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By day, Uproll Café Honolulu is humbly known for its light fare of healthful sushi rolls and bowls, and sandwiches.
But what sits well with a lunch crowd doesn’t necessarily attract night owls in search of more lavish, sexier victuals, and with every restaurateur aiming to maximize income-producing hours, well, selling a few small bowls and sandwiches by night wouldn’t add much to the bottom line.
Enter Uproll owner Maniwa “Manny” Asao’s newest on-site creation, Maniwa Izakaya, a “secret” yakiniku izakaya that debuted in August and welcomes one party of four to 10 per night. Because the café wasn’t built with yakiniku ventilation in mind, picnic-style seating is set up outside. If the yakiniku concept proves successful, they may be able to make the improvements that would allow them to bring it indoors one day.
For now, it’s scaled so Asao and his wife Anne can handle the operation, and even then, it can be chaotic with orders flying about from larger parties. Been there. Never received two of my orders, but all was well with everyone else sharing what they had.
It’s possible that with smaller yakiniku parties outdoors, they would also welcome a handful of diners seeking izakaya fare only. This includes a handful of starters, namul, Japanese-style omelets and offal such as beef tripe with miso sauce ($12) and chewy beef stomach ($18) with yuzu salt sauce.
My favorite place to start would be with the Pali Pali salmon skin ($8), just about the full length of the fish fried to a pleasantly brittle potato chip crisp. In a case of not being able to eat just one, I could have polished off two of these skins in entirety, but had to refrain for decorum’s sake.
I’m also a fan of their yuk- hoe ($18), comprising tender shortrib.
Normally, I don’t enjoy blue cheese, but shrimp ($8) coated with a mellow blue cheese sauce turned out to be another surprise favorite. I also loved Asao’s cold tofu ($8) and Chinese-style blackened century egg with cilantro ($8).
As for the omelets, they start with salmonella-free TKG eggs from Waimanalo’s OK Poultry. A plain roll is $9, cheeseor green onion-filled are $10 each, and mentaiko-filled is $11. I heard the latter is the best, but I couldn’t compare because the one I ordered never arrived, and the one that did was gobbled up by others in no time.
At this point, you’re ready to welcome the meat, to be cooked on portable butane grills. Prices appear to be low compared to Korean yakiniku houses, but portion sizes are small so three orders of each cut per four people puts costs on par with seemingly pricier restaurants.
What makes it confusing for large parties is that individuals may call out orders for say, premium kalbi ($17), but meat of the same kind are plated together, so you have to pay close attention to what’s arriving on opposite ends of the table so you don’t miss your order.
I enjoyed the tender momimomi, or massaged kalbi ($17), as well as the miso-sauced zabuton ($14), or pillowy beef chuck flap. Two sauces and lemon are provided for dipping the cooked meat. After being sold on a yuzu garlic sauce that proved to be a great match for beef, I didn’t even try the darker sauce. My Korean-style go-to of sesame oil with salt can be provided upon request, but here, I liked the yuzu garlic sauce more.
Two cuts of beef tongue are offered, the thin-cut tip ($15) smothered in green onions, but the thicker back-of-the-throat cut ($17) was favored for its flavor and tender texture.
Tender pork toro ($12), or jowl, was another favorite, as were the garlic sauce-topped harami ($14), or skirt steak.
Rounding out the selections are large ($14) and small ($14) intestines.
Finish with ice cream or sorbets in flavors of condensed milk, pineapple or lemon ($4 each).
Maniwa Izakaya
Uproll Café Honolulu,
665 Halekauwila St.
Food: ****
Service: ***½
Ambiance: **½
Value: ****
Call: 909-475-0099 Reservations via instagram direct message (@maniwa_ izakaya) preferred
Hours: Seating starts between 5 and 7 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays
Prices: About $100 per person without alcohol
Nadine Kam’s restaurant visits are unannounced and paid for by Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Follow Nadine on Instagram (@nadinekam) or on YouTube (youtube.com/nadinekam).
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