Page 4 - Dining Out - May 16, 2021

Cover Story
Hostess Maaya Seki is ready to dive in to TsuruTonTan’s expansive menu of Japanese fare.
Story by
GINGER KELLER
A t the heart of TsuruTon- Tan is an unfaltering de- termination to provide authentic, fresh and affordable Japanese dishes — each and every day. Since its 2018 start, the Royal Hawaiian Center eatery has made it a mission to intro- duce Japan’s tastiest delicacies to people from far and wide, and with locations in New York, Boston and, of course, Honolulu, you could say that TsuruTonTan
is living the dream.
“We wanted to bring some-
thing new and we realized udon
Photos by
LAWRENCE TABUDLO
was not yet vastly spread through- out the United States, especially in the mainland,” says Takuma Lathrop, president of Dining In- novation, which owns and oper- ates TsuruTonTan. “We thought that TsuruTonTan, which is in Ja- pan already, has a concept that would ease the American people into trying out udon for the first time, mainly because a lot of the dishes that TsuruTonTan serves are similar to pasta. We have a lot of cream-based udons, a lot of different variety, aside from the traditional dashi. We thought
that would be fun and exciting, and help spread the udon culture quicker in the United States, rath- er than just having a traditional udon restaurant.”
Ingredients, such as flour and salt, travel across the Pacific, and the restaurant even goes as far as changing its water chemistry to mimic that of Japan’s.
Offering two happy hours each day (11 a.m.-2 p.m. and 4:30-6 p.m.), TsuruTonTan gives diners
a chance to take a trip to Japan from the shores of Waikiki — at
a reasonable price. 1
4 / Dining Out / May 16-22, 2021