Miyabi Sushi

You could drive back and forth without noticing this place but it’s worth the effort.
The menu is extensive and I’m usually leery of places with so many things on the menu and they all taste bleh. However, everything we’ve ordered has been great! It makes me wonder why I haven’t been going to Miyabi more often as I’m an izakaya addict. The owner, Masa, is a friendly guy and is always very glad to see us. Service is prompt and efficient. You can order izakaya style with many small dishes or sometimes we drop in late at night for a simple teishoku.
I would recommend this to anyone looking for quality authentic Japanese food.

I’m not sure why this place has evaded the radars of local food writers/​bloggers/​etc., but maybe that’s a good thing. I’d hate to see this place get too popular because then it’ll be hard to get a reservation.
Reservations are a must because this place is small (about 30 seats on the main floor, 8 seats in the tatami room). Book one on
. Parking is on the street or at Go Bananas (across the street from the restaurant).
Here’s what the hubby and I shared:
Agedashi tofu — 4 big chunks of tofu — yums!
Yakitori Moriawase — I definitely recommend this! Very moist, flavorful, and satisfying.
Deep Fried Flounder — I highly recommend this too — fried to perfection!
Negi hamachi roll and salmon skin roll — the negi hamachi melted in my mouth — soooo good! The salmon skin roll was ok — nothing out of this world. Skip the salmon skin roll and try something else.
I plan to return to order my favorites (yakitori moriawase and deep fried flounder) and try other items on the menu. This place is now on my list of favorite Izakayas on the island.
Dave F — thanks for recommending this place!

Not terrible, but definitely not great, either.
Despite what you may have read on Unilocal,parking isn’t always available at Go Bananas across the street: That parking is only technically available after 7pm, and according to the host, it’s pretty strictly enforced (even though the signage is a little confusing). There is an unattended gravel lot nearby, but that lot has zero signs, so it’s kind of park at your own risk.
Back to the restaurant. .. Miyabi has quite an extensive — though oddly organized (deep fried foods, sets, rice dishes) — menu. They have a few sets, which are clearly meant for individual consumption, but most other items are tapas style and geared towards sharing. The quality of the food itself was fine, though not exceptional. We ordered fried squid legs, bakudan (pretty much dynamite), ume onigiri, a fish dish with cheese (which was oddly pretty much a filet-​o-​fish w/​o the bun!), agedashi tofu, hamachi carpaccio and a salmon skin roll. The carpaccio was a little thickly sliced for my liking — a good cut for sushi, maybe, but not so much for carpaccio. Nothing really stood out. Perhaps they do have house specialties here, but our waiter didn’t bother to mention anything other than saying that we would like the bakudan — after we had already ordered it.
Service is OK for the most part, though a little slow at times, especially toward the end of our dinner. This was particularly annoying because it was around the same time that the restaurant started getting stiflingly hot. I looked up at the ceiling and noticed that the vents — especially the ones for exhaust — could really use a good cleaning. Maybe that would help.
Again, just kind of an uncomfortable Unilocal situation. I wouldn’t highly recommend the place, but I wouldn’t recommend that it be shut down, either. I just probably wouldn’t bother to go out of my way to return.

As I sit here writing this review, I try to visualize in my mind my dining experience at Miyabi Sushi. I’m sure that most of you reading this review have read some of the other reviews from Unilocalers about the location, parking and challenges of dining at Miyabi… First of all, listen well to all the reviews that deal with the traffic hazards of Kapahulu Av. Parking is fairly easy as you can park across the street at Go Bananas or, if you’re lucky enough, you might find street parking. Word of advice… Be careful!!! As I proceeded to cross the street with the light, some idiot didn’t even stop to give me the right of way and the car behind of him stopped in time. Ok, now you have to find this place. It’s located on the opposite end of the building from the bar, fairly close to the tattoo shop. The sign is hard to see, so you feel like you’re walking into a bar! Once inside, you’ll know it’s a sushi restaurant.
I think a lot of Japanese tourists or ones who live here dine here. I could hear many conversations in Japanese while sitting at the bar drinking my beer. They have an extensive menu to choose from with lot’s specials. There were many items that I was familiar with and some that I wasn’t familiar with.
The dishes that stood out most to me were:
Deep Fried Flounder, the fish was cut up into little fillets, seasoned and deep fried. The rest of the fish, essentially the skeleton and fins were also deep fried and shaped into a dish. The pieces were served in said «dish». Whatever bones that were in the fillets were edible. It is served with a ponzu sauce and grated daikon.
Maguro Sushi: The tuna was so delicious! Like melt in your mouth delicious. The slices showed the skill of the sushi chef’s ability to cut a top grade of tuna into little pieces of art. Just the right amount of rice made this dish top notch!
Agedashi Tofu: Four good sized pieces of lightly deep fried tofu. The real star of this dish was the sauce. A tasty dashi broth with just the right amount of taste, not too salty, not too sweet… As for the tofu, it was fried just right.
Yaki Onigiri: This shoyu flavored fried musubi hit the spot. A lot of places mistakenly over or undercook this dish. There was just the right amount of crispiness and flavor without being burnt.
It was a satisfying meal in a very traditional style Japanese sushi bar. Service was attentive and friendly. I will be returning someday when I want to have that flounder and delectable slices of Maguro. Be prepared to dig deep into your wallet, it’s not cheap, but it’s worth it!

