My partner and I had been told to try Restaurant Kenichi and we went on a rainy Hilo day. The restaurant was packed and there was a short wait until we were seated. My hopes were high and I was really looking forward to some good Japanese food. Unfortunately, I was very disappointed. The menu is extensive and Service is excellent. I ordered a combination plate of Tonkatsu (pork cutlet) and Mahi Tonkatsu. It was dry and overly fried. I also ordered a Mini Ramen, which was good, not outstanding. I live between Honolulu and the Big Island and I hate to admit I've had better Tonkatsu and Japanese food at other restaurants. Because there was so many customers and many were older local Japanese, I have to give Kenichi another try. Perhaps, it was an off day for their fried items. The jury is out for now on Restaurant Kenichi. read more

Restaurant Kenichi - Mini Ramen - Desserts Near Me - Hilo, Hawaii

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Friendly, but very busy. We ordered take-out so by the time we got it back to the room to eat it was slightly cold. Pank Crusted Fish with Mac Salad and the cold tofu was legit and would definitely order that again! read more

The blueberry cream cheese crumble is amazing. I could eat that every day of my life!

Second time to go there in the past two months and both times one person at our table waited until most people were done with their food before getting theirs. The food is good but two stars because they didn't honor the listed price of their mini plate. The posted sign outside said $9.95, the digital menu said $9.95 and they didn't honor it and we had to pay $11.95. Yes, it's only $2 but if I knew it was that price I would have gotten the regular plate for $4 more. read more

On my way to Volcano NP, Did a take out from here. We ordered chicken/rice and beef/rice. Food with sesame taste was wow. Highly recommend this place! read more

Restaurant Kenichi - Desserts Near Me - Hilo, Hawaii

Everything tasted great with good selection and service, however I revived food poisoning from the Ramen Tongkatsu, which ruined the next 35 hours or so of our vacation. No complaints about initial experience, but order with caution, read more

Food choices and quality is consistently good. Service attentive despite the busy evening. Average ambiance but you are here for food and company to enjoy. read more

Just left this place and I have to say the overall service here was really Bad. The waitress we had was so disrespectful. I was asking her a question and she walked away in the middle of my question. She didn't even apologize or excuse herself for doing it. And when my friend brought it up to her she used a lame excuse that it was busy and that she was tryna get all the food out of the kitchen. Just cause it's busy or not it don't give her a right to be rude and disrespectful to the customer. After long hours of working at the hospital all we wanted was to sit, relax and enjoy a nice meal. But how we suppose to enjoy a nice meal if the waitress is so rude. Even after bringing it up to her she still didn't apologize. She Completely has NO CUSTOMER SERVICE!! read more

Yummmm! We love lunch at Restaurant Kenichi! I split the kalbi/pork chop plate special with my mom (extra charge of $3 for splitting). My sister had the butterfish. We also had the apple crisp alamode. read more

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Visiting from SD. Small hole in the wall spot, empty when we arrived. Order the Katsu Plate and Korena Chicken. Friendly and quick, except when we picked up (takeout only due to COVID) lady was kind of stand offish and just handed me my food, no bag, no questions, no good day. We drove to Carlsmith beach 15 minutes away to open our food and it was the incorrect order. Wasn't worth making the drive back. Food was still great! Had chicken gyoza, Katsura chicken and fried rice. Very large servings and tasty, just bummed we didn't get what we ordered. Advise- check it out, great food, but double check your order! read more

the ribeye on the iron plate is so juicy and delicious, every item ordered has been great

Food was amazing best ramen I had! The service was awesome the waitress kept checking on us constantly.

This place has very ono, fresh food and large portions. We usually have leftovers to eat the next day. the fresh fish is great. Salad is super fresh. Service is always fast!! read more

My fanily and I were just visiting here as part of our vacation and got the spicy ramen and hamburger steak. In terms of taste, the food was great and the portion sizes were satisfactory for the price, especially for Hawaii. I took off one star because I wanted a brookie (brownie cookie with local icecream) and they said they didn't have any at roughly 1pm. read more

