Kenko-Ya

Honesty the best bang for your buck! But the miso butter fish needs to be marinated longer and cooked with a crisp. Overall amazing

Celebrating an engagement, the mainland couple wanted to eat asian food so we dined at this casual bustling restaurant. The food overall was great except the tonkatsu was a bit over cooked. The ambience was great as well. I would definitely go back!

Truly disappointed in the service here now.
The only reason for me giving 3 stars, is because the food is good enough to make up for the bad service.
First off, they are a small restaurant, so I don’t see how hard it is to provide good service. Another thing, you can clearly see that each server is given 4 – 5 tables which barely seats more than 4 people.
My boyfriend and I ordered a 3 choice and a 2 choice.
I ordered the Chicken Katsu and Shrimp Tempura.
My boyfriend ordered the Misoyaki Butterfish, Sahimi and Chicken Katsu.
We both shared a Spicy Ahi Crunch Roll, which was amazing.
My boyfriends food came out first, it took about 10 minutes or so, so we were both impressed. He was almost about half way through, then my food finally came out. When it did, my Tempura was a bit on the cold side and my chicken katsu was a bit chewy. It took about 15 minutes AFTER I got my food for our Roll to come out.
The server that brought our food barely said 2 words to us, and definitely didn’t look like she was enjoying her night at all. Had I not asked for a refill on my water, we probably wouldn’t even have goten one.
The food here definitely makes up for the bad service.

I was very disappointed. To start off the meal all I could pay attention to was the small cockaroach crawling on the wall behind my wife. I didn’t say anything cause I thought it was far enough away. Once my ribeye/​lobster arrived I noticed my shrimp tempura did not make it. My wife’s order came 3 min later and as soon as hers came, I took a bite of her shrimp tempura. My wife’s order was also missing her butterfish. They took her plate back to the kitchen and brought it back with the butterfish but took out her shrimp tempura (apparently it didn’t come with hers). They brought out my shrimp tempura and told me that it was minus one shrimp tempura due to me already biting one from my wife’s plate. My steak was well done, when I asked for medium rare. My lobster was over cooked. In the middle of my meal the cockaroach I saw earlier had made its way onto the edamame which was on our table. When I brought it to the servers attention she frowned and asked if I wanted anything else. Not one single time did the waitress ask how dinner was. The only time somebody stopped by us was the older server lady and it was to ask if we were using the extra chopstick. She took it back when I told her we weren’t using it. I do have to say my wife’s butterfish was amazing. My wife didn’t think a tip was warranted but i work in the service industry and couldn’t do that. But it definitely wasn’t 15%.

The food is awesome this place is one of my favorite places to eat

Excellent sushi, great price.
We ended up here for dinner our last night in Hawaii, wanting some sushi. We were not disappointed. The sushi menu is large and the servings are huge. We didn’t have a reservation so had to wait about 10 minutes at 6pm on a weeknight, but after that, the food came very quickly and was beautifully presented. We ordered 4 different rolls and were stuffed by the time we left. It seemed very reasonably priced. Highly recommend!

Decided to eat here while waiting for my Mom to finish her shopping.
Busy but still got seated right away.
Ordered the combo, misoyaki butterfish and beef teriyaki. Came with miso soup, soy beans and veggies.
Food and service was good.

Overpriced and just ok.
We needed a quick bite to fill the belly before heading over to do some sightseeing at the nearby temple. So we stopped in here for a light snack. I got the avocado and cucumber roll, friend got something with meat, and Alessandro got the natto roll and miso soup. The soup was really salty but everything else was reasonably good.
Service was kind and efficient, parking is in the lot out front, and the ambience was clean and pleasant. Nothing much to rave or complain about. Three stars.

Just ate there again, they really need to get a new cook. Everything is over fried for japanese food.
Again, if you say something, there response is, that’s how its suppose to be, deep fried.
This used to be a really good restaurant.

