More flavorful is the shoyu chashu ramen ($17) in a Tokyo-style chicken broth with thin noodles, soft marinated egg, bamboo shoots and mizuna in addition to the tender roasted pork chashu.īut what I love is flavor to the max that comes with the creamy, sesame tantanmen ($16), and tonkotsu chashu ramen ($18.50) with its rich eight-hour pork broth. A creamy vegan version ($16) is in the works, but for now the lightest option is a local vegetable and pork tanmen ($16) featuring plenty of cabbage, onions, slivers of carrot and bean sprouts. The exterior is crisp, and interior more light and airy than the usual heavy ball of dough, which makes it less of a treasure hunt to get to the piece of octopus at its center.Įventually, you’ll make your way to the ramen.

It’s $11, or for $2 more comes with a sheaf of butter lettuce for making DIY wraps.įor a taste of Japanese appetizers, okonomiyaki fries ($9) deliver all the flavor of the savory pancakes, and there is takoyaki ($12) that is the best I’ve tried locally. Here, it’s made with a mild Japanese aesthetic, with less heat and salt than a Chinese version. He is credited with introducing Sichuan cuisine to Japan in the 1960s, first through his restaurant Shisen Hanten, and later through appearances on the NHK television show “ Kyo No Ryori (Today’s Cuisine).”Īnother dish popularized at the time was mapo tofu, a stew of ground pork, tofu and spices. Ebi chile, derived from the Sichuan prawns in chile sauce, was introduced and popularized in Japan by Chinese-born Japanese chef Chen Kenmin. More than strictly a ramen shop, the restaurant also brings something new to Honolulu via appetizers that capture the essence of Japanese-style Chinese restaurants that started appearing around that time.Īmong these dishes are a tantalizing dish of yodare-dori, or “mouthwatering chicken” ($12) in a Sichuan-lite sauce with some heat but without the searing, numbing effect of its original Chinese form that is unpleasant for some.Īlso offered in this style are shrimp gyoza ($9) served over a pool of mild chile sauce reminiscent of ebi chile sauce. The music playlist will also whisk diners of a certain age down memory lane with its equal mix of Western and Japanese hits of the era, featuring artists such as Wham!, A-ha, Culture Club, Prince, Yoko Oginome, Princess Princess, Speed and Spitz. Among the décor is a replica of a period food delivery bike and curtains that capture the design of baseball jackets favored by bad boys of the time. What’s most surprising about Camado is the way the company went against the tide of chasing the new and trendy in favor of stepping backward in time for a nostalgic trip back to Japan of the late Showa era of the 1970s to ’90s. Especially without its previous main market of Japanese visitors who show no sign of returning to Hawaii anytime soon due to fears of exposure to unmasked American tourists, continued surges of COVID-19 variants at home, social ostracism directed toward those who deign to travel during a pandemic and poor monetary exchange rates. Knowing how the company - like so many others during the pandemic - struggled for two years to keep its multiple doors open, I didn’t think it would jump into expansion so quickly. But I wasn’t quite prepared for the restaurant group’s latest endeavor, Camado Ramen Tavern. The Zetton Group has delivered many successful restaurant concepts over time, from Aloha Steak House to Zigu, a farm-to-table izakaya.

Chef chen menu