I have passed by this restaurant countless times and always wished to have the chance to check it out, and the expectations for this restaurant have exceeded when I finally got to visit this past weekend. I went to check it out with a friend and being able to make a reservation online is so convenient and they had many time slots available. When arriving the parking was full but I was luckily able to find street parking a block away. When you walk in it is absolutely beautiful! The restaurant itself is small but it feels very cozy and does not feel crowded at all. The service is absolutely great as well, we were constantly checked on and every server knew the menu in and out with great suggestions made for our small party of 2. We started off with the Lilikoi Margarita which was very refreshing and you could not taste any alcohol at all, which I loved. Then we ordered the Hamachi, Adobo Chicken, Soup Dumpling, Sliced Beef, and the Seafood Pancake. Let me tell you... EVERYTHING was so good. The hamachi was fresh and it paired with everything it was plated with, the adobo chicken was crispy and the sauce was the perfect match, the soup dumplings were so juicy and did not burn my tongue at all, sliced beef was tender and melted in your mouth, and the seafood pancake was the perfect mix of all your favorite delicacies. The service was FAST, everything came out in less than 15 minutes of ordering and being able to share every dish really made my dining experience amazing. I am craving to visit again! read more

Stopped in for dinner and had their pre-fixe 9-course menu and some drinks. All of the dishes were delicious. Our waiter was attentive and everything came out super fast. Their dessert was especially creative with a mouse-shaped brown butter mochi and wagyu homemade caramels. read more

We came here for Christmas Eve dinner, so we really really wanted to enjoy it. It was one of the worst meals I've ever had, especially accounting for price - $230 for two people. As an Asian (and I'm sure many other cultures :) ), you never leave food that expensive on the plate. I only finished one plate (my boyfriend tried his best for the rest). One of the courses was a duck dish - I took one bite. I know, the Asian in me is screaming right now. Many dishes were extremely salty, the course was a mix of their 'best dishes', so there was no coherent flow. Dishes came out while we were halfway through the previous one - enough that we ended up with 3-4 dishes on the table at once. I personally was so confused as to why the ratings were so high - enough that I was second guessing my own taste buds and lack of familiarity with Hawaiian cuisine. Maybe this is supposed to taste like this? It wasn't until I tasted the mochi waffle, which I've had plenty of and make myself, that I confirmed that, the food here is just really bad. (That waffle was gritty, dry, crumbly - no chew or subtle sweetness like other mochi waffles). I debated not posting such a bad review given the desire to support Asian establishments, but after reading the practice of discounts based on 5-star reviews and just how incredibly upset I am that our Christmas Eve meal was $230 overpriced, bad food, I hope others won't make the same mistake! read more

Came here for our anniversary and we were extremely happy with the service! The food is impeccable! The Beet Lotus and Brown Bunny Butter Mochi dessert was my favorite! They gave us a Double Layer Ice Cream Pie since it was our anniversary. So good! We are definitely coming back again. I absolutely LOVE the service! It was nice to have every cook/chef serve us! Love, love, love the concept! read more

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The 6 of us ate here this evening to celebrate a birthday and we were not disappointed. One of our friends saw Such great reviews on Yelp and said we had to check it out. I'm glad there were 6 of us so that we could sample all their foods. We enjoyed their happy hour cocktails and then we ordered 8 dishes. We started with the Scottish egg - it was so good. Very flavorful and cooked perfectly! We shared one egg between the 6 of us and it was just right. Then we had the Mochi potatoes. I loved how it came with sour cream and chives. Next came the adobo fried chicken with soft peppercorns - their signature dish. It was one of the best dish of the night - crispy, tender, flavorful and oh so good! My hubby who is Filipino loved it! It was boneless and you can taste The vinegar in it! Next came here the broccoli - I enjoyed it but not a lot of broccoli for $18. Next came the other best dish of the night - foie gras over bottom of the pot rice with Gravy. So delicious - brings back memories of my moms bottom of the pot rice before we pour water and heat for soup. We called it crusty porridge. We also enjoyed the cha siew pork belly. We also had another chard Veggie which had some unique flavors. Every dish was unique on its own with Asian flavors. These are Not your every day dishes. It was truly a wondering dining experience. We also got a chance to meet Kenneth Lee who is the owner, Chef and server of the night. He was not only young but very humble. If this place was in Waikiki or San Francisco he'd make a killing. Kenneth has so much potential. He thinks outside the box these very unusual Dishes. I also loved the decor of the restaurant. Very classy yet with touches of Asian and modern. I loved the Chinese soup spoons screwed into the bathroom wall. All Six of us had to check it out. And then we loved all the plates, bowls and platters screwed into the wall down XO and little gold bobbles. I had to touch the bobbles when I walked by. I hope the next time we're in town Kenneth will have more new dishes for us to try although I will still order the adobo chicken and foie gras rice! read more

