Rokkaku Hamakatsu, part of an international chain that includes restaurants in Florida and Bangkok, offers a menu that varies from simple lunch sets to extensive high-end dinner options. It’s famous for its katsu.
The best value of all here is the “happiest menu,” with discounted pupus and basic drinks offered daily. All in all, you’ll find gems at a surprisingly affordable price.
THE EXPERIENCE
Rokkaku Hamakatsu is a Japanese restaurant, and a study of opposites. Hiding in the Ala Moana mall next to a Sephora, its gorgeous and modern design suggests the interior of an expensive hotel. Architectural lighting and modern white string design give it a cool, crisp air that feels miles away from the rest of the mall.
Pau hana offers the best contradiction of all — high-end eats for a price to make you very happy indeed.
THE FOOD
The spirit of Rokkaku Hamakatsu comes alive most deliciously in its signature tonkatsu — the ubiquitous fried and breaded pork cutlet that you can buy at almost any Japanese restaurant, alongside a sweet brown sauce. Here, though, the humble Pork Fillet Katsu ($6) is elevated to another plane — the breading light and impossibly crispy. The restaurant even serve a separate goma (sesame) sauce for the shredded cabbage served by its side.
Happy hour items are priced separately, and don’t correspond directly to the main menu. The rest of the happy hour food menu is delicate, layered, and impressive for the price. This is not the land of sliders and frozen fries. Instead, it’s food to mull over and savor.
When we visited, the Carpaccio of the Day ($8) featured sashimi-grade hamachi on a bed of pickled onions, crowned with the thinnest slices of jalapeno and a dash of black to biko (flying fish roe) like dark jewels.
The agedashi tofu ($6), with lightly fried tofu swimming in broth, was ordinary.
What was extraordinary, though, was the seafood poke ($8), which layers salmon, ahi, and hamachi tuna with fresh roe, limu, and onions. Most importantly, the sauce is light enough to let the freshness of the fish sing.
While many might pass over the assorted tsukemono, or pickled vegetables, ($4) on instinct, the house-made pickles offered a refreshing, sour counterpart to the rest of the food. The pickled takuan (daikon), napa cabbage, and ume (plum), are complex and go down easy.
THE DRINK
The drinks on the Rokkaku Hamakatsu happy hour menu are nothing to write home about — purely conversational lubricant, they get the job done and keep the focus on the food. There could be more well-considered options, but the price is right for $5 each.
The restaurant offers a house red and white wine, a few mainstream beers, and a whiskey highball (whiskey and club soda in a tall glass). There are also a variety of different flavored sakes served in a masu, or a traditional wooden box flooded with sake – white peach was our favorite.
THE VERDICT
Rokkaku Hamakatsu is more than just a great place to rest your feet after a long day of shopping. It’s an ideal place to take foodie family members, impress colleagues or a boss, or otherwise eat well at happy hour, without paying much more than you would at the neighborhood dive bar.
For those of us with expensive tastes in a land of rising rents, Rokkaku Hamakatsu lets you live large.
ROKKAKU HAMAKATSU
Ala Moana Center
946-3355, ringerhut-usa.com
Happy hour: 3-6 p.m. daily (closed Wednesdays)
>> Poke, $8
>> Carpaccio, $8
>> Tsukemono, $4
>> Drink specials, $5
