Ojiya Restaurant

I have eaten here 3 different occasions and all 3 ALL experience were good. I have take my ninhong-​jin n she said this is the best tofu she had. Very close to homemade from japan. :)

We had the fishcake stuffed with cheese, sounds weird but it was good, The gobo chips was great, a little oily, nicely salted. The butterfish is a winner. Chicken and pork katsus are good, green tea served HOT, Servers fast & friendly.
BUT they are closing the Honolulu Restaurant at the end of this month…

Ojiya was a very pleasant experience for me and my hubby. We often visit 678, located right next door and have never made the trip over to Ojiya. I am happy we finally made it over because I have had this place bookmarked for some time.
First of all, they have their own marked parking spots in the lot right next to it, which is very convenient. The restaurant is pretty cute and quaint. It is a lot bigger than it looks from outside, but it’s not huge. There were plenty of groups at the restaurant because Kawaii Kon was going on and it is conveniently located across the street from the convention center.
The menu is pretty expansive with their soba noodles being pretty popular. The items I enjoyed the most were the yakitori, and of those options, the beef tongue and pork belly were the highlights. The squid legs were good too, but we were still hungry, so we ordered a few more items. The agedashi tofu was really good, the clam miso soup was light and tasty and we ordered the popular chicken skin which was alright. I am sure people will disagree with me, but the chicken skin is essentially a lighter version of a pork rind. We will likely pass on this option next time we go to Ojiya. My hubby ordered the soba noodles and he said they were good. I mostly munched on yakitori. We ended the meal with the green tea ice cream which is alaways nice. I am looking forward to my next visit when we will try the whole squid and gobo chips.
All in all, it was a good trip to a new restaurant. The food is good, it’s not too expensive, they have parking, and it’s a cute spot. We will totes be back :)

Enjoyable izakaya! They have an expansive menu with yakitori, daily specials, sushi, sashimi, tons of appetizers, etc — a good array of tavern food.
We had agadashi tofu (delicious), fried squid legs (awesome), fried chicken skin (awesome), sashimi (good), fried pork bits (good), fried gobu bomb (awesome — I didn’t think it was as oily as other reviewers had suggested), fried oysters (awesome), saba (good), and various yakitori (very good), and green tea ice cream (can’t go wrong there).
Overall I’d recommend any fried! Ideally coupled with a cold beer. I was surprised by the semi-​reasonable prices for izakaya food — about $ 100 excluding tax for a ton of food. Was more than enough for 3 people.

If there is a safety net for me when i wanna eat decent Japanese food without breaking the bank and not needing a reservation weeks in advance when i eat at places like Izakaya Gaku or Imana’s Tei, Ojiya Restaurant is a place i can depend on when i have that craving for some decent Japanese Fare and leave knowing that i didn’t spend a King’s ransom and leave this place a very happy diner.
Located on 1718 Kapiolani Blvd, right across the 7 – 11 store on Atkinson Drive and a few shops away from the Korean Bbq place 678, Ojiya Restaurant has a few other restaurants in the California area as well and i guess has a chain of restaurants in Japan too.
Ojiya has an extensive amount of items to choose from and what i like about the menu is that certain items can be made into a Teishoku Meal if you choose and everything is well organized looking at the menu and they are numbered so you can see what you are ordering as you order it. There are a least 100 things to choose from on this menu and it describes what you are ordering which makes it easy for those of you having a difficult time not knowing what to order.
They do have daily specials every evening and also have an extensive drink menu as well. The only downfall for me is that the Sushi Selection here is pretty weak but i am not going to hold it against them because the price point for the sushi here is very reasonable considering and taste wise, it’s just as good.
I see that some other reviewers here have complained about the slow service here, but everytime we have come here to Ojiya, the service has been really on point and very efficient and are always there if we need anything. We have been here when it has been very busy and also when it was very slow and the servers are always consistent.
What baffles me is why this place isn’t busier than it should be. I really don’t think the location is all that bad and the parking situation is pretty decent if you ask me, but what i notice when i dine here is there are Japanese nationals eating here as well, so that to me is a good sign to me knowing that the food here is above average if not good.
Here are some of my favorites when dining at Ojiya
Gobo Chips $ 6.30:
Ojiya Poke $ 9.80:
Three kinds of Assorted Sashimi $ 18.50:
Aji Fry $ 7.50:
Jaga Butter MenChee $ 6.80:
Sushi Ala Carte:
Fried Chicken Skin with Ponzu:
Chocolate Parfait:
Banana Harumaki:
Kinoko Ume Zosui $ 9.80:
Beef Tongue and Squid Bone Yakitori:
These are just some of the items i recommend and i hear the Soba here is another popular item as well. All i can say is that Ojiya Restaurant is a place you have to at least try once, the more that i come here, the more i really like this place. This is the kind of place i can come to and relax if i want to just unwind and eat above average Japanese Fare. I don’t know about you, but Ojiya is beginning to grow on me with so much items to choose from and it keeps me coming back for more…

