Yaki Yaki Miwa

The food was very good. We sat at the counter. The reason for the 3 stars is how unfriendly the female server and teppan chef were. The server took our order without a smile, seemed bored. The chef made no eye contact and said not one word to us even when we told him how good the steak was. Mid way through our meal a rather glamorous looking Japanese couple sat beside us and ordered a bottle of Rindo (very expensive). The same server and chef were all smiles and very personable to this couple — I can’t help but thinking that this restaurant is nice to Japanese and/​or big spenders and the rest of us are lucky that they allow us in at all. We left feeling like second class citizens.

Me and my wife are from Kansai (Osaka/​Kobe area) which is the ORIGIN Local of OKONOMIYAKI.
Simply said, we made homemade OKONOMIYAKI the very next day ourselves, because we are not satisfied.

I crave KONAMON once in awhile. I like Teppanyaki Korokoro steak & seafood combo and Hormon Yaki to start.
Negiyaki and Modan yaki are my favorite.

I absolutely love this place!!! My wife and I come here often… and it helps that she knows one of the chefs. When her parents are in town from Tokyo Yaki Yaki Miwa is a must go for them… sometimes more than once in the short time that they are here.
That aside… the food is always fresh… and delicious. Depending on what you order, the ingredients are the star… not excessive sauces and seasonings. Japanese and English speaking staff… as well as menus… make it easy to navigate through your dinner selections. They always have an amazing selection of specials from high end Wagyu steak, to Big Island abalone, to affordable scallops from Hokkaido… this changes as seasonal availability changes… obviously. There is a good selection of beer, wine, champagne, sake, sochu, and non-​alcoholic beverages. The atmosphere is intimate and friendly. FYI… if you sit at the bar it can get a little warm because the chefs are cooking right in front of you… but this is where we prefer to sit.
I can’t compliment this place, the cleanliness, the staff, the warm inviting atmosphere, and the food enough!!! ONE OF MY FAVORITES in town.

One of our favorite spots for different Japanese cuisine. A fun place to try okonomiyaki. Be sure to make rezzies if you have more than 2 people. The best seats are right in front of the two chefs.

Everything from the poke to the scallops were delicious. This was an adventure outside of my usual dining experiences and thoroughly enjoyable. Great service and reasonable pricing.

Get ready to drool! I literally loved everything I’ve ever eaten here.
Okonomiyaki is personally one of my favorite foods. I mean, you marry a pancake with beef or seafood, grill it, then put mayo and sweet okonomiyaki sauce on it? YES PLEASE! Sadly, you can’t find too many places that serve okonomiyaki on Oahu. I think I’ve pretty much tried them all. I have to say, drum roll please, this is probably my favorite! I love the beef modan-​yaki here because I prefer my okonomiyaki with noodles. It was perfectly made and hit my stomach and my heart in all the right places.
I also love the garlic fried rice here and the korokoro steak. The steak is such high quality and literally melts in your mouth. It’s served with a generous helping of veggies. They also bring out ponzu sauce, shoyu, and some kind of tartar like sauce to dip all your food in.
You can eat at the counter and watch everything be cooked in front of you if you’re on a date. Dinner and a show! However, if you have a bigger group, don’t fear. You can sit at the tables which all have a small grill on it. Why the small gril? To keep the food they bring to you warm! So smart! I absolutely love this place!
What’s also good here? The mochi cheese tama (a kind of okonomiyaki) and the kinako pudding for dessert. Yum!
And what is so cute here? When you order sake, they bring a basket of sake cups and let you pick which one you want to drink out of! Love it!
The service is very friendly and there is street parking. Make reservations ahead of time because this place can get busy!

One slice of bread = $ 3
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.
…
This is $$$$ price restaurant.
Food was ok. Typical food not so special. But I think they charge Tokyo price in Hawaii.
Ordered Seafood special which is $ 28 and include 3 shrimp and 4 pieces of squid + some veggie.
Next up Beef special. $ 24. 8 pieces and was very tender because about half of the meat was fat. We had kimch+pork appetizer, small okonomiyaki and their desert special that waitresses mixed powders in front of us.
My two years old boy like the taste of toast and we asked for a piece and they charged of $ 3.
With this price, I could go to Aulani buffet which is cheaper and 1000% better than this place.

