A fairly new addition to Japanese restaurants on Oahu, Shochan has been located at Puck’s Alley for the past four months since its opening. Hailing from the Hiroshima region of Japan, this restaurant does not serve your usual Japanese food, but rather a dish called okonomiyaki.
Okonomiyaki is a pan-fried dish prepared with various ingredients. Traditionally in Japan this type of dish is cooked right at your table with the use of a grill. At Shochan, the okonomiyaki is served in an iron plate which keeps it hot, but due to limitations explained by the restaurant they do not prepare the food right at your table.
Inside Shochan
Counter seating
From the first step into the restaurant it is apparent the interior is not heavily decorated. A few small plants are scattered through the restaurant, but for the most part Shochan is a bit lacking in the atmosphere department. The large wooden table in the center of the restaurant is flanked on either side by tables with yellow tablecloth, with counter seating in the back.
When we walked in the restaurant was fairly empty, so we picked our table and began browsing the menu. Shochan’s menu is very simple, offering a small lunch section and a couple of pages for dinner. Naturally one page of the dinner section is dedicated to okonomiyaki. The second page offers various pieces of oden, and a few smaller dishes.
Tendon Stew, $4.00
One of the smaller menu items that caught my eye was the Tendon Stew. This stew dish features beef tendon pieces in a light shoyu-like sauce. I must admit that I was very surprised by the flavor of this dish. The stew looks very simple, but it contains a lot of flavor. The tendon pieces are very tender, with just enough fatty tissue left to add a touch of oil to the sauce. The dish itself was served pipping hot. I enjoyed this Tendon Stew very much, and it certainly exceeded my expectations.
Shochan Special, $16.00
Inside the Shochan Special
There are just a few different variations of okonomiyaki on the menu. The Shochan Special seemed to be the most comprehensive variation, featuring pork, egg, squid, squid tempura, shrimp, mayonnaise, and green onions. The okonomiyaki dishes at Shochan take at least 15 minutes to prepare, as all the ingredients are layered and need time to cook through.
The Shochan Special okonomiyaki was served very hot on top of the iron plate. With a mound of green onions right on top and the hash pattern of mayonnaise, the dish was presented in a very interesting manner. The okonomiyaki was delicious and well prepared. This particular okonomiyaki was so packed with ingredients that the overall taste came from an amalgam of flavors. The salty and tangy flavor of the sauce matched very well against the taste of the ingredients within, and the yakisoba noodles provided the perfect amount of starch. I would recommend the Shochan Special to any first time customer.
Hiroshima-Yaki, $10.50
Shochan refers to its okonomiyaki as “Hiroshimayaki” due to the slightly different spin on the traditional dish. Typically okonomiyaki comes prepared as a mixture of ingredients, but Shochan serves the Hiroshima style which layers ingredients on top of one another. This particular okonomiyakiwas prepared with udon instead of the traditional yakisoba noodles. The taste was quite good and the udon made for a slightly different, but interesting take on the dish.
Final thoughts: Although the okonomiyaki is not prepared at your table in the traditional manner, Shochan’s preparation and taste is fairly authentic. Service was a little slow on our visit, but nothing too bad. Overall Shochan does a good job of providing a different variation of Japanese cooking that we do not find very much here in Hawaii. If you are craving okonomiyaki, or would like to try it for the first time, Shochan is certainly a good place to start.
| Service: |   |
Average |
| Food: | |
Above Average |
| Atmosphere: | |
Average |
| Overall Value: |  |
Average + |
*Star ratings are based in comparison to similar establishments.
Shochan
1035 University Avenue Honolulu, HI 96826
Phone: 808.947.8785
Tags: Hawaii Food, Hawaii Food Review, Shochan review, Okonomiyaki, Hiroshima food, Puck’s Alley
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