Sundance Kitchen

Horrable to as the least
sorry the poke was chewie and saltie as hell the Mgr said that’s how it is. I’ve eaten poke all over the place and this was the worst I have ever had

2 ½ stars for hosting the Hawaiian Hula girls on a regular basis. The food sucks and the mixed drinks are horrible.

WHAT A LOUSY BURGER!
10 Bucks Burger must be better than that!
I wanted to like this place but, Good God, another Dry, Crapy, Piece of Shit, Hockey Puck Hamburger!
It was NOT JUICY at all.
What a disappointment!
Great lookin’ place, Good service, Nice big clean modern kitchen.
It seems they got every thing here.
But guess what?
There is no one can cook decent burger here!
What a waste kitchen like this!
Yes, the kitchen is great. But I don’t think any one was there except kitchen helper and dish washer.
According to the lunch menu, ¹⁄₃ LB Premium Fresh ground beef patty.
When I saw it, I was very excited.
And there is more,
when I see the dinner menu, there is a item calls, «American Kobe Beef Slider. $ 11.95.»
I said to myself, «American Kobe Beef? OMG, Finally! That’s what I was waiting for. A Honest Description. That should be it. It should be called American Kobe Beef. This place must be good.»
1^st time for me to see that «American Kobe Beef «in menu.
That is very honest because there is no Kobe beef in US.
So, I ordered the 1/​3LB Premium Fresh ground beef Cheese Burger.
$ 9.95 w/​fries.
When my order was ready, the plate was very fancy nice, there were 3 small silver cups that keep mustered, ketchup and mayo in each individual cup.
But the burger looked like ¼ pounder, the buns were over toast.
When I bite, nothing. It was nothing came out. What I mean is that there was no juice came out.
I said to myself, «It got to be kidding.»
It was SO DRY, I didn’t taste any thing.
Premium Fresh ground beef patty?
Quality of the burger was like nothing better than a Saturday afternoon Back Yard lazy lousy BBQ burger.
I was like, «OHHHHH FXXX! Why ruin the burger like this. Am I payin’ 10 bucks for the Shit? It’s not fair!»
I think the kitchen doesn’t have any experience cook in there.
10 bucks Burger must be better than that!
So that the kitchen only gets kitchen helper instead of hiring good cook who can make a decent good burger, I am not interested in the American Kobe Beef Slider.
I don’t think so.
Until the place hire good cook,
NO THANK YOU, PERIOD!

It was getting too cold to continue walk around Japan town for photoshoots. Also I had to go pee. So found this nice bistro type restaurant with a band playing live music.
Ambience was quite modern with the bar on the right side and tables in the middle and booths on the left. And there is like a 3 step stairs and below it is about the same size area with more tables and booths.
Me and my girl sat at the bar and ordered a beer each. And I was getting hungry so I ended up ordering sweet spicy wings. It took a while for the foods to come out but it was worth it. Wings were nicely glazed with sweet but also had the right amount of spiciness topped with sliced green onions making the dish very tasty.
They had live band on every Fri and Sat. And that day was the hawaiian night. It was awesome! Nice upbeat hawaiian music, good singing and then traditional hawaiian dance. Only thing missing was beach and sun. But other than that, who needs to actually go to hawaii.
This is gonna be my spot when I come up Japantown and want some non-​japanese experience.

ONO means delicious in Hawaiian, and this adjective would be the best fit word to describe this restaurant.
Here is 3 more words — Kalua Pork Fries. French fries topped with slow cooked kalua pork, cabbage, and all of it absolutely smothered in cheeeeeeeese.
Live music on Friday and Saturday nights accompanied by a full bar. Just make sure you order a whole Tuna Poke appetizer for yourself because once you have a bite, you won’t want to share. I put that on everything.

We stopped here at happy hour and ate and had a beer. The beer was just fine. The happy hour food was basically tasteless and lousy. The fries are decent. The chicken was overly breaded and tasteless. The calamari was tasteless. The slider was salty and tiny. The gyoza was decent but greasy.
I hate to say it, but will, we should have gone to KFC and McDonalds. Would have been better taste and much cheaper and probably equally fattening.
The extra star was for the server, who was fantastic.

