Tapas • American • Desserts • Californian
"MICHELIN EXPERIENCE INDEED ... Came here with my family including our 12 yo twins... come early since the line builds early... just park at one and f the neighbouring Japan-town secure underground garage for a straight two or so block easy and busy trot to this restaurant... Much more of a festive ambiance and dining-beat with dim sum serving-like service sharing their freshly made appetizers and entrees... definitely NOT pushy and very well timed waitstaff offering their diverse menu AND DRINKS the entire fare. My heathen picky eater kids even enjoyed such... not just the tasty peanut butter desert...which they ordered several for the entire table. What was a fabulous touch to the dining experience... was watching HAWAII-BORN (Kaimuki Oahu wahine) CHEF MAEDA... so pleasantly checking on her evening patrons... including some Hawaii-talk-story-kine discourse with us... and entertaining and sharing with us the well chosen and crafted ingredients, her culinary inspiration, and detailed execution of her meals!!! We were so impressed and even purchased her cookbook which she signed! Will definitely be back... and will eagerly bring our Hawaii and California family and friends! 5 star food 5 star festive upbeat cozy ambiance And 5 star friendly service Mahalo nui loa to CHEF MAEDA and her fabulous happy and talented culinary staff!! MICHELIN EXPERIENCE INDEED!!"
American • Desserts • Ice Cream • Top Choice Californian
"It’s hard to imagine that this place is related to The Progress, or that anyone would voluntarily go to State Bird over the progress when they’re right next door. 1/ The service is quite poor. The host stand was unmanned for a good 5 minutes on arrival. The wait staff comes infrequently (we were at the table, eating for 30 minutes before our drinks came). The dim sum style servers are extremely curt and uninterested. Probably one of the worst price:performance service experiences I’ve had in a long time. 2/ The food is good but not great. Few standout dishes. The pacing is aggressive and strange given how pushy and uninterested the dim sum style items are passed around. Overall one of the least fun “nice” meals I’ve had in a while. Hard to imagine coming back when you can walk next door and have a better meal with better service for 50-70% of the cost."
