i-naba Hanaleiʻi Honolulu Teppanyaki and Sushi Bar

"We loveeeee Japan and had greatly been missing the culture, the food and the artistry of real teppanyaki. I am so glad my husband found this place on Google (as they are not on yelp). The lunch menu is delicious and affordable. The teppanyaki chef is immaculate with his craft and the quality of the food is incredible. We ordered the steak lunch and the hamburger over rice and the sea urchin hand roll as an appetizer. The sake menu was extensive and had so many options for Ginjo, Junmai and Daiginjo. What a great addition to the restaurant scene on Oahu! We can’t wait to come back and try the sushi side. Arigato gozaimas to the team at i-naba Hanalei!"

"We tried both Teppanyaki and Sushi set, actually we only reserved for Teppanyaki first, but immediately decided to cancel our original plan and tried its sushi lunch set next day! It’s out of our expectation, to be clear, I visited Japan for many times, not regular “first time Japanese cuisine” person, and also tasted Sushi Sho a year ago. Still, i-Naba is definitely top notch kind of hidden gem in Hawaii! Not saying it’s best of world class, but very authentic and at least best of Hawaii class! Both Teppanyaki and Sushi chefs are so dedicated, and trained for very long time knowing what to do for the job. No fancy trick, (yeah, I’m saying downtown popular ones), food are both fresh and top class, way more worthy than the price! This place will be on my must visit list in Hawaii!"

"Go to 1726 S King. 1610 is soba. One side teppanyaki, 1 side sushi. Sushi/Sashimi...get the omikase for $120/person. Definaitely add any of the sake flights. Pull up your Google audio translate early on and you'll have an amazing time! Kakuya-san is very friendly and as good at English as most of us are with Japanese, so pass your phones back and forth to know what's going on. It was fun! This is true omikase, with fish (and snails) you've never heard of, let alone eaten before. Fish originates from Hokkaido, where Kakuya-san is from. Bring your kid (we brought our 4 year old who was on the verge of meltdown half the night), get them amazing soba for $10, slip them a bit of Sashimi here and there, and enjoy the best fish, mollusks and real wasabi you've ever tasted. My wife was very full, and I hit just north of hara hachi bu (I had a couple Sapporos and sake flight $20-30 for 3 types) Place should be packed every night. Don't wait until it is. Oh, and they have $2000+ bidet toilets and CVG fir trim and wainscotting."

"Highly recommend this place! Our family tried the lunch special hamburger steak sets. Great value considering the level of high service, clean decor and dishes (this is a nice touch at some Japanese restaurants), and the fact that the hamburger steaks are cooked right in front of you! Hamburger steak, for those who don’t know, is kinda like a Japanese Salisbury steak, but usually thicker and more tender. A staple in TONS of restaurants in Japan. So I’m always looking for good hamburger steaks in the US, but since most Americans don’t know the dish, there isn’t a high demand for it. Midoh has a great one in LA and Rowland Heights. The assistant manager was also our chef. She was friendly. For lunch, they have a limited menu, but our food was great. For dinner they have an expanded teppan menu with many meats and other options. If you know food, and also the Honolulu food scene, you probably know that the main Japanese Inaba restaurant is really special overall. Please support this newer sister restaurant and be kind! Btw, I’m not related to this restaurant in any way. I just eat a lot."