Nippon Take Out & Catering

Great place to grab a quick snack or lunch when you don’t feel like waiting in line with the downtown crowd. I usually grab a couple of mini-​bentos and some butter mochi. Can’t really beat the prices… its not gourmet, but its a quick fix.

It was a cold day (when it’s actually colder outside than inside an air conditioned building) and I went out with coworkers and I was looking for soup. We went to Remington, and I noticed this place had cheap food. I decided to order a chicken cutlet curry ramen, even though it wasn’t on the menu.
Likes: They gave a lot of food for being under $ 6. The chicken cutlet was pretty good. Also, they had butter mochi for $ 1 a piece. It was pretty good.
Dislikes: The curry was weird. It was really sweet and it had a lot of ground beef in it. When I ate it with the noodles, it reminded me of Filipino spaghetti that tasted like curry.
With the cheap prices, I’ll be back. I’d just avoid the curry, unless you like yours with a cup of sugar.

Love this place for a quick and cheap lunch in downtown! This place offers a great variety of bentos at different sizes and prices.
They have $ 2.50 mini-​bentos (assorted combinations, but i usually go for mochiko chicken and a rice ball) and $ 1 vegetable sides. On days where the office AC is cranked up, I’ll order a beef stew bowl for only $ 4!
For the price the food is actually really good, but don’t try to compare it to freshly made lunches that are double or triple the cost!
As a bonus, the cashier lady is always sweet and efficient!

#109/​365
I’ve been meaning to try this place and I finally got a chance when my co-​workers wanted to order some bentos for lunch. They have a vast selection of bentos with fish, beef, chicken, pork, you name it and with very reasonable prices at that. I got the butterfish and vegetable stir fry bento for $ 6 and you can also get a choice of brown rice for .50 extra. The butterfish was pretty good, not AS moist as others i’ve had but then again its sitting in a enclosed container so its not truly «fresh.» It was still moist though and very flavorful like a butterfish should be. It came with 1 medium and 1 small sized piece so not too bad. Their stir fry veggies was pretty good too, no distinct flavors going on but it was simple so that was nice. Overall i’d def like to try more of their bentos…

I am hoping this is the same bento place that my office gets their bentos!
Every Monday and Friday, the bento guy comes and all the girls in my office attack him. Most of the bento’s ar $ 5.75 down depending on what you get. I really, really love his mochiko chicken. For that price, you get this huge chunk of mochiko chicken, a big ass piece of spam, 3 pieces of gyoza, some noodles and rice. I am in heaven. He also takes checks! I love his guy!
the mochiko is really sweet too. But I did wish he chopped it up so it wasn’t this big ass piece of chicken. His kim chee is pretty good too but it’ll smell up the entire office! just a heads up!

If you ever find yourself with a miso butterfish or mochiko chicken craving and you’re stuck in Downtown Honolulu, head over to Nippon Take Out on Alakea Street (between Merchant and Queen).
They are a great quick bento fix and sell sides like kim chee, pickled watercress and bean sprouts in case you want to round out your lunch. They also have lots of combo options if you can’t make up your mind. For example, I recently sampled miso butter fish and chicken eggplant combo. They easily have butterfish and mochiko chicken, salmon and mochiko chicken… Well, you get the picture.
By no means would I count this as the best meal ever. After all, it’s pre-​made bento! But at $ 6, it definitely satisfied the tastebuds and the pocket book, leaving lot’s of $$ left over for an afternoon coffee run.
Another good thing to note, Nippon Take Out is open long after the lunch rush has come and gone. So, if you are a worker bee staying late at the office, it’s something to keep in mind when there’s nothing left in the office fridge to grind.

I love this place so much, I’ve gotten others hooked on it! I’m always treated so well there by the lady behind the counter, everyone there smiles and is super friendly. This is home to my favorite mochiko chicken bento, and I have been known to go there 3 times a week! It is a great, nearby lunch stop and the quality is always dependable. I recommend to EVERYONE.

I stop in here for lunch every once in a while. The little Japanese lady cashier is always quite friendly. They have a sizable selection of food and for the most part it’s all pretty good. I normally get the chicken katsu or the gyoza. I’ve also had the somen here before and have yet to be disappointed. Honestly, you get what you pay for and for $ 6 – 7 I don’t mind eating here once or twice a month.
On a side note, it’s always funny to watch the little Japanese lady from Nippon Catering and the Chinese ladies from the Chinese restaurant right across from them competing for customers. When business gets slow they stand in their respective doorways and try to entice people in by displaying their food and shouting their prices. I imagine doing that day after day must breed some pretty strong rivalries.

Today everyone in the office ordered take-​out from Nippon’s downtown location. I got a small for about $ 6. Included was mochiko chicken, one slice of spam, a mando, sitting on a bed of rice sprinkle of furikaki, and one slice of koko.
The chicken wasn’t crunchy (how I like it), but it had pretty good flavor. The spam made up for the lack of any other sort of salty flavor (shoyu). I probably could have went without the mandoo though.
Overall the small was pretty filling for lunch. The mochiko chicken was good enough for me to state that I’d go back and order it from there again.