Located across from the convention center, East side of Hawaiian Style (used to be Quick Silver).
This restaurant is from Niigata.
I love their HEGI soba. I would come back here for this many times.
I was not impressed by their Chirashi, but sashimi was good.
Parking: limited (west side of the restaurant)

This is one of those places that I’ve driven by COUNTLESS times but never went in, until this past month when I went twice.
My grandma had gone with a friend and liked it so we decided to all go out to dinner (my parents included) and give it a try.
For one, this restaurant is MUCH bigger than it looks from the outside. Although it wasn’t too crowded it slowly filled up throughout our dinner. During are 2^nd visit, the place was packed and this was on a Tuesday night.
On to the food. This is a fairly authentic Japanese restaurant with an extensive izakaya menu. Of course you can get a spider roll but on the flip side we also ate deep fried shirako as a special one night.
One of the dishes they are famous for are the housemade soba noodles, which were aldente and the perfect sharing size for 4 people (minimum is 2 orders). Definitely more affordable than a trip to Matsugen in Waiks.
Some other dishes I enjoyed were
— Tako cucumber sunomono — tender tako
— Gobo chips — A must, even people who don’t like gobo may change your mind. Seriously addicting
–Crab salad — topped with light mayo, boiled eggs, and plenty of crab.
–Cucumber ume
–Nasu nibitashi — I love anything eggplant and this was no different, reminds me of something my mom would cook growing up
— Kani ikura zosui — perfect for sharing and good way to end the meal
The hamachi roll we had was okay, nothing special and the pork in the losu katsudon set my dad ordered wasn’t as tender as I had hoped.
Overall, I’ve really enjoyed my dinners here and although the food did take a little while the second visit I compliment the Japanese waitress (only 3) for working their asses off. Seriously. I never saw them standing around.
Saw a number of Japanese diners too which are always a good sign.
*Completely random but if you know anyone in the Japanese Senior Club — 10% discount!

We wanted to try someplace new and were craving Japanese food. I mentioned that I had eaten at Ojiya once before a long time ago and that it was pretty decent.
Together we shared:
1. HAMACHI KAMA: I was a little bummed at the size of the kama. I didn’t bother looking at the price but the kama that was served to us was pretty small in size, and barely had any meat in the bone. The menu says «MP» for price point which one can only assume it is based on the size of the cheek? Anyways– i was pretty disappointed with this one. It was difficult to get any meat off of the bone because it would instantly crumble when I would attempt to pick it up with my chopstick.
2. FRIED OYSTER: Winner winner here. Served with dipping sauce, lettuce, and cabbage.
3. AGEDASHI TOFU: Pretty generous serving. 4 huge slabs of fried tofu, but the dashi fell flat. I prefer saltier so i ended up slathering my tofu in shoyu.
4. IKURA NIGIRI: Too much rice for my preference
5. AHI TEMAKI: I didn’t try this dish because it was a dish my friend wanted to order.
6. MISO SOUP: Normal, no surprises here.
7. YAKITORI CHICKEN: Meh. That is all. Meh.
Gripes:
We also Beef Yakitori and Asparagus/​Bacon because they had specifically pointed out that they «now have a yakitori menu». After they served all the izakaya dishes, they asked us if they forgot anything– the «YAKITORI DISHES PLEASE!» Then the server tells us they ran out of the beef, so we ordered chicken instead. They bring it out shortly after. However– After 20 minutes of wondering where our Asparagus/​Bacon was– the server came up to us with the check. «Oh, i forgot to tell you that the kitchen ran out of the asparagus/​bacon too.» Oh. gee. thanks.
The service was EXTREMELY slow. I was trying to be understanding because i could tell they were a bit short staffed– but because they stuck us in a corner, I felt that they kept forgetting about us. It took about 10 minutes before we were even greeted by anyone when we first walked in, about 20 more minutes before we could order, and about 30 more minutes before our food even came out. They took forever to clear our dishes and bring out the final check— while in the meantime we were still hungry and wanted to order more food. BOOOOOOO. Well we didn’t even have the option to do so, and honestly– knew that it would take forever to get our food. So we opted to just pay the check and bounce.
All together, the bill was $ 50.
That’s pretty reasonable, but we left still hungry and unsatisfied. Not too mention we spent an unreasonable amount of time waiting. Just waiting. waiting waiting waiting. It was not an ideal. It wasn’t a horrible experience but I think I’m going to go back to my favorite, CHIBA!
Yee hawww.

