Aloha Table: Aloha!!....even during non-meal hours

Area:  Sunroad (underground shopping area on the Takashimaya side of Nagoya station), サンロード
Restaurant:  Aloha Table 　アロハテーブル
Website:  http://nagoya-mm.alohatable.com/

Hours: 11am-9:30

Lunch is served until 5pm, so it's a great place for people like me with late breaks from work.  Being a Hawaiian restaurant, I ordered ahi poki (less than 1000 yen, and you can add a drink for just 150 yen more).  It's basically a rice bowl topped with sashimi, avocado, and a lettuce and onion salad.  The fun thing about it is that you can mix and match all different flavors since there is also mayonnaise, wasabi and furikake (seasoning sprinkle for rice) in this dish.  Soy sauce is also available on the side.  If you go to a regular sushi house or Japanese restaurant this may be looked down upon.  All the ingredients of this dish are mainly raw and plain, so it's difficult to go wrong here; as long as the vegetables are fresh, which they were, it's a good combination.

One of the signature sweets here seems to be the Malasada, basically a sugar-coated doughnut.  I tried the coconut sugar flavour (150円).  It comes warm and just-fried.  From a quick internet search, I found that it's a popular Portuguese dessert in Hawaii, with a crunchy and chewy texture.  The crunch perhaps comes from the sugar coating, but the malasada at this restaurant did not have the chewiness I was hoping for, at least at first.  It was so light it almost had no weight.  My advice, if you are looking for chewy, is to let the doughnut cool down when it becomes a nice firmer texture.

Being in a convenient area, and serving both sweets and meals, it's a popular restaurant filled with chatty young ladies.  So if you`re looking for peace and quiet, this may not be the best place for that.