Gazen

My first encounter here and I was more than satisfied with the food, service and atmosphere this restaurant brings. I came with my parents and boyfriend for dinner, everything was ala carte. The atmosphere was casual and all the staff were so friendly.
The food: we started with their tofu sampler (they make their own tofu by the way). This I probably could have eaten all night if I could have but we ordered a little bit of everything. The tofu was soft & creamy, doesn’t have a tofu texture like store bought tofu and it looks a lot like ice cream lol. We got their daikon salad, which was just ok. Steamed clams (that I didn’t try) but I did like the soup broth it was served in. Pork chops (which I also didn’t try bc I don’t eat pork lol) but it came with watercress and a creamy sauce that I thought was tasty. Chicken karaage was crunchy and flavorful! Yes I did eat the chicken. The two sushi rolls we got were the spicy ahi and salmon. The fish in both rolls were fresh and didn’t come with a lot of rice how most places do. We also got the noodles with the fried egg on top. The noodles had so much flavor mixed in but by the time it came I was too full from everything else!
Last but not least. Dessert! There is always always room for dessert. My mom recommend the sweet potato mochi with vanilla ice cream. They put earl grey tea over the ice cream for added flavor. The sweet potato was deep fried and complemented the ice cream well!
I will definitely be back to this place, perhaps for the late night snack!

The waitress was so patient that we didn’t know some of the food and the food tasted good! The homemake sukui tofu I love it very much, strong soy flavored and smooth, tasted like ice cream. Yummy

This is my first review of Gazen and I’ve been here like 10 occasions already. I think because I’m so excited each time I forget.
Start off with the door opening. Ambiance perfect and service always on point. Your gonna love this place for early dinner, late dinner, or late late drinking and pupu’s. Gazen is no stranger to good taste and exquisite izakaya trusted staples like their tofu samplers, sushi, mochi dashi, and all types of teppan yaki dishes. Of course their sake choices are off the hook as well as their full bar is always stocked.
Come to Gazen where you’ll never be disappointed and the service will meet anyone standards. I love this place and if I could give more then 5 stars I would give them
A 10.

Outstanding, excellent food. A large selection of food matched with fantastic, knowledgeable, and attentive servers. This was by far the best Izakaya experience I’ve had on Oahu.
The restaurant itself is pretty spacious, it can get a little noisy, but you can still hear the people sitting across from you. Started the dinner out with the tofu sampler. It was fantastic, there was a set of 3 each with a unique flavor. Another highlight here was the pork chops, they were a bit on the saltier side, but the flavor was nice and peppery.
This place offers so many kinds of dishes and they pull each one off fantastically. Some of the other great things I tried here were the agedashi mochi balls, the spicy beef, the mochi cheese, and the spicy tempura roll. All of which were very impressive. If you have room for dessert, definitely try the sweet potato mochi with ice cream and earl grey sauce.
Gazen is very impressive with their food, I was surprised that I really enjoyed every dish I tried here, nothing fell flat. I can’t wait to come back!

I have mixed feelings about this place. Just to be clear, it’s a generous 3 Stars rating.
Quality-​7 out of 10. Top choices-​chicken karage, hot udon (Top 5 in Hawaii), rib-​eye steak.
Quantity-​6 out of 10. It really depends on what you order, you may get an oversized portion, medium and small portion. The plus is that the menu has a variety of choices so it’s a hit and miss; you can order something that you may dislike but someone else likes. The appetizers are meant to be a family style, everyone sharing the food.
Alcohol-​cold/​hot sake are good. I heard great reviews about the Umeshu drink. It’s a sweet drink and a popular ladies drink. The alcohol isn’t very strong to me but maybe after a couple, it could be a potent effect.
Service-​3 out of 10. Maybe it was an off-​night being Christmas Eve but the place wasn’t packed. My brother waited an hour for his hot udon from the time he order it till it arrived. When it arrived, the bowl was warm. The noodles and soup was less than warm. Very disappointing since my brother was looking forward to having the hot udon again because the last time we came, it was hot and tasted better. Then towards the end of the night, we order a rainbow sushi with ikura eggs on it. (I forget what it was). We waited quite a while that we wanted to ask Gazen to cancel it. But it would’ve felt funny to cancel when it’s on its way. By that time it arrived, everyone was already full. They weren’t the only items; other items came late.

