Tempei
A girl at the office mentioned that I should try having dinner at Tempei. In fact, she highly recommended that I go there for dinner during the week because they have these incredible "Early Bird Specials". So about a week ago, I decided to skip lunch and have an early dinner. I arrived at Tempei at about 5:30 pm.
The restaurant was a bit empty, but as soon as I was seated and placed my order for the "Early Bird Special", a bunch of people walked in wondering if they were too late to order the special as well (they were not). For US$10.95, this teishoku (set menu) dinner came with the following:
One trip to the salad bar.
This little "cart" was loaded with a lot of different choices.
Since I normally don't like to load up on salad, in case there's a lot to eat at dinner, I decided to sample just a few of the twelve or so offerings. I chose the sweet steamed kabocha pumpkin, spinach salad, tofu and tuna/spaghetti salad. They were all quite delicious and a great start to my dinner.
Next was a bowl of miso soup.
This one had lots of tofu, carrots, onions, green onions, and shiitake mushrooms. It was the first time that I've had miso soup prepared this way, and it was so delicious and full of flavor.
Here was the rest of my teishoku meal, presented so nicely on a lacquered tray.
Three pieces sashimi (raw fish).
I believe this was maguro (fatty tuna). The fish was extremely fresh. My only wish? That I had more.
Shrimp and vegetable tempura.
There were three pieces shrimp tempura and one piece each of zucchini, Okinawan sweet potato and eggplant tempura. These were light and crunchy, with no hint of oil at all. Amazing!
A couple of pieces of rolled konbu (kelp).
These were a bit sweet and extremely tender. (The menu said dashimaki tamago, but I didn't see any rolled egg omelet on the plate. This must have been a substitution.)
And finally, two pieces of misoyaki butterfish.
The fish was a little undercooked for me. I would have liked a bit of crispiness on the skin and a little more "carmelization" of the miso. In my opinion, this was also just a little bit too sweet. It would have been a lot better if a little less sugar had been used.
All in all, this was quite a good value for the money. For the most part, I left feeling completely satisfied. Though the misoyaki butterfish was a bit sweet, its flavor did not detract too much from the overall meal. I'm hoping to come back soon to try more of the food that is offered here.
Tempei
Sam Sung Plaza
655 Keeaumoku Street Suite 108
Telephone: 808.941.8773
wow, that's pretty good for an early bird special. 5.30, though. that's more like a really late lunch for me :-) that's the best salad bar selection i've ever seen!
Posted by: santos | October 06, 2004 at 05:01 PM
Hi Santos,
Yeah, it is quite a good deal isn't it? The salad bar was actually really good. There was actually lots of stuff there that I would have eaten, however, I normally limit my salad bar intake as I find that I can't eat the rest of my food! =( And normally, this type of food doesn't taste so good the next day.
Posted by: Reid | October 06, 2004 at 07:07 PM
i just noticed the giant bucket of kikkoman shoyu under the salad bar
Posted by: santos | October 06, 2004 at 09:36 PM
A healthy light snack by my standards ..... hahahaha. Was that enough for you (lunch + dinner)?
Posted by: FatMan Seoul | October 07, 2004 at 02:45 AM
Hi Santos,
Good eyes! Even I didn't notice that 5 gallon bucket! We use lots of shoyu here in Hawaii!
Hi FatMan,
Nice to see you! You were MIA there for a while. No, it actually wasn't. I got hungry about 2 hours later and had myself a sandwich at home! =) But it was good and enough at that moment in time!
Posted by: Reid | October 07, 2004 at 06:52 PM
so what did the special cost??
Posted by: sara | October 08, 2004 at 12:44 PM
Hi Sara,
Thanks for visting my blog. I'm sorry, I had the price initially, but somehow must have edited out. I've fixed the post and the price was US$10.95. Hope to see you again!
Posted by: Reid | October 08, 2004 at 07:14 PM