Asahi Grill

A solid choice! Not too crowded, decent parking, not entirely broke da wallet (or broke da mouth) and good menu variety. There’s a lil bar in the back with a separate entrance and blood curdling open mic karaōke if that’s your scene…
I read my Unilocal reviews prior to going and ordered the regular sized oxtail soup. It had a good flavored broth– not too strong flavor, which is why they have a jar of ginger on the table. Plenty of green onion and cilantro. A decent amount of meat, but fatty cuts (another Unilocaler was dead in when they said it’s not trimmed well). I think $ 15 is a bit high priced for what I got. I also listened to other Unilocal reviews and upgraded my rice to fried for an extra $ 3 and was disappointed in the flavors and texture. Tasted like 1 – 2 day old rice, and greasy with not a lot of lil tidbits.
Hubby ordered the special sweet and sour spare ribs and wasn’t too impressed.
2 dishes that are off the radar that y’all might like are on the pupu menu (separate from the main menu). The cold tofu was awesome! A generous silky smooth serving of soft tofu, covered in green onions and fried garlic, sitting in shoyu and chili oil. The other winner was the pupu kalbi. It was 2 juicy perfectly seasoned and cooked pieces of kalbi, cut into smaller portions on a bed of cabbage. I recommend!
They also serve Ted’s Bakery pie slices for dessert.
Oh, and drinks are relatively cheap for a restaurant. $ 3 – 6. Happy hour drink specials until 8pm.

Service:
Service was terrible, let me start off with that. I have a pretty severe allergy to peanuts, so when I first asked if there was anything in their cooking that used peanuts or peanut oil the lady jus shrugged her shoulders and started at me telling,“I don’t know?“
I just stared at her in disbelief because of her attitude. So I had to go ask her nicely (but a tad irritated with her tone and response) to go check.
She comes back and tells me no,
But SURPRISE SURPRISE, I end up in the hospital an hour later because I’m having a reaction to the food I ate there. Hmm, seems a little suspicious to me especially because this the only thing I had to eat today.
Also didn’t help she didn’t know what I was talking about in the first place, so my friend and I had to explain to her step by step about the peanuts and peanut oil.
Food:
The food itself, was kind of gross. The rice was a bit hard, the mac salad tasted kind of old, and the chicken katsu, that was super oily. Something did taste weird about that Chicken Katsu, but of course that’s probably where the cross contamination happened.
Ambiance:
The interior was okay, it looked old that’s for sure. The table when we sat down was a bit sticky, so that was kind of gross. The chairs itself aren’t stable so be careful. I leaned back a little in my chair and I thought it almost broke because the chair moved.
The music was so loud, so you had to shout over the music, and the other customers. If your restaurant is already noisy from customers talking, don’t blast your music in my opinion.
Overall, this place was okay, not worth the price though for some mediocre food and terrible service.
So to sum it up, DON’T EAT HERE IF YOU HAVE SEVERE ALLERGIES TO PEANUT .
I honestly wouldn’t recommend this place because there are SOOO many better restaurants out there that serve better food and have better service.

Parking is a little tricky there is parking from either side of the establishment. Great big TV to watch the games and a bar for the alcohol cravings.
Neat setup it’s a little divided from the front and back. AC is always welcomed in the heat of Hawaii. It does tastes a little different from the original Asahi grill on ward Ave. But so does the Liliha bakery on Nimitz. My go to is ox tail soup with lup chong fried rice with a over easy egg on top.
Smart location with Yogur story and a supermarket in between. Service is the same as the rest.
Great for brunch or early morning breakfast (if you are awake by that time) good local comfort food fix.

Love the oxtail soup!
Only downfall I can think of is its location. Came here for dinner with my family and their was a lot of sketchy people hanging around the parking lot & you could smell weed. Smh

Oxtail soup is really good as everybody recommended

Had oxtail soup with brown rice. Super small portion for $ 15 for sure. I kicked myself for not going to Zippys! The soup was bland and no peanuts or any of that good stuff inside. Plus… the few pieces of oxtail were little tough… undercooked. Brown rice… hard and dry. C’Mon guys! How hard is it to make rice?
Disappointing but still tipped 20% for the nice lady that served us. 2 stars just for that! Sorry but never again!