I came here on a dinner date with my boyfriend. no special occasion, just a random date night so we weren’t expecting anything fancy or anything. We just read some good reviews on Unilocal and thought we would give this place a try.
Unlike other Unilocalers, I do not recommend the gobo chips if you don’t like oily foods. It’s basically gobo sliced super thin and deep fried. They don’t drain the oil out very well and the second half of chips are sitting in oil. Gross. We didn’t even finish half of it. :(It wasn’t as mind-​blowing as I thought it would be too. The gobo chips were basically crunchy, salty, oily things. Pass on this if you’re prone to getting pimples through oily things!
We also ordered the soba noodles (WHICH WERE SO GOOD). If I were to come here again, I would definitely just order the noodles. They are perfectly cooked and paired with dipping sauces to make this dish one of their shining stars. The grilled whole squid was also super delicious but kind of salty. It’s worth a try if you like squid or you’re feeling adventurous. The squid is really chewy (just the way I like it) and covered in some sort of salty sauce. You may need rice to eat with this! Because my boyfriend and I love gyutan, we needed to order it once we saw it on the menu. This is different from regular gyutan… The piece was HUGE and it was almost like the way the Chinese cut the gyutan (whole tongue instead of slices).
I thought the overall meal was a little too salty for my tastes. But this is a cute little eatery. The service is really good and the prices are comparable to other noodle/​izakaya places. However, there’s nothing that pushes this place over the edge, which is why they have a solid three stars.

My boyfriend and I have been wanting to come here for awhile and finally got the chance! The restaurant is beautiful inside and we were seated shortly after walking in.
After pouring over the menu, we ended up getting a spicy tuna roll (I like trying the spicy tuna at least once), BBQ whole squid (more for my bf), and the hot pot udon.
Our first dish that came out was the spicy tuna roll. It was good, but for my tastes, it wasn’t my favorite. The squid came out next. Squid is not my thing in general, but my bf LOVED IT. The marinade was very tasty! The last dish that came out was the udon. It was very good, but from the picture in the menu, I thought we would get a mushroom or two. No mushrooms, but it just says «assorted meat and vegetables.» It was still really good.
Now were back at home resting from our meal. Our stomachs are full and content. My bf is still talking about the squid.

my hubby was craving sushi. what’s new? finally came to try this place, that we passes by about a hundred times .
we came for lunch and had the chirashi 17.80 $ and the combo box 2– choice 13.80 $
with saba and pork katsu .
the portions were pretty generous and the taste was good .
the lunch menu is quite small compare to the dinner menu. servers were friendly