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Experience/Atmosphere was great; 10/10 would come again All drinks were on the stronger side but still delicious And thematic drinks is always a cool opportunity read more

XO Restaurant - Best little bunnies #Sheeesh - Asian Fusion Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

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XO restaurant offers a 7 course "family style" tasting menu. We paid $82 per person, which is fairly high for what was offered. XO is trying to be a fine dining restaurant but everything about this experience screams mediocre. The "family style" was also unusual, why not just give each individual a separate portion? With a tasting menu, you would expect that the courses flow together, but I found that the courses just became richer and heavier as we went on. There was no balance and it seemed like all the courses were separate. I think it would be better if they offered their courses as separate individual plates instead of a pre-fix 7 course meal. The portion sizes are very unusual - their fried chicken course was abnormally large compared to the rest of the meal. If I'm being honest, none of the courses stood out to me. If I were to point out a dish that we did like it would be the first course fried chicken skins. My least liked dish was the foie gras - it was a seared patty of foie gras on a block of crisped rice. The Kahlua pork dish was inspired by the islands - but this was not explained to us until after the course. It would have been cool to understand the dish prior to eating it. The dessert course butter mochi bunnies were cute, but nothing special in terms of taste. What really bothered me is the fact that right after the meal, the server told us about the 5 star Yelp review offer - basically they will give you a voucher for $30 off your next visit. This was completely voluntary but he asked us each individually multiple times if we wrote a review, making it really awkward for us. I was also disappointed that the server forgot one of our drinks that we ordered and served it AFTER OUR MEAL WAS DONE! Yes, after we finished our dessert course. He didn't even bother to ask if we still wanted it - we didn't. Food was mediocre. Service was even worse. I've had better experiences with pre-fix dinners and this was definitely not worth $82. read more

FRAUD ALERT - this restaurant is offering 30% discount if you write a positive review at their restaurant. I wish I would've taken the time to read the negative reviews before coming here because I felt like I got scammed out of a $200+ bill for what was 70% REALLY bad food. There are no "a la cart" options and everyone at your table MUST buy the tasting menu. This is not an actual tasting menu!! You are buying 4 large full meals, 2 appetizers and a large dessert. I was full by the 3rd plate and had to nibble on a few bites for the remaining 4 dishes, which wasn't a struggle considering their quality. My husband, who always eats everything off his plate, didn't finish most of the dishes either. That's when I knew it wasn't just me not enjoying the meals. I looked around, and the 2 tables that were there longer than we were also had plates full of food. My favorite dish was the ox tail dumplings, but guess what, to get that you have to pay an upcharge!! Otherwise, the fried chicken may be the only dish on their regular menu that was well done, but still not worth the price. Everything else was just tasteless or extremely salty (foie gras... which again, upcharged for something that was hyped up and supposed to have been their specialty). Overall, I'm so disappointed that this restaurant is manipulating their ratings, just so that they can trap people into terrible food. And for the Yelpers that are complying for a 30% discount? You guys are part of the problem too and helping this restaurant con tourist out of their money. Let's be real. read more

Awesome experience. Food was amazing from beginning to end . Waiters were very attentive. read more

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Derek and Anthony are awesome. Our first time trying this place, heard so much great review about this place. Anthony was very knowledgeable with the menu, recommended us the fixed menu, he is also very professional and passion about what he does. Derek was super sweet, he answered all our question about the food. We ordered A5 steak. It is best A5 steak with rice we ever had. I mean it! I've been to Kobe, Japan before, they are just as good or better. Try this place if you in Waikiki area. read more

