Sushi Izakaya Shinn

Came in on a whim for Happy Hour with a few friends. Small but nice izakaya with pretty awesome service.
Happy Hour lasts from 5:30p-6:30pm with $ 5 — $ 7 drinks ranging from beer to wines.
Food quality is pretty good especially for the steal price you pay. Items worth mentioning: Beef Tongue, Butterfish, Beef Tataki, and the Mochi Bacon.
We ended up staying for a few hours. So if you miss Happy Hour, this place is still great for dinner on a whim. Definitely going again!

This is a nice izakaya with good food and a few parking stalls available in the little lot after the restaurant. It shares the parking with the bakery and noodle restaurant.
What I like about this place is that it’s low key — it’s located on a one way street that was on its way to being a foodie district and then fizzled. The interior is modern and, some would say, even fancy.
The food is your standard izakaya fair done fairly well. There is a good selection of alcohol beverages. Overall, yeah, I like it, head nod, yeah.

This was our second trip here. We live in the area and can’t believe we waited so long to try this place! The food is definitely quality stuff and the prices are what you would expect to pay for quality sushi and robata items.
What has me and my husband hooked on this place is the service. Like I said, this was only our second time at Izakaya Shinn, and the wait staff remembered me and my husband, remembered where we sat on our first visit (which happened to be the same table), and even what beers we were drinking. AMAZING! I’ve never been anywhere that the staff remembers me on my second visit!
I really like that while this restaurant always seems busy, the atmosphere somehow still manages to be quiet and laid back at the same time. We’ve been to a few other izakaya places, but Shinn has quickly become our favorite. We’ll be back for sure!

The BEST Happy Hour!
Mix Skewers $ 9 is the MUST!!!
5 kinds of Skewers are perfectly cooked with SHIO and TARE! I know Miyuki-​San does great job at ROBATA grill. Lever skewers always came out perfect as medium rare inside! Yummy!
Huge Oysters from Washington were so good! Fresh and flavorful! They were big size so perfect for grill too!

Just some of the most delicious Japanese food I have had on this Island. Clean and fresh. The bacon wrapped mochi is a must.

Went here based on a recommendation. Service was impeccable and the quality of the sushi amazing. Highly recommend to anyone looking for an authentic experience and not some tourist trap. Reasonable prices too.

The service improved drastically tonight; however there weren’t many other customers either. The food, as usual, was great and they provided our desert (see photo) for free. They also added a page to their menu.

Oh so Ono! They have made it on our favorite places to eat list. Easy parking and online reservations make it sooo convenient. Our must haves: tempura Uni & crab cream croquette. Sooo awesome!

Parking can be a bit hard to find during the busy dinner rush. But you can always find some street parking nearby or near the residential areas and walk a bit.
If you have a medium sized party about 5 – 7 you might be seated in the upstairs portion of the restaurant. This gives a cooler/​exclusive setting for everyone.
The bacon wrapped mochi is something to try. and if you like it you can always order more.
The butterfish and garlic butter scallops are a must try!

We just had dinner at Shinn and were surprised at how great the food was (saw mixed reviews on Unilocal). We started with the Watercress/​Hijiki salad, nicely chilled crunchy watercress mixed with delicious tangy dressing and cold tofu which was silky and soft.
We tried the assorted grilled skewers, there was a mixture of beef, pork, peppers and chicken. All different and delicious, the same goes for the asparagus and bacon. Had the fried chicken and ginger pork, which came out steaming hot and was very yummy. We finished with some refreshing green tea ice cream. We will be back and can’t wait to try other things on their menu. The
parking is plentiful.

My wife and I dined here last night. It is one of our regular places. We always sit at the Robata counter as it is cozier and has more subdued lighting than the main dining room. (Tip, although the tables look nice in the main dining room, the customers seated against the wall have nothing to lean back on – hard to explain, you will know what I mean when you see the restaurant.)
Yoshiko the hostess is always very friendly and very helpful and we enjoy being greeted by her when we visit Shinn. These are our favorites: the nigiri is perfect, the chicken yakitori, the shrimp tempura, and the beef tataki. Last night they had a soft shell crab special which was delicious. I think it only runs till the end of the month but I hope they add it permanently to their menu.
All in all, we have never had a bad dish at Shin and they carry one of my favorite (and reasonably priced) red wines, Clos Du Val.

The Yakitori that we had here was by far the best we had since we came back from Japan.
The Oden was done professionally and made me want to eat more especially the tamago and hanpen.
From the ambience to the waiter that served us we gave them 4 stars and lack the 5^th star due to the female hostess that checked us in. She had no personality and kept telling us that we couldn’t order through her though she was helping other tables:(
All in all we recommended this place over many other izakayas in Honolulu.
Priced right and yes we would go back again.

Great tasting food at very reasonable prices. Fantastically friendly and attentive staff. Very nice ambiance. Will be coming back soon!

It’s been quite sometime since my last visit and I must say, my previous review needs an update. The food here is great. With a wide selection of foods to eat, it’s easy for a pick-​a-​terian like me to be a happy camper. Service is good too! AC is bumpin’ in the back so if you’re in the hot humidity outside, you should go to Shinn to cool off with some great food. My tip would be to go before 6:30 pm so you can order off the happy hour menu and try lots of different items. Go go go!
Parking is an ease as there is a free lot next to it.