Restaurant Kenichi - Hamburger steak: ~$12 - Desserts Near Me - Hilo, Hawaii

Best pork chops in Hilo!! Also tried their Kalbi ribs, onolicious!! Wife had the Korean chicken salad and she loved it. I'm glad they have take out service so we can continue to support. Can't wait till after this covid so we can sit down and eat inside. Highly recommended read more

the ramen is pretty good! hard to mess up that kine stuff but this one hit the spot. i got the spicy tonkotsu and was one of the best that i've ever had. i don't like paying for ramen cause i'd rather make it at home but this one is worth paying for. and was cheap read more

Amazing place with really delicious fusion cuisine. They have this really addictive Korean chicken wings- crunchy, sweet and salty. Their ramen was also out of this world. The Tonkatsu broth was rich but not oily. The noodles were firm and chewy. The portions were huge but the prices were really reasonable. We've had their gyoza, saba, chicken katsu, kalbi, bbq chicken and family fried rice. Can't wait to taste the rest of the menu! read more

Came for a quick work trip and decided to eat lunch before we head back to the airport as it came recommended by another colleague...it was packed but surprisingly the wait time wasn't too bad, about 15 mins or so. We watched as others ordered on what to get and then it hit us...BAMM..the aroma of Korean chicken! Yass! We all ended up ordering the same thing and was not disappointed! The chicken wasn't too overly sweet nor dry and to be healthy, I got brown rice, lol! read more

Best food I've had on the island. Piles of food. Very popular with locals. Everything the staff brought out of the kitchen looked incredible. I would eat every meal here if I could. read more

For the record I'm still sooo sad that Kay decided to retire for the 2nd time - Kenichi has the recipe but the korean chicken just isn't the same as when it was Kay's Lunch... I'm kind of more at 3.5 stars for Kenichi - the korean chicken is close enough to the way that Kay made it, and I like that they offer a boneless option in addition to wings. Most of the other things I've ordered have been pretty good. Their ramen was the worst of my life, but supposedly it's the best that Hilo has to offer for now, which is pretty sad. The food isn't bad, just nothing special and it is priced slightly high for this town. I really only go for the korean fried chicken, but my grandma also loves their sizzling rib eye steak and their salmon. Haven't tried, but the dessert case looks good and they have ready made bento's to go in the daytime. read more

Restaurant Kenichi - Boneless korean fried chicken - sold by the pound - Desserts Near Me - Hilo, Hawaii

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This is the second time we've visited this establishment. The first time was for Mother's Day last year- my first ever mother's day and it was positive. This time my husband and I were on a date and felt we needed to share our experience. Overall, it was more positive than negative. The service was good and I never had to ask for a refill of water because they were always attentive at the right times and there weren't any long periods of waiting for our order, food or check. Now the food: Fried Rice- 5/5 The best item we've eaten both times (and it's still as amazing as the last time) We could eat that by itself and be satisfied. Saba- 4/5 I love Saba and they prepare it perfectly. Boneless skinless Korean Chicken- 3/5 It is definitely crispier/rougher to eat than any others we've had so be sure to cut it up into smaller pieces or else it'll cut up your mouth. Sizzling ribeye steak- 1/5 :( We were excited to get the sizzling ribeye steak based on friends' experiences and many other reviews we've seen. It is definitely exciting when it comes to your table still sizzling and garnering the attention of anyone near. We could tell it was a very nice cut of meat and cooked nicely, but the taste ruined our experience. It had no seasoning and it tasted of char- like they forgot to clean the grill before cooking this perfect piece of meat. Very disappointing because of the price and also had it not been because of this steak the overall rating would be a lot higher. Mango cheesecake- 5/5 This cheesecake was very pleasant. Creamier and lighter than regular cheesecake with small pieces of mango throughout. The mango flavor was balanced and evenly spread throughout the entire slice. A great way to end our meal as it made us a lot happier and our tummies feeling balanced once again. Overall, we would only return for the fried rice and desserts. The steak was so disappointing that it'll probably be a while before we return. read more

