Earlier this month Nadine Kam of the Star Advertiser reviewed Kikue, a new soba restaurant (opened last month) on Waialae Avenue across from the long defunct Queen Theater. By the way, it was built in 1936 and had 850 seats, finally closing in the 1980's after it was raided for their XXX films. Back to food, I was particularly excited about the truffles soba as shown in Kam's article:
She gave super-ratings for food, service and ambiance. Well, I too dined there, and was very much disappointed.
Let me start with parking in the large Kaimuki parking lot square. Kikue does not validate parking. Sure, the cost is only around 75 cents, but you would think....
I went for lunch, and they only had a limited selection, with no truffles soba. Okay, so what about the grilled duck breast soba? Nope. Foie gras teriyaki? I can go on and on, but finally ordered their pork tonkatsu soba, for I'm in this phase of comparing this dish in Hawaii with Nagasaki (here is what I had earlier this year there).
I might add that Kam gave 3.5 stars (out of 4) for the ambiance, which makes me wonder where she goes, for the decor' is almost grubby. I thought I'd get a cold beer and hot sake. No hot sake. So I had a tiny glass of chilled sake and waited. And waited. And waited. There were three people eating during this period. Finally, 38 minutes after ordering, the meal came. She gave four stars for service. I guess they know who to please.
The soba was overcooked, and those were midget portions of wasabi and chopped green onions. The pork tonkatsu was soggy, and there was a whole lot of rice below it. I paid $25, with tax and a few cents of tip.
My departure thought was that the kitchen must be awfully tiny with a single tired chef for the food to take so long to be prepared. So on the way out I looked, and I could see three people assiduously working there, and when you combine both rooms, it must almost be as large as the dining area:
So what went wrong? I would guess that people hardly come here for lunch, so the neglect is palpable. But based on other reviews, dinnertime must be different.
Honolulu magazine reports that the owner is a Japan IT guy intrigued by gadgets. Their soba machine supposedly provides a firmer bite. The dishes are lean modern. Their sake collection is worthy. Manager Man Bong Ching came from Teppanyaki Ginza Onodera. Four years ago 15 Craigside went there, and I was very much impressed with Man Bong, but he wasn't there for lunch. As badly as my lunch went, I'll give Kikue one more chance...for dinner.
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Typhoon Hagibis came as advertised, making landfall over Shizuoka with winds exceeding 100 MPH, plus rainfall more than a yard, causing considerable flooding. Waves exceeded 40 feet, a number of deaths, many injuries, transport stoppages and electrical outages through middle Honshu. The Rugby World Cup is in a crisis. Fortunately, as initially feared, the effect was NOT catastrophic.
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