Ichiriki

I did not know what "Nabe" (pronounced Nah-bay) was until I visited Ichiriki for the first time. Ever since then, I have become a big fan of Nabe. Nabe is where you cook your ingredients in a flavored broth (not to be confused with shabu shabu, where you cook your ingredients in boiling water and then dip the cooked food in a flavored sauce). Ichiriki offers both Shabu Shabu and Nabe, but make no mistake, you want to come here for the Nabe, and nothing else.



The nice thing about Ichiriki is that they have these nabe pots with a divider down the middle, so that you can share a burner (but not the broth) with the person sitting across from you. Pictured below is the Ichiriki (shoyu) broth on the top, and miso broth on the bottom.



Half of the restaurant consists of regular tables, and the other half of the restaurant consists of a tatami room, but unlike traditional tatami rooms, there is a hole in the ground so that while you're sitting on the ground, you don't have to sit indian-style (you sit as though you're sitting on a chair).



Pictured below are the ingredients for the Ichiriki Nabe: Tsukune (a combo of chicken and pork that you scoop into small round balls), tofu, won bok, bok choy, enoki mushrooms, green onions, and your choice of chicken, beef, or pork slices.



If you go during lunch, you can add udon or ramen noodles (pictured) for a couple of bucks. At dinner time, it's included with your meal. Just keep this in mind because they don't ask you which noodles you want until you're almost done with your meal. We learned this the hard way at our first visit because after we stuffed ourselves with the food, broth, and rice, we barely had enough room for the noodles.



Here's what it looks like once all of your ingredients are added to the pot.



For dessert (if you have enough room), we like the strawberry shave ice with green tea ice cream. It may sound odd, but it actually tastes good. It comes with condensed milk and mochi balls. You can also order just regular strawberry shaved ice with vanilla ice cream or green tea shaved ice with green tea ice cream.



Ichiriki
501 Piikoi Street
(808) 589-2299
Reservations Recommended
Free parking in the back of the building (enter from Kona Street)