I just tried Gazen for the first time this past week and I can’t wait to come back! The ambiance here is lovely and the service is awesome.
There were five of us so we ordered a bunch of things to share: daikon salad, deep fried chicken, homemade tofu sampler, garlic shrimp, and chopped ahi wrapped with shiso & prosciutto. Everything was overall very tasty but standouts for me were the homemade tofu sampler and ahi wrapped with shiso & prosciutto. There was a tofu connoisseur and frequent patron of Gazen among us so she taught us how to approach the tofu sampler. You are supposed to eat the zaru (plain white tofu) with the natural sea salt and/​or tea salt provided and eat the kurogoma (black sesame tofu) with shoyu and/​or wasabi. You can eat the sukui (zaru tofu in a creamy broth) as is. She recommended eating the tofu in this order: zaru, kurogoma, and sukui. I did exactly as she suggested and loved the sampler! I happen to be a tofu fan and I enjoyed the different flavors and textures in the sampler. My favorite was the sukui.
In addition to the items we shared, everyone also ordered something to eat on our own. The others went with ochazuke (the consensus was that the ume one is better than the salmon ikura one) while I got the hot udon. The udon was super soft! However, I wish the tempura flakes were crispy (they weren’t crispy even at the beginning) and the broth more flavorful.
For dessert, we all got an order of the sweet potato mochi with vanilla ice cream and earl grey sauce. I didn’t know we could have requested green tea ice cream instead (I will totally do that next time!). The mochi was warm with a soft center and perfectly crispy sweet potato «crust.» My friend told me this was her favorite dessert at Gazen. So good!
I only took pictures of a few of the things we tried because I couldn’t wait to dig in haha. I am impressed with Gazen and want to come back to try more things!

Gazen is awesome! I absolutely loved it here. Will definitely return soon.
Gazen is located across the street from market city shopping center and next to chevron gas station. We always pass by this place and say we should eat there, but we never did til today. Why did we wait this long to try Gazen?! The restaurant is very clean and romantically lit. Very japanese. I loved the vibe. They have a happy hour from 9 to closing. The sushi nigiri and sashimi are relatively quite cheap compared to some others sushi places we’ve been. We ate a lot of uni, chu toro, and hamachi, plus a spider roll, tofu sampler, miso soup, hot sake and kampachi carpaccio (say that 10 times fast). Everything was really excellent. I will have to say, though, that the tofu sampler was a lot of tofu for two people. We didn’t want to eat it all and get full off of tofu before we got the rest of our meal. Besides that I really like this place. Our bill came out to about $ 90. We left pleasantly full and happy. Be back again soon!

If you’ve never been here, you’ve probably passed by this place a ton of times without even giving it a second thought. I know I have!
Gazen is a hidden gem located in Moilili near the Market City shopping center, tucked away behind Chevron. They have a good number of parking stalls, but it still gets busy during peak times. During the dinner rush on a Friday, my friend and I were lucky enough to snag the last parking stall in the lot.
The izakaya menu here is expansive. So many pages, so many things, so difficult to decide on what to eat! The pictures make it even more difficult. The prices are very reasonable, but keep in mind the food portions are small and meant for sharing, so go ahead and order a ton of different items and try them all! I know I definitely wanted to!
Drinks on Happy Hour are an excellent value; glasses of Kirin are just $ 3! There’s also sake and wine.
As for the food…
–Shiso Leaf Wrapped Ahi Tartar and Prosciutto: OMG, delicious! Definitely my favorite thing they have on the menu. I’m a sucker for ALL the things in this dish separately, so combining them together was an explosion of flavors. The shiso and prosciutto together, who knew it made such a winning combo? Small, but flavors make a big impact.
–Ahi Carpaccio: I’m a huge fan of just how FRESH the fish is here. This came with generous slices of ahi topped with sliced sweet onion paired with a delicious tangy yuzu sauce.
–Gazen Style Fried Noodle: I’m not such a huge fan of shio (salt) flavor in Japanese cuisine so I found that this dish was a little bland. I chalk that up to preference, though. The noodles were loaded up with a ton of shrimp, bits of pork and baby scallop.
–Grilled Beef Tounge: Awesome thick cuts of gyutan topped with a delicious sauce and more sweet onion.
–Tofu Croquette: Sooo Gazen is known for making their own tofu, and while we probably should have also given their fresh variety a try, this tofu croquette is bomb. The texture of the tofu inside was perfect, and the crust was perfectly fried.
Our food came out quickly and service here is spectacular. The hostess in the front was super accommodating considering that we came in during the Friday dinner rush without reservations, she was able to quickly seat us. Our servers were also very friendly and patient as we perused the menu, giving us suggestions since we had such a hard time deciding!
If you haven’t already, definitely consider checking Gazen out. Odds are, you won’t be overlooking it again!

