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Agu a Ramen Bistro has introduced an express version of its noodle shops, appropriately dubbed Agu Express.
A grand opening was held Tuesday. It’s in Kalihi on the far end of North King Street, near Middle Street and the H-1 freeway onramp.
Agu Express focuses on takeout counter service, although there are a few tall tables for eating in. The location also serves as a central kitchen, preparing broth for the other Agu locations.
On the menu are familiar Agu noodle and side dishes, plus daily plate-lunch specials: beef stew on Mondays, shoyu chicken on Tuesdays, baked spaghetti on Wednesdays, oxtail curry on Thursdays, hamburger steak on Fridays and chicken long rice on Saturdays.
Agu Express, open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily except Sundays, is at 2300 N. King St.
LEAHI’S CONCEPTS CARRIED ON AT KCC
Leahi Concept Kitchen was meant to be a short-term restaurant project, run by the Culinary Institute of the Pacific at the Waikiki Parc Hotel in a restaurant space scheduled for renovation this year.
The Concept Kitchen opened last April, offering farm-to-table cuisine and pop-up dinners by guest chefs.
The Waikiki stint has ended, but the restaurant has moved to the Kapiolani Community College campus, where chef Eddie Mafnas will continue the menu ideas he developed with his staff — many of them current and former KCC students.
The Concept Kitchen has taken over dinner service at the Ka ‘Ikena Laua‘e dining room, and will be called Ka ‘Ikena PM. A Sunday brunch began Feb. 11.
Until now, Ka ‘Ikena has been a student-run dining room that is part of the culinary training program at KCC. That function will continue with Ka ‘Ikena AM, open for lunch only.
Menu items and service styles developed in the Concept Kitchen are meant to be the model for a restaurant that eventually will open at the Culinary Institute of the Pacific’s new Diamond Head campus.
Dinner prices start at $40 for a three-course meal (BYOB with $10 corkage fee for wine, $1 per bottle of beer). Hours are 5:30 to 9 p.m. nightly except Mondays. Sunday brunch ($48) is served 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Ka ‘Ikena AM, which operates around the school calendar, is closed until March 20.
Call 734-9499 or go to culinary.kapiolani.hawaii.edu/kaikena-lauae.
ALL-STAR IN-FLIGHT DINING FROM JAPAN
A chef with three Michelin stars to his name will be designing meals for Delta Air Lines travelers flying to Honolulu from Narita, Fukuoka and Kansai in Japan.
Norio Ueno, chef and owner of two Ichijunisai Ueno restaurants in Osaka, has earned a Michelin star for his Toyonaka location and two for a location in Mino Park.
Starting March 1, Ueno’s meals will be served to first- and premium-class passengers, expanding to the main cabin in the summer. Dishes include marinated rockfish and saimaki shrimp (also known as imperial prawn) with egg yolk vinegar, and Kurobuta pork with rice, Japanese pickles and miso soup.
Ueno joins chefs Jereme Leung of China and Woo-Joong Kwon of Korea, who are designing meals for other Delta routes in Asia.
Quickbites is a weekly listing of dining events. Email items to crave@staradvertiser.com.
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