Having read about Imanas Tei for quite a while we finally got around to having dinner there last night. It’s just down the street and tucked away, hardly seen from the street. We arrived in heat of the dinner rush, but didn’t wait for more than 15 minutes or so for a table. The hostess was very sweet and guided us to sit outside on benches for our table.

Inside it’s a warm, cozy and convivial atmosphere. Some tables are shared our foursome got our own table. Very promptly we were greeted and got started trying to understand what we should order off of the extensive menu. I had heard that they were know for their Shabu Shabu style things

. After a lot of consultation with our server we ended up ordering the minimum of two orders of the Chanko Nabe ($20 per order) some sushi and small plates. A very thin flounder sashimi, (picture to the right) which was quite good came first. It was followed up by a delicious seaweed salad. Next up was a fried tofu, with a wonderful dark sauce that made the whole dish. In fact we dipped other things in the sauce it was so good. Fried chicken came too, which was good, but not my favorite. Everything came out very quickly, rapid fire. The kitchen and sushi chefs are a well oiled machine.

Andrew ordered some nigiri and insisted that I taste the uni (sea urchin). I’ve never had it before and liked the taste, but not really the texture. It tasted a little smoky and as Andrew said: of the sea. Precisely, you can taste the ocean. He raved about the quality and taste of all his nigiri.

All the little plates were cleared out of the way and a portable burner was brought with a copper bowl on top. Into

it went a dashi broth and it was turned on to heat up. When it was bubbling away our server reappeared and began assembling the dish from the large beautifully prepared platter of ingredients. In went pork sausage, all kinds of seafood, cabbage, two kinds of tofu, cellophane noodles, Korean mochi, watercress, bok choy, burdock, chicken chunks and finally some thinly sliced beef. We were told it would all take about five minutes to cook and the server would be back to let us know when it was ready. We could hardly wait and took the opportunity to taste the broth to keep it from boiling over.

After the five minutes was up the waiter appeared and told us to dig in. We did with gusto. It was excellent. All the different flavors and tastes worked well together. Our biggest surprise was the Korean Mochi. It was like a noodle in the broth and really good. We had to ask what it was. After we finished off the bowl our server re-appeared to make the rice soup. I read this morning that it was supposed to be made with the broth leftover in the bowl. However, we had drank the broth. So, our waiter brought more, with rice and egg. He made a soupy rice and egg dish that was quite delicious, but we couldn’t eat it all as we had already eaten plenty.

It wasn’t a cheap night out, but for the quality and quantity of food and drinks it was worth the $50 per person. We certainly could have ordered a lot less and not left hungry. We had three large Sapporo beers, a small bottle of sake and another glass of premium sake.

The parking lot is small and Imanas Tei is set back from the street, but do look for it. It’s right next to Puck’s Alley at the corner of King & University.

Imanas Tei Restaurant    941-2626

2626 S King St

Honolulu, HI 96826