PREMIUM PICK | Sushi Murayama
Murayama’s biggest draw may very well be the chef himself. In another life, Ryuji Murayama might have been a comedian; he keeps jokes coming while welcoming each guest as a long-time friend. He leaves customers feeling good, and that positive vibe carries over to the entire experience.
The restaurant has a decent sized izakaya menu, but it’s the sushi that stands out, and the chef’s omakase menu is a good place to start for those game to try anything. At any rate, it will lift you out of ahi mode to try other types of fish, from hirame (fluke) to shima aji (striped horse mackerel) or vinegared saba layered with translucent kelp dotted with black goma. Hokkaido uni also set mouths watering.
Whet your appetite with an uni shooter that’s almost too much to take in with one gulp, with its layers of fish, negi, ikura and quail egg.
Skip over to the izakaya menu, and you’ll find fried food is not a forte here, but all is forgiven whenever seafood appears, including mirugai you can order two ways for comparison, sashimi style and sauteed in butter, the former briny and crunchy, the latter sweet and chewy.
Meals end with a choice of natto or black sesame ice cream, or yuzu sorbet. The goma ice cream is covered with its thick double sesame sauce the color of tar. It’s a wonderful thing.
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808 Center, 808 Sheridan St., 784-2100; facebook.com/SushiMurayama. Lunch, dinner. $$$
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Aunty’s Ramen
Susend Tran was a pioneer in the evolution of the Taiwanese-style hot pot in Honolulu, streamlining and speeding up the process with ingredients stocked in self-serve refrigerators.
Tran takes the customization to an even more personal level by inviting customers to create a bowl of noodles to their liking, a blessing for germaphobes who never liked sharing a hot pot but kept quiet for risk offending friends.
About 80 ingredients — from greens to gyoza — are stored in plastic bins in refrigerator cases lined up for the picking. The ingredients are priced by the pound so one person’s bowl may be $10, another’s, $24.
Soup options range from Taiwanese white miso to Aunty’s Red Soup, a beef-based broth with chilies, and Aunty’s Golden Soup, a creamy crowd pleaser that starts with a seafood base, kabocha, celery, onions and garlic. Other choices include seaweed soup, pho broth and a strong yellow curry with coconut milk.
Next up is to select a type of noodle: ramen, udon, bean thread, long rice, rice or saimin.
There are also a half dozen side dishes, including dried fried chicken, gau gee with cheese, fried calamari and shoyu pig ears.
Trips to the condiment and dessert bars (for customized shave ice) are also de rigueur.
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1110 McCully St. (at Young Street); 946-8686. Lunch, dinner. $-$$
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The Rice Place
Yes, rice dominates the menu here, but not the local “two scoops” variety. Rice here extends to vermicelli and delicate lacy rice flour or noodle wraps that bring sensory joy to the palate beyond those squishy mounds.
Owner Trinh Vo delivers a unique, contemporary twist on Vietnamese and other Asian fare, and although she modestly describes herself as just a home cook, the level of cooking here exceeds that of many a pro.
The food here is not street fare, so flavors are more muted than at your typical Chinatown Vietnamese restaurant, but the spare elegance is a breath of fresh air and gives us a glimpse of Asian cuisine of the future.
At lunch, drop in for such grab- and-go items as summer rolls filled with shrimp, greens and rice noodles, and Bang Bang Rolls, essentially summer rolls remade with beef bulgogi.
In the evening, appetizers are called “conversation starters,” and they do speak volumes. One favorite is the golden Imperial Rolls, glorious juicy and sweet pork and shrimp dumplings tucked in a thin rice noodle wrap with a beautiful brittle crunch. Both the flavors and the textures are fantastic.
Another specialty here is bahn xeo, or Lettuce Wrap Rice Flour Crepe. Although it looks like an egg crepe, the rice batter cools up extra crispy, a nice counterpoint to the soft, savory fillings of shrimp, pork belly and bean sprouts.
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725 Kapiolani Blvd.; 799-6959; thericeplace808.com. Lunch, dinner, Saturday brunch. $
