Big City Diner – Pearlridge

Big City Diner make the most delicious Gauva Li Hing margaritas. Attended a paint night and those margaritas helped to inspire me. At first I was not sure I could paint the nights painting project, but at the end of the night we had so much fun and everyone’s paintings looked so great despite our hesitation at being able to copy such a beautiful portrait. I will definitely be back for more Guava Li Hing margaritas.

Dined at BIG CITY DINER around 3:30 on Friday. The 2 of us were seated right away and our server was such a delight! So very pleasant and very helpful with the menu.
I had the Guava BBQ meatloaf burger with caramelized onions and skin-​on fries. OMG! Best ever! I’ll be back soon.
Mahalo for such a great dining experience in the late afternoon.
Dwayne Myles

Always here for us! It’s our go to place breakfast, Big City Diner, lunch, Big City Diner, dinner, Big City Diner. Just like they advertise «there’s no place finer, than Big City Diner!»

At this visit, we waited a long one for someone to take out order. It was maybe a good 20 minutes. I guess they were switching shifts?!? Despite the wait, our server was very friendly and attentive. The food was good too.

I wanted to order more food. Our server was no where to be found. Food took 30 minute from the time we order it but when the food came they cooked my New York steak perfect to medium rare. The food is good. The kids were happy they got toys and balloons
Our table was right by the entrance door, as we were eating I heard all the severs greeted everyone who walked in that door which I thought was very pleasant. Even the manager came around to check on our table. Our server and everyone else was all smiles and friendly. Thank you NICOLE M. for taking the time caring about your customers. I really enjoy my food :)

One again, Big City Diner delivers a stellar performance. 4 stars for our last visit; primarily for the service. We were promptly seated at the booth of our choosing, order quickly taken (we were just beating the morning rush so not surprised), hot coffee rapidly provided and kept topped off and he even had a sense of humor!
The 5^th star eludes BCD this visit due to the music being a little loud (seems common to all BCD locations) and the egg yoke for my Loco Moco was fully cooked (was supposed to be over easy… see pics). Both are relatively minor points that I should have mentioned during the visit, but the service was so good, I decided to overlook them.

Kimchee fried rice and Kalbi… the end
(* *) YOU’RE Welcome
The Kimchee fried rice is a good portion size for a hefty guy like me. Paying for eggs with the dish is worth it. If you like your eggs cooked over easy, it makes this good dish even better. The menu says it’s gonna broke yo mouth and the menu doesn’t lie.
The boneless sterling silver Kalbi is made with Big City Diners special sauce. For breakfast it’s served with your choice of starch and eggs.
At this location there is good amount of parking. Sometimes there is live music. There is a happy hour Monday-​Friday from 3−6pm at the patio. Spacious searing area compared to the Kaimuki location and Waipio location.
I usually receive good service here. I had a small incident happen once and I addressed it with the server. Management came to fix it and apologized. I’m glad that they take care of their customers.
Food is good portion, decent prices, and consistent. I’m a fan who will continue to return.

I had a lunch today to try the weekly special suppose to be good size portion.
I ordered the poke bowl with avocado and it was a disaster. The tuna was sliced so thin and was not in cube. I’d say where is the tuna. I could of got a fresh poke bowl in Pearl City called Poke on the run for $ 5.00. All quality premium parts of tuna and tender pieces. I will remember all my acquaintance not to order this. First week special that did not fill me up. I had to side order a French fries. I spent a whopping $ 17.00 with tip. What a expensive lunch it was.

Pros: Parking, Gluten-​Free Menu, Good for Localvores, Prices
Cons: Overlooked often, Diner-​food, Kids
Alcohol: Pretty good selection. Dark-​beer-​lovers, New Castle and Guinness are on tap.
Must try: GF Wings, Sorbet with papaya.
Fun Activity: Tuesdays, at 7 pm, they feature PaintNite. Visit the PaintNite website for reservations.
I have been underestimating Big City Diner, Pearl Ridge for YEARS. Now, my fiancé visit here several times a month. All times, they have seated us immediately. The beers on tap keep us coming back.
Good food. It’s a diner so don’t expect an extravagant gastropub. But if you want comfort-​food, this is the place to go. They also base their menu choices on local ingredients. It matters.
The location is great for Aiea. Across from Pali Momi and a part of Pearl Ridge. The parking lot is shared with Toys R Us and the BankOH building.

