After passing Tanaka Saimin numerous times I decided to give this new restaurant a try. I went around 3PM so I did not have much trouble with parking. Upon entering the restaurant I noticed one half of the restaurant was filled. Business seemed good! This was a good sign! All the booths and tables on the left side of the restaurant were occupied with customers. The other half of the restaurant was still empty. I was then asked by the greeter if I wanted to wait for a booth or to sit at the counter. I found this a puzzling question since the tables located on the empty side of the restaurant were not being used. I informed her that I would wait for the booth. As if sensing my dismay the greeter asked the lady at the front counter if she could sit customers in the other half of the restaurant. Thankfully it was decided that I could sit on the other side and I did not have to wait for a booth or sit at the counter. After being seated I noticed a couple more customers came in and they were seated on the same side that I was on. After waiting a few minutes I noticed a waitperson came over to take orders. I noted he went to another table first to take orders even though my party had been seated before the party he was assisting. I considered that to be a service glitch. He then came to the table I was at and we ordered our choices. I had ordered the Kayaku Saimin with Wun Tun. I was interested to see how the saimin was and also how the Wun Tun measured up. I found the noodles too soggy as if it were overcooked. Also the Wun Tun was falling apart in the broth indicating that it may have been overcooked. The broth was pretty bland with no taste. Overall a disappointment. Now I know the Tanaka Saimin is still relatively young establishment. And like any operation there is always room for improvement. I think the restaurant and its staff have potential. I shall try again in perhaps three months. Food - Fair Service - Fair read more

My fiance and I usually come here when we can't decide on anything because it's pretty much zippys but with a twist. Our dinner was good but our appetizer (garlic soybeans) was just soybeans with sweet Chile sauce on it so we ended up wasting the whole thing. Then I wanted dessert so I got the fried ice cream and that sucked. Literally toke 2bites and wasted the rest. Waiter never bothered to find out what was wrong or anything. Good luck its a hit or miss now a days. read more

It's ok. Lots of people go there but the good is average. I ordered the yakitori chicken burger with fries. I didn't think it had a Lott of flavor. There was something missing. The price was fair. If they charged me $13 for that I would've been upset but I paid $8.99 which I think is fair. If I ever go back out would be because it was my last resort. read more

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1st time eating here...was good food, lots of choices, friendly service...I will be back to try more selections... read more

Tanaka Saimin - Japanese Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

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Took my grandmother to lunch for her 77th birthday.. THE WORST SERVICE! from the hostess to the waitress! Don't waste ur money on mediocre food and poor service. GO TO ZIPPYS! read more

I came here because I didn't want to go to a super crowded tourist spot and the saimin didn't disappoint. however I got the "fried ice cream" and it left a bit to be desired. read more

First time here and the service was really good Good variety of food to choose from

The pricing here is not bad at all! The food tasted great however, we only got 2 breakfast (eggs/sausage/starch) meals and a waffle and we had to wait 30 minutes to get our food. While that time passed, we also did not get checked up on, and it still was not extremely busy at the time. read more

This is my second time here and my better half's first time. Enjoyed the meal and the fried ice cream dessert. I had a mixed plate of Crispy Chicken and Teri Beef. My other half had the Teriyaki Beef Saimin. read more

Where do I begin? Part of this Grub Hubs fault, but part is also on Tanaka. Placed an order on Grub Hub, food was supposed to be ready at 5. Got there at 5 and told them my name and it was a Grub Hub order. Waited 10 minutes and no food. Checked with the host and she went to check on it again. 20 minutes and she tells me, she just accepted the order and it would be 10 more minutes. By then I was already frustrated. Manager says I have to tell Grub Hub what happened and maybe they can refund me. Offered me a soda. Like that is going to make up for it. 40 minutes later, I finally got my food. And it wasn't even busy. Take the food home, only to find out they forgot the salad for one of the plates. The beef stew, only had one piece of beef. Don't order the oyako donburi. Worse thing I have ever eaten and it was so dry. It had a fishy taste and smell. We order takeout from there every other week. But I can say we won't be back for a long time. read more

