Even if you’ve never stepped inside the tiny restaurant on Pensacola Street, there’s a good chance you’ve eaten the food from Teruya Andagi.

Owner Albert Teruya’s mother, Mieko, ran an andagi and bento stand inside the old Shirokiya department store in Ala Moana from the 1980s until it closed in 2016.

ABOUT THE BUSINESS

Albert Teruya opened the current restaurant last year. He’d considered joining the lineup at Shirokiya Village Walk, but decided to strike out on his own.

He and his four employees — longtimers who had worked with him and his mother for years — make the food fresh daily inside the approximately 300-square-foot restaurant.

“Honestly, at first I was terrified about how this would work,” he admitted. “This was something different for my employees, too. All they knew was Shirokiya. They took a chance by following me here.”

The leap of faith appears to have paid off as customers have discovered or, sometimes, rediscovered Teruya’s.

“Even to this day there are customers just figuring out who we were,” he said. “Even though we were at Shirokiya for so many years, many of them didn’t realize we were actually a separate business.”

It may also help that Teruya comes from a family of restaurateurs. His aunt owns Masa & Joyce in Kaneohe and his cousins run Utage Restaurant & Lounge in City Square. They all do their own thing, but are available to bounce ideas off each other and offer business advice.

ABOUT THE FOOD

Andagi is part of this place’s name and Teruya is confident his Okinawan doughnuts stand up to the best. At $1 each, it won’t break the bank to try them, either.

“I like to think ours is the right size, not too big but not really small and we have just the right ratio of crust to batter inside,” he said. “The signature look of the andagi is that it has to have cracks along the crust. The more cracks, the crispier that crust is.”

The fried sweet potato mochi, 80 cents each, is a riff on the andagi. It also features a crispy outer crust, but with a chewy mochi filling with an unmistakable Okinawan sweet potato flavor and color.

But Teruya said most of his customers aren’t here for dessert. “The vegetarian bento is our bestseller.”

Presented izakaya-style in a pretty square box with nine small compartments for each dish — rice, kinpira lotus, kinpira gobo, tofu patty and more — the vegetarian bento ($7.50) confirms the adage that we eat with our eyes first.

“People tell me it looks like something from Japan,” Teruya said. “While the portions aren’t huge, I like to think that it’s enough. Not too much.”

WHAT TO ORDER

Teruya’s menu is so tightly curated and reasonably priced, you could probably buy one of everything. All of the ready-made bentos — in addition to the vegetarian there’s chicken karaage, garlic chicken roll and shrimp roll — are $6.50 each. Made-to-order dishes include donburi (sukiyaki, shrimp tempura or garlic chicken for $7.25) and musubi (shrimp tempura, garlic chicken or Spam for $2.50).

HOW TO ORDER

Pick a bento from the shelf and pay at the counter. The andagi and fried sweet potato mochi are kept warm at the counter — just specify how many you want. Made-to-order items are listed on a menu above the bentos and will be made fresh when you order.

GRAB AND GO

Again, this place is tiny. While there is technically seating for four along a counter against the window, you may be crowded out during a lunch rush. Parking is limited to street stalls along Pensacola Street or neighboring streets. Many customers walk from nearby businesses or stop by while running errands in the area. Several bus stops are nearby.

Grab and Go focuses on takeout food, convenience meals and other quick bites. Email ideas to crave@staradvertiser.com.