Restaurant Kenichi - Desserts Near Me - Hilo, Hawaii

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Finally got to Kenichi's for the first time tonight, not because I've been avoiding it but because it's the first night I've actually been in Hilo since it opened. I had the Clud (inside joke for the owner's friends) Special Spicy Miso Ramen... which gives you a double sized double everything ramen! The portion was huge! About double the size of what you would get on Oahu at the price of a large ramen ($12.95). The first thing I noticed was the spicy was not overly outrageous like at other ramen shops I have eaten at. It was spicy enough to make you sweat but you could still taste the base broth and the miso backnotes as you swallowed. The second thing was that the bean sprouts were extremely fresh, crisp and extremely clean. They stayed firm almost throughout even as they were sitting in the hot broth. The highlight of the ramen were the chewy noodles and the yakibuta which Owner Mike said was his pride and joy. The yakibuta was exceptionally seasoned and cooked perfectly. There was no oily texture or filmy aftertaste while eating it. The noodles were firm and chewy but too excessive for me to eat. Next time I'm going for a regular order because I tapped out way too early on the Clud Special. We got exceptional service even though the dining room filled almost to capacity within minutes of opening and had a very consistant flow of patrons coming and going during our time there. I will definately be back to eat more ramen and sample some of the other menu items. Maybe as soon as tomorrow... read more

Restaurant Kenichi - Clud Special sized Spicy Miso Ramen... Double everything! - Desserts Near Me - Hilo, Hawaii

Love this place, a good restaurant to order take out from I recommend their Korean chicken

Went here for Ramen noodles & it did not disappoint. Huge portions at very reasonable prices & service was fast, friendly, & attentive. They did add 18% for tip with our party of 6 for lunch, somewhat surprising for a casual joint but I did not mind at all. $9 for the regular bowl & $13 for the large. I could not finish my large bowl. We all got the pork for meat option, but tried both broth options. The spicy/non-spicy miso broth was our favorite. The surprise dish was the teriyaki salmon belly. 4 pieces of fillet grilled to perfection with crisscross grilled marks & a perfect lightly applied teriyaki sauce, served with rice & Mac salad. It was worth a stop with a pleasant outcome. We were stuffed. read more

My friend/project inspector took me here. He told me how good the food was and how the portions was a lot for the price. He wasnt joking! Spicy miso ramen was pretty big for a small size and very tasty .Teriyaki salmon belly was very yummy! And huge! Im a big guy and i only ate just little less than half my plate after eating my ramen. Gyoza was plumped and very meaty! Service was fast. Waiter was on it! Went in at 515 and place was filled by 615 with people waiting outside. If your in hilo check this place out! read more

Restaurant Kenichi - Teriyaki salmo belly - Desserts Near Me - Hilo, Hawaii

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I come here for the curry ramen (on the specials menu & hope it's there when I am!) or the spicy miso ramen. But mostly for the curry ramen. Japanese style curry done right. I opt for cheese-less because I've found it makes for too rich of a dish ...(bowl?) & distracts from the curry flavor. Now if only this could be a regular menu item..... Best ramen in Hilo although the caveat is that it's by default. The spicy miso ramen really isn't very spicy at all but it's nothing a few healthy dashes of the togarashi can't fix. $8.95 for any ramen bowl here is so reasonable with all the fixings on top. Green onion, your choice of meat (I like bbq chicken), half a hard boiled egg, sprouts (sometimes it's sprouts overload though), kamaboko slice, nori flakes & pickled ginger. Win. In fact, the prices & portions here are very fair for all dishes. Love that the Korean chicken is skinless boneless! & the gyoza is housemade & delicious. The kimchi fried rice is alright. The desserts! Be sure to save room for the desserts. The apple crisp a la mode with Hilo Homemade ice cream is to die for. & the blueberry crumble! Amazing. During the holidays they had the best pumpkin crunch. They're always super busy & sometimes there's a bit of a wait to get a table but service is friendly & efficient regardless. read more

Restaurant Kenichi - Curry ramen! $8.95 - Desserts Near Me - Hilo, Hawaii

Went for ramen, couldn't pass up the butterfish special too! Great texture And flavors! read more

Restaurant Kenichi - Desserts Near Me - Hilo, Hawaii

Welcomed by the sound of the Coqui frogs, this local hideaway was a great find! They don't take reservations for parties under 6 and previous reviews mentioned there may a wait, but we were lucky that a table was available. Completely filled with locals, music playing, we know we walked into the right place. There was a private room in the back which looked like a political fundraiser helped to fill the restaurant with a definite buzz. It was a great menu with a nice variety of options. Service was great and they allow you to bring in your own beer! Food was awesome and portions were huge. This was definitely a great value for the price and we saw some items going to the other tables that we'll need to try on our next visit. I think by far the highlight would have to be the sizzling ribeye steak. Even though it came out in the hot plate, they were still able to get it to a perfect medium rare....yummmm! They had some flavored lemonade served in mason jars, home made pies and home made ice cream...how could we say no?!? We ordered the banana cream pie. Our awesome waiter brought us two wonderful pieces and even though we thought we couldn't eat another bite, we ate the WHOLE thing! Yep, the whole thing! If you are ever in the Hilo area, this restaurant is a definite must! Very local style with amazing food, great service, huge portions and scrumptious desserts! So far, our best dining experience yet! read more