My bf and I had just finished an intense workout at the gym, 24 Hour Fitness next door, so we wanted to refuel with some healthy protein and carbs. We walked over to the restaurant, to find that it was closing in 2 minutes (it was 2 min ’til 2pm), and the hostess/​server was nice enough to allow us to come in and order before the kitchen closed. We got seated and then my bf and I each quickly chose out the combination lunches, where you choose two items for $ 13 or something like that. I ordered the butterfish or the broiled black cod, and the sashimi. The butterfish was sooo soft and tender, and nicely broiled. The sashimi was super fresh and tasty. My bf ordered the salmon roe and the uni, two things that I do not eat, but he seemed to enjoy his food. Our food also came with a small bowl of soup, which was also nice. Oh, and I forgot to mention, they charge you an extra couple dollars onto the baseline price, if you order extra fancy items such as the uni, sashimi, butterfish, etc, but it was totally worth it.
Overall, service was good, considering we were practically the only customers in the restaurant, and it was already past 2pm. I also like that the restaurant and restrooms are nicely decorated, the restroom is fresh-​smelling, and there’s actually mouthwash with rinsing cups in there! That’s so awesome! Not that I cared to use it, since I came straight from the gym and could care less how bad my breath smelled. But I figure it’d be good for people who are on a date and need to freshen up after dinner. =)

This place is a slice of home for me. Growing up in Japan you get spoiled by the good food and customs. So coming to Ojiya, felt just right! With its location being directly on a corner, it can be easy to miss it but once parked let the good times roll. Mind you the prices of the restaurant is pricey, but the quality of the food is top-​notch. I always order a bento tray with tempura & udon with a side if Ikura salmon bowl. As always, Im never disappointed with the taste or presentation. I’m very particular of my ikura because I can always taste if its fresh or not, I hate when I can taste the slight film of plastic in my ikura. SO far, every time Ive come here its been fresh. Which is really why I come back, YES just for the damn Ikura. You know how freakin hard it is to find good Ikura, man! HARD! haha
Parking: Small lot
Service: Always friendly and accommodating
Food: Legit and delicious
Rating Must GO pple!

Having lived in Japan for nearly half a decade, I am a stickler for authentic Japanese food in Hawai’i. With that being said, this place is LEGIT.
Fairly spacious, the staff actually ARE Japanese. It’s not one of those «Japanese» restaurants managed by non-​Japanese people. Ojiya claims to bring you authentic Japanese food, and boy do they.
While they have a good selection of entrees, it’s their large abundance of «pupus», or appetizers, that bring back great memories of izakayas back in Japan. I personally never liked the small-​space associated with izakayas, but loved the food. Well Ojiya’s is far more spacious and brings delicious foods such as their yakitori and (iirc) Niigata soba.
I have been here a total of three times, and each time has been delightful.
The staff was average, with no complaints or particular praise in that department. They were friendly, but also stretched thin during a busy visit.
Their food was delicious and on point. I highly suggest their zaru-​soba and any of their yaki-​items.
The only problems are:
1) Parking. Their small lot is shared with a Quicksilver? T&C? A surf shop basically. If possible, head during the evening and you can take up their stalls as well. However, even with their stalls, there’s about… a little over a dozen stalls? I mean, you can always park in the nearby lot, or at 24 hours/​Hawaiian Brians, but they are pay-​to-​park.
2) Price. They aren’t overly expensive. However, they aren’t cheap either. If you treat it like an Izakaya experience, your bill will skyrocket before you know it.
However, with that being said, I give Ojiya Restaurant a SOLID 4-​star experience. I have no reason NOT to return. I am definitely a fan.

OMG — how did I not come here before?! Riki T. suggested this place. We went to eat and catch up with a friend visiting from Japan. This is located near the old Quicksilver on Kapiolani, though it’s now replaced with another local surf store. I can’t recall the name. They have maybe 6 – 8 stalls dedicated to Ojiya.
We had reservations and were seated promptly, even though we showed up with less people than our reservation. I didn’t do any of the ordering, which was actually lucky for me because all the food I had was oishii (delicious). I particularly liked the gobo fries, mochi cheese thing (sort of like agedashi tofu) and the seafood salad.
It seemed like there was only 1 server for 5 or 6 tables. He was rushing around like mad, but polite the whole time. Timing wise, I hoped for better service; but, what can you expect from 1:5?
3.75 stars — tasty food, the server tired his best, good ambiance, the alcohol was a little pricey but expected — and terrible bathroom. There was only one stall, that’s a bad nor good thing. But the toilet was clogged, and I had to fix it myself!