I’ve been coming to this restaurant since the very beginning when they first opened. Back then they weren’t as busy as nowadays, and their service was always great! With one of the owners manning the front she provided the best customer service and they have great food to compliment this!
Coming here now is the same as before. The food quality is still awesome and service great, although the owner isn’t working the front anymore. I ordered the combination with sashimi and tonkatsu. I normally don’t order the sashimi, and was very happy with what was received. They give three pieces of ahi and two pieces of salmon sashimi, and quite hefty pieces I might add! The salmon sashimi was so soft and buttery, it just melts in your mouth. Also the tonkatsu was delicious as always being tender and moist. My boyfriend ordered the spicy ahi and unagi which he said was very good, with the unagi being very tasty!
Five stars for great service, great food and up keeping these for a long time :)

Been coming to this small place in Kaneohe Bay shopping center for years. Very good teishoku, sushi, and sashimi place with high quality and tasty food. Their sashimi is fresh and thickly sliced. I like their tempura and tontatsu. The main downside is that it has gotten a lot more pricey these days. Teishoku starts around $ 15 and you will average at least $ 20 per head here for dinner after drinks etc. Still a great Japanese restaurant choice on the windward side.

A hidden gem on the windward side
Atmosphere: This little Japanese restaurant is great. It’s a bit small, and like most traditional Japanese restaurants, the seating is a bit cramped… but not «that» cramped. Located at the end of a small building complex that includes panda Express, L& L and a Phở restaurant, this place is somewhat «casual but not» meaning you can wear a nice shirt and pants, or as I like, wear some shorts and a t-​shirt. The ambiance is fantastic for what it is, and its simple design and layout make it a comfortable place to visit. Parking is ample as it’s located in a larger shopping center across of Windward mall that includes Longs and Safeway.
Staff; The staff here are very friendly. On my several visits here they are always courteous and attentive. The restaurant is rather long and narrow, with the main staff all the way at the back, but the waitress /​hostess always make a complete sweep ensuring that everyone is well taken care of. This is one of the few places that keeps your water glass full without you having to ask. I believe the owner walks around and always checks up on her guests… something you don’t see very often.
Food: Wow… the food here is excellent! Granted, the tastiness does seem to vary, but not by a lot and the taste is fairly consistent at any given time. I have yet to explore the whole menu as I tend to stick to the combination teishoku meals. The meals generally start off with some Korean side dishes /​vegetables like bean sprouts or choi sum cooked with sesame seed oil. A bit different from the traditional namasu or pickled cabbage of other Japanese restaurants, but it’s good (I believe the owners are Korean so they threw in some Korean influence). This is followed up by some delicious miso soup. The service here’s quick and your food comes out hot and ready to eat. I usually like to limit my choices to the 2– item teishoku with assorted tempura and pork tonkatsu. They give a generous amount of tempura vegetable items along with 2-​large shrimp and the batter is light and crisp compared to other places which are chewy and unpleasant. The tonkatsu is very thick and crispy on the outside while the inside is delicious and moist.
Now we get down to the nitty gritty and price… A combination 2– choice teishoku comes in at around $ 15.95 before tax. That’s not cheap for a meal, BUT that is a bit cheap for a Japanese meal. The portions given are generous and huge. This is one of the few places where I walk back to the car and need to rest before driving off as my stomach is full of deliciousness and needs to digest a bit. In comparison, Gyotaku is crap. You pay a higher price and you get small portions and leave hungry… Thanks to this place, I’ll never go back to Gyotaku again.
Overall: This place is great. The menu is delicious, the environment is great, staff is friendly and the portions are generous. The prices (for Japanese food) are quite reasonable and after it’s all said and done you can say that your money was well spent. Its up there in my fav japanese palces like Kabuki, Restaurant Kunio and Akasaka, but this place has the advantage of 1. Short wait times (restaurant Kunio has HORRIBLE wait times) 2. Generous portions and 3. Good prices.
I give them the elusive 5 stars!

Ok so Kenkoya is a pretty decent place for Japanese food in Kaneohe. I’m going to give them 4 stars mainly because of good customer service and good portions. The food was ok. It wasn’t bad, but is also wasn’t great. I had the 3 combo dinner meal. I ordered unagi, spicy ahi, and tonkatsu. The Unagi was good. It was a little heavy on the kabayaki sauce but I enjoyed the taste with alot of rice! Lol. The tonkatsu was ok. It was cooked well. The batter/​crust however could have been more flaky. The spicy ahi was ok but I definitely wasn’t what I expected. I was expecting to have a more authentic japanese style togarashi /​kewpie flavor. However, to my surprise it tasted like sriracha /​best foods mayo. I wasn’t really impressed with the food but I will say that it was worth the 21 dollars I spent. They were generous with their portions and the waitress that served us was very pleasant. ^-^

Fair pricing, parking available, came in at 3pm on a Sunday afternoon. Seating for two available immediately, drink and food order taken immediately.
I ordered the 7pc salmon sashimi, never had it with lemon. I can’t eat it any other way now. I got the combo box for $ 15.99 with the mochiko chicken and beef teriyaki. The spicy ahi crunch roll is also worth the money. Only downside of this place is the 50 cent charge for spicy mayo, but that seems to be the trend here.
Give me more salmon sashimi!