Gazen is a completely nondescript izakaya on the outside, but a delicious and authentic eatery on the inside. Joining up with friends, our group of ten practically ordered everything on the menu (maybe not, but my appetite definitely felt like we did).
Of the many things we ordered, a few that stood out were its sampler of tofus. Each extremely silky, each uniquely flavored, and all extremely delicious. Being Hawai’i, you can’t go wrong with an order of poke, so we went ahead and ordered two. In fact, I don’t think we had any seafood dish placed in front of us that wasn’t immediately devoured.
With so many dishes being put in front of us and with sake being poured freely, our group had a good time stuffing our faces and being gluttonous… hey, we were on vacation!

Wanted to try something new and found this place on Unilocal.The location is super easy to find. Right across from market city next to the Chevron gas station. One down side is the parking lot. Though they have a private lot, it is super limited and during dinner time it is really hard to find parking. I called the restaurant and let them know that I was outside waiting for over 20 minutes with no luck of finding parking and the staff took care… He had me park in front of his car and also had two other cars park in front of the other employees cars. Great service!
The restaurant is spacious and pretty intimate. We started off with the Tofu Sampler and Fried Chicken. The Tofu Sampler was delicious! My favorite had to be the tofu in soy milk. The tofu is so fresh and with the nutty soy milk… yum! The fried chicken was also very good! The chicken was lightly battered and fried with the perfect amount of sauce. We then ordered the Omelette Noodles, Teriyaki Chicken, Garlic Cream Porkchops, Hot Udon, and 8 piece Nigiri set. I would definitely recommend the Omelette Noodles and the Garlic Cream Porkchops! I was envisioning the Omelette Noodles sort of like Okonomiyaki, but it was different with a similar concept. The Porkchops were perfectly seasoned and tender. I thought the cream sauce would be over powering, but it worked great together. I can’t comment on the Nigiri sushi as we never received them. For dessert, must try the Sweet Potato Mochi with Ice Cream! So good! Wish I had ordered two!
Prices are super reasonable here! Great place for get together or for a special dinner for two.

We’ve been wanting to check this place out and finally just made it happen after our gym mesh. Had NO problems with finding parking — woo hoo! Although we did come at an off time
(8:30PM on a Tuesday night) otherwise, it probably would’ve been harder to find parking. When we walked in, we were greeted but it was awkward because she just greeted us but didn’t ask how many people or anything. LOL no worries, naturally I said «two please». She proceeded to grab menus and then answered an incoming call and totally forgot about us. Ok… awkward. I’m assuming maybe the manager is the one that greeted us the second time and seated us. He was very friendly. Servers and service staff were all very attentive and friendly. Our ochas and ice waters were constantly being topped off. As for the food, below was our line up:
1. Tofu Sampler: MUST TRY! This is the best tofu I’ve had on the island and all three flavors were different enough so it was light and interesting!
2. Beef Tataki: Dish was tasty but wasn’t mind-​blowing. I wouldn’t feel the need to order this dish again.
3. Karaage: I don’t like dark meat but my husband LOVED it! It was piping hot, crispy, light dusting so the crust was very like and crisp, and the sauce was delicious! MUST TRY!
4. Spicy Tempura Roll: Texture of the rice was perfect and was rolled probably so it didn’t fall apart when we bit into it. The tempura was still warm and crispy! I’m impressed!
5. Mochi Cheese and Nori: This was on the happy hour menu that starts at 9PM. Sounds weird right?! But it’s bomb — the melted Kraft singles on top remind me of my childhood lol!
6. Beef Tendon with Ponzu: This was super tasty! Texture of the texture still had a bit so it was perfect! The Ponzu had a nice citrusy kick and the green onions finished it off nicely. Loved it! It was light and refreshing!
As for the interior of the restaurant, the place was clean, didn’t smell funny, and was open and cozy. We’re super excited to go back again and try a bunch of other dishes that we were eyeballing. Thanks Gazen!!!