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This is my second time coming to XO. Each time has been delicious! Great service. We came on a Tuesday night this last time (tonight) and restaurant was empty. Great drinks! I recommend the XLB as an addition. Popular drinks at our table was the old fashioned and the pink cactus. We all left super full! You will get full on this menu! read more

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Anthony was our server/sous-chef and he was wonderful. Very knowledgeable and kind and you could tell everyone on the staff is well respected and have a passion for food. They blend so many different flavors to make for a very unique tasting experience. 10/10 would recommend. read more

Where do I start?! Each dish had such amazing and unique flavors that dining at XO was def an experience! Can't miss talking about the excellent drink selection as well!! Kudos to the hard working staff and we will be back for sure!! read more

XO Restaurant - Brown butter bunny butter mochi dessert and my hottie bae! - Asian Fusion Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

Dinner at XO Restaurant was massively disappointing and one of my worst restaurant experiences. The menu is set up as a family style tasting menu with seven courses and it shouldn't be. The quality of the each course ranged from decent to very bad and is definitely not what you would expect from a tasting menu, which ended up costing over $200 for two people. I would recommend they change their menu to allow for customers to order stand-alone dishes rather than committing to an expensive and massive tasting menu. The first course we tried was the Beet Lotus, Emulsified Chimichurri, Shiso Gel, Quinoa. The dish was ok but forgettable. Soft beet patties were topped with crisp radish slices, crunchy quinoa, and a bland chimichurri sauce. The second course was actually pretty good. The Oxtail XLB (Soup Dumpling), Truffle, Parmesan, which required an upcharge from the tasting menu, featured warm soft savory dumplings filled with rich juicy tender oxtail. However, the third course of Foie Gras, Salt Roasted Crispy Rice, Gravy, which was supposed to be a specialty of the restaurant, was very average. Basically crisped rice was topped with a slab of foie gras. The dish felt like it was missing something important and was an underwhelming use of the foie gras. The fourth course, Seared Scallop, Mussel Sinigang, Crispy Kale, was very bad. The scallops were very chewy and seemed like they were starting to go bad and paired with flavorless crisp kale and Brussels sprouts. The fifth course, Updated Signature Adobo Fried Chicken, 4 Hour Braised Peppercorn Togarashi, was pretty good. Juicy tender chicken was covered in a crisp breading and a creamy flavorful sauce. The sixth course of Kalbi Pork Belly Ssam, Gochujang Aioli, Pickled Relish was also disappointing. The meat was marinated in an overly sweet and smoky sauce. This was some of the worst pork belly I have ever tried. Finally the dessert course of Fluffle of Brown Butter-Bunny-Butter Mochi was enjoyable and basically a warm dense soft lightly sweet pastry. On a positive note our server was very friendly throughout our dinner. Overall, the high Yelp rating is very deceptive. XO Restaurant acts like an upscale fine dining restaurant but serves mostly low quality food at high prices. read more

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Read all the great reviews on Yelp and decided to take my wife here for our anniversary.. I really wanted to like XO, its local and I want to support it. However, the ambiance was a miss for both my wife and I. I am unsure about the overall look they are going for, but its neither high end or cool. Again, probably not what we were expecting. I guess if it was just a lunch time casual meal or even dinner with the kids, this would work, but for a special fine dining occasion it felt very miss categorized. Maybe this has to do with the price point, which I would expect something more..... The food was ok, they give you a lot of courses and a lot of food. So if you have a big appetite and are worried, you will get full. Quality wise though, none of the dishes were memorable in any way. None were bad, but none were very good. The signature dish was fine, its fried chicken, so you can't go wrong. The service and the chef were amazing though. The chef came out and was super nice and really did care. Overall, you can get a much nicer experience and food for the same price elsewhere and that may be my sticking point. With a price in this range expectations are higher. All this being said, I am really happy to be in the minority for XO, because I cannot say enough about how friendly and welcoming the chef was. read more

The service was good but the quality of the food was poor. The cocktails looked like awful. The dishes was very oily and heavy. The place looks more on yelp and on pictures than in real life. read more

XO Restaurant - Cocktails - Asian Fusion Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