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Delicious food! I ordered the boneless chicken and kalbi ribs to go. Both were so good and I loved both of them. The boneless chicken was flavorful and crisp and the ribs were juicy and tasty. I also got the green tea ice cream which was also delicious. I recommend coming here. read more

5 minute wait for 2. Service was fast once seated. Double ramen: Terrible. ZipMin from last week was 10x better. Only saving grace was plentiful amount of meat. Garnishes weren't great. Broth tasteless, dousing it with shoyu and mustard didn't help. Noodles were similar to frozen s&s saimin. Gyoza 7pc: Terrible. Filling had no taste. Broth was heavy with vinegar. Kalbi: Excellent. Heavy portions. Would definitely order again. read more

Restaurant Kenichi - Gyoza - terrible, no taste. Broth heavy with vinegar. - Desserts Near Me - Hilo, Hawaii

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Got here at 5pm. Quoted 20 minutes give or take for 3 people. Took hour half to be seated. Then food was mediocre. Got the spicy pork. Didn't have no spice. Looked like Teri beef. Mac salad was warm. read more

Casual dining and fairly priced. My children and I had fried rice, Caesar chicken salad, and a hamburger steak/chicken katsu plate. The fried rice was bland but decent. The Caesar chicken salad was good, the chicken tasted great. The hamburger steak was typical, and the chicken katsu was very good. I had brown rice with it which was hard in some parts. Happens in most places. Besides the food, the staff was very friendly and worked quickly. It was very busy but we were still there for only about an hour. Good atmosphere. Will definitely eat here again. read more

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I was really looking forward to having some delicious ramen, but it was just ok. I got the shoyu broth with BBQ chicken. The chicken was flavorful and tender, but one of the most important parts are the noodles, which were below average. The broth was also mediocre and could have come out hotter (temperature wise). The service was a plus though! Was quite busy when we arrived, but the waitress was helpful and the food came out quick! read more

Restaurant Kenichi - Shoyu ramen with BBQ chicken - Desserts Near Me - Hilo, Hawaii

The spicy pork is highly recommended! It looks and tastes like beef but more tender. I personally prefer Zippys Korean chicken, but there's was ok. The salads are huge. Very impressive. Very delicious and served in huge bowls. Save room for dessert and get the BROOKIE. Soooo good! We love Kenichi. read more

From entree to dessert, what a disappointing, unsatisfactory experience! At five p.m. on a Saturday, just after their opening for dinner service, there is no excuse for serving stone cold miso soup followed by an order of boneless, skinless Korean Chicken so tough and overcooked that I couldn't even bite through it. After numerous attempts to get the attention of our young server, who was standing in the service area chatting away with a co-worker, I ended up walking over to the service station and helping myself to a steak knife (only a fork was provided) just so I could cut through the rock hard pieces of chicken. Perhaps a drizzle of Korean sauce might have softened the chicken up a bit, but there didn't seem to be any on my order. The accompanying tossed salad was dripping wet, and the accompanying "Oriental dressing" was a very small plastic cup with about a tablespoon of barely seasoned shoyu. When the young man serving us finally came by, he seemed in a rush to remove our plates and get our dessert order right then, even though we indicated we needed a minute to consider dessert. When dessert came, the combined brownie-cookie dessert (allegedly a house specialty) had been microwaved to an unpleasant overdoneness, and the accompanying ice cream served in a seperate bowl (to accomodate the microwaving no doubt) had the off putting taste of having been uncovered in a freezer for far too long. When the small scoops of brown rice are the best part of a meal, its time to scratch the place off your list of local options. Bummer! read more