Always a pleasure to dine here at Masa’s restaurant! Great food, the best chicken nabe, seafood nabe, wasabi steak tataki, and Masa gives excellent customer service! He keeps his modern designed restaurant clean and spotless! The presentation of each dish is perfect too! It is hidden in kapahulu next to On Stage bar. You walk through the glass door with the cloth drapes hanging. Its a hideaway so not much locals dine here. Great privacy here and only japanese speaking visitors dine here.
The parking is across the street in Go Banana’s parking lot. You have to walk across the street to enter the hide away restaurant.
I will dine here in the near future!

Read a few gripes about the parking so I’ll address that first. After driving a bit, our party of 3 + baby drove around like buffoons trying to negotiate the Leeward parking nightmare… Finally we call. They have an agreement with GO BANANAS (the kayak rental shop that is directly across Kapahulu), a few stalls marked for 5pm and a few more for 7pm on. If you go for your first time, I recommend looking for the yellow GO BANANAS rather than the discrete purple izakaya.
Not much to look at from outside, but inside has a rather nice ambiance and they have one private tatami room that is good for a party of 4, maybe up to 6.
No problem getting in on a weeknight and they accommodated with a really nice high-​chair for the baby, kid cutlery, and a water cup with top and straw… I was surprised by the kid-​friendliness for an izakaya.
There’s a sushi counter and the offerings looked pretty good, but they were out of uni that day saying that it had been on back order for about a week… weird. They also do no have chawan mushi anymore… apparently they got rid of the steamer.
The Kirin is on draft, the service is attentive, and the food was all top notch. They have a daily special menu and a pretty extensive izakaya menu. Everything fried was fried very well (crispy outside, juicy inside) and served with cupie mayo on the side. If you like it with a kick, I recommend adding some of the shichi mi (red pepper seasoning) to the mayo (it’s in the bamboo container on the table).
The fried oysters (breaded), fried tako (battered with a light coat of starch PERFECT!!), Mackerel with daikon oroshi, and the kani-​meshi (crab rice) were the highlights. The yakitori and black pork kushiyaki were also excellent.
The nabes seemed reasonably priced if you’re on the budget… I’ll likely try next time. The izakaya items add up pretty quickly.

