Noreetuh- Aloha from East Village

Last updated on February 13, 2016

Noreetuh…. I honestly could not pronounce the name of this restaurant. Is it Hawaiian? Japanese? Chinese or Korean? It didn’t really matter. There’s good food, reasonable priced wine, great vibe; and no, there is Tiki drink with an umbrella!! Mahalo!!!
Just opened not too not ago in East Village, it is on the “Heat Map”. This Hawaiian influenced restaurant is run by not one, but three Per Se vets. The night is young when we arrived. Only half of the tables are filled. But as the dark grows, people started pouring in, all the bar seats are occupied, as was the next door annex dining room. The crowd is young, loud (in a good way) and the place is chill.
No cocktail menu here, only wine and sake, and price tags are very friendly. Dinner menu is very affordable too. Other than the venison for two, the top priced entree is at $25. And poke!! We have our eyes set on poke. We are addicted to sushi, adore tartare and ceviche, so of course, we love poke. But first, let’s have some UNI!!!

Silken tofu, uni, shiitake, shiso
This colorful bowl of goodness can be mistaken as “egg on egg on egg”. No, those are not eggs, smoother than eggs, softer than silk. Oh… and sweet, sweet uni. With the present of rich, creamy uni, the shiitake mushroom marinade on the side of the bowl has been ignored, it does bring a refreshing kind of sweetness to the mix.

Corned beef tongue musubi with cilantro, peanuts
Musubi is not Hawaii’s official state snack, but it pretty much goes without saying. Not spam, nope, not the regular musubi you would find in any gas station or supermarket in Hawaii. Much better, it’s beef tongue. Thick slap of beef tongue wrap with rice and some cilantro sauce and peanuts. I personally can do without the peanuts, and maybe need a little more seasoning, would love for it to have a little heat.

Grass-fed beef tartare, smoked egg yolk, daikon, wonton chips
The wonton chips were great! Works perfectly with beef tartare. Not oily, and really light and airy. If you mixed the smooth, smoked egg yolk with beef tartare, put it all on top of the wonton chips, something magically happen. The flavor is quite interesting. Not cooked but smoky.

Big-eye tuna poke, macadamia nuts, pickled jalapeño, seaweed
Big chunks of firm tuna. The cloud ear was a nice surprise, mixed with sesame oil and seaweed, carry the heat very well.

Monkfish liver torchon, pear, cilantro, passionfruit, Hawaiian roll
This is an amazingly beautiful plate. A round column of pink monkfish liver lay on top of a bed of passionfruit. Decorated with diced sweet pear and cilantro. Rich, creamy, fresh, a little sour, a little sweet. The Hawaiian roll is fluffy and airy, and so perfectly toasted. Take all these goodness in one bite… I’m in haven.

There are so much more on the menu we want to try. Octopus poke, the mentaiko spaghetti, and the garlic shrimp over rice (hope it’s as good as the shrimp truck!). Next time. There’s always next time. In a near future I hope. (July 2015)