Came here with my family for my birthday. Service was good and everyone friendly. We had 5 adults, 2 children, and one baby and I think we chose a good place for dinner. Had ample parking in the front and nice and roomy in the restaurant. It wasn’t all crammed together and jammed pack like some other places.
There was a lot of items on the menu, I think over 90 selections! The food was pretty good and decently priced. They did lack on the desserts with about 3 items, but at least they had green tea ice cream: D
I had the sushi deluxe dinner and it was pretty good. I’ve had better sushi at other places, but it was good enough here; but suprisingly the uni was quite good here. I do want to come back and try their curry, tempura, and a few other things that caught my eye.
Overall a very good casual restaurant to go to — ⁴⁄₅ stars.

Went to Ojiya Restaurant today with my best friend for dinner. I have been here a few times already and I always enjoy the food.
The service is okay. I think the only thing I don’t like about this restaurant it the wait for the food. I notice it always takes them awhile to bring out our food. Sometimes parking can be difficult if you go in the daytime, nighttime they have more parking spaces so it isn’t so bad. Other then that I think this is one of my favorite Japanese restaurants to eat at =]

Ojiya is one of those Japanese restaurants that I would call my fall back plan. For some reason I always forget about them but whenever I go there I’m always more than satisfied. The food is consistently good, I enjoy the soba, Izakaya menu items and the robata bar things like the yakitori and the ume shiso yakitori.
If you’re drinking beer, the gobo chips are a must. If you like sochu & sake then you’re in for a treat here. The sushi is good too, I feel if they had a bigger selection and more variety in this area I’d probably give them 4-​stars. But with that said, Ojiya is always a good place for Japanese food especially when majority of the clientele here are Nihonjin, which is a good sign for a Japanese eatery.
Parking is limited so it’s best to go either early or on the later side. If you are shopping at Ala Moana, this is a good location to hit when you feel like eating some good, reasonably priced Japanese food.

Okay, maybe 3.5 stars, but I’m not going to bump it up to 4 stars, so 3 it is.
I’ve been to Ojiya a few times since my coworker really likes this place. I like Ojiya, but I don’t love it; It’s a decent, middle-​of-​the-​road izakaya that’s slightly better than Gazen but not as good as Aki No No. For the most part, the food at Ojiya is good/​alright but not memorable, parking is limited, prices are average, and the service isn’t great but not bad.
Gobo Chips — Definitely worth trying at least once. It’s a bit greasy, but very fun and crunchy.
Hamachi Sashimi — Nice and and decently fresh, but forgettable. I’ve had better hamachi elsewhere.
Zaru Soba with Yamaimo — I love zaru soba and I love yamaimo, so it was pretty obvious that I would enjoy this one.
Agedashi Tofu — Good, but tastes like agedashi tofu from any other place.
Fried Mochi with Sauce — Chewy and gets stuck to my teeth, but yummy. I prefer this over the agedashi tofu, and I think this one is better than Gazen’s fried mochi dish.
Fried Ika — Greasy… my coworker asks for ponzu with this one, which helps cut the greasiness.
Fried Pork Tenderloin with House Sauce — A little greasy, but good with the sauce.
Mushroom and Ume Zosui — This is pretty simple, straightforward, and not too flavorful, yet still I really like it. It’s actually a big portion and is quite filling.
Yakitori — I’ve tried the chicken, garlic, tongue, and a couple of other things from the robata and they were all good, but they could have been from any other izakaya.
Overall, I don’t mind coming to Ojiya with my coworker because the food is fine, but I would only come back to on my own for the soba. For the price, I’d rather go to Aki No No or spend a little more and go to Nonbei.

My Mom was craving chirashi. Her friend recently raved about Ojiya. I’ve never been before and still haven’t gone, but… have tried their delicious chirashi via take out.
My Mom did take out that night. She ordered 2 chirashi’s ~ both were only $ 18. Such a great deal for the amount of toppings. It came with a bowl of miso soup, as well.
*Ojiya *3 Shoku* Chirashi ~Hokkaido Uni, Ikura, Kani topped on a bed of sushi rice
*Ojiya Chirashi ~ Uni, Hamachi, Ebi, Shake, Maguro, Kani, Anago, Tamago, Shiromi, Cucumber… the ebi was HUGE! Loved it!
I’ve never had a chirashi with Hokkaido uni on it. I LOVE uni!
I’ll be visiting Ojiya soon!