Went in 2 weeks after they opened -- looked like a very nice modern place. Unfortunately the food we ordered was really "old school" (e.g. remember when restaurants only served canned fruit cocktail/strawberry jello for dessert) and harkens back to the day when Honolulu's restaurant dining options were extremely limited. Since I heard a Iot about Boulevard Saimin's (Tanaka's relatives) great noodles, I ordered the Tanaka Special Saimin Bowl -- which was a big disappointment. It consisted of tepid tasteless broth and mushy over-cooked noodles with 6(?) doughy local-style wontons and 2 pieces of shrimp tempura. The bowl was garnished with a pinch of green onion, 2 choy-sum slivers, and a sprinkle of char-siu cubes like you would find in fried rice. My companion had the Fried Mahi Plate -- her fish (and my shrimp tempura) were coated in the same thick heavy batter which made the protein inside look twice as big as it really was. We had to scrape the batter off to make sure that we were putting the skimpy portion of tartar sauce on an actual piece of fish and not just dough. Service was also bad despite the fact they had been open for 2 weeks already and there were only four occupied tables at the time that we went there. To use an old school term, Tanaka's was....JUNK! read more

We did our saimin tour of the island and finished here. My aunt told us that the partners of Boulevard Saimin split and one of the owners opened up this place. It's in a good location, but parking is hard to find. The interior is very open and very clean. Not your hole in the wall like Boulevard. We ordered Saimin and the food was just ok. The flavors were good, but the noodles were a little over-cooked and the wun tons weren't as meatly as Palace Saimin. Price was a little more than the old school places, but it's probably because of the rent they pay for the new place. Overall, good food, but not for the price. Stick with the old school shacks for saimin. read more

Food SUCK! I wanted to try because it's new restaurant and I was so disappointed. I wish I checked all the reviews here before going. My suggestion, don't even bother trying. You will regret the it. read more

Tanaka Saimin - Nasty Sweet Potato - Japanese Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

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This place is usually very busy during lunch and dinner. They are well known for their siamin. We waited about 10 mins for a table to open during lunch. I always get the crispy shoyu chicken. It's my favorite, kinda like a Teri fried chicken. The best part is the crispy skin. This place has everything from saimin to sandwiches and even a little fancier items like prime rib. I've had the prime ribs here it's good. Parking may be a little crowded with all the surrounding businesses. read more

Pros: 5 minutes wait to seat 12:30pm Sunday Food came within 10 minutes Yakitori chicken sandwich had soft bun, crisp vegetables, tasty grilled meat and sauce Saimin noodles thin, soft and soup good dashi flavor Mustard generous and burning my nose Service brought extra bowl and chopsticks fast at request. Polite and fast. Cons: Parking lot crowded Prices going up Hostess says bring menu with you from waiting area ******************************* Notes: It's been a while since we had great food/service combination at any restaurant. We enjoyed the roomy atmosphere, pics on wall and not too cold ac. read more

Friendly atmosphere and great services. Food is fantastic! Love the weekend specials. Favorite would be the Italian sausages with spaghetti. Remind me of hana hanabattah days. Flavor like spaghetti in a can with the soda crackers and spam. Broke the mouth. read more

Really good food every time we land or depart Oahu we stop by here. I like there fried shoyu chicken and Teri pork combo plate. Fast and friendly service. read more

We did an early dinner, greeted and seated immediately. We took a few minutes to decide what to order. The choices were awesome and hard to select. My husband is very particular about his food and he was very satisfied with his meal. The service was friendly and fast. We will return! read more

The workers were nice but the food was definitely not up to par. I got the ramen burger. The noodles for the buns were like mushy cake noodles. read more

The perfect spot to go to for local grinds, after spending all day at the beach. Nothing better than a Tanaka saimin to warm you up. Service is great. Portions are generous. It's a really big restaurant so you hardly have to wait that long even when it's busy. The chicken papaya soup is also one of my favorites read more

I'll give this place a 3 because the inside of the resturant was really nice. I didn't check yelp before coming here so i was surprised at how nice and big this place was. It is open and spacious. We felt like eating saimin that morning so we all got saimin. My son had a small wun tun min, my husband had the large and I had the oxtail saimin. The saimin in my opinion wasn't that great, it's lacking flavor. Also, they didn't give much noodles. My 4 year old son finished the small size so fast. And my husband had the large and it was mostly soup. But mines was HUGE! Bigger than I thought. Generous size of oxtail and loaded with noodles double the portion of the large. I couldn't finish it all and took more than half home. Waitress was slow with service and it wasn't busy that morning being that it was raining I guess. She took long to refill our waters and didn't even come check on us during out meal. I wanted a refill on my coffee but she didn't come back until we was done with our meal. I'll probably try it here again when I'm in the area. I saw a lot of things on the menu I still want to try! read more

Tanaka Saimin - Japanese Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

Now tanaka Saimin is open everyday at 7am for breakfast...it's just not Saimin at Tanaka Saimin!!!! Open every day at 7am...closes at 10pm every night except Friday and Saturday closes at 11pm.... Mon - Thursday: 7am -10pm Fri - Saturday: 7am - 11pm Sundays : 7am - 10pm read more

Went here for the first time the service was good, but the Saimin broth was way to fishy, WHY??? will not be returning...