6:30 pm Halloween evening and it’s time for dinner. whip out our trusty phones to bring up Unilocal to guide us. We were standing on Keeaumoku Street which have tons of dining options within a few minutes in every direction. We notice Yaki Yaki Miwa has 4.5 starts and is right around the corner. I could go for some Teppanyaki so off we go. I’ve driven by here literally hundreds of times and never noticed this place. We walk in, cool space, small, we get two seats at the bar right in front of the chef. Lot’s of specials written on the board, looking like a good choice!
Food: We order a variety of items including the rare tuna steak, the butter octopus, and grilled vegetable assortment. The tuna steak was cooked perfectly with lots of garlic topping it. The butter octopus was tender, not chewy at all. My wife had asked that the veggies be prepare without butter and I think the chef took that literally for all of our dishes so he did not use any butter for our butter octopus either. I imagine it would be even better if the octopus were able to gently soak in bath of warm butter but it was still good regardless. Our one regret was we didn’t order any okonomiyaki, guess we need to leave something for next time. They also had a variety of sake, sochu, and beer to help quench your thirst.
Service: Just a few tables but they had ample servers here to always pay close attention to your needs. Polite, attentive, great service.
Atmosphere: It’s a great place in my opinion, step through the doors and you don’t even realize you are at the intersection of two major streets in the area. Table service from what we could see looked very interesting, chef would prepare the dish on the large grill, servers would pick it up and place it on the party’s table top grill. We enjoyed our seats next to grill but it does tend to get some of the ambient heat coming off the surface at times.
Value: On the pricier side, especially if you order some of the specialty items (i.e. wagyu beef). Ingredients are fresh though and they deliver the corresponding quality for your dollar.
Overall: Definitely warrants a return visit to try their different okonomiyaki dishes!

Park in the rear or in front the restaurant is best. With a few tables to seat, highly recommended to make reservations to sit at the teppanyaki station.
As frequent customer, here are few thing we religiously order: Hotate or Tako Butter Sautè, Wagyu Fillet Mignon, Okonomiyaki. If you like side order the Poke Salad, and definitely do their Kimchee as found that it’s make in house. Clams is seasonal, highly recommended along with the Fillet Mignon. Overall, a bit pricey, but worth every bite.

Tried calling in for reservations for the other day, but they were full. Managed to set a reservation for tonight for me and two friends. They had never tried okonomiyaki before, and I knew that this place wasn’t going to let us down.
Okonomiyaki is Osaka-​ryuu here, so it’s not layered on top of yakisoba noodles like in Hiroshima. We got a Mix Tama (pork, shrimp, and squid), a Super Pork Tama, and a Mochi Cheese Tama. We also got a Korokoro Steak and the Miwa Original Dynamite. If we had more money we would have gotten the higher grade steak, which was on special, imported from Kagoshima, Japan.
We really enjoyed all of our food. My friends especially enjoyed the dynamite.
It might help you to tag along with someone who speaks Japanese. We were the only group that had at least one non-​speaker. I’d also probably make my reservation under a Japanese last name because they had a slight miscommunication when I tried to check in using my real last name.

Recently obsessed with okonomiyaki! Delicious, warm, savory type «pancakes» originating from Osaka. Yaki Yaki Miwa does it the best, better than Chibo Waikiki. It’s also more personal, since there staff are all from Japan and the restaurant itself is small and has an intimate feel.
More so than the okonomiyaki, Yaki Yaki Miwa’s gratin is MUST! Gooey cheese over a bed of rice mixed with seafood sounds simple but the taste is incredible. It’s cooked right on the same flat bed grill they use to make the okonomiyaki hehe. They also have specials like foie gras from time to time.
Like mentioned, it’s a restaurant on the smaller side. Make reservations! Sitting in front of the cooks station is also really fun.

