Jay’s Cafe – Honolulu, HI

Jay’s Cafe is a cute little shop that popped up on Liliha street across the street from McDonald’s by the pawn shop.  Apparently, they have two parking spots behind the building but they are HORRENDOUS.  I hated parking in it.  So I would highly suggest parking on the street if you can or if you go at night, possibly the lot next door?  As I was leaving that lot was empty because it’s an office building.  I don’t think it would hurt parking there if it’s off-office hours.

Jay’s Cafe serves up fresh baked cookies, desserts, cakes, shaved snow and sushi.  Yes, all of that is served from this shop.  Interesting right?  Well I already know from experience that I don’t like shaved snow – they serve that at Frostcity and I just never got into it.  The desserts look impressive but I wanted to feed my sushi craving.  If this place serves up good spicy tuna and garlic salmon – I don’t have to drive all the way out to Genki Sushi or Kuru Kuru!  The shop is run by a cute Chinese family.  When I went in, the parents were working away while the two little kids played (fought…lol) on their own.  It was a cute atmosphere for sure.  So how was the food??  Let’s take a look…

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Yummy…spicy tuna and garlic salmon.  Doesn’t that look amazing?

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Close-up shot of the Spicy Ahi.  Not bad but not great.  I think it needs a bit more sesame oil and some masago would be good mixed in.  The rice was also a bit mushy.  It’s only $1.80 for a 2 piece order, let’s not get too picky right?  

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Garlic Salmon.  I love that they offer this!  And they broke out the torch to sear the garlic sauce and salmon too.  Yummm…an order of garlic salmon will set you back $2.60 for two pieces, still cheaper than Genki.  I thought the taste of this was pretty good.  The sauce was definitely garlicky but it was a raw garlic taste.  I think my suggestion would just be to cook through the garlic in the sauce.  

All in all, I think I would give this place one more try.  Kalihi is dying to have a sushi place like this.  Aloha Sushi and Hono Sushi are just not the same, I like spicy ahi and garlic salmon like this.  It’s a small family owned business so I’d like to support them.  Next time, I will place a phone order before heading in.  It took a little while to put the order together and I felt a bit awkward standing there alone waiting for it.  This place has a few tables and chairs for sitting so you can definitely dine in!  🙂

2 responses to “Jay’s Cafe – Honolulu, HI

  1. jalna

    Ooooh, I’ll let Leslie know. She lives in the area and loves sushi! Thanks for sharing this.

  2. jenny

    Ohhh great! I hope she likes it! Would be happy to hear another critique of it. 🙂

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