Every time I come here I always forget to right my review, but after last night my bf told me don't forget to do your review. Lol. This place is really spacious like I mean they have lots of tables and booths for you to sit in. We always tend to come here after we watch a movie at Dole Cannery because its so close, good food & affordable prices. I had the advantage of getting to know the owner after working at the bank, she is such a nice lady and so sociable. Although I never see her at the actually restaurant, I always seen her at the bank. When I come here, I hardly ever get anything with rice. So I cant really speak much of that but I really love their WunTon Mein! It is so yummy, they give a good amount of noodles, charsiu meat, fishcake, green onions and of course the wunton cant forget that right. I love the soup base that they use with their saimin, its not salty at all. I cannot forget their TUNA CHEESE MELT! ohmygawwdd to die for, I know its the most simple thing to talk about but I love a good tuna melt man, that is like my thing hahah. I know that if you order a saimin you can get it with a sandwich or burger combo for like $12-$14, cant go wrong with that right. Sometimes we get the fried veggie platter too, because that's ono. I love the sweet potato one, but the sauce they serve with it im not a big fan of it. They do have dessert but its not really a big menu, when we do order we always get the tempura ice cream. That's pretty good as well. read more

I don't like writing bad reviews. And I usually don't try a place once and decide "nope, never again." But this is one of those places. I just don't see whatever it is that makes people like Tanaka Saimin so much. The parking lot is weird. The layout is strange. The furniture looks like it all escaped from some bar in 1978. The food is bad. I don't know how you mess up cone sushi (actually, there are LOTS of ways to make a bad cone sushi, and they nailed it). The eggplant tempura is an oily mess. The mac salad is a poorly mixed mess. The teri beef is worse than Zippy's (if that's at all possible). And saimin, for crying out loud. The rest of the food on your menu can be bad, but if the food is in the name of your establishment, it should be something you're really good at making. I found the saimin to not only be bland and unremarkable, but both me and my unfortunate review partner suffered horribly the whole rest of the day. Eating food here is like going to an old relative's house, one of those aunties who should have stopped cooking a long time ago because she's either forgotten her recipies or just isn't following them anymore, but nobody bothers saying anything because they don't want to hurt her feelings. Seriously, someone should tell 'Aunty Tanaka' that it's time to hang up the apron. read more

A must, plain and simple. Delicious food just better than mom made it. Clean friendly site. Many locals eat here. Spacious, fast goid portions. Banana cream pie is a must. Food is still the same after all these years. Major credit cards accepted. Lots of seats but quick service. ATM on site. Conveniently located. read more

Soooo as we were driving along Nimitz we saw the 'open' sign blinking in the window. It's open! Now this is the place where it's supposedly the exact same as Boulevard Saimin (what I was raised on as a kid). Something about some family drama so they split into two and changed the names. Nonetheless, same good ol' Boulevard Saimin. So we get there. The workers look like they had been working all day and tired. We wait for about 15 minutes and got seated. I was not aware upon walking in that this was their first day. The guy at the front said this was their "soft" opening and the grand opening in on October 24th. Anyways we are seated. Unfortunately we waited about half hour to get our food. I am totally aware and totally okay with it because me and the husband entertain each other. We were also aware that it was their FIRST day and it must have been crazy. We overheard the owner say that they ran out of food earlier. Must have been nuts. So we get our food and the waitresses are apologetic. We are understanding but we immediately inhaled the food. Same taste except what I normally order is not "Boulevard Special Saimin" but "Tanaka Special Saimin" and the husband orders a Tanaka Saimin and a Deluxe Burger. Same. Maybe the water is a little cleaner here since its newer but the taste is exactly the same. This location is pretty big and spacious and new of course. The waithelp is the similar faces as the old Boulevards. I read somewhere that the cone sushi person is at this location. But to tell you the truth, I will go to either Tanaka Saimin or Dillingham Saimin. Depending which one is closer to where I am at the time. I still love this place as I was raised on it. Still awesome! read more