What a DISAPPOINTMENT. Sundance Kitchen lures you in with its proximity (and association) w/​the theater next door, its promise of Hawaiian-​style grindz, and a spacious, roomy interior. But I tried eating here on three different occasions, only to leave feeling like 1) I could’ve (SHOULD’ve!) gotten a plate-​lunch at L&L’s that would’ve been tastier, cheaper, and WAY more satisfying; 2) they seriously need to get a lighting consultant (if you can spend that much on the booths and bar set-​up, I’m guessing you can afford to hire a consultant to teach you how NOT to make your restaurant feel like a dungeon), and 3) Sundance is out of their mind letting this let-​down of a place share its good name.
Each time I’ve been to the Kitchen (I really wanted to give the place a chance), the service has weirded me out (eg, one waiter had to come back and ask our table of two to repeat our orders… although we were the only two customers he had!); the atmosphere’s been depressing (I get why the place is empty now… but I can’t say enough about the poor lighting– such an easy fix!), and I’ve tried something different (burger, pizza, kalbi), and immediately felt like I should’ve just walked down another storefront– JTown’s fully of cheap, yummy spots, after all. But the real kicker is that you get the sense that Sundance Kitchen actually thinks it’s cool– in short, they’re clueless.
In seven words: A big, empty, DARK pit of yuck. So, unless you’re going for kalua pig fries (this is the only reason I didn’t just give them 1 star): avoid, avoid, AVOID!

Writing an update is like watching reruns. You already know the ending. And I hate them both.
However, Sundance’s KALBI SHORT RIBS OVER KIMCHI RICE inspired me enough to write an update. It is worth writing home about. Yes, it’s that good!
THE STAFF: Fiancé and I had exactly 30 minutes for dinner before catching «Iron Man 2» next door at the Sundance Kabuki. Once again the staff at Sundance Kitchen pulled through. We told him about our movie deadline and got our food on the table within 10 minutes.
TRIED AND TRUE: I can say that I’ve tried Sundance’s repertoire of casual Asian cuisine:
a) Kalua Pig Fries: 4 Stars
b) Kalua Pig over Rice: 3.5 Stars
c) Chicken Adobo over Rice 3 Stars
d) Kalbi Short Ribs over Kimchi Rice: 4.5 Stars
THE BOMB: The Kalbi Over Kimchi Rice ($ 15) came with 3 tender, moist, juicy, succulent, very well-​seasoned ribs over flavorful slightly Kimchi rice with bits of seaweed. Others might find this slightly salty but I like the extra sodium dose on this one. The two complimented each other. My mouth starts to water just thinking about them. Simply delicious! 4.5 Stars!
I did not get to finish my meal but the staff efficiently delivered a to-​go box and our check. Fiancé and I were in and out on time for «Iron Man 2» 10 steps away next door.
SUNDANCE KABUKI: I could have finished the short ribs while watching the movie but I didn’t want smell the place up. But last time there were 2 Asian women who brought in Chinese food during the show. Yes, it is allowed, as well as alcohol.
TAB: $ 37 for Kalua Pig over Rice and my Kalbi Short Ribs including tax and tip.
‘IRON MAN 2″: I love Iron Man – I guess because he is the superhero of the 21^st century. Action-​packed and full of iinteresting characters. And I think Robert Downy, Jr. is cute. Do not leave after the credits, there will be more! And I can hardly wait for Iron Man 3 and 4 and 5 and 6, etc.

Once J-town’s Cherry Blossom Festival ended, the Sundance Kitchen (aka the old Pasta P) turned into a dining area full of stroller families and cosplay characters.
I pulled up a seat at the bar next to Chun Li and some wayyy older women who were getting hit on by some wayyy younger guys. It reminded me of piranhas the way they were all up on it, but the prey seemed to super enjoy it. You don’t see that on Discovery channel.
Anyways, their tap is exactly what you would expect out of a J-​town bar-​staurant. Lot’s of Asian beers, Asahi, Sapporo, Kirin, etc. I opted for some of the Hawiaiian beers on tap. Big fan of the Kona pipeline porter which was deep and chocolately. I could just imagine how perfect it would go with chocolate macadamias. (
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In a nutshell, Sundance won’t wow you but won’t let you down and is pretty popular for happy hours for folks of ALL AGES. Plus, I hear that they have some really good Kailua pork fries.