Spendy and small portion size. All prices went up by $ 2 to $ 4 from the menu photos posted here. We ordered the Pork Tama, Special Tama, Kimchee Negi, Seafood Dynamite, and the Kimchee fried rice.
Kimchee fried rice is eggless and not worth the cost. A small bowl of rice mixed with some kimchee, something gelatin, and a lot of chopped green onions. The rice to green onion ratio was probably equal. This was a one serving entrée but the price made it seem like it would be enough for a family of three or four to share. SKIP.
Pork Tama was the cheapest okonomiyaki on the menu. I’d advise to skip and splurge on the ones with more seafood or meat. Pork is essentially one or two pieces of uncured bacon whereas the shank meat is the actual pork meat. Their Pork Tama consisted of two pieces of fresh uncured bacon cooked on a teppan style flat griddle. The meat is mixed into the flour based mixture. Once both sides are cooked, an egg is cracked on the bottom and yolk broken, then the top gets the mayo and sauce mix. The bacon pieces are lost in this thick sized pancake.
Special Tama consisted of seafood, shank meat, and potatoes. It costs a lot more but the quality is a lot better than the basic pork version. You can actually see and taste the seafood, shank meat and potatoes.
Kimchee Negi consisted of kimchee and pork (one piece of bacon). A thinner version of the Okonomiyaki but equally good. Kimchee is not that spicy, a bit more heat than the Costco version. This tastes like it’s homemade. Recommended.
Seafood Dynamite: A shallow oval ramekin consisting of fresh seafood, onions, mayo and cheese. Cheesy but flavorful. Recommended.
Reservation is a must. Saw families without reservations turned down at the door. No street parking available on weekdays till 6:30pm.

lots of good food! settled for the deluxe set for three people and added on garlic fried rice (great choice) and the seafood modan-​yaki (even better choice).
the deluxe set comes with avocado tomato poke, grilled shrimps and scallops, grilled steak, special tama okonomiyaki, kimchee pork, kimchee sobameshi, two desserts kinnako milk pudding and a $ 1 extra for sweet potato with green tea ice cream. (btw completely worth it) the portions are a bit on the smaller side but highlights were the modan-​yaki that is basically okonomiyaki with noodles. (win) and the grilled steak. they add konnyaku (or konjac) to everything! finished with some sweet potato with green tea ice cream. they mashed the sweet potato and grill it then plop it on top of sweet green tea ice cream. drool.
the two guys at the grill are super friendly and fun to watch. I recommend sitting at the counter, it’ll be a little warm but the guys working (one was a loud very smiley guy and the other was a modern looking samurai) both guys super cool and amazingly didn’t seem to sweat at all while making all the food.
overall, a great experience. every one is super friendly with great service. just don’t expect it to be a fast meal if you need to something afters. it took us nearly two hrs. worth it. enjoy!

I was so lucky to get a dinner reservation on my birthday! I went out with two of my best friends and we got the basic set which consists of Mix Salad, Pork Kimchee, Korokoro Steak and Seafood Combo, Super Pork Tama, Glaric Fried Rice, and 2 servings of Ice cream to share for $ 59.99 not counting tax or tip.
Let me tell you the Korokoro steak and seafood combo, was amazing! The steak was tender & soft. It was perfection. My friends are picky eaters, but that night they loved everything! The Super Pork Tama and the beef Tama is bomb. Super savory goodness food. You have to try it. If you go there and don’t try one of their tamas, idk what you’re there for.
The staff is super friendly. If you don’t speak Japanese, speak English slowly please. :) They accommodated our needs when we wanted 2 tamas and no fried rice! I got free matcha ice cream as a birthday gift from the restaurant!

I am usually on the same page as Unilocalers when it come to ratings but not with this place. We came here for my fathers day dinner and I pretty much left upset and unsatisfied.
It all started with their SERVICE. We made dinner reservations for 6:30 and we were the first customers in there. The restaurant filled up very shortly after but sadly, we were one of the last customers to get our food. I did notice that there were Japanese speaking customers who were last to come into the restaurant and first to get their food. Now I know that I may not have understood what was truly going on but from my point of view it looked discriminatory.
When we finally got our FOOD, the portions turned out to be smaller than I was expecting for the PRICE they charge. I even think that the beer is overpriced. It’s 25 dollars for a pitcher of Asahi. For a pitcher? hahah that’s ludacris. I will say that the quality of their food is really good. That is the only positive thing I can say about my experience here. We ordered the Dashi Tamago, the Miwa original dynamite, the Miwa Special which has seafood and potato, and Fried Rice which they forgot about. The best dish was probably the dynamite and the worst was the dashi tamago which was too salty.
The ENVIRONMENT is your standard Japanese looking establishment with wooden décor. Each table has a grill to keep your food hot. If you’re brining kids make sure they keep away. They didn’t tell us they turned it on and I found out when I almost burned myself.
Overall, I don’t think I would come here again. I don’t see the value. I will however give them 2 stars for their food quality. If you’re a ballah and like okonomiyaki then I would still recommend you try this place.