Kenichi is a solid 4, maybe a 4.5 in my book. :) My family and I hit up Kenichi's for dinner on the way back from the volcano park, and this is definitely the kind of restaurant I like to go to. Super chill and laid back, really felt like a kind of homestyle family restaurant. Service was pretty much what I expected too for this kind of place? Like a 3.5ish. Not bad, but not terribly great, and relatively nice people. Kinda had to flag them down sometimes. They were rocking the 90's hip hop songs too, which I thought was super amusing (and fantastic). We were all FREEZING cold from the volcano park (we were like, the only group wearing sweatshirts lol) so four out of five of us got ramen; I got spicy miso ramen and my sister got the tonkotsu ramen. Can confirm the other reviews here on the tonkotsu. It just didn't seem to pack any real punch or have the kind of flavor that I've grown accustomed to. If you want something with more flavor, get the spicy miso. I thought it was a pretty okay bowl of ramen, but nothing I would go out of my way for. At least, for the broth, noodles, and toppings anyways. The yakibuta though (the pork topping you usually see on ramen, aka chashu [not the chinese char siu, but Japanese chashu]) was amazing. 5/5 would drive back and eat again. Seriously. Everything else was a 4 or 3, but the chashu blew my mind away. I regret not ordering double meat. We also ordered gyoza and kimchee fried rice. The fried rice was tasty, but I think we got it literally one minute before our main dish, so don't plan on eating it as much of an appetizer. And I love all gyoza, so I thought this one was tasty, BUT they definitely go light on the seasonings, because I couldn't really tasty much in there. Could really taste the pork and the outsides were delicious, but yeah, the insides definitely are kind of meh. Would I eat more of them though? Absolutely. Just with plenty of sauce. read more

We had a great dinner here last night. I absolutely loved the sizzling ribeye! Cooked perfectly (rare for me) and seasoned well. Mac salad was good and the Gyoza was awesome! A sucker for a great desert, the blue berry crumble topped the meal off perfectly. Many reviews for the ramen are mixed but seeing the other patrons devouring those bowls of the stuff is making me want to pop over before heading out to try it. Heads up, even on a Wednesday night we had to wait almost 30 minutes to get seated...but service was prompt and our water glasses kept full! read more

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After a long day of exploring the Hilo side of the Big Island (aka stuffing my face the entire day), my appetite needed a bit of time to recover and Restaurant Kenichi was open late! I placed my name down and waited for about 30 minutes and was seated. The restaurant seemed to be filled with locals, which made me feel confident about my decision to choose this place. We ordered 2 bowls of very reasonably priced ramen (spicy miso and spicy shoyu) and were pleasantly surprised when they came out. The broth had just the right amount of spice balanced with the saltiness of the miso (or shoyu) and the pork was very tender. My only gripe with the bowl of ramen was the noodles, which were a bit too soft for my liking (past al dente). I would LOVE to come back to try the sizzling steak that many people in the restaurant ordered....the smell wafted over to my face and I drooled. Sadly, based on the day's eating habits, this wouldn't be a smart choice. (lol) read more

Good tasty food, nice casual dining, attentive and warm service! We'll definitely be back! read more

Restaurant Kenichi - They serve Fusion Lemonade here! (Mango LiHingMui) - Desserts Near Me - Hilo, Hawaii

They do not answer the phone . We drove down to place a takeout order and was told the wait will be about an hour. We agreed on the wait time, placed our order and was told we would get a call. We left and came back an hour later to be told it would be another 15 minutes. The 15 minutes turned into 60 minutes...WE WAITED TWO HOURS FOR OUR TAKEOUT!!! And what made it worst, while standing outside we saw people walking in without reservations, being seated, getting their food and leaving before us. We were not the only people waiting for two hours for our takeout. So the frustration was shared amongst a bunch of us as we compared our order times. Then we saw that some people either got a free dessert or had their entire meal comp. By the time we got our food it was 8pm and our meal was not comp. We got two slices of dessert. We wondered if it was because our meal was $100 and they didn't want to lose any more money. My gripe with the desserts is that I'm on a keto diet and can't eat it. We drove home to find the steaks were over cooked, dried and not seasoned. We ended up tossing those. On past occasions when we sat in to dine, we experienced poor customer service by some of the waitresses and their attitudes were as if they could care less if we ever came back or not. The food is mediocre to begin with. NOT WORTH THE WAIT! read more