni, Nagoya chicken wings, and kimchee fried rice topped with heavenly, creamy, fluffy scrambled egg.

Predominantly Japanese-inspired, the fusion menu also contains small touches of Korean, Chinese and Italian influences.

The restaurant recently added a short list of vegan and vegetarian dishes to its menu.

1451 S. King St.; 941-2439

Lunch, dinner. $$

——

GOLDEN PORK TON-KOTSU RAMEN BAR

This Kyushu-style ramen is hard to beat for its velvety umami character, the result of rendering pork bones for more than four hours, extracting marrow, minerals and collagen — the connective tissue around the bones that gives the broth its creamy, opaque color.

It’s so smooth and savory, you’d swear it must have a lot of fat, but little fat makes its way into the broth. It’s the collagen’s conversion into gelatin that thickens and adds body.

The Golden Pork Classic ramen appears simple, topped with char siu, green onions, wood-ear mushrooms and sesame seeds, and comes with a sheet of nori that you can use to wrap noodles for one quick and delicious bite.

This dish many not seem out of the ordinary for any ramen restaurant, which might cause your eye to wander to the sexier Red Miso Dragon and Black Garlic counterparts. But try not to stray on a first visit. The seemingly plain-Jane classic ramen will make you swoon.

The broth is only half the equation. Golden Pork also makes a fine thin noodle that comes closest to ramen noodles in Japan, the result of working with Sun Noodle for a year to perfect a noodle that met the restaurant’s standards and specifications.

No matter which ramen you order, a sip from your tablemate’s bowl will convince you that you need to order what they’re having on your next visit, locking you into a vicious circle of desire.

1279 S. King St.; 888-5358

Lunch, dinner. $