It is always a roll of the dice for me when i have to try a new izakaya place because when i am going to dish out a couple of hundred dollars to sample anything and everything that izakaya restaurants that are in high regard dole out, i really do not want to disappoint myself because when i come to these places, i expect the food to be consistent from beginning to end and expect nothing less than perfection after eating at stellar izakaya places such as Imana’s Tei and Izakaya Gaku.
These two places are one and two anyway you look at it as the BEST of what you expect from these type of restaurants. Consistency is what makes me a repeat customer time and time again and it is always worth every penny because i always leave these places with a grin as wide as the Chesire Cat because the food is just above and beyond my expectations and with the same result each and every time.
Enter Miyabi Sushi, which is located on Kapahulu Avenue right after the Safeway Store and sandwiched in between a Phở Restaurant and a Tattoo Parlor. It is a pretty tricky location and you are most certainly not going to find it on your very first try because there is no visible sign to be seen from your car.
Parking is available along side the metered parking along Kapahulu Avenue and the parking is free after 6 in the evening
The dining room is dimly lit and quite cozy when we first arrived. We were a little worried because we thought me and my other half would be the only diners here eating on a day after Christmas when both of our favorite places to eat were closed because of the Christmas weekend. But as time progressed, the restaurant got filled to capacity and it got quite noisy because we had four Japanese nationals that sat behind us that were just loud and obnoxious as time went by and the place doesn’t really hold noise too well.
But to my surprise, the service here was very professional and we didn’t feel rushed at all
The menu here is quite vast. They have everything from sushi to grilled items to hotpot and even ramen at the end of your meal. The prices here at Miyabi are quite fair and nothing to make you do a double take after seeing how many numbers come after the first one.
I will tell you this, the Kirin Beer on draught here at Miyabi Sushi is the COLDEST and BEST tasting beer i have ever drank here in Hawaii and i felt like i was back in Japan because i could drink the beer just like water with that cold glass. It was incredible.
Now on to the food…
SCALLOP AND AHI CARPACCIO: Loved the combination of Scallop and Ahi with a very tart lemon dressing. Made my mouth pucker with each and every bite but loved the contrast of the ingredients put together
DEEP FRIED SABA FISHBONES: A little disappointing because the fishbones didn’t have that light crunch like eating a potato chip. It just didn’t have that airy crisp that the fishbones at Izakaya Gaku and Imana’s Tei has to offer
PORK STEAK WITH SESAME SAUCE: Once again, nothing that blew me away or knocked me off my feet. Not saying that it was bad, it simply had no flair or the wow factor after taking my first initial taste
GRILLED OYSTERS WRAPPED IN NORI: I usually love eating raw oysters but there wasn’t any available this evening, so we opted for this particular dish. I liked the execution of this dish, but the oysters were just a tad overcooked and biting into a perfectly cooked oyster should explode with juicyness flavor in your mouth, but it ended up feeling like eating warm applesauce. I wasn’t disappointed, just not overjoyed by this dish
GRILLED CHICKEN LEG: This was definitely a hit for me. The marination was spot on and the chicken leg was juicy and very tasty. Washed it down with that ice, cold draft beer
YAKITORI MORIAWASE: This was another dish which was cooked to perfection. I loved the combination of the Tsukune, Chicken Yakitori, and Chicken Skin on a stick. The sauces were very subtle and not too overpowering
GESO SHIOYAKI: Grilled Squidlegs with a squeeze of lemon and just the right amount of salt makes this dish an A+ for me. Not overcooked and not too rubbery
ASSORTED SUSHI: When you see the price for sushi here, it is for one piece and not two. The sushi here was good, but nothing to make my eyes roll over and over and over again like other places do. I like how the sushi chef uses a small amount of rice and the cuts of fish were not overboard or cut too thin. I was also disappointed that they didn’t have any Uni or Mirugai sushi for the evening as those are definitely the two loves of my life. The Kapahulu Roll and Spicy Tuna Roll were disappointments as well.
OVERALL: I have to tell you my dining experience here at Miyabi was a good one but not a stellar one. It is someplace i may try again in the distant future, but when you have places like Gaku and Imana’s Tei to compete with, it will be a hardsell for me. Arigato Miyabi Sushi

A lot of Japanese people eat here but that’s meaningless since the same could be same of almost any decent place in the area. So what does my LA-​Japanese-​experienced tongue think? It’s pretty good. Definitely on par with the best in Little Tokyo /​Gardena /​Torrance.
They offer more or less the standard izakaya & sushi menu. The sushi couldn’t beat the most popular ones in LA, which is to be expected since they only had one chef and a small bar where he was stationed. But definitely good.
The surprise was how well they could execute the 3 styles of fare (sushi, yakitori, izakaya) so well. A lot of LA places try this and fail. For a modest sized restaurant it’s an incredible feat.
— you may need to wait a long time for a seat as diners are enjoying too much sake /​beer
— service can be choppy, since there are only 2 waitresses working
— certain sushi items will be sold out (waitress didn’t point this out when I ordered)
— they offer parking but I couldn’t decipher the map and instructions on it
— sushi service lags
— a bit spendy but everything in Waikiki seems that way $ 120 for 2 (drinks were 2 large beers)
That may seem like a lot of minuses, but overall I was very content with my dining experience and would go back again.

Honestly, without the help of fellow Unilocalers i would have never tried or even found this place. The funny thing is i live right around the corner in kapahulu.
my business partner and I frequent good sushi especially good izakaya places with clients or just ourselves to talk about business at least once a month. we are very loyal yanagi sushi guests and just wanted to try something new. when i heard about miyabi’s from fellow Unilocalers especially Miss Emi Hart, i knew i had to try it.
I give 5 stars not because of it’s service which is not bad, but not perfect, but instead for the food. it was outstanding! even our plumber/​electrician that eats very little raw fish when we go other places at every single dish we ordered.
As soon as we find parking which seemed just perfect for the amount of tables in the restaurant, we are greeted and sit at the only table open and ready for us. everyone needs to make a reservation at any time.
We get the menu and order the largest bottle of sake (which was the best one) which is only a 750ml bottle. kinda small since we are used to the larger ones at other places. but man the quality was awesome! after we polished that bottle off we ordered a smaller bottle to try something else, but it wasn’t the same once you try the best!
Next the food we ordered was equally as good as the sake! even though we had to almost yank on the server’s sleeve to get their attention. It is true that i noticed since we didn’t speak japanese we got a little neglected, but the food more than made up for it. as the night progressed the service got better because since there was only two servers we out sat the rest of the people =)
We ordered it seemed like a lot of food like the hamachi carpaccio, deep fried flounder, assorted sashimi selection, uni, and about 5 more other dishes. the only thing we were very disappointed was they didn’t have any toro. actually they did, but they said it wasn’t fresh so they weren’t going to serve it. I LOVE THE HONESTY!!! that didn’t matter since the rest of the food just rocked!
after we had so much food and all that sake, it wasn’t as expensive as i thought. great food and great drinks especially different and super fresh fish is always a plus! we are definitely coming back here soon!
Enjoy Everyone!!!

