Name: Okata Bento
Address: (808) 737-6063
Address: 3616 Waialae Ave. , Honolulu (Kaimuki) Prices: $4.25 to $7.75
Hours: 10:00am to 4:00 pm (M-F) Weekends/ Holidays till 3:00 pm
Macaroni Salad Alternative? No
Specialties: Char Siu Chicken; Tonkatsu; Loco-Moco; Donburi

And I sez:

Kaimuki Town has evolved over the last 30 years from having two movie theaters (Kaimuki & Queens), two dept. type stores (Ben Franklin & National Dollar) two grocery stores (Paradise & Tommys) to numerous small business operations dealing mostly with eating! Between 13th Avenue and Sierra Drive (approx 2 blks long) on Waialae ave, you will find no less than 15 eateries! And that doesn't even count the numerous side street eateries!

They range from the hole-in- the wall Kaimuki Chop Suey to the elegant 3660 on the Rise. Wow- Oyster sauce chicken over cake noodles for $3.25, now that's a bargain, and another story.

Within this "restaurant row" of Kaimuki there are basically two plate lunch proprietors, Okata Bento being the more well known of the two. Okata Bento is your basic walk-up, no sit down, joint. A literal "hole-in-the-wall", the food is prepared with loving care essentially from scratch. That's why you'll wait at least 10 minutes for your order, longer if it's around noon .

The Katsu and hamburger steak offerings are quite popular. Like their sign says, "Our beef, chicken and pork are trimmed of fat, bone and gristle. We mix our own hamburger patties and use no M.S.G. in our food!" The hambuger steak is really quite good- not like the frozen patty junk you get in stacks at the supermarket.

The chicken and pork tonkatsu is really good. not overly deep fried cutlets with a heavy oily aftertaste, but lightly deep/pan fried to create a crispy outside breaded layer and a tender ,meaty interior. the rice is nice, but the mac salad is quite pedestrian, par for the course for a plate lunch. Only if they had a toss salad alternative. Trimming the fat, bone and gristle really does make a difference- this is as close as you're going to get to a reduced fat katsu/cutlet. Their char siu and teriyaki chicken is de-boned and skinned.

Just as popular are the Bento offerings. You can get chicken teriyaki, chicken/pork katsu, chat siu chicken, beef teriyaki or mahi-mahi. Each bento includes mahi-mahi, luncheon meat (not Spam), egg roll, fish cake, takuan, rice, shredded cabbage and ume.

I personally will always order their Bentos. A real nice combination of stuff and again, made fresh on the premises. The Bentos are more expensive than the plates (about $1.20 more) but have more goodies. If they had a toss salad alternative I would order their plate lunches more.

Now that's a good looking Tonkatsu Bento!

The ratings:

Food: 1/2 ( Tastey and consistent, have been there many times)

Service: (Usually friendly and efficient)

Atmosphere: 1/2 ( Hey it's a pick-up no place to sit place)

Value: ( Little pricey, the Bentos are a better bargain)

Back to: The Plate Lunch Critique

Happy St. Patrick's Day- Eat green mac salad!