I usually come here in the mornings for their fried rice breakfast (which is 5 stars in my book). Unfortunately, dinner gets 3 stars.
My bf and I were seated quickly and being rushed by the waitress to order. We kept telling her we needed time and she had an attitude every time we asked (and we only asked two times!) Here’s what we ordered:
Garlic shrimp fried rice (small): Kudos for the small plate size. Other than that, not much garlic taste, shrimp were kind of underdone. I needed lots of Shoyu to being taste to food.
Crispy crab won tons: idk about you, but when I think of crab won tons, I think of crab and mayo … not crab and taco seasoning. Not what I was expecting. Idk how to ask if I can NOT pay for it.
Fried noodles: I guess it was good my bf ate it all.
Chicken katsu: He ate that all too.
Our bill came out to $ 30 … NOT WORTH IT. If I ever come back here again, I’m sticking to my fried rice breakfast.

NEVER AGAIN!
the reason why is because when my bf and i walked in it was going okay. then they took FOREVER to give us our water. they served other people that came AFTER us. only until we kept looking and giving hints they remembered.
i ordered the chicken katsu, it was good but my bf ordered the fried rice with scrambled eggs only to have them come out with fried rice and an over easy egg on top of it (wrong order) on top of that the fried rice had NO taste! and not once the waiter came and asked how we were doing. That is our last time there never again with their bad service! I rather have the asahi grill in ward!!!

We prefer this location better than the Ward one.
Been here a few times … the bf loves the oxtail soup for sure!
Friendly staff and reasonable prices.

Asahi Grill is off the main drag on Keeamoku next to Yogur Story. This place has a nice clean and casual feel. Food is local comfort food with both good quality and quantity with affordable prices. Service was very good attentive wait help and food came out FAST!
Hubby had the chicken and pork adobo
Me– spicy ahi with shrimp don very good fresh ingredients.
Dessert to share — I forget what it was called but it was a three tiered wedge of sorbet. Lilikoi mango and Haupia! Sooooo Ono and refreshing!
Also added star for an immaculate beautiful bathroom! I was gonna take a picture but I thought that would be weird. Anyway Asahi Grill is on my list of «Town Food Places»!

I seriously love the food here, but I really wish I could say the same about the workers. We came in here for breakfast after a doctor appt that we had in the morning. We weren’t greeted when we walked in, but they were quick on seating us since there was only one other person in the restaurant.
Food came quickly after we ordered, but they never came by to check up on how we were doing or if we needed anything. They refilled our water once, and only once. It’s quite a disappointment with the service we got, especially with the fact that we love their fried rice and ox tail soup.

We just sat down for lunch. First impression is that this establishment sure is popular with the geriatric crowd.
The menu here has an extensive selection of local diner type cuisine. There are also daily specials. Impressive.
3 stars — Asahi Grill gets the job done. Service is prompt and friendly. Food, portions and price are just ok though.

I came here on a Thursday night with my parents and uncle visiting from Seattle. The food was much better this time around. The portions were still on the small side but it filled me.
As usual, I ordered the small oxtail soup. I got 5 small pieces again but it was so good when I dipped it in the grated ginger and shoyu sauce. It was actually cold that night so they soup hit the spot. The soup was just right and not too salty. The rice this time was cooked to perfection. I just gobbled everything up this time lol. It must be the star anise flavoring in the soup that I like so much. My dad got the oxtail soup like me and he thought it was yummers.
My uncle got the grilled opakapaka. He wanted the deep ocean fish cuz they don’t get it too often in Seattle. He liked it and said the fish was done right. It was served with a tartar sauce and two scoops of rice. My mom got the roast pork. It came with tossed and mac salad, and a scoop of rice. She said it was ok but not her favorite thing. I didn’t taste the fish or the pork.
For dessert, we shared a piece of paradise pie with whipped cream on top. The waitress said it was a gelato pie. It was so good. It was pink, white and yellow. The pink was strawberry and the yellow was definitely mango. I couldn’t figure out what the white flavor was.