Tanaka Saimin - tanaka special saimin. pretty much the same as the good ol' boulevard special saimin, - Japanese Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

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Not to keep piling on, but it was brutal. Although if you really like a fishy/shrimp taste to your broth, you'll like it here. For me, it was soo overwhelmingly fishy tasting I tried to force the noodles (cause I was really hungry) and minimize the broth. Did I say it was straight fishy tasting? I think I'll just leave this review at that. read more

This place was super super bad. I brought my uncle here cause we were hungry. I thought at first was wow a lot of peeps here must be good food. I ordered the regular and at first it looked good. First bite into this it was like drinking water!!!. The broth and the vegetables had a chlorinated taste to them. I can make better noodles then this with the cheap stuff at a market. Bottom line is this place sucks!! cup O noodles are better and its TOTALLY NOT WORTH IT!!! If yelp had negative stars and sad faces that would be it. Shame shame :( read more

I decided to try Tanaka Saimin for dinner because I was craving some kind of soup or noodles in broth. It looked promising, as the restaurant was relatively crowded and the place was spacious and clean. They had lots of big screen televisions mounted throughout the restaurant. The wait staff was nice enough and pretty quick. I should have realized something was very wrong when my tsukimi saimin arrived and the broth just did not smell right. The broth smelled like aquarium water and tasted overwhelmingly of bland dried shrimp. The broth was so one-dimensional and gross that I could only drink one or two spoonfuls of it before giving up. It literally tasted like boiled fish food flakes :(. The noodles may have been decent, but they were so saturated with broth I could not really tell. The wun tun min was okay. They charged over $2 to add vegetables into my saimin, and I am sorry I decided to order them. The vegetables were tinged brown and tasted sour, definitely not fresh. The only good thing about the saimin was the poached egg. I tried to eat the dish because I did not want to waste the $10 or so that I paid for the saimin. My husband ordered a hamburger saimin combo. I sampled the hamburger, which was of school cafeteria quality. The french fries they had appeared to be of the prefrozen crinkled variety. Bottom line, I will not be coming back here. Zippy's and dozens of other places have much better saimin and food for similar prices. read more

Never been disappointed in the food selections at Tanaka Saimin. My husband and I enjoy the Japanese Breakfast but decided on saimin today. I had Oyako Saimin with extra vegetables, my husband had Oxtail Udon with extra vegetables. All was very delicious! The best came when we shared Tempura fried ice cream! Parking is difficult but still worth that small inconvience. read more

All the food here is good...my favorite place for saimin... fast service a bit pricey but worth it.

There's nothing bad about this place. It's just that there's nothing good about this place. Honestly, I can make better saimin at home (obviously not the dried stuff) and that kind of speaks for itself. It's also hard when the restaurant is next to a restaurant that has amazing food. It's really no contest. read more

if you are looking for old school saimin and old school food, this is the place to go. but if you are looking for great food and great service, you may want to stay away from here unless you really have to go. sign in seating, and they call your name out. i'm right in front of the stand and i see people getting sat that came in after me. wondering why i ask the lady and she said "i called you, you never showed" i was right in front of her face and my name was skipped over. don't know why. she did try to hide it and joke with me that she would take care of me, but it wasn't the service i expected. the waitress finally came over after almost 5 minutes sitting there. waiting for my friend as i told the waitress, we had to wait another 10 minutes after my friend arrived before anyone came by. and i had to flag them over before they even responded. we ordered our food about the same time as a 6 person table and my friend and i didn't even get our food till that table was almost finished with their food. timing was all off in their kitchen. now looking at their food, it was less than desired. old school tempura where the batter is super yellow and super thick with no meat or veggie until you get about half way into the batter. and instead of the tempura broth, you get tarter sauce!!! yes! old school all the way! my friend ordered the saimin and it was kinda off. i could have made better saimin. but i have to say it was very nostalgic feel and taste which i should have expected. needless to say, i really wanted to try it since i'm always in the home depot and best buy area, but after that, zippy's saimin is 100x better and the tempura was less than the old school ones i ate as a kid. oh well, i can chalk up this one as a no return =( read more

