Tsurutontan, a restaurant specializing in udon, opened at the Royal Hawaiian Center in June of this year. I’ve been wanting to try this udon restaurant since first seeing pictures of their Uni Udon on Instagram. On a Saturday night, my friend and I had 7:00 reservations for dinner. It was busy but not crowded, and there seemed to be open tables available for walk-ins.
We ordered our cocktails and food at the same time. The food and drinks came out at lightning speed all at once. The drinks were dangerously delicious, as you couldn’t really taste the alcohol. Both the Tokyo Mule and Guava Sunshine were refreshing choices.
Consisting of seared salmon, snow crab salad, tobiko, avocado, and rayu (chili oil) spicy sauce, the salmon and snow crab sushi was delicious and reasonably priced at $13.
My friend, a meat-eater, ordered the Wagyu sushi which she raved about and would recommend to others.
As mentioned before, I was looking forward to trying the Uni Udon, a cold dish. I ordered the large size which is the same price as the regular size. I chose the fat noodles over the skinny ones. Made with uni, shiso, nori, sesame, and uni dashi soy sauce, I thought it was a filling dish with a sufficient amount of uni and good flavor in the dashi. If I got it again, I would probably get it with the skinny noodles to make chewing a little easier.
My friend ordered the Sizzling Sukiyaki Udon, a stir fried udon with beef, vegetable, and sweet soy in a stone pot. Again, she ordered the large which is the same price as the regular size. She enjoyed the dish and had leftovers to take home.
Overall, the food was good and I would definitely go back for lunch or dinner. I enjoyed our picks and would also be interested in trying the Salmon and Ikura Don, the Spicy Tuna Tartare Cone, or the Ikura Oroshi Udon.
- Tsurutontan Waikiki: Royal Hawaiian Center, 2233 Kalakaua Ave. B310, Honolulu, HI 96815
- 808-888-8559
- www.tsurutontan.com
- parking in Royal Hawaiian Center parking lot with validation available
- Feels: modern and casual, restaurant is spacious with lots of tables
- Service: quick and efficient
- open Mon-Sun for lunch from 11am-3pm and dinner from 5pm-10pm
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