Menchanko-Tei / There are more than a few ramen restaurants on the island. It seems there’s an izakaya specializing in ramen or curry every few blocks, and it’s quite hard to choose which is your favorite ramen house, especially when there are so many that are so good. Menchanko-tei should definitely be on top of your list. Located on the corner of Seaside Avenue and Kuhio Avenue in the Waikiki Trade Center, this noodle haven is anything but touristy.

The menu isn’t generally too hard to understand, but the first section of the dinner menu may confuse a few patrons. The first page is divided into sections: Menchanko, Ramen and Oden. Menchanko-tei’s specialty is its Menchanko noodle soup—a hearty bowl of ramen served with thicker egg ramen noodles. Technically this is not really ramen, since the noodles are different and it’s meant to be served in a nabe or metal pot. Also, interestingly enough, the “chanko” in the restaurant’s name is derived from chanko-nabe, which is the meat and vegetable stew that is part of a sumo wrestler’s daily diet. However, I don’t think eating what the sumo wrestlers eat will get you as big as you think. The soup is light in flavor and flush with healthy items like tofu, cabbage, shrimp, thin slices of pork and bean sprouts. I ordered the hot miso menchanko, which was delicious. The “hot” does not imply temperature. The miso soup actually had a little kick to it. Not enough to get your mouth burning but just the right amount of spice to know it’s there. Also in the soup was a piece of mochi that made my meal that much more fun to eat. It added a little unexpected texture to an otherwise typical noodle dish. The Menchanko is huge and for $10.75, two could share the meal.

Oden is an interesting and very simple dish not served in many Honolulu restaurants. Traditionally a winter dish in Japan, items such as boiled eggs, daikon radishes, fishcakes and fried tofu are boiled in a shoyu-dashi broth, then skewered on sticks and stuck in the broth to cook and marinate. When ordered, they are put on plate with a glob of Japanese mustard. Some who want more flavoring dip their items in shoyu and mustard. Oden is usually sold from food carts and convenience stores like 7-Eleven in Japan. We have taquitos, they have Oden. At Menchanko-tei Oden goes for $2 a pop or five pieces for $8.75, a little irritating because in Japan it would probably be substatially cheaper.

Also worth trying at this noodle house is the Tonkatsu. Katsu is served everywhere here, but few make it like Menchanko-tei. According to the menu, Menchanko-tei only uses the best cut of pork—Kurobuta pork, the Kobe beef of porks, fresh breadcrumbs for the breading and the restaurant’s own specially selected blend of oils in which to fry the katsu so it comes out nice and crispy without that greasy smell. The katsu sauce is also freshly made by blending onions, tomatoes, apples, pineapples and a mixture of spices that are simmered for one day. The sauce is definitely sweeter and fruitier than any katsu sauce I’ve ever tasted but it’s good. The katsu is served on a wire rack to preserve crispiness and next to a bed of cabbage. Extremely juicy on the inside and so crispy on the outside that you could taste the individual bread crumbs, this katsu is definitely one of those dishes that people come back for. A bit pricey at $14 for a la carte and $16 for the set that includes rice and miso soup, but you get what you pay for.

Standing out above the rest of Menchanko-tei’s menu offerings is the Nagasaki sara udon dish. Don’t let the name fool you. It’s not what comes to mind when you hear “udon.” Nagasaki sara udon is a bed of thin, fine crispy noodles covered in a thick sauce of cabbage, tako, shrimp, pork, sprouts and other vegetables. I think of it as the more refined dish to its Chinese crispy noodle counterpart. The rich sauce compensates for the dryness of the noodles. Doused with white vinegar, the dish takes on a sweet and acidic flavor.

Now, what is a Japanese noodle house doing with a “local surfer bowl”? Since there was only one way to find out, I ordered it. Turns out it’s kind of like a loco moco of some sorts, a very distorted loco moco. A bowl of rice is covered with thin slices of pork, a generous heaping of bonito flakes, a side of salad and all topped with a sunny side up egg and a white sauce.

Also part of the menu is a seasonal specials section. While the whole tomato salad with citrus dressing ($4.95) and the sashimi tako carpaccio ($10.95) sounded interesting, both dishes involved tons of sweet onions, lots of acid and not much flavor. Inexplicably, the chefs opted not to toss the tomato salad with any flavorful herbs, not even as simple an addition as cilantro, which would have made the dish more interesting. Instead, the dish consisted of a peeled whole tomato that was quartered and placed on a bed of sweet onions then soaked in a citrus dressing that seemed to be lacking in everything but the lemon. In turn, the lemon both overpowered the dish and overwhelmed the tastebuds. A sprinkle of sugar, some shoyu, it seems even the smallest addition would do well to balance out all that acid. The tako carpaccio was equally unimpressive and not saved by the bite of the sweet onions, which merely elevated the dish to adequacy. The tako was chewy and sliced very thin in an otherwise unremarkable creation.

Disappointing specials section aside, the majority of the menu items sampled were delicious and authentically Japanese. Take note of the weekly lunch specials. Recent lunch specials have included curry sauce menchanko and rice, katsu don and mini size ramen, salmon sashimi and roe over sushi rice and mini size ramen. Each meal comes with a small pupu, salad and pickles. Served only Monday through Friday 11am to 2:30pm, Menchanko-tei only serves 30 per day and at $8.54 with tax the meal is a complete steal.

The wait staff are all Japanese and sometimes a bit hard to understand, but always friendly and willing to explain the menu to you. The sake and shochu menu are small but impressive. Hot sake is $5.50 and the bottled sake run from $8.75 to $23.75. I would love to return with friends for a big dinner of sake, menchanko and katsu or a quick, economical lunch by myself. Either way, the food at Menchanko-tei is good and always a stomach pleaser.

Menchanko-Tei
2255 Kuhio Ave.,11am-midnight daily, 924-8366

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