I don't have room to be lenient about my experience here, or even if I should care about coming in 30 minutes before they were closing. I know the feels when people dine in minutes to close, but sh*t, I'm paying money to enjoy food and the whole purpose of a restaurant is to make your customers happy. I was not. A friend and I were starving and decided since this place was still open, we try it out. Another suggestion was Zippy's but I had that 3 days in a row already so I wanted something new. We get seated fairly quickly and were promptly given water, which is a good start. I graze through their menu and notice they have that "saimin burger". When I first saw it on the news I was disgusted by it. I mean, who in the right ind would think of using fried noodles as buns?! IT'S NOT THE SAME. Well, some of my friends thought it was a good idea and because it was there, I decided to order it. My friend orders the Korean Moco. A good 10 - 15 minutes pass through and our food comes in. My friend's Moco get's dropped first and his plate looked delicious, as posed to mine. The moment I saw my plate, I was already regretting it. I say my thanks and the first thing I stare at is the fried cake noodles containing the watercress, patty, and cheese in the middle. I placed my finger firmly onto the cake noodle and it was cold. Not ice cold, but cold. I mean, I figured it should be cold because we have to treat it like a burger: pick it up by hand and consume it gruesomely. But no, this saimin burger was nothing special. I could easily microwave a burger with buns and still enjoy its warmth as i eat it. Aside from it being an "it", I still had to eat it. I don't want to waste almost $10 because of it. I take my first bite and I couldn't believe my senses. They were right. Saimin used as a starch for a burger is NOT a good idea. I kept telling my friend I don't want to take another bite because this is just not the best experience for my mouth. I'm too much of a good guy though, and I didn't want to return it because it was that bad to me. My burger came with some kind of lukewarm soup which was better than the burger. I think the best part of my dish was the complementary water. As my friend and I come near the end of this dining experience, it was time to close the check. As our waitress drops the check for us, a few minutes later the registrar personally walks up to our table and asks if he could take the check from us. We were just talking and never even budged to look at the check, but apparently (or indirectly) they wanted us out. That irritated me. He apologized because he didn't know I neglected the check for a moment but I just told him to wait since he's there to just get my cards. He comes back, politely tells me what to keep and what to sign, and "accidentally" throws the pen onto my table. Don't think he realized the pen landed fairly loud in front of me without his effort to place it on my table like he should have. I took a Dining Room class at Kapiolani Community College and I have standards / expectations when being treated by waiters/waitresses. This guy, although trying really hard, needs to know his fundamentals. Overall, this place deserved 1 star, if not, none. I came in a hungry customer, and left dissatisfied due to service and quality of food. That's two main criterias that a restaurant needs to do good in order for more customers for come through more often. Again, 30 minutes late to closing, it's getting late therefore grumpy workers. I don't care though. There's no reason to be treated less than 100% of the time when coming to a close. I constantly told my friend this is the last time I'm coming here. But if I do end up back here, I'm sure as hell not ordering food and will avoid service from them. I'm sorry Tanaka Saimin, it's not your fault, it's your night crew's fault. This is my first bad review. Should have stuck with Zippy's. read more

i love this place! it's very comparable to zippy's except you get way more for what you pay for! that's exactly why I (sometimes- depends on what i'm craving for) prefer tanaka saimin over zippy's. i've had the hamburger steak + mushrooms and i never finish the whole plate because it's HUUUGEE. i've also had the burgers, won ton mein, and that mixed plate. my fiance always goes for the korea moco plate. it's a little bit of everything and he loves it! service? no issues there. they're all local and they all make you feel comfortable. they're quick and they can be totally personable. read more

I don't understand how this place can still be in business. I'm sorry, I'm not hard to please, but this place gets a 1 star. While eating my saimin, I unravelled one of the leafy vegetables to find a white worm wrapped up in there. Ugh, I returned the bowl and did not want another. Nuff said. read more

I really don't know why this place is still in business. I ordered the Chinese chicken salad and it wasn't good at all. There was only three shredded pieces of chicken that tasted old. Eck! And what supposed to be won ton chips were crushed dry ramen noodles. Save your money and go to Costco's food court instead. On a good note, the fried ice cream is bomb. read more

Watch your bill, I got charged for someone else's order. Easily rectified however very painful process of admitting one's fault.

I had the chop steak plenty of veggies. Meat was tough could have been a little softer. Service was good and timely. The waiter said there will a new menu out in several weeks. read more