Definitely good for inexpensive, late night grinds when you’re craving above average quality sushi.
+ prices are excellent, we ordered the carpaccio, clams, and nigiri and our bill was about $ 45
+ everyone was super friendly and helpful
+ ample free parking
— as soon as we walked in, it reminded me of like a dim-​lit Zippy’s or Flamingo’s. Didn’t feel authentic but it was decent.
Verdict? Oh yeah we are definitely coming here again. When my late night sushi cravings strike, you’ll find me here.

Gazen is a nice place to try Japanese dishes you won’t find typically anywhere else. Sure there’s sushi sashimi and ramen– but what I think sets this place apart is their late hours and their pu pu style approach that is izakaya.
They have seasonal specials and their fish is nice and fresh. I recommend this place to all my friends as it is a nice, laid back izakaya restaurant that has great food and sake selection.
* one thing you have to try is their fresh tofu selection! It really is good and refreshing– in my opinion, better than most desserts! I didn’t take any pictures of it, but believe me it’s really good!

Home made sauces, home made shoyu, and home made fresh tofu — this place is the bomb! Friendly and efficient service. We shared a variety of dishes all very delicious. Portions are on the smaller side but when you order a variety of dishes you will be satisfied. If you love tofu try the tofu sampler here. The pork dish was so tender and the home made sauce complimented it well. The fried chicken was crispy and moist cooked well. The brown rice was full of flavor and fluffy. Fried mochi and cheese with mochi and nori were tasty.

i haven’t been here in years but we found ourselves in town one Sunday evening near Kaimuki with a urge to eat at an Izakaya. We called several places with no luck, Gazen which was a few blocks from where we were had an opening at 7 pm for our party of 3 so off we went!
Food: Everything we ordered was very good. Trying to eat a little healthier, we appreciated alot of the fresh tofu dishes on the menu. We went with the Tofu Sampler (since we couldn’t decide which fresh, homemade tofu we wanted), the Ikura and Chinese Cabbage Salad, Rib Eye Steak, Beef Tongue, and grilled musubi. I would describe the Tofu sampler as «fun» to eat, three of their signature tofu each served with a specific condiment and method to consume. It was fun trying each and comparing we enjoyed. I also orderd a side order of Uni Nigiri. very very good. Lots of Uni, creamy, fresh, salty, really good quality! The rest of the courses were all good, all above standard in my opinion. We finished off with the soymilk pudding and the mochi dessert which were the perfect ending to our meal!
Service: When we called the hostess said there was a big party coming in at 6:00 pm and asked with could wait until 6:15 pm. sure not a problem. We were in the parking lot at approx 5:50 pm but we waited till 6:10 to enter the restaurant. in that time we didn’t see anyone arrive and we entered we didn’t see a large party seated right before us. Minor thing and we figure the 6 pm party was late as there was long table behind our booth with a couple people who seemed to be waiting. Once inside the restaurant, everything was fine.
Atmosphere: Large restaurant, it actually seems larger inside versus the exterior. Open, a little on the dark side, nice space.
Value: I thought the prices were in line with other izakaya’s around town. Nothing out of the ordinary, not super cheap nor more expensive than what we were expecting.
Overall: We’re looking forward to coming back here in the future when we are in the area

One of my favorite izakaya places so far! Parking was kind of tight, so we just parked across the street at market city.
Food was delicious, the spicy tempura roll was my favorite, and I would highly recommend the tofu sampler! They also had an extensive drink menu-​I had the mango pineapple mohito and it was pretty good!
I would suggest making reservations before you come, because it was pretty crowded.

