Yes, I am aware of how funny this name sounds.
We struck out coming to this place back in December. It was raining, we got there a little bit after they opened and the wait was 1+ hours. When we wanted to go back again in December, the restaurant owners paused service to go visit home, Hawaii.
We got up late again on Saturday and got to the restaurant at 9:05AM. A line had already formed out in front, but we were luck to snag a parking spot right on the street. Last time, we parked in the surrounding neighborhood.
Arriving at 9:05 AM, we waited 45 minutes on a Saturday morning to be seated. The line wrapped to the next building over. We watched the line wax and wane, and I think the best time to get there is around 1020, after the morning rush subsides and before the next wave of lunchees gets there.
The restaurant is sparse with flat, bright walls and a big, square window. It’s always a space like this where I wonder “what did this building used to be?” There’s a bar, or a coffee bar, or some kind of service window cut out in the back. There are kitchy, punny, ironic and funny island signs everywhere. And effigy of roosters.
They change the menu out monthly: a brown recycled sheet with simple full-page lines. There are enough dishes to get you really excited and but also panicked over making the wrong decision. A word to the wise: once you order, they don’t let you add/change anything. Also, they don’t let you order take out (although they do have to-go boxes after you eat).
Morning wood self-describes itself as Hawaiian, Japanese inspired breakfast & brunch. I would throw in a little bit of Korean food in there. Eater also just called them by name in an article on Hawaiian Comfort Food.
We had the “hapanese” breakfast with mochiko chicken, when i dip, you dip, we dip, yuzu talkin to me.
The hapanese breakfast came with a heaping (2 cup?) bowl of rice with sous-vide soft boiled eggs, green onions and a large dressing of furikake and pickled ginger. It was a lot of rice. This was fairly basic and you can make it at home easy. It was steamy and creamy and what you would expect.
The protein options were kalbi sausage, mochiko chicken, and portuguese sausage. I opted for the mochiko chicken. What is Mochiko chicken? it’s fried chicken drenched in tapioca flour. That’s the highly glutinous flour (rice, sometimes cassava) used to make:
boba “pearls”
you can make my favorite fluffy flakey bread from Brazil, Pão de queijo, from Mochiko (originally made from Cassava flour)
you can also make Filipino Sago (originally made from palm flour)
The chicken was pretty amazing, well salted and seasoned, and crispy. The miso was basic. The eggs were perfect.
Eric had the I dip, you dip, we dip sandwhich. It was essentially a banh mi/french dip. Except for a regular dip, it was a bowl of tonkotsu ramen broth. This tasted as good as it sounds, savory and fatty. The crack potatoes were also very, very crispy and well seasoned. It was easy to load up on these.
we ate half of our dishes, but then moved to the star of the show: Yuzu pancakes. (at this time, imagine RJ slapping your face because of how good this was).
Cheating on Yelp while we were waiting in line, I had my heart set on matcha pancakes. I was planning on matcha pancakes. They didn’t have matcha in January and they change the flavors every month.
They had mochi grilled buttermilk pancakes and a yuzu talkin to me pancakes. Of course we went for Yuzu.
FYI: These pancakes are mochi pancakes. as in Mochiko (see above).
If you don’t like gluten, you won’t like these. The dough wasn’t like a yeasted fluffy pancake (not like the popular fluffly cloud Japanese pancakes right now). It was a little bit more dense and flat, but not hard. Sort of like mooncake medallions. Yuzu is a type of Japanese citrus and it’s a sweeter, mellower, fragranter lemon that is perfect for sweets and candies. Muji sells a yuzu oil for scent diffusers. The pancake is infused with a healthy dose of the flavor.
Notice how big this pancake is, it’s on a quarter baking sheet (everything was served on a quarter baking sheet). It’s flat which might disappoint you, but it’s cooked in a nice big flat area. It was delicious, they did not skimp on the flavor. We ate half, and took the other half home.
Now, I sort of believe that I know why they don’t do take-out. dough made from Mochi is super-ultra-mega glutinous. Cold mochi dough is not good, cold creamy-eggy rice is not good, cold tonkotsu broth is not good.
Final Thoughts:
Morning Wood is delicious. The food is comforting and rich as well as Hapa unique but not the kind of upsetting fusion food that borders on cultural appropriation. It’s owned by Chad and Monica Kaneshiro who hail from Hawaii. Everything that came out of the kitchen looked amazing.
I wouldn’t wait more than 45 minutes there, I would get there smartly after the first wave but before the lunch wave. Note, the limited hours and days by checking them out on Instagram. I believe Saturday is easier than Sunday.
Next to try there:
spam kim chi fried rice (ends in January, so we were told)
loco moco
french toast.