Open those wooden doors and step into Okinawawa!
From the sincere irashai welcome, to the ninja like movements of the greeter who magically appeared as you walked in the door, everything about this place was on point before we sat down.
But lets be real, you dont care about the awesome décor. You want some okonomiyaki. I was not really that hungry when I sat down so I only had the opportunity to sample their kimchee sobameshi and a seafood okonomiyaki.
I sat at the bar, so i had the opportunity to watch the chef in action. The one thing I really love about Japanese culture is the pride everyone takes in their work. The chef had a smile on his face as though he just shot a hole in one on a par 5. As each dish was prepared the chef would move it directly in front of us and we would serve it directly from the tenpanyaki grill! No cold food here. Portions are LARGE, flavors is amazing, seafood cooked perfectly, everything seasoned to perfection, I could go on but you should try it for yourself :)

I can’t write enough good things about this restaurant. I found it on Unilocal (due to its extremely high rating) and decided to give it a try during my time in Honolulu. I had a seat at the grill and watched the chefs do their business. I was the only one in there of Caucasian heritage – the sign of a good Asian place. The chefs and waitress were very nice and welcomed me upon arrival.
Now the food. I had the Homeade Kimchi ($ 4) that was definitely the best I’ve ever had. I then went with the Seafood Negiyaki ($ 15), which was really tasty and filling. I also thought everything was fairly priced given the expensive ingredients.
I didn’t go with a reservation because I was only 1. Went on a Thursday night and didn’t have to wait.
I will definitely come back here next time I visit Hawaii.

Calling in for a reservation was as baffling as it must be when in Japan. I had my reservation secured but telling the person on the other end of the phone what name it should be under was an exercise in futility. I finally settled on an alias, «Tracey» apparently not being a commonly heard Japanese moniker.
That though, was the beginning and end of any missteps for this was a perfect meal, a sublime experience.
Having zero familiarity with this style of dining I knew only what I’d read on-​line about okonomiyaki (
). That, and the fact that an advance study of the menu might be helpful.
Throwing caution to the wind I did not advance study the menu which mattered not at all. After a hearty greeting I was seated at the grill and quickly found what I’d come for. The «Basic Set (for 2 — 3 persons, $ 59.99)» takes all the homework out of ordering. Mix Salad, Pork Kimchee, Korokoro Steak & Seafood Combo, Super Pork Tama, Garlic Fried Rice, and Ice Cream (for 2), could only be more perfect if you threw in an extra order, in this case «Dynamite», as I did. With ice cold beer (grill seating gets a bit warm) this meal fully sated my inner (outer?) fatty.
Sitting at the grill is an experience, probably the best that can be had. You watch as dishes are prepared and slid your way. You buy the chef a beer. And you regularly receive instructions and new serving tools to help you make your way through the meal with authenticity. The experience is similar to sitting at a sushi bar and engaging with your favorite sushi master but better (IMO) because this is all so unique and I knew not what sort of food was coming my way.
I am currently committed to coming to Oahu annually. For 2016, the only thing I’ve penciled in is a return trip to Yaki Yaki Miwa. I hope to sample more of the menu at that time but even if I only sampled exactly what I did on this trip I’d depart with a smile. Yaki Yaki Miwa is wonderful, and not to be missed.

This is absolutely the best delicious Okonomiyaki & Yakisoba place in Hawaii. Tried a few famous Okonomiyaki restaurant but it’s been my favorite. I just had unfriendly server to our table when I visited last Wednesday but I didn’t care because I go there for the best Okonomiyaki and Yakisoba we have here on the island.
We had Seafood Negiyaki which had lots of chopped green onions in Japanese pancake and Pork Yakisoba. Those were cooked by chef at the Teppanyaki counter and delivered to our Teppanyaki (hot plate on our table). The best kind on the island!!!
We also got Dynamite which I tried for the 1^st time. It was good but just made me feel guilty since it was lots of cheese and I guess it also had some mayos… Too much calories… Lol
The best always :)