Tae’s Teppanyaki

Actually the steak roll is the best! I’ve had this 8 times in the last 3 weeks! Addictive! It’s thinly sliced steak wrapped around shredded potato over cabbage. Pour the shoyu vinegar sauce over everything with the garlic chips. Delicious! Unfortunately their closing this location. :(But you can get it at the other location across from Palama Market near Don Quijote on Makaloa St. Got to get there. Both my wife and I are addicted to the steak roll.

Place is good but, they should post hours correctly or state the hours on the phone.

Tae’s is awesome! Our first time here, we’ll be back for sure. I had the Pork Sukiyaki and hubby had 808Steak. The sukiyaki was delish, loved the ginger shoyu flavor. The egg on top was done perfect. The steak was a perfectly seasoned and grilled New York steak. Hubby was hungry so he also ordered a fried chicken thigh which he said wasn’t too bad, and a Pork Kushikatsu, The kushikatsu was yummy. Deep fried pieces of pork with onions served on a stick. There is also a Chicken Kushikatsu, will try that next time.
The guy that took our order was really nice and patient. He must have known it was our first time there, so he explained the menu, and what the popular items are.

Ever since this location opened, I’ve come as often as I could because the steak rolls are just awesome. Then they came out with a bulgogi dog which unfortunately got pulled from the menu. It looks like there was enough demand for it because they brought it back as a bulgogi sandwich. But what I have come to really enjoy is their beef sukiyaki plate. It feels like a lot and the price is reasonable. I’ve been told that they are going to add some new items next week. Can’t wait… they are going to start doing fried items and appears will be like okazuya style (premade and stored in a display case). Can’t wait to give it a try when they start next week. (Estimated November 4^th)

They close at 6. Junk for people coming in after work «fo grind.»

CASH ONLY!
Thanks to the reviews I’ve read before coming here, I was able to grab some cash before venturing out here to this place for a quick bite. It would’ve been easy to pull out the plastic and pay that way, but then again, every place is different. I actually found Tae’s Teppanyaki on my handy dandy Unilocal app, perfect when you’re on the go. I wanted something different, yet familiar without going too much over budget while checking out a new place. Thanks to Unilocal,I have found it! Tae’s Teppanyaki may not be much, but it’s packed with passion and pizzaz! Perfect for your quick lunch or early dinner options, Tae’s Teppanyaki is the real deal. Although it can be regarded as a small fast food joint, this place is bad ass! Almost reminds me of an L&L Hawaiian BBQ restaurant, but smaller.
Located in the heart of Kalihi, inside the Palama Super market, I had an interesting time finding this place. Small options abound, but what can you expect. The steak roll plate appeal to me, so I got that with garlic fried rice. The quality of the steak was as good as any other fast food place that I have visited. Nice and chewy, but not as dry as some of the others. The fried rice has seen better days, but it tasted pretty good. The steak plate can be pricey, but you know what, YOLO, so that’s what I did. The other plates were $ 8, but I got the more pricier option instead. I saw the bulgogi dog for $ 3 on the Unilocal photos and that looked real good. I am sure I would need to come back and buy that sometime, but for now, the steak roll plate with garlic fried rice was decently good for the price I have paid. The overall service was like any other fast food joint: order, pay, and wait for food. The parking itself was crazy, but I was dropped off by a co-​worker who happened to want to shop at the Palama Market, so here I was getting lunch for the both of us.
The lady at the counter knew I was a first timer here, so she helped me out in deciding what I wanted to eat, so that was nice. I also got 2 large sodas to accompany the meals that I got. I ordered the same thing for my co-​worker. Hope she didn’t mind that. There was also tables and chairs around Tae’s Teppanyaki, so you can sit down and enjoy your lunch or dinner. Almost like Ala Moana’s Makai Market food court. I never used the sauce that they gave me. Maybe I should have though, huh? Maybe next time. I can’t say that this place is as good as other reviewers have said. It is rather good, but not mind blowing good as they have rated. Still, it is worth checking out just once just to see if it is worth the hype. But for me, I decided it was just ok. Sorry to say that. I would be better off with L&L BBQ Drive Inn or New Diner’s Drive Inn in Kalihi.
More variety is the spice of life.
Support local!
B–

