I just came back from a 5 days summer trip to Hawaii – Oahu with my dearest roomies. As one of our travel routine/traditions, we go out of our way to find out the best to eat in town. Though we didn’t have as much time (due to our super packed activities schedule) as we wished this time in Hawaii, we managed to seek out a couple of good eats to fit into our schedule. Don’t worry. Good food is meant to share. So I will be sharing them with you guys in the following series of blog posts. Hawaii food sharing #1 – Sansei Seafood Restaurant & Sushi Bar
As many of you know, Hawaii has a pretty heavy concentration of Japanese descendants. The Japanese in Hawaii are one of the major and most influential ethnic groups in Hawaii. And in recent decades, Hawaii also became one of the top travel destinations of the Japanese. So when visiting Hawaii, Japanese cuisine is a must! Japanese restaurants are ubiquitous, ranging from fresh sashimi to traditional hand-made udon house. The task, hence, to pick out a few good ones to try becomes especially difficult. After some detail researches and recommendation from native Hawaii colleagues we finally narrowed down our list to a few. This Sansei Seafood Restaurant is the 1st one we tried in Hawaii. It’s located in the Waikiki Beach Marriot Resort & Spa. So one would guess the food it toward the fusion range. And it is indeed true. While it serves some of the best quality sashimi on the island, it only showcases a series of creative rolls and main dishes. However, when we first read the menu we thought that the menu was a bit overwhelming from which we could not get a sense of what their specialties were. So we thought we would order a bit of everything to see what is good.
Appetizers – Panko Crusted Ahi Tuna
It says on the menu that this is an award winning dish so we decided to give it a try. Sashimi grade Hawaiian ahi, arugula and spinach wrapped into a sushi roll, panko-crusted, flash-fried and served with Sansei’s mild soy wasabi butter sauce. I’ve never had ahi tuna wrapped with spinach before and fried. Though it was not one of those “Wow” dishes, it was a good combination.
Appetizers -Mango Crab Salad Roll
Sansei’s Asian crab salad, ripe mango, Kula greens and crunchy peanuts wrapped in a mamenori handroll and served with sweet Thai chili vinaigrette. I like this one a lot. The crab was freshly hand-picked and the sweet thai chilli vinaigrette is so refreshing. It was light and fresh which was perfect to eat in the hot weather of Hawaii.
Sashimi – wild king salmon
We ordered this from the daily special menu as we wanted to try out their sashimi. As you can see from the picture, it’s very fatty. The color looks so beautiful and it tasted just like the way it looked – so delicious. It’s one of the best salmon sashimi I’ve ever had. Highly recommended!!
Sashimi – o toro O toro is one of my favorite sashimi, though I normally tried to avoid ordering it because of its rich oil content and price. But since I was traveling with a toro lover, this was a must order! This o-toro did not disappoint us at all. It’s of top quality and melt right in your mouth! Love it
Entre- Hamachi Kama
Another of my favorite Japanese dish. This hamachi kama is much bigger compared to ones I’ve had before. It’s grilled to perfection! Much better prepared than the ones in the bay area. And it's so fresh that I didn't even need the dipping source on the side.
Roll - we thought we would also try out their rolls as well. unfortunately, I forgot the name of it. Basically, it's tuna and salmon sashimi on top of california roll. Nothing fancy, yet it's perfectly prepared as well. Instead of artifical crab meat, it's made with fresh real crab meal. And what I liked the most was that every piece is bit size so I didn't feel like I was only eating rice.
With the two of us, I think we ate way too much. At the end, we were left with no room for dessert. Overall, I thought the quality of the food here is top norch though it's still a bit on the pricey size. I would highly recommend their sashimi!
So what is so special about this place. First of all, the udon was freshly made in-house! You can actually see them making the udon from scratch, boiled, and prepared right in from of you. I noticed that all their udon ingredients (e.g. flours) were from Japan. Second of all, this restaurant is cafeteria style dinning. You get to custom order your udon, with the type of broth, meat, etc. and then you pick if you want any sides which are mainly tempura.