Have wanted to try this place for a while. Went for an early dinner on a Saturday night and it looked like they didn't have enough staffing as tables started filling up. They have a tasting menu with 7 dishes, which I would definitely come back to try with a bigger group. I was told the adobo fried chicken is their most popular dish. The chicken was tender and lightly seasoned, not too heavily battered. The scotch egg on a nest was also very flavorful, it was only the second scotch egg I've had but I'd say this was much better than the one from P&J. The foie gras crispy rice was one of the BEST things I have ever tasted. The crispy rice mixed with the foie gras gravy was out of this world! We were so full so I couldn't finish it all, but the rice was still crispy the next day when I reheated it in the microwave! Definitely recommend! read more

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My friend and I enjoyed our lovely dinner here. Most of the dishes were unique and delicious. The server was so friendly. We had really good conversation. I was going to give a 5-star review but things went down after the dinner. Although we dined as we reserved, I got charged for "no show" of $140 to my credit card next day. I called the restaurant to dispute. I got the refund 2 days later. Well, mistake happens but if they charge that much of money, I wish they have more sure way to track the reservation. I did not receive any apologies on the phone either. So now my memory of this restaurant is nothing but sour. read more

This was an absolute delight! From beginning to end, the staff was amazing and the FOOD!!! Omg the food. It was a tasting menu but we were both full and couldn't even finish everything. Do yourself a favor and come here before you leave Oahu, you won't be disappointed. read more

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Amazing food, amazing service, amazing time!! Exquisite flavors and overall highly recommend!! read more

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Food was interesting and tasty and also came out fast. Anthony our server made awesome recommendations and was super friendly, efficient, and helpful. Awesome experience read more

Had to put together a business dinner quickly. Found XO from Yelp. In a strange part of town. Walk inside to a beautiful bistro style. We were great by Chef Derrick, from that moment on the evening was fantastic. Incredible food, fancy without being pretentious. Each course got better than the last. A lot of restaurants ruin duck, not Derrick. It was perfect! I will definitely be back. read more

Absolutely amazing experience and tremendous food. I highly recommend anyone stopping by Waikiki to drop In if you're looking for a fine dining experience. Service here is top notch as the front of house staff are chefs and Kitchen staff members that know the menu backwards and forwards. Each dish is uniquely flavorful and elegantly presented as family portions. Easily worth the price. Sous Chef John was an amazing guide to our experience. read more

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**Public announcement** be the first customer to take a picture and tag to receive a FREE piece of their scrumptious adobo fried chicken for each person in the picture. We made 5pm reservations and thanks to my daughter she found a sign that said free cHicken! I believe the saying,"a picture is worth a thousand words." All the food we ordered was really good. If the photos are enough to make your mouth water, than it's worth ordering. The only exception and reason for 4 star is the baklava dessert. It was extremely dry and tasted like they just baked some dough and tossed some nuts oN it. I would stay away from this dessert. The other reason is that my scallops was on the small and borderline too done side. Otherwise, we really enjoyed our dinner. The adobo fried chicken alone is a good reason to come back. Trust your eyes, follow your GPS and no worries on parking as they have a decent lot. Cheers. read more

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Do not let the bad reviews scare you, those were outliers. The chef and his team here are super polite, and service was top notch. When you come here understand it's a prix fix meal with possibilities for subs and add ons. All the preselected choices are more than enough and the price of $68 is so worth it. This place is a hole in the wall because it's not on Waikiki but that shouldn't deter you! It's easy to make a reservation and yes if you don't show up you'll be charged but that's to protect the business and understandable. ESP when the chef has to plan his menu and courses with ingredients! We are coming back to eat each time we're in Oahu! read more

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Great atmosphere, great service, great food! The entire staff at this place truly cares about the quality of both food and presentation. Everything was beautifully plated and tasted even better. Definitely an adventure, with unique dishes that are seasonal and regularly updated. Would definitely recommend this place to anyone looking for not just a meal, but an experience. read more

XO Restaurant - Beet/Pumpkin purée - Asian Fusion Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

Totally overpriced and overrated.. restaurant is located out of nowhere, interior not only outdated but also torn off and food is just ok. But they still charge you like a fine dining place.. read more

XO Restaurant - Scallop - Asian Fusion Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