My BF and I decided to dine in at this Big City Diner location around 7:30−8pm on a Thursday. We got seated promptly and then it all went downhill from there. Take note that there wasn’t a wait, it wasn’t that busy, and I noticed, when we were being walked to our table, that the majority of the tables already had their food and were finishing up.
Our server came by and asked what we would like to drink. I told him a water was fine for me and asked if I can place my order now since I knew what I wanted. He took my order. My BF asked for a 16 oz beer. Server left before my BF could order anything else.
My BF’s beer came and he placed his order then too.
As we were talking and he was about to pick up his beer, we realized it was the wrong size. No problem, my BF walked over to him and politely asked for the 16 oz.
A few minutes later, my bf’s food came. (I ordered before him. And aren’t they suppose to wait till EVERYONE’s food is done before running it out?) I was okay with that until 30 minutes later, my damn food still wasn’t out?!? And hey, guess what, I didn’t get my water too. We had to waive him over again and ask about water and my food. He said that it’ll be right out and that the reason it was taking so long was because the kitchen was backed up. I understood and said okay, no prob.
Then, my BF looked over at how supposedly busy the kitchen was (he used to work for another Big City Diner location, so he knows how they run) and they weren’t even busy. Or remotely backed up. You can tell by how busy they are by the number of tickets at the expo station. We only saw about 2 – 3 tickets. So, I’m betting our server forgot to put in my order. Great. In this moment, I was ready to cancel my order and take my money elsewhere. The entrée I ordered was $ 20. I could definitely get good food somewhere else for $ 20.
I was in the middle of telling my BF you know what, I’m super upset right now, let’s pay for your dish and beer and leave, when my food finally came. It only took around 45−55min to get my food, wow!
I couldn’t even finish my food, so we asked for the check. My BF and I were splitting our meal, so we put our two cards on the bill and told him that we were going to split it. Our check came back and it wasn’t split evenly. Lol.
He didn’t try to up sell anything either. Didn’t mention specials or ask if we wanted dessert.

They have a really good loco moco with onion gravy. I also love their crispy bacon. However, one time I went in and got a 3 egg omelet, which I highly doubt even had 2 eggs. It was tiny yet super expensive. $ 5 for a side of bacon? Come on. Service is also so-​so. They need to get their carry-​out service quicker and better organized. I want to like this place because it’s so close to home and convenient, so I will keep giving it a try.

This is my first time to the big city dinner but I had tried some left over kalbi from here and had to come back for my own plate!
I haven’t read the other reviews but my experience here today has been phenomenal.
Rona was my server and she did such a good job. Helped me with the menu and played with my son a few times. Even brought him a balloon. When he picked Apple juice for his drink she offered to make it half water. As a mother you appreciate when people offer things like that especially your server.
I got the kalbi breakfast plate with 2 over medium eggs and hash browns. Omg it was soooooooooo good! The kalbi was thick cut no bone and super juicy! My eggs were cooked perfect. Runny but not snot. The other reviews aren’t the greatest but Monday mornings is the time to come here! We will be back for sure. And ask for Rona! She made my experience here memorable.

Service was OK, almost no one there so seating did not seem to be a problem but still told to wait so the server could set the table at a booth, didn’t ask for a booth I don’t get that! I can see 70 percent of the restaurant was empty, we are the only ones in line yet the hostess is acting like she is super busy tapping on the computer screen. Food varies by location, garlic fries looked like left over small pieces, soggy and way, way, too much garlic also they were not the thick steak fries they serve at other locations, looked like they borrowed fires from McDonald’s. Seafood chowder tasted bland like the cook added water to increase servings and could have been from a can.

Went there for my nephew’s birthday party after a night of mini golf.
We had a large party of 23. They weren’t busy since it was a week night so they seated us rather quickly. They sat us on the patio section. Very nice and cool. I liked it. The restaurant was clean and orderly. We had to sit in different tables but we were still close to each other.
Serving or waiting on 23 customers can be a bit stressful. I for one know that so whenever i have my children with me, they know to just let me know their orders and I order for them. I try to help the waiter/​waitress out. We had one waiter for the whole patio section. He was busy taking care of the customers that were already eating so we waited patiently as we looked on what to order. But after about half hour, our waiter still didn’t come to get our order. We kept looking at him going back and forth between the other customers and getting what they wanted. When he passed our table, my friend told him we were ready to order. He said ok and walked away. My sister went to get another waiter to get our order. Then our waiter came back to take our order.
Why this review? I’m not blaming to waiter for our wait. I believe that when someone has lots of customers to serve, it would’ve another been nice to have another waiter help
Him.. Mind you, the restaurant was not busy and they had workers. But then I don’t know how things work in there so I didn’t mark them too low.
I ordered the Chinese chicken salad. I must say it was really good. The chicken was a bit peppery (don’t really care for too much pepper) but it was still good. Would like to try other items on the menu in the future. I ate in the other locations but first time eating in this location.
They didn’t mix up our orders at all because they bought the food to the mommies and we delivered it to our kids. They have a check per table rule. Not sure if that’s a good idea for a large party, especially since the tables only sit 4. They did mix up our check though but we fixed it amongst ourselves.
It’s always a challenge to serve a large group. So I commend them for serving us but I think some improvement can take place, especially with large groups. Good night!

