Izakaya Naru

We came in around midnight. This is very much a Tapas type of place not a full dinner. My friend and I had their draft beer and it was good. My girlfriend got their Yuzu drink and that was very good especially if you like sweet drinks. The Carpaccio was melt in your mouth delicious. The lemony acidity was delicious and I was eating the leftover onion on that plate by itself. The Miso Butterfish is also ridiculously tender, skin was seared very well, but it was strong with that butter flavor. Still very delicious, but for me personally it was a little too much. My friend on the other hand grew up with it and absolutely loves it, so to each their own! Service was kind and continuously checked on us and was able to explain the parts of the menu we couldn't understand (everything is Japanese based). If you just got off work late, had dinner but want too meet with friends for something light, this is absolutely the place to go

my boyfriend and i made reservations for valentine’s day dinner after a friend of mine said she ate here for three consecutive nights during her own oahu trip. needless to say the restaurant exceeded our expectations and we ended up eating dinner here twice during our seven day trip. izakaya naru has excellent food and service, and it is easy to make same day reservations if you call (they pick up even when the restaurant is not technically open). my favorite dishes were the butter miso fish (a daily special), the homemade okinawa soba with ribs, and the berkshire pork. if you’re not a huge sake fan like me, i recommend trying some of their other drinks like the calpico sour. the service here was also very noteworthy. it was clear from our first visit that guests love the staff and for good reason. everyone was super attentive and polite. some guests also seem to know every member of the staff by name. on our second visit, we witnessed a man come into the restaurant with a nonexistent reservation (he claimed that he was not asked to leave a name for his reservation and that he spoke to a woman even though the staff clearly said no women were taking reservations that day so it couldn’t have been the same restaurant). i don’t know the full story but the customer was quite disruptive and the bartender handled the situation very gracefully and eventually managed to accommodate them. i also forgot my lip balm on my first visit and they somehow kept it for me and returned it on my second visit! absolutely amazing time here and i cannot thank izakaya naru enough for the great food and service!

*Reservations Only!* Had a fantastic time in this izakaya. It's small and loud and makes the experience very exciting. Their draft beer (Orion) is served in chilled mugs and the Okinawan lime highball was refreshing. We had the beef tongue, quail eggs, chicken skin, aburi (seared mackerel), and a few more that weren't pictured. All their food is nicely shareable with friends and was delicious.

One of my favorite dinner spots in Honolulu. Reservations are needed at this time. We ordered several items from the specials and standard menu. From the current specials menu, I recommend the spicy bamboo shoots and simmered beef tongue rice. The portion sizes for several of the items were much larger than I expected, but I’d still recommend ordering around 3 dishes per person so that you can sample more items. Other items I enjoyed: sukiyaki pizza and soba with tofu (broth was SO good).