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Came here on a Friday night with friends. I've been going here since 2019 and have always had a great dining experience. Ambience is still gorgeous. Nicely spaced out tables. Reservations online. They are now doing the tasting menu of seven courses. You can sub or add on entrees. The food was amazing! My favorite was the Kalua Pork Chou Farci. It is literally a fancy Hawaiian plate beautifully displayed. Picture speaks for itself. The brown butter bunny butter mochi is so adorable and a perfect finishing dish to end experience. Highly recommend visiting!!! read more

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Wow. I'm absolutely blown away. Locally owned and operated, while using locally sourced ingredients, the service and food here at XO Restaurant was an experience that can't be beat in Honolulu. A group of girlfriends and I made reservations for an early dinner to celebrate a birthday in our friend group. We arrived at the restaurant and were pleasantly surprised to see that the place was pretty empty, with the exception of two other parties--meaning we pretty much had the whole restaurant to ourselves. The space itself is pretty large with everything spaced out for social distancing. It was a casual but still elegant and intimate dining environment to be in. What truly caught my eye was the gorgeous wall of plates displayed in the back of the restaurant. Our server, I wish I caught his name, was great and if I could give him stars I'd give him a sky full of 'em. Prompt, attentive, patient, and extremely kind, he never missed a beat while we dined our way through XO's tasting menu. If you're like me and have never dined at XO before, I will note that the structure of their menu can be a little confusing at first. Luckily for us, our server did a fabulous job of explaining it; excuse my botched version here: think of it like ordering omakase at a sushi restaurant except you have the opportunity to add on other menu items or substitute some menu items to make your dining experience one-of-a-kind. The base menu for kama'aina is $68: with that you get an appetizer, a vegetable dish, starch, THREE protein dishes, and a dessert served to you. If you're like me and dining with a group, then everything is served to you family style--meaning that everything for your party is served on one plate. There were four of us dining, so everything was portioned on one plate for four people. Believe me when I say that the restaurant is pretty generous with their portions; we had WAY more than enough food for all of us at the end. We dined our way through their base menu through what felt like a never ending flow of deliciousness. We started with the Korean style hot and sticky chicken skins... Chef's kiss and all kudos to the chef--these were crunchy, mildly spicy, perfectly seasoned, and the perfect start to what was to come. My group of girlfriends are huge foodies and after seeing the drool worthy pics of XO's XLB on Yelp, we knew we had to add it on to our meal! The oxtail XLB (soup dumplings), with truffle and parmesan, were to die for. If the business allowed I'm pretty sure I would have just ordered that for dinner. Perfectly chewy, and again deliciously seasoned to perfection, I'm pretty sure I'll be having dreams about this one for days. Our vegetable dish was the famous beet lotus, with emulsified chimichurri, shiso gel, and quinoa. Don't ask me what emulsified chimichurri is because all I know is that it's suuuuper delicious. My favorite part, the crunchy quinoa. Next up was the starch: seafood potato au gratin, with a Portuguese sausage sauce. If you know me, you'll know I LOVE Portuguese sausage; this was a nice surprise, a little sweet, but again soooo delish. The Portuguese sausage sauce with the potatoes reminded me of having breakfast for dinner but of course in an elevated and fancy way that I'm pretty sure I could never replicate. The three protein dishes were all so different and again soooo delicious. First was: scallop, mussels, calamari, with crispy wood ear mushroom, in a tom kha ngae sauce. One of my girlfriends dining with us is from Thailand and said this was her favorite dish of the night. My two other girlfriends are Filipino and LOVED the second protein dish: XO's signature adobo fried chicken, with four hour braised peppercorn togarashi. The final protein dish was a kalbi pork belly ssam, in gochujang aioli, with pickled relish. It's hard to put a finger on which I felt was my favorite as each dish was so unique and different. We loved them all! Finally no birthday celebration is complete without cake and dessert--we opted for both dessert options because... duh. The first and probably my favorite was the fluffle of brown butter bunny, butter mochi. Almost too cute to eat, and perfectly chewy, every bite was like biting into a corner piece of butter mochi. Because we were celebrating a birthday of course we had to celebrate with cake and ice cream--or in this case an ice cream pie! Topped with English toffee and almond fudge, each bite was absolute bliss! All in all, our experience with XO was nothing short of incredible. If you're looking for an elevated dining experience that is creative and fun, all while featuring modern local cuisine. THIS IS IT! Each dish was a great representation of the truly local, Hawaii food culture. Drawing inspiration from the many diverse groups of people and flavors, dining here felt almost like a fine dining trip around the world. read more