If you’re going to want to grab dinner before a movie, plan better and don’t go here. While the space is big, open and even has live music, the food is mediocre. We had tickets for Alice and as it turned out it was a hot gorgeous day in San Francisco, so everyone was out and we had no reservations so we decided to just try this place.
We had the Island Poke which was OK in taste but the cubes looked like they were cut with a dull knife and were torn. For the entrees we had the burger and short ribs. The burger was OK but not even close to any of the gourmet burgers most places have and the meat in it wasn’t well flavored or juicy enough. As far as the short ribs go, I’ve had leather softer than this. They were horrible and if we had more time I would have sent them back. Our waiter was also a bit hard to pin down at times. So needless to say we will plan better next time or just go hungry and supplement with cocktails from the theater bar.

I can not speak for anything here except for 1) the sake and 2) the service. Fortunately, in both cases both are above average. My friend and I ended up walking all the way here from Chinatown and was a little disappointed with Japantown, nowhere near as big or flashy or centralized as it’s Chinese counterpart. You couldn’t walk a foot in C-​town without finding out a place to check out or someplace that you could eat or drink in.
I was a little hesitant to come in here since it didn’t seem like it was a local place or anything and it got worse when they asked if we were waiting for a movie to start. Since we were cold already and tired of walking, we didn’t care.
We thought of starting out with a sweet sake but were discouraged by our waiter, Maurici. We went with the Yaegaki Nigori which is an unfiltered sake that was good. Very good, with rice particulates that made it stand out. We also tried the crème sake but it wasn’t that good. It was different from the Nigori though.
We also decided to try out the fruit sakes. Maurici said that the lychee one was better than the fuji apple. It was good. I did like lychee. My friend disliked it but he never had lychee fruit before. I enjoyed mine though, it was slightly sweet with a little bit of bite to it. We didn’t ask for it but the apple sake was given to us because well. Maurici was a cool guy.
I thoroughly enjoyed myself there.

Okay I know this sounds completely trivial, but Sundance Kitchen has THE best edamame, hands down.
You’re probably thinking, who the hell goes to a restaurant and orders just edamame and then gives it a 4-​star rating? Well, I’d just finished dinner with my aunt and a friend wanted to meet up, so since he hadn’t eaten and I didn’t want to sit and stare at his food, I looked through their appetizers.
Their edamame has extra seasonings, so every single bean and pod is super duper flavorful. You can see the seasonings on the pods: big grains of salt, plus other colorful spices. It’s a big bowl of it, so it’s perfect to share if you want to save room for dinner.
I’m going to have to try their other stuff, but seriously, I have dreams about their edamame.

OK:
4 – 1: VG Gin martini
4 – 2: [the reason for the first visit] Whoa supriz-​me hella ONO
K. Lua pig cheese fries; b. gentle ahi pokeh ” «
4 – 3: When in doubt –order the surfen turf [[trade kimchee f. RICE INstedda «fingerling potatoes]]]] –YES, VALUE OF THE WEEK!
4 – 4: Insist on the tripp-​O choco cookies [[T.Lappert]] ice cream sammiches = total near-​BIG O…
[6 litto bx inna big shopping bag]
–yes, leftovers /​for … Midnight snak and ramen toppings for the next 3.5 days! –2.5 DAYS –2– GO O’YUMMMMMMMM.
[Holl me back]]

The one star (because I have to give it one star) should go to the Kalua Pork Cheese Fries, because THAT I’ll admit was good. Then again, I think it’s difficult to mess up Kalua pork, melted cheese, and french fries. But anyway —
First of all, the water glasses were dirty. My brother’s glass had lipstick VERY CLEARLY around the rim (and I assure you he wasn’t wearing lipstick). Mine had some sort of black gunk on the outside. This was very displeasing.
Second, the service was slow. I don’t know WHAT the waitstaff was doing, because honestly it wasn’t busy. The waitress was slow to take our drink orders, the food was slow to come, and seriously — to wait 20 minutes for the check after having the table cleared is pushing it. Even though the waitress was nice enough, I don’t feel the service was up to par.
And now the food: I got the tempura Mahi Mahi with sweet and sour dipping sauce served with salad and french fries. I wasn’t impressed with the fish, and the sauce was too sweet. The macaroni salad was bland and boring, and the garlic shrimp was really nothing special. The kimchi rice had the texture of two-​day old leftover rice, and it didn’t taste very much like kimchi. I can’t say I’d recommend anything that I tried tonight.
Lastly, I had the Li-​Hing Margarita and was very disappointed. It tasted nothing like li-​hing. I guess the only upside was that it was REALLY strong — unfortunately I ordered it for taste, and not to get drunk.
For the money spent here, I’d rather have taken my business elsewhere.