Lately it seems like this place is getting a bad rap, & I’m not sure why. Husband & I went here for a rare date night & we weren’t disappointed! Beef tataki wrapped uni was awesome as was the otoro nigiri that was melt-​in-​your-​mouth deliciousness! Service was also awesome! Sushi chef kept flirting with me which was cute! Definitely recommend… check it out!!!

I’ve had good service the last four times I’ve been there but tonight — I think will be my last. A friend and I were the first ones in there. We did not have a reservation dinner so we sat at the sushi bar. Which was fine. We ordered sushi, sake, chicken. Our bill was $ 85. As we were leaving we saw the person next to us read a «weekly special menu» — which we did not get!!! And not once did any of the service come to us and ask if all was fine. Why!!! I did not look Japanese? So sad.

This izakaya has still got a wonderful ambience with all the cool stone walls around the sushi counter and zashiki seating at the back. While it used to be difficult getting an early reservation a year or two ago, early same night reservations are often easily accommodated now. Part of it probably has to do with the spotty service mentioned by other Unilocalers. Another reason may be simple nigiri, sashimi, and robata are their strengths and they do not do other familiar izakaya dishes or creative Japanese fushion well.
If you dine here you will probably be surrounded by Japanese nationals, including families and groups, and you may feel less catered to. Don’t despair. Japanese are used to receiving attentive service and don’t hesitate to ask when they need something, so do the same. The local servers are probably more than happy to assist you with the menu.
Unfortunately, they do not seem to have much business beyond their initial first covers. The food is good. But, when a place this nice is almost empty for most of the evening you wonder how long they can survive.

I love Japanese food. Love love love Japanese food. And so maybe I’m just really critical, but I was a tad disappointed. In a city where there are a plethora of Japanese restaurants – many of them izakaya and/​or sushi types – it’s all the more important to distinguish yourself from other Japanese restaurants. And this place just seems… okay. Not bad, but definitely not «oh my goodness, i need to go back to this place.» Perhaps it’s more of an americanized izakaya than I would prefer, but still… it’s just okay.
The robata is fine. I’m pretty ambivalent toward robata and skewered meats, but if whoever i’m with is in the mood for it, then sure.
Shrimp dynamite was strange – I feel as though it was more of an american dish, almost like something you’d find at a chili’s-type of restaurant, rather than a Japanese izakaya. It was so cheesy and onion-​y. It wasn’t bad in of itself, but it just didn’t taste very Japanese. It came with rice, which was so strange because since i don’t know anyone who has rice and cheese together – weird.
Deluxe sushi – I like sushi, authentic sushi, and they had that there. It wasn’t the best or freshest tasting, but it was still fine. Since the place is more americanized of an izakaya, perhaps ordering nigiri wasn’t the best idea, but since sushi is my favoritest food in the world, I was hoping for better.

It’s been about a year since the first time I ever tried Shinn. I really enjoy coming here for dinners! The food is always fresh and comes out timely. The staff is always friendly and attentive to our needs.
This Izakaya is definitely one of my favorite places to go. I have yet to come here and have a disappointing experience.
On my most recent visit, I noticed they updated the menu and had new specials. I could not believe my eyes when I saw that they now have an UNI special.
WHAT WHAT WHAT!!! I have never been to a restaurant that has an UNI special. So of course after seeing this I just had to order it.
The uni special includes Uni Beef Tataki, Uni Tempura, Uni Chawanmushi, and Mini Uni Donburi. Now you have two options here, you can order all for dishes for $ 39 or you can order them individually ($ 12 – 18 each).
The Grub:
[[ UNI SPECIAL $ 39 ]] I have never been to a restaurant that has an UNI special. This is simply AMAZING to me because I love love love Uni.
– UNI BEEF TATAKI –
This dish was uni wrapped in thin slices of beef. Super good and flavorful.
– UNI TEMPURA –
I thought this was interesting; it came with three choices of salt instead of tempura dipping sauce. I have no idea what each salt was but it was good.
– UNI CHAWANMUSHI –
This was the first time I ever had Chawanmushi. For my first time trying this, it was delicious!
– UNI DONBURI MINI –
This was the best Donburi I have ever had! YUM YUM. Out of the four dishes this was by far my favorite.
[[ GENKI JIRUSHI $ 11 ]]
One of my must haves everytime I visit Shinn. I love this dish :)
[[ OYSTERS ]]
Who doesn’t love fresh oysters?
[[ MISO BUTTERFISH $ 12 ]]
I really enjoy the butterfish here. They never have a lot of bones like other places.

I saw this place open a few months ago, but never paid much attention to this place…
Little did I know, this small restaurant tucked away in the Moiliili area is a gem!!! What can I say about the food… the fish they serve over here is very FRESH!
We ordered an array of items (please see pics) —
1. Sushi Deluxe — Fish was very fresh!
2. Watercress Salad — A unique tasting salad… I just loved it!
3. Shrimp Tempura — The hugest shrimp I’ve ever seen. I think the shrimp was on steroids!
4. Steak — Forgot to take a pic, but it came on a sizzling plate. Made to perfection!
5. Kaarage Chicken — Hot & juicy!!!
6. Musubi — Forgot to take a pic… just a plain ordinary musubi.
7. Fried Hamachi — Fish was so soft… you could cut it with a fork… just like butta!!!
The food was awesome to say the least! Service was fast & friendly, with the waiters being very attentive.
There is a private parking lot which is shared with the other restaurants (Mini Garden & a Japanese Bakery).
Décor of the restaurant is very mod, and trendy…