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Excellent dinner, excellent service. Our sever was also one of the chefs...so he was able to go into great details on each course. More detail than some might want....but as a chef myself, I ate it all up. Unique dishes, expertly prepared, fairly priced. I'd go back in a heartbeat. read more

Ended up doing the "Christmas x New Year Week - 7 course signature set menu" whilst on O'ahu for the holidays. The food was fantastic as was the service with the "Eggspresso" cocktail and Ox Tail Truffle Parmesan Dumplings being my favourite. Would definitely recommend this experience if you're on the island. read more

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We had a big gang for dinner so my comments following may not happen when you have a smaller group. Parking was not a problem on a Monday night. The two dining room waithelps were very attentive and friendly. A shout out to them.! We tried a lot of the menu items, some were two or three orders to ensure that we all got to taste everything. I felt that our presence created a huge kitchen anxiety such that all the dishes just came out and came out and came out, non stop. Pacing between different sauce tastes would have been better. Now and then, a new, clean plate would have been nice. The adobo chicken was not a winner for most of us. The sous vide duck WAS AMAZING! Don't miss this dish. The Pork Belly was wonderful! The beet and pumpkin roulade was yummy and the presentation was truly Michelin quality. The foie gras was good but I think it should have been served on a round of soft polenta. The fried rice did not do it justice. The charred broccoli was strange. The smoked trout roe on brioche was yummy and the plating was lovely. The ravioli ma po (or something like that, did not fit well with all the other sauces and tastes). The scallops I don't remember. It didn't stand out for me. All in all, I would return for a few dishes, not with a big group, and give the Chef some slack to work out the pacing of dishes and more fine tuning of food selection. Maybe a palate cleansing something to separate different sauce tastes. read more

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A great little place tucked away in the Kaimuki area. In a nutshell, it's Filipino American fusion. I wouldn't call it fine-dining, but rather, a 'nice' place to spend a little bit more $ than you usually would for a dinner out. The food was yummy, service was on-point with a great big smile, and the environment was pretty good. If you're going to go there, try the adobo fried chicken, good deal and great taste! One more thing, the menu changes frequently it seems. read more

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First time coming here to celebrate girlfriend's Medicare birthday. Picked this restaurant because I wanted to try a place haven't been to before and it had good reviews. We were not disappointed! All the dishes we picked were so creative and Onolicious! Chef Kenneth Lee definitely showcased his talents with his melding/fusion of different flavors to create unusual dishes that surprises the palate. We got to also meet and chat with Chef Kenneth; a very humble and down to earth guy. As a mother of multiple chefs in our family, I wish him all the best and longevity in his career as chef and owner! XO- Cyndi read more

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A carefully curated, and deliciously unique experience for all, whether you're vegan or the other kind. The various courses hit all of your taste buds and offer an impressive variety of wonderful textures to enjoy. I don't usually order dessert, but when it came it was the perfect compliment to th a great meal and a fun evening. I'll definitely be back; I can't wait to see what they put together next time! read more

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Perfect place for a date night with my wife. We were happy with the service and the food was great! My wife really enjoyed the desert and how they display it on the plates is very original. We will be back for more. Highly recommend this place read more

service was impeccable, food was ok...we may not have ordered correctly. i'd skip the saimin char siu soup dumplings but don't sleep on the fried chicken adobo...i can't really remember what else we ordered and that's usually not a good sign but i would like to give this place another chance- i've gone before they changed their menu to ikazaya style and that experience was so delicious so i'm hoping these are just growing pains :) read more

Unique food dishes. They update their menu monthly. Cool atmosphere. Chill

Amazing food and service!! The chef/cook (everyone works both positions) definitely knew on how all the food was cooked!! I would highly recommend and come back here again. Every dish was amazing with each dish attentive to detail. read more

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This was my first time here and it won't be my last. Every dish was amazing and the chefs here are so passionate in what they do to make your time here outstanding. Highlights for me were the Soup Dumplings and the Luau on a Plate. Perfect place for date night, celebrations, or if you're just in the mood for some really delicious food! read more

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