After frequenting places like Izakaya Gaku and Imana’s Tei so many times, it’s so hard to choose an Izakaya that i’m comfortable with because the bar has been set so high that truly enjoying your Izakaya experience at any other place just doesn’t cut it for me. But here at Gazen, this place is really starting to grow on me and all i can say is that this place is slowly becoming a place i can frequent more often because the food here is actually pretty damn good and the price point here is somewhat of a bargain if you ask me.
Located right next to Chevron and right across Market City, this place was crazy packed on a Saturday night last week. They have an array of items that are quite tasty and interesting. The Daikon Salad was really a nice way to start the evening as it was served with a Peanut Oil Dressing and also had senbei crumbles in it which gave it an unusual crunchiness to it but it defintely went well with the salad.
The Chicken Wings were also delicious. It comes with only five wings, but i liked it so much i ordered another one. The Seafood Spring Rolls were simple yet so tasty made with ground shrimp and scallop and served with a sweet sauce. Now if you are a Tofu Lover, you definitely have to try the Homemade Tofu Sampler. The Tofu at Gazen is silky smooth and that’s the way i like it with that creamy texture that just bloes you away.
The Braised Oxtails is another must order here as well. The Oxtail’s were quite meaty and it was braised in a shoyu based sauce. Another item i highly recommend is the Salmon Tartare wIth Cream Cheese and Shiso on Baguette. It may sound simple but when you meld the Salmo, Cream Cheese, and Shiso and put in your mouth, it’s like a symphony of harmonious flavors that are just out of this world delicious how could something so simple taste so damn good.
Another thing that makes Gazen shine is that they have a wonderful cocktail menu and have a Happy Hour where pitchers of Beer are under ten dollars. I really don’t know when Happy Hour starts but that a really good deal if you wanna have a few before you head on home after a hard days work. The cocktail prices here at Gazen are fairly priced if you ask me. They have everything from Sake to Soju to handcrafted cocktails that are so good you have to give it a try. One cocktail i highly recommend is the Kiwi and Apple Chu Hi. It taste way better than a Mojito and you can taste the fresh Kiwi as it is muddled into the drink. And having that Apple flavor in addition to it makes one refreshing libation. You have to give it a try.
If you are a whisky lover, they have Yamazaki for only ten bucks anf high balls for under seven dollars. If you are a Sashimi and Sushi Lover, they have a pretty decent Sushi selection here but not the greatest. They have a lot of fish flown in from Japan which i like and the price point once again is actually not eye gouging and quite reasonable. This particluar evening, they had Anago or Saltwater Eel from Japan and they had it Nigiri Style and let me tell you, it was so good. I also had the Uni too. but it’s doesn’t quite compare to Gaku or Imana’s Tei if you ask me. It was just ok for my tastebuds.
As for the service here, the cute petite asian lady to greeted us at the front was very nice and accommodating. And our server was also very helpful with the menu and gave us some really good suggestions as well. The parking situation at Gazen can get quite tricky because they do only have one parking lot, but there is a reasonable amount of parking space here which makes it quite convenient, but the way Gazen is nowaday’s it might be a pretty hard reservation to get and don’t think that you could just walk into this place thinking there is room available. I remember when we could come here anytime of the evening and get a table because they were always slow, and i really didn’t this place was gonna last because maybe the location wasn’t that great but they proved me wrong.
I am truly happy see Gazen shine and i hope they stay in business for a long time. I love the concept of the menu here and the variety as well. Gazen definitely is a place i would recommend with a group of people and try all sorts of unique stuff that they offer. The portions aren’t skimpy nor are they huge either. But this is definitely a place to just chill and eat wonderful food with great company.
I’m still dreaming about drinking that Fresh Kiwi and Apple Chu Hi the next time i visit Gazen again…

We loved Gazen. I truly appreciate the entire izakaya concept of eating. This place is a bit hard to find, and has a tiny parking lot. The greeting was friendly. The server was very pleasant and informative.
We started with the black sesame fresh tofu was so delicious. The texture is very light but this packs a LOT of flavor. It needs a bit of soy and a few shakes of the Japanese pepper condiment in the little bowl on the table to really wake it up. So good!
We also had the Jako salad with more fresh tofu. Loved the ginger-​orange dressing and the greens were über-​fresh and vibrant.
The pork chop and sushi rolls we had were superb. The only thing I wouldn’t order again due to its strange texture is the sweet potato mochi with Earl Gray sauce. Loved the flavors, though.
This is a bit of a ride from Waikiki but well worth the trip. Would happily eat here again!