I have been a fan of Tae’s Teppanyaki for a few years now, however it is hard to get Tae’s since the one near Ala Moana closes by 6 and sometimes they sell out before then. Then, a friend told me that they opened a new location in the new Palama Market in Kalihi. I figured, I have to try this new location.
The parking is a little weird — as other Unilocalers have said, some stalls are doubled, so if you park near the fence, then you could be blocked by another customer. At least there is ample parking available; I remember the Tae’s by Ala Moana didn’t have much parking, so you would have to revert to street parking and be lucky if you could find the stall.
The Palama Market location is very nice. The market itself is new and well-​organized. They have two eateries inside with tables and chairs you can sit at to enjoy your food.
Even though Tae’s has a smaller menu, all of their items are delicious, so I still have a difficult time choosing what to order. The employee at the counter saw my dilemma and described the menu items. She was very friendly and helpful. I decided to get the steak roll with wasabi ponzu sauce.
The steak roll was as good as I remembered! There was the thinly sliced, tender beef rolled around potato strings/​noodles. The roll is already cut into smaller pieces to make it easier to eat. The beef was seasoned well, but you need to dip it in their ponzu sauce. The tang of ponzu is so good with the beef and it flavors the potato strings. I originally thought the wasabi ponzu sauce would be a pre-​mixed blend of ponzu sauce and wasabi. However, they gave me a container of ponzu sauce and a separate container with a large dollop of wasabi — basically, I mix the wasabi into the sauce. I loved that I could make it as spicy as I wanted it. The also offer garlic ponzu sauce and regular ponzu sauce.
When I’m craving rice and beef, I will definitely come back for another steak roll or get the sukiyaki bowl.

Awesome! Now I don’t have to drive out to Kaheka/​Makaloa. It’s been awhile since I had the steak roll plate. When I heard there was a Tae’s Teppanyaki in the new Palama Supermarket I had to check it out.
So I ordered my favorite steak roll plate with the garlic ponzu sauce. The worker told me that their flavors are different than the shop on Makaloa. He said the cook uses jalapenos for the spicy ponzu sauce.
The steak roll was very satisfying. The quality of the steak meat was good just like the original place. The garlic sauce was light and not as overwhelming like the garlic chips. I like the bed of cabbage because it can take the heat of the steak better than the lettuce. I remember past plate lunches the lettuce got soggy or wilted.
Overall this was a nice change up. Next time I’ll try the spicy sauce and the garlic fried rice! I also hope they add the pork roll plate to the menu.

CASH ONLY. Open daily 9:30a-7pm. Free and plenty of stupid tandem parking if you’re lucky.
Located inside Palama Supermarket is the second branch of Tae’s Teppanyaki. The menu is a bit different here, so don’t look for those garlic chips or wasabi in your steak rolls, because you won’t find it. Instead they’ve infused all the great flavors into the magical sauce.
The menu is simple: for $ 8, choose steak roll, kalbi or beef sukiyaki. For $ 10.50 you can get a steak plate. My favorite is the sukiyaki plate $ 8, topped with an over-​EASY egg. It’s heavenly when I break the runny yolk all over the juicy, thinly-​sliced, perfectly marinated pork.
Four stars for now but I’m going to eat my way through the entire menu and will update in 3 days.
P. S. I just saw the bulgogi dog $ 3 appear on the menu… you know you want it.

Steak roll was good. I guess it would’ve been better if I ate it right away, but waited 30 minutes til I got to my destination. My friends have ordered toppings on it, but I still have yet to try it. Overall, I guess it’s the shoyu sauce that makes it really tasty.

After reading so much about this place, I convinced my sister to give this place a try. Got the steak roll plate lunch w/​garlic fried rice and DISAPPOINTED. The food definitely looks better than it tastes.
The meat was on the dry side and the shredded raw daikon inside left a funny taste. The garlic fried rice was cold and therefore didn’t have much of a taste to it. Lastly, in the pictures of the other Tae’s, I saw chunks of romaine lettuce on the bottom of the steak roll and this place gave shredded cabbage.
I can say I tried this place and definitely not eager to eat at this place again.
one word to describe this place: OVERRATED

Same great stuff as the other Tae’s and one of the former chefs from Suntory is now working there.