It's been quite a while since we last visited Rokkaku... likely over 10 years ago. On our first visit, I had the best loco moco ever but because it was a special of the day made with ground A5 wagyu scraps, never counted this version as the best in Hawaii. On a subsequent visit, I had the beef tongue curry which was superlative. So I'm not sure why we waited this long for another visit. It seems that since our last visit many moons ago, they now specialize in katsu hence the name Rokkaku Hamakatsu. So I had to sample the katsu...
We first started with the Hamachi Carpaccio ($20) which were 6 slices of hamachi topped with litely pickled onion slices on fresh spinach leaves and garnished with ikura and grape halves. We both agreed that the highlight of the starter was those pickled onions...
I also ordered a cup of Dassai 39 ($20 for 180ml) - it was served traditionally with the glass filled and overflowed into the lacquered masu. BTW, Dassai produces the best Daiginjo sake that's also affordable at the retail level - Dassai 39 can be found for less than $30 per 720ml bottle and the Dassai 45 is usually just ~$20 per 720ml bottle. Obviously there is the standard restaurant mark-up here...
I selected the Mix Katsu ($27) with 50gm of Berkshire loin, 50gm of Berkshire tenderloin, Holland katsu which appeared to be tenderloin stuff with cheese and a solitary shrimp tempura - I also added the full meal for $3 extra which added rice, miso soup and pickles. Along with your katsu selection, you are also given a mini suribachi with toasted sesame seeds and surikogi to grind the sesame seeds to be added to the tonkatsu sauce and a vinaigrette for the finely julienned cabbage - just like the other popular katsu establishments, Ginza Bairin and Tamafuji. And the flavor and texture as well as the flaky katsu coating were on par with htose establishments. My only negative was 2 of the 3 loin cuts did include very chewy/tough fat or grisle which I didn't notice at Tamafuji but the tenderloin and Holland cuts were like pork "buttah".
Ms S selected the Simmered Berkshire Loin Katsu with Egg ($22) and also opted for the full meal supplement (another $3) though her meal also included a green salad. She enjoyed her dish but also experienced the same tough grisly section on two pieces.
She did discover a wire - it appeared to be a metal wire from a cleaning brush in her green salad. Because of this, Rokkaku discounted our meal 20% and also gave us complimentary dessert (yuzu sorbet and matcha ice cream) which was a very nice gesture on their part. So we'll be back though if I ordered katsu again, likely would just order the tenderloin... or look for the unlikely A5 wagyu loco moco special...
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