I was a big fan of Honu’s in Japantown, and awfully sad they had to close.
Since then I’ve been trying to find another restaurant that serves good Hawai’ian food, to no avail.
(Huki Lau is just OK, though I have been there countless times and do like them for what they are). It’s sad that many people who have not been to Hawai’i are introduced to Hawai’ian fast food type items –instead of really onolicious Hawai’ian kine cookin’! (Such as Alan Wong’s restaurant in Honolulu! I wish there was one here!!!)
(The L & L drive in has been a fast food chain in Hawai’i for a while, and they are actually decent THERE — but HERE?! Forget it, the ones I’ve been to: they’re AWFUL!!!)
Roy’s of SF used to have some really great island inspired cookin’, though I haven’t been there for some years now because it’s so $$$.
Last night I finally ate at the Sundance Kitchen, specifically to try their Hawai’ian dishes. We sat at the bar to eat and have a couple of drinks.
I don’t know about all the negative reviews here — but my experience was very positive. Great and friendly bartender, even gave me some of the Li-​Hing Margarita to try and I ended up liking it so much, I ordered one.
The Kahlua Pork & Cabbage cheese fries are super ONO! Just as good as what Honu’s used to serve. Also had the Kahlua Pork and Cabbage (It was a big Kahlua Pork night!)
My b.f. had the Ultimate Hawaiian Pizza, and that was great. Normally I NEVER eat pineapple on pizza, and hate how everyone just thinks something can be called «Hawai’ian» just because you plop some pineapple on top! BUT! It really worked with the Kahlua Pork and the pizza crust was perfect!
My folks have had the Chicken Adobo here and like it a lot.
A small «complaint» I have is that you only get 1 scoop of rice with the entrees (and we who love our rice, know that is nevah enough!) But an extra scoop is $ 2.50!
?!
I ordered it anyway, because I wanted to take part of my food home — I pigged out on too many Kahlua Pork & Cabbage Cheese Fries! Also, I agree with another reviewer, that they are just a little bit pricey, but at least they have the quality to offer.
I recognized the floor manager or ??? as the co-​partner/​owner over at Honu’s, so I assume she must have brought some of the menu ideas with her. YEAH!
I’ve now found the place I want to have my birthday dinner this year! I hope it’s just as good the second time back! I guess that will be the real test.

So. It’s convenient because it’s next to the theater and waddya know, for the screening of Julie & Julia Sundance Kitchen is offering a special Julie Child menu.
It was dismal. Julia Child is probably rolling in her grave.
The special «Julia» menu was so small, that I stuck to the regular menu. Sorry Julia, the french onion soup sounded good but it was too hot out for soup.
The group had decided that we were famished, so I went ahead and ordered the calamari appetizer that came with a lemon aioli, and a chipotle aioli dipping sauce.
AND IT ALL WENT DOWNHILL FROM THERE.
1^st, the food came and the server didn’t give us napkins or any utensils. He did however, remember to give us little small plates. That’s nice, but what are we going to do with it?
Hidden in crevices of calamari tentacles and squid rings was. TONS OF SALT. At first everyone thought I was imagining it and saying perhaps I just have high blood pressure. But slowly as they worked their way into the plate. sure enough, everyone gagged. TOO MUCH SALT!!!
The only other appetizing thing on the menu was the kobe beef burger. All 4 of us ordered it and guess what happened to our fries.
TOO MUCH FRIGGEN SALT! CHILL OUT ON THE SALT!!! IF YOU’RE GOING TO GIVE US SO MUCH FREAKING SALT ON ALL OUR FOOD THEN AT LEAST TRAIN YOUR SERVERS TO REFILL OUR WATERS NONSTOP.
… the server brought out a peppermill and gave me freshly cracked black pepper on my fries. I had just asked for a salt n pepper shaker but lo and behold, he brought out the real deal and didn’t bother to offer to anyone else. My gay friend thinks it’s the boobs. They’re weapons of mass destruction but Bush didn’t tell ya that now did he?