Who would have know that we’d find an adorable little izakaya inbetween a phở restaurant and a tattoo parlor? Yes, on Kapahulu Avenue, all things are possible. My boss lady was in town and we needed to find somewhere to go for dinner. I was feeling adventurous, so after consulting a little know website called Unilocal (insert heavy sarcasm here), we decided to make reservations at Miyabi Sushi. I informed them that I had a baby and there was a bit of a pause, then the man on the phone said he’d have a table for us at 6 pm.
We parked on a stretch of dirt across the street and walked to the restaurant. Man, Kapahulu Avenue is very hairy to cross and you’d think people would slow down when they see you with a baby carriage, but alas, that is not the case. Karma people, karma. We were greeted by a very nice man at Miyabi who I can only assume is the manager or the owner. You can always tell when someone is financially vested in a place, they are waaaay nicer than anyone who’s just there for the tips. To our pleasant surprise he escorted us to a private tatami room and boy were we stoked! Now my then four month old baby could scream her head off and I wouldn’t feel like a bad mother for having a crying baby in a busy restaurant.
What I love most about this tatami room is that there’s an opening cut into the floor so your feet dangle down and you don’t end up with tatami room cramps. When you sit cross legged for two hours in a regular tatami room, you’ll know what I’m talking about. The nice thing is that they leave a doorbell device on your table so if you need anything you can just ring it.
We ordered a few dishes and for the most part they were enjoyable. There was a weird frozen squid dish we ordered that we didn’t know what going to be frozen. It was very funky and definitely an «acquired» taste. This place is authentic Japanese Izakaya so don’t expect California rolls. Be open to trying their signature dishes and you may be pleasantly surprised. Service is excellent, although our waitress didn’t speak much English and a few things got lost in translation. I’d highly recommend getting the private tatami room if you have the chance. It’s pimp!

Although this small, trendy spot is called Miyabi Sushi, don’t be fooled. They do MUCH more than just sushi. It’s more an izakaya than a simple sushi joint.
Don’t look for a huge sign outside announcing «MIYABI SUSHI!!!» You won’t find one. It’s right on Kapahulu near the big Safeway, between a Vietnamese phở place & a tattoo shop. Parking can be found across the street in the Go Bananas lot.
They have a pretty decent assortment of sake (e.g. Hakkaisan, Kubota Manju, etc). I’m much more of a shochu with fresh grapefruit kind of gal. Super refreshing, especially with this miserable, muggy weather we’ve been having. Where the hell are the trade winds, anyway? But I digress… onto the food!
My recommendations: yellow tail with ponzu & yuzu, deep fried garlic, torimomo (salt preparation), hamachi kama (ask for ponzu to mix with the grated daikon), salmon & avocado roll.
Things to skip: scallop & ahi carpaccio, chicken skin with ponzu (yes, I ordered this… I’m a total fat kid stuck in a skinny, Asian girl body).
As with most izakayas, it’s a little on the pricier side so expect to shell out some dough. But it is what it is. Spots like this are all about quality food in small portions & I’m all for it. I’d rather have a small dish of high quality, fresh seafood than get a whole platter of the previously frozen stuff. But that’s just me.

I love Miyabi! Everything except the salads are good. The sushi is especially good!
They have 2 menus, one regular and one seasonal (daily). The seasonal one is available only in Japanese (whew, good thing I can read it!)
I loved the kiritanpo nabe, sushi, kushiyaki, sushi, desserts, and sushi.
Parking can be a challenge as their lot is few by Go Bananas. Sometimes I park on the streets in the back neighborhood area. Sometimes I park in the Safeway Kapahulu lot and walk over…(writer not responsible for towed cars. LoL.)
Oh ya, don’t go during normal/​rush dinner time. The service is slow then. You gotta go at least after 8 pm.

Food: ⁵⁄₅. Everything is fresh & delicious! Must try items: unagi, hamachi, seared salmon, ikura, hirame, fresh oysters. Step aside Gaku.
Atmosphere: ⁴⁄₅. Hip & trendy. Plush booth like seating along the walls, sushi counter, & tables available.
Staff: ⁵⁄₅. Super friendly, speedy, and hospitable. Makes the meal all the more enjoyable!
Parking: free designated parking @ go bananas across the st or risk it at Safeway. Either way its worth it :)