Noreetuh

A few of my coworkers and I decided to do dinner one night in the east village at the new hotspot, Noreetuh. The restaurant was opened by a few per se alumni and we were all really excited to try it. My friend, Ryan, is actually friends with one of the co-owners and has dined there on multiple occasions so he brought us there for a fun group gathering.

The restaurant is located in the east village and was very lively by the time we arrived for dinner (an early 6:30). We were seated in the second room in a corner booth and started reviewing the menu, even though Ryan had some suggestions based on his previous visits. We decided to order a little of everything and share it family style. We started with the corned beef tongue masubi with cilantro and peanuts:

This was one of my favorite dishes of the evening; it reminded me of the first time I tried SPAM – my senior year in college when my roommate, Angie, pan fried it and we ate it with freshly made white rice and seaweed in our living room as we watched reruns of Sex and the City. This dish was a little more complex in flavors and textures, but the taste was very similar.

We also ordered the crispy mushrooms with a sweet miso sauce:

Lightly battered and fried, these were delicious.

For starters, we ordered two different types of poke – one was the octopus poke with tobiko, mustard leaf kimchi, and fingerling potatoes:

And the second one was the big eye tuna poke with macadamia nuts, pickled jalapeño, and seaweed:

Everyone preferred the big eye tuna poke because the flavor was lighter (the mayonnaise in the octopus poke made it seem like a potato salad with kimchi).

Next arrived the hearts of palm with beets, crispy shallots, cilantro, smoked tofu:

And the kalua pork croquettes served with cabbage and katsu sauce:

We didn’t like the beet dish with the hearts of palm (and we were really looking forward to that dish in particular because per se has a really delicious hearts of palm dish).

Another starter was the crispy soft shelled crab with a yuzu sauce:

The soft shelled crab was a special of the evening and it was probably my favorite (next to the masubi!)

For our main course, we started with the mentaiko spaghetti with smoked butterfish, aonori, and chili:

This spaghetti was very rich so I’m glad we shared it with three other people. One bite was enough – very buttery, but way too rich for me.

We also ordered the pineapple braised pork belly with yams, rainbow swiss chard, and peanuts:

The mochi crusted halibut with pole beans, chinese bacon, fermented black bean:

A very interesting take on halibut; I thought the mochi crust would be a little sweeter, but the fermented black bean was a familiar flavor with the fish. As a kid, we used to eat meaty white fish with fermented black bean sauce so I’m not sure I appreciated this dish enough since my mom made this dish a lot when I was a kid.

The restaurant sent us some desserts (well, sent Ryan some desserts and we were just lucky enough to be there to help him enjoy them!) This was the tri-star strawberries dessert with coconut mochi, red beans, and strawberry ice cream:

The crispy mochi waffles with whipped peanut butter and honey:

I love the idea of using a waffle maker for things that aren’t waffles, but this mochi waffle tasted like packing peanuts and the size of the waffle was too big to put in my mouth with the peanut butter and honey.

My favorite dessert was the bruleed Hawaiian pineapple with lime zest and ‘alaea salt:

A good combination of textures, flavors and it looked beautiful.

We had a really fun time at Noreetuh and the service there was really great. I don’t think anyone was super wowed by the dinner but we did have a good meal there.