At 3:30 p.m. on a Saturday, this place was packed as if it were the middle of dinner rush! People obviously love this place and now so do I. There are a few reasons I marked down a star.
One, the chair was wet and dirty. The server saw me clean it with my own napkin and never brought me a new napkin so I didn’t have one for my meal. I asked and waited a while, eventually getting one, but it was hard to get their attention.
Also there was a scale in the fish. I mean, that does show that it’s freshly cut, but it was right on top in the middle of the fish. I’m assuming there is a chef who looked at the plate when he was done and then the server should have looked at the plate as well… somebody should have picked off that scale!
Overall, fantastic deal on very fresh fish. The salmon/​ahi combo sashimi was delicious! It was piled on top of a generous bed of daikon with enough slices of lemon to meet my needs. I usually have to ask for more. Unfortunately, it didn’t have any of the shiso leaf I love so much that was in the picture on the wall.
The service was incredibly fast — I’m talking less than 5 minutes! The food was great. I’ll come back whenever I’m on the windward side.

This little hole in the wall in a windward side strip mall is surprisingly awesome! The food is excellent, service was fast and efficient, and it’s great value for the money. The lunch bentos are gigantic, the sushi rolls are delicious, and the ahi rice bowls are perfectly spicy and super filling. Highly recommend!

Although I’ve only been to Kenko-​Ya twice, they are my favorite restaurant in Kaneohe. First of all, I really like Japanese food and they have a teishoku that features soft shell crab and other favorites like spicy poke and butterfish.
The most fantastic thing about this restaurant is that it is BYOB with no corkage fee. It always seems like they are not very busy and can accommodate walk in traffic but I have only been there on weekday nights. They don’t rush you and are very accommodating with ice for the drinks that you bring in. See my pictures.
They are strongly recommended. One small drawback is that the bathrooms are outside of the restaurant and all the way around behind the building. Definitely not convenient but not a deal breaker.

My mom told me about this new Japanese restaurant that is my parent’s current favorite. So for her birthday, and my last meal before coming back to San Diego, we came here. No reservations, you have to get here early, or end up waiting but go in and write your name down. We were one of the first ones for dinner on a Sunday just before 5, and had to wait a little on the second visit, also a Sunday, for about 10 minutes.
I believe this is a family run business and they are all so friendly. Although, they do try to get you in and out as quickly as possible since the dining room is cozy. They are never rude about it, but always check in with a smile. It would’ve been great to see the sushi chef (s) in action.
The sushi rolls I ordered for myself were fresh and delicious! Loved my unagi roll and the crunchy roll. I should probably stop ordering veggie rolls, they are always just so-​so. Oh and I love inaris! I also had a katsu domburi on the last visit which was great! My parents usually order the combo dinners. They are always so happy when they leave! I can’t wait to come back! When we were leaving, there were quite a number of people waiting, so get there early if you can!

This place was terrific. We got there just ahead of the dinner rush. Sushi was dynamite! The nigiri was really good. The service was terrific — new young lady in training was very good, and between her and her trainers, wow! The fish was fresh and generous portions and — very tasty! The ‘chick rolls’ the gals ordered were also quite good. Definitely going back next time we’re in the area!

It’s nice to have another go-​to Japanese restaurant in Kaneohe if you ever want a break from Kikuya or if they’re too crowded. Beware though, this place gets crowded too and their dining area is very small.
I enjoy Kenko-​Ya because they have a big variety of items to choose from. They have make-​your-​own combo meals with two (or even three choices if you’re really hungry!) that are reasonably-​priced, considering the cuisine, quality and quantity.
My go-​to order is usually the mochiko chicken and spicy ahi combo. They do their spicy ahi ground-​style, almost like a paste, which doesn’t bother me. It is pretty darn spicy too. The mochiko chicken are small pieces of crunchy delicious nuggets, served with a dipping sauce. They give you a small mountain of this.
The green tea they serve is also very good — It’s worth mentioning — it is served very hot and with a good amount of matcha powder, not bitter or over-​brewed whatsoever.
If there’s a big wait for your food, don’t hesitate to order to-​go. The food is ready relatively fast and tastes just as ono when you go home!