Updates:
Five stars for:
+++ the fried rice!!! It’s a must-​get. I crave this rice all the time. No joke. I’ve tried the l. c one but usually stick with the regular. We have yet to try the shrimp one.
+++ the banana pancakes are one of my favorites on the island. There isn’t just slices of banana in it. It’s mixed into the batter. Comes out super light and thin! (only served until 11AM)
+ the vienna omelette is, yes, something that you could easily make yourself at home. But it is good!
+ the food comes out really really fast (we usually go for breakfast)
+ ox tail is pretty good, they give a lot of bones (to me it’s mostly bones, I can’t call it «meat» haha!)
+ my husband likes their hamburger steak plate
+ the shoyu ramen is equivalent to saimin. I like to get this with grilled cheese sandwich sometimes.
Pass on the chicken katsu plate. It’s oily and fatty.

I went here with my family a couple of days ago before New Years eve. There was no line on a Sunday around 9pm. It is located right next to Sorabol and Yogur Story. This was my first time experiencing this place and I’ve heard they had the same recipes for the old Kam Bowl’s dine in section over there. I’ve always loved their hamburger steak so I decided this would be a good time to try it since the last time I’ve eaten it was when Kam Bowl was still in business.
So I decided to get the loco moco since I was craving for an egg that night. Basically its the same as a hamburger steak but with an egg of how you want it on top. I ordered my egg over easy and what did I get as the final presentation? The yolk in the over easy egg had its yolk cooked to where it was a hard style. From what I understand the over easy egg is supposed to be spilling its watery contents when you cut into it. My mom ordered the same thing and her eggs came out the same way. The gravy didn’t taste the same as what I always had at Kam Bowl. I felt as if they were missing something for taste. For me it was quite a disappointment since I was really looking forward to this meal!
My father had the steamed opakapaka and it was really dry! He’s been here before and he said that it was really soft, tender and ono in the past! The sauce that they put on top of it though was good!
My grandpa had the regular size oxtail soup. Taste was there but the portions for the price was a bit questionable. The extra large size is about $ 21 and when we saw the portion for that on the table next to us, it wasn’t that much of a surprise. The pieces were small and larger pieces could have been used for that price.
My grandma had their chop steak and she LOVED IT! That tasted really good!
So overall… It could have just been an off night but I was not satisfied with what was served to us. Being that my family has been here before multiple times, I will try it again in the future and hopefully it will meet up to the expectations to what I’ve had at Kam Bowl. It’s hard to judge a place with only being there once so I’ll submit another review once I can get another chance to eat over here.
This is a good place from what I hear from other friends and family. I would recommend this place to others and they may have a different experience than I had.

Thanks to Nicole K.‘s review, I was able to find this place. I was racking my brain trying to remember if I had seen Asahi Grill somewhere on Koreamoku. You actually can’t see it from the main road. Instead, you turn at Sorabol, and it’s nestled right between Sorabol and Yogurstory. The restaurant is nicely furnished, clean and welcoming. It’s just a little smaller than I would have expected.
I came here for breakfast, which might sound weird, especially since yogurt tory (known for breakfasts) is right next door. I’m not a waffle or pancake kind of girl. I like my rice for breakfast. I particularly love japanese style breakfasts (which asahi grill also has!!) because I’m in love with japanese pickles, veggies, fish and miso soup. Come on, how is that not your perfect meal?
I would probably not come here for breakfast if you’re wanting the usual fried rice, eggs and meat, it’s just alright and asahi grill has so much more to offer. Who doesn’t want yummy oxtail soup and rice for breakfast? I actually decided to try the tonkatsu don for breakfast instead, and it didn’t disappoint! I think next time I’ll have to get the oxtail soup, but I was happy with the flavors (secret sauce/​oniony/​eggy yumminess) and the bowl was actually large enough that I took leftovers home for lunch.
The service was a little slow, but there were quite a lot of people dining in on a weekday for breakfast. The food came out slowly, as did the check. The parking lot also gets really crowded and there is a korean man who stands at the sorabol entrance, apparently guarding the parking lot. I parked in the yellow stalls but I guess that was ok since the korean man didn’t tell at me or row my car.
I’ll be back, especially to this location because it’s newer than the other one, haha!