I was able to go here for pau hana with my sis in law. I have always wanted to go here because I have heard about their homemade tofu… just never got around to going… until now! And boy was I glad that I did!
The restaurant inside was very nice… lots of hardwood booths… clean and minimalist décor… the service reflected this as well. Everyone was very polite and helpful. In other words, a very ‘Japan-​easy’ type of environment.
We started with happy hour drinks which were yummy and moved on to food specials. We were able to try a few different dishes…
The tofu sampler
Having been able to sample the three types was amazing… and it didn’t disappoint. The different textures and flavors made for a great contrast of tastes. The silken melt-​in-​your-​mouth-​feel alone was worth the experience…
Grilled mochi and cheese with nori
This was interesting… Not a big fan of pairing cheese and japanese food, but this was good… a kind of gooey goodness.
Potato fritters with aonori butter.
The fritters were tasty… sort of a palate cleanser for the other dishes.
Deep fried marinated pork
This had a lot of flavor and was probably one of the first dishes gone… it had a little spice to it which was nice.
Miso spareribs
Not on the happy hour menu, but it was amazing… one of my favorites! The meat literally fell off the bone. So tender and the sauce was so addictive.
Garlic shrimp
This came out towards the end of our dishes and we were kind of full by then… but it was good!
I would definitely go back again to try more food. Some of the happy hour food was a good value as well!
Viva la tofu!!!

This has been a place that I bookmarked for awhile and I’m so happy that we tried this place. It’s located off of Kapiolani Blvd next the Chevron gas station across from Market City. They have their own parking lot and sometimes as I drive by, I see some beautiful cars ranging from classics to new. This is what caught my eye about the place. I didn’t know that it was even a restaurant as the outside is very plain. Once you go inside, you are in a whole new world! It’s surprisingly very nice and well designed! The sushi bar is on your right and there are tables along with private booths in the dining area.
There are so many items to choose from so what do we do? Of course we check on Unilocal to see what others have ordered and see what pictures seem the most appealing! Our server was also very knowledgeable and gave some great recommendations. We got there early so we were able to take advantage of their Happy Hour specials. Hot sake on special? Yes please!
Since they make their tofu fresh daily, this is something that we had to order. There are 3 different types and this was our first time there so we ordered the Homemade Tofu Sampler. One of the tofu dishes had a sesame taste that was very savory with a splash of shoyu and wasabi. Another is their plain tofu that you can sprinkle some regular salt or tea salt. It was a very interesting flavor with the tea salt but I liked it. Last tofu dish was very good, my favorite out of the 3 that you can enjoy as is. It was a little sweet and was swimming in a soy milk broth that compliments the tofu perfectly.
One of their most popular dishes that we saw on Unilocal was the Deep Fried Tofu Mochi «Agedashi» Style and I now know why! It’s by far the best dish that we had in our meal. We couldn’t even tell the mochi balls were tofu while eating it. It really had a nice mochi texture. The broth it was in blended with the mochi balls in perfect melody. This is a MUST ORDER if you’re there!
Our server recommended the Beer Batter Fish Fritter’s prepared Japanese Style. The dish came with a slice of lemon that we used over the fish pieces. I’m not a big fan of cooked fish but this dish was good. It didn’t have a fishy taste thanks to the tasty beer batter and the unique tartar sauce. The flavors didn’t go too well with my sake so I didn’t care for this dish much. If you like fish, I’m sure you’ll be in for a treat.
We love beef tongue so we ordered the Grilled Beef Tongue with Jalapeño-​Miso Sauce. The pieces of tongue were more like chunks versus what we like which is thinly sliced. It made the tongue very chewy and hard to eat. The Jalapeño-​Miso Sauce was more of a thick paste on top that we didn’t like very much. It was a little much and overpowered the tongue. Sad to say that the onion that came with the dish was my favorite.
Our final dish was from their Happy Hour menu and it was their Gazen Style Spicy Beef. It was delicious! Wasn’t spicy at all! The meat wasn’t too chewy and packed full of flavor. It was cooked to about medium or so which left it still juicy as you bite into it. This was one of our favorite items of the night. We will defiantly order this again the next time we come.
Overall, we had a great experience here thanks to the great food and our fantastic server. Solid 4 stars! I would recommend you going in a small group if it’s your first time so that you can try a little bit of everything to see what you like. This restaurant just proves that you can’t judge a book by it’s cover.