Popped in here after the show. After skipping dinner due to our show time we were in need of some good hearty grub. We came to the right place. Love the Caribbean beach theme and the view inside the kitchen. Oh yeah, get a table by the window and enjoy some interesting people watching.
Lumpia: crispy little mini egg roll bites. Loved the spicy dipping sauce. Wish there were just a few more on the plate though. Not enough for 2 people to share.
Kobe beef burger with sauteed mushrooms and caramelized onions. I enjoyed the burger but it was so big I had to cut in ½ and then it ended up sort of falling apart as I ate it. I was definitely fool afterwards.
Chicken Adobo — succulent and super moist.
I’d probably come back here for a drink or app before the show.

I came here during the Cherry Blossom Festival and was lured in by seeing someone enjoy the sunshine while eating a beautiful tuna poke dish and drinking a cold beer. That will get me anytime…
I love Tuna Poke. It was yummy, good quality of tuna and definitely worth the price. Our server was great, very accommodating even though some of us kept changing their minds!
We ordered the Tuna Poke, Spicy Tuna Poke (Really spicy! Yay!), Island Salad (more tuna with mixed greens & such) and Hawaiian Pizza (Pulled Pork and Pineapple).
Just thinking of this now is making me hungry! Nom, Nom, Nom.

Oh Pasta Pomodoro, what ever happened to you guys?
I’ll have to answer that question in another review. Until then, let’s talk about the new occupants.
Review on Happy Hour:
I enjoy a good happy hour. Those drink and appetizer specials somehow say, «Good job on getting through another work day.» I mean there are days when I just have to go — those days are usually called Monday. Is it possible that I’m addicted to happy hour?
But today was more than unwinding, we were also going to watch a movie.
We decided to have a drink and try some of the appetizers here beforehand. It wasn’t bad: tasty burgers, better than average garlic fries and okay calamari.
The wine was decent and I preferred it over their mixed drinks.
The real winner was the lemon crème brûlée. It combined the flavors of lemon and vanilla very nicely — it is a must try.
Overall, it’s a nice place to grab a quick bite before your movie starts — if you time it right that is.

The concept of a dinner & a movie has really been taken to another level at the new Sundance Kabuki Theater. I was very impressed with Bar Bistro. The food, ambiance, and décor was very sexy, and for a moment, I forgot that we were inside a movie theater.
Kristina, Andy R and I arrived for our 7:20pm movie at around 6:55pm, and as we went up the escalator to the 2^nd floor, we saw the concession stand (which offered a much healthier selection — does gourmet chocolates count as healthy? — in addition to your typical hot dog and popcorn options). I had heard of Bar Bistro and Balcony Bar, and knew that they weren’t concession stands, so we kept walking. Around the corner, we found Bar Bistro on our way to our auditorium and was immediately wowed by it.
The friendly hostess came up to greet us and I asked if we would make our movie if we were to dine there. She reassured us that it would be no problem, so we got seated at one of the low tables. She wrote our movie time on a cute piece of note paper and left it on our table so that our server was aware of it, which was great because we didn’t have to sound like bitches and tell him to rush our food! The tables were actually more like those modern George Nelson platform benches, which didn’t seem that functional because our glasses and dishes were precariously placed on the slats. Kristina noted that if you dropped any food, you couldn’t apply the 5-​second rule because it would have fallen through the slats and onto the floor. And I’m all about the 5-​second rule!
We quickly scanned the menu, and decided to share the Coca Cola pork ribs (yummy, and not glazed so they weren’t messy), prosciutto & arugula pizza, sausage & peppers pizza and a caesar salad (the dressing was extra fishy, which was very tasty). We decided to skip wine and beer, though I hear their wine selection is rather good. Our server promptly came over and took our order, and in about 7 minutes, our food was served. The food was actually quite tasty, and the prices were just right. The bill came out to $ 45, which one could easily spend on the pricey concession food for 3 people at an AMC.
Every now and then, I would glance over at the blue-​screen monitor that displayed the status («now seating,» «playing,» «cleaning,» etc.) of each movie to make sure we were good on time. I LOVED that it also let people know that the previews were playing — I thought I was being clever when I suggested that it would be cool if they did. And sure enough, they already thought of that!
We finished our grub and settled the bill, all within 30 minutes, and made it into our theater just as the movie was starting! Who would’ve ever thought dinner & a movie AT a movie theater would be such a nice experience?
P. S. Our auditorium didn’t have balcony seating, but we went to check out the 21+ over Balcony Bar at theater 1 (where they’re playing Juno right now) and peeked into the theater. The seats had cool little tables between them, and I believe if you order ahead of time, they will bring your hot food out to you.