I guess you shouldn’t come to a new (to yourself) restaurant with the bar already set on what you want. Before I got here, I checked out the menu that fellow Unilocal users have put up in the pictures. I settled with the island breakfast that has two eggs, corned beef hash (there are other meat options) and fried rice ($ 2.50 upgrade). I also got a side order of toast ($ 1.25).
To me, the portion size of what you pay to upgrade your rice to fried rice isn’t worth it. Also, the corned beef hash isn’t fresh. Maybe I should have asked before I got it.
There seems to only be one waitress that’s going around taking orders and tending to the customers. Currently, that waitress is filling water and coffee cups while my date and I have been sitting here with empty plates for the last 10 minutes. Irk. There was another that dropped off menus to us when we first got here. Then she went MIA. The food that we ordered came out quick though, when it was finally taken by the first waitress. Maybe I’ll come back some other time for lunch or happy hour but I don’t think I’ll be coming back here for breakfast.

We wound up at Asahi grill for lunch, and hubs quickly ordered the oxtail soup. I chose the tonkatsu don burri, and we were both quite happy with our meals. Hubs said the soup was pretty good, but he was really impressed with the amount of meat that he was served in his soup. I am not really a rice eater, but I always order it just in case hubs needs more, well that tonkatsu don burri had me eating a little bit of rice. The sauce was nice and sweet, not too sweet, but (what i refer to as) Japanese sweet.
The restaurant was clean, the server was attentive, and our bellies were content when we left. Next time I just might take them up on their drink specials. $ 3 beer? sure!

I loved this place as it was at Mak Bowl (Kapiolani Coffee Shop when at Kam Bowl but called backwards hence maK Bowl — get it?! plus it is a «sin» to shorten the King Kamehameha name — aka Kamehameha Bowling Center) especially for their oxtail soup *and* fried rice with scrambled egg on top.
Lately I’ve been staying away from beef pork and chicken and have instead been ordering their ahi and salmon bowls and salads which are nice and fresh.
Tonite I deviated even more. Felt like a simple grilled cheese sandwich which is what this review is about:
1) Extra Crispy Fries — It was served with fries which I asked for to be made extra crispy, and yum; yes indeed they were! I had them with my usual (tons of) black pepper with (sort of lots of) ketchup mixture: D
2) As for the sandwich — Thought my grilled cheese would be a comfort food type of sandwich. I was wrong. It either contained too much bread lol jk or the cheese did not cover the entire bread. The bread was not grilled to perfection the way grandma would make and definitely was not soft and ooey-​gooey. It was more like slightly toasted white bread with some cheese but not enough to make it ooey or gooey.
3) Service — was pretty good but I did wish they would have filled my water a little more often.
Well, this was just about grilled cheese (2.5-stars/served with 5-​star fries) so because of my previous great experiences with their other dishes and also bc the friend I had dinner with that nite nearly thoroughly enjoyed his oxtail soup (he wished he’d ordered the large and did wistfully wish for more peanuts), I’m docking the 5 stars to make it a 4.
Perhaps the problem is more that I was just eating to eat.something.anything lol
Well, all in all, I am still quite happy about this place so perhaps I’ll let them know about my grilled cheese sand next time I’m there ;)

If the Asahi Grill on Ward Avenue is Prince Harry, the newer Asahi Grill, sandwiched between Sorabol and Yogur Story, is the more refined Prince William. Offering a much cleaner and «upscale» dining experience, I think I found my new favorite place to indulge in some classic Oxtail Soup!
Since the parking lot is shared with several business, it can be crowded depending on the time. The restaurant is divided into a dining area near the front entrance and a dimly lit bar area toward the back. The bar area seemed to have both tables and counter seating as well as a TV. With just a few other diners when we arrived, we were seated right away and provided with menus.
Although Asahi Grill serves a variety of local favorites, they are well known for their Oxtail Soup. Claimed to be a «Kapiolani Coffee Shop Favorite», matching the original is a near impossible feat, but Asahi Grill manages to come close. The meat is usually a hit or miss. On my most recent visit, one piece was tender and fell off the bone while the other required a bit more effort. Offering a modern twist to Oxtail Soup, Asahi Grill also offers Oxtail Ramen.
With La Gelataria just a few streets away, Asahi Grill offers some of their gelato and ice cream cakes as dessert! If the Paradise is available, I highly recommend it! Mango, Coconut, and Guava make the perfect sweet ending to a great meal!