One night my girlfriend and I decided to try Momomo, a Japanese restaurant located on Waialae Ave. You might have seen it right at the end of Kaimuki heading past St. Louis Heights, with its signature all black painted building. Parking is located on both sides of the building. I parked on the left side, which is very tight and cramped…I have not parked on the other side, but imagine it to be the same.
Upon entering the double doors, we were greeted by a friendly staff who promptly seated us. The restaurant was on the smaller end, with tatami style seating on the left and right sides, and regular tables in the middle. There is also a sushi bar at the back of the restaurant. Lighting was dim, but the decor was kind of plain.
The menu consisted of all ala carte items without any pictures, so we had to ask the waiter for a better description of the food items. We ended up ordering the shrimp mayonaise, which ended up being 4 deep fried shrimps covered in iceberg lettuce, bell peppers, and raw onions, drizzled with sweet mayonaise. The dish was light and crisp, slightly refreshing, but the onions were overpowering. Next, we ordered an order of salmon nigiri. When it arrived, it was seriously the smallest piece of fish I have ever seen on a nigiri. In fact, the two pieces from that order were smaller than one piece at Genki Sushi. At a price of $5.50 for the nigiri, it just wasn’t worth it.
The waiter suggested we get the special that night, which was a grilled mackarel, which was described as good as the hamachi (yellowtail) kama (collar). When it arrived, it was NOT kama, but it was the entire fish split in half. The portion was good, and for $6.75, it was a bargain. The only gripe I had was that it did not taste even close to as good as hamachi kama, and there were a lot of bones (then again, the bones were expected).
We also ordered the spicy salmon roll, which looked like an ahi roll with slices of salmon and avacado layered on top, drizzled with their special spicy sauce. The spicy sauce tasted the spicy mayo sauce at Gyukaku, but a little spicier. You can get better rolls elsewhere, and I suggest Yanagi’s for the taste and price.
We ended the night with their creme brule, and were quite disappointed because they charred the sugar layer. It tasted like it came off the grill. The custard beneath the sugar layer was disappointedly little.
The bill came out to a little over $40 for two, and we just didn’t feel satisfied. Personally, I would not suggest this place. Then again, the place was fairly crowded and we might not have ordered the right items. If you eat here and know of better items off the menu, let me know, and perhaps we might visit there again.
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