When Gohan opened last year, I was elated. The cozy musubi café — designed for dine in or takeout — reminded me of musubi shops that you find in Japan. The café specializes in made-to-order musubi made with freshly milled Tsuyahime rice from Yamagata prefecture in Japan, an original salt and high-quality Japanese nori.
The café recently introduced a new breakfast menu, which is available for dine-in only from 8 to 10:30 a.m. The café’s regular menu is still available during this time, so you can still get its popular grilled musubi and handrolls.
The breakfast menu has three options, but each is customizable. The most popular one is the musubi plate ($11.95) — Gohan is a musubi café, after all — and includes your choice of two musubi, miso soup or pork miso soup (additional $2), and two kinds of appetizers with tsukemono.
Salmon and tuna mayonnaise musubi are the most popular flavors, but other options include shio, mentaiko, saba, konbu, bonito flake and ikura (additional $2).
I love the café’s miso soup — it’s comforting and always served piping hot — but if you want a heartier option, try the special pork miso soup.
The dashi chazuke plate ($9.95) is a unique option with your choice of ochazuke — umehijiki (a combo of hijiki seaweed and pickled plums), salmon ikura (additional $2.95) or unagi (additional $3.95) — served with two types of appetizers with tsukemono. Perfect for a rainy morning — or when you just want Japanese comfort food — this dish features cooked rice with dashi (Japanese soup stock) on the side that you can pour into the bowl at your leisure.
I’m a huge fan of the salmon ikura ochazuke — the salmon is moist and the ikura adds refreshing bursts of flavor. If you’re looking for something more savory, opt for the unagi ochazuke.
The musubi rice combo ($6.95) will satisfy those craving a simple breakfast option. This set includes Gohan’s musubi rice served with miso soup or pork miso soup (additional $2), along with tsukemono, mentaiko and konbu. The tsukemono, mentaiko and konbu are served in small side dishes so you can add them to your bowl of steaming rice at your leisure.
Gohan also offers a variety of a la carte side dishes you can add to your breakfast sets. Options include natto ($2.50), kimchi ($2.50), Portuguese sausage ($2.75) and TKG egg sets ($3.75), or tamago kake Gohan. We’re huge fans of the latter, which is a popular Japanese dish featuring a raw egg designed to mix with hot rice and drizzle with soy sauce. It’s a satisfying breakfast option in and of itself, and a great add-on if you have some extra rice leftover.
I’m glad Gohan’s regular menu is still available during its breakfast hours. While the café offers cold brews ($5.75) and matcha lattes ($5.95), its Vietnamese coffee ($6.25) is my go-to. It’s a smooth, creamy combo of cold brew and condensed milk — which will be extra satisfying after a savory musubi breakfast and ideal for adding a jolt of energy to your day.
The café validates parking inside Interstate Building (30 minute validation per $25 purchase).
CONTACT
Gohan
1314 S. King St. No. G3, Honolulu
808-393-9810
Instagram: @gohan.hawaii
Breakfast available from 8-10:30 a.m. daily (closed Sundays)
Kelli Shiroma Braiotta can be reached at kelli@alohastatedaily.com.
