My favorite “Japanese” food is Curry Katsu. It stands head and shoulders above all other forms of Japanese food. The problem is, most of the places around these parts think Japanese food = Sushi.
So the funny part is the only place it seems you can get to get curry are at Hawaiian places, so I’m not displeased with this new Hawaiian fast food fad that seems to be making the rounds.
Ono Hawaiian BBQ is down the street from my office and I’ve been there several times. Among other things, they have good kalua pork, grilled teriyaki chicken, beef, spare ribs and katsu.
At first, Ono’s prices seem a bit like they came right from Hawaii – outrageously expensive. (We once paid $12 for an ordinary frozen pizza and $5 for a gallon of mile from a major grocery chain on the big island.) Then, when the food arrives, things aren’t so bad, because the portion sizes are so big the mass literally begins warping the fabric of space/time exactly as Einstein predicted in his General Theory of Relativity. Any single entrée is big enough to feed two.
And so it was with my Curry Katsu, pictured above.
Right off the bat, it was pretty good, but I have a few reservations.
- Despite being depicted as a spicy item on the menu, it’s quite mild.
- The presentation is wrong, with the curry served on the side
Why do I care about the presentation? It just seems a bit lax. I was, essentially, given a chicken katsu plate, with a side of curry. This made it much easier to share chicken with my daughter (who won’t touch curry), but it made it feel like the dish was just an afterthought.
The rest of the food we’ve had an Ono has also been quite and and plentiful, and I don’t hesitate to recommend it.
Ono Hawaiian BBQ
3923 E.Thomas Rd., Suite B-4
Phoenix, AZ 85018
(Other locations around Phoenix)
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