Most crappy experience ever!!! After we got seated the server came 10 minutes later to take our order. 10 minutes!!! Seriously??? Ordered two cokes, two milks, and a Black and tan. Might as well place our food order too, so we ordered two kids mac and cheese, fried noodles, and a salad. By the way the place wasn’t very busy… no waiting lines… two people at the bar… no water served while we wait for our food or drinks!!! Ok, the kids got thier food timely… Hello where is the drinks??? Server finally brought two cokes… After waiting 7 minutes the rest of the food came. I had to ask another server on the status of the two milks. Still didn’t come… hey, where’s my beer too? Remind you, the bar isn’t busy… finally the milks came… uuugh… then my black and tan came afterwards… i guess it was waiting for a while because it was all tan!!! No separation!!! Foamy top!!! Uuuugh… ok, here’s the worst part… there was plastic in the noodles!!! WTF!!! I GRUMBLED to the manager and all she took off the bill was the noodles and the milk. They tried to give a measly complimentary dessert. I was over it and too disgusted to finish my meal. Horrible!!! Never ever coming back to this place.

Big City Diner is almost like a Zippys — I’m not expecting high class food but it’s consistent, pretty good and I know what I’m going in for. The menu doesn’t change often except for the weekly specials that rotate. Beer prices are reasonable while selection is basic.
This location is right across from Pearlridge Mall and Pali Momi. There’s usually plenty of parking. We go here often because it’s a halfway point between us and my boyfriends family; easy dinner meet up! Nice to get away from the mall too.
Most recently we met up for one of these dinners and happened to be running super late. Late, like their plates were pretty much cleaned when we arrived. Whoops! The waitress was super cool and connected our table to their booth and got us menus/​water immediately. We were given the exact appropriate amount of time to look at the menu when she came back. I went with the teriyaki burger add cheese, sub mashed potatoes for fries [i got charged for garlic fries] + a salad add on for $ 2.99 I think. I also got a miller lite because I’m celebrating a new job and TBH: we had to hit the hospital for a visit after dinner; I hate hospitals, a beer was needed. The man got the Monterey Chicken sandwich. Boyfriends mom wanted to treat so she payed the bill after we ordered and shortly into our salads, they left us to finish.
Our entrees were tasty, just as expected. My burger was cooked nicely. They forgot the cheese but didn’t charge us; my garlic mashed were probably part instant but they filled my potato craving. The salads were pretty blah & we both regretted adding them on. Sometimes trying to eat our veggies gets us nowhere! My bf’s chicken sandwich was delicious and it’s mostly because of the guava BBQ sauce BCD uses. It is seriously good and we always order extra on the side for fries or dipping the sandwich. Sometimes I have trouble ordering purely because I want that sauce.
Even though the bill was paid already, our waitress was awesome about checking on us, refilling water and asking if we needed anything else. Given that she knew her tip was already written down, I truly appreciated the effort. I was also pretty pleased with the service especially due to the busyness of the location. BCD came through again with a solid meal, no complaints here… except that after reading reviews, I probably should have ordered a shake!

It was just ok. Nothing to write home about nothing to complain about. Service was
Good and we were seated quickly. The only thing that I can say was delicious was the calamari. We had the steak strips, chili nachos, garlic fries, calamari, and kimchee fried rice which didn’t have any flavor.

The food is always good, but the service today was unusually slow. More than half the tables were open, yet I had to ask to get my coffee refilled and for napkins… not sure why. Even had to ask for the onions that weren’t ready when my burger came out, even though the server said it would be out shortly. Usually have pretty good service at Waipio!

Service was a flop. They take forever to take your order, bring your drinks, bring your food, and bring your check. Not to mention they don’t check up on you through out your dining. My bf and I both ordered the Pulehu with onions and mushroom, his was medium, and mines well done. Got both steaks medium well but I was to hungry to wait and I really hate bloody meat. Anyway the steak was good but the veggies which were green beans and red bell peppers was tasteless and hard. IDK just a overall bad experience.

Ordered two eggs easy over, corned beef hash with side of kim chee fried rice and kalbi short rib with easy over eggs and kim chee fried rice. The fried rice was excellent as well as the kalbi was well seasoned and tender. The house made corn beef hash was an ample serving — I would have liked a little more spiced but it was good. We would come back.

If you’re looking for a great family restaurant for breakfast, lunch or dinner, Big City Diner is it! Great food, great service and out of the three locations I frequent, parking is a breeze.
For breakfast, try Kim Chee Fried rice if you love Kim Chee.
For lunch or dinner, nice selection of burgers, other American cuisine and salads.
Great selections, price is reasonable and food is consistent.
What more can you ask for?

Always come here but never Unilocaled… food was on point and ono… husband’s pork chops was very tender and tasty… and my spicy ahi poke bowl was how I like it. Of course our waitress was awsome… but we were the early bird couple so we had her all to ourselves.

REALLY BAD SERVICE!!!
Went with my 2 sons and boyfriend. Wasn’t greeted, waited 20 min for someone to help us (wasn’t busy) all the waiters were standing around doing nothing… It seemed like they didn’t want to help us. Waited 40 min for our food to come & it was cold (Kalua Pig Dish) NEVER GOING BACK EVER!!!
I WOULDN’T RECOMMEND THIS PLACE TO ANYONE!!!

This review is only about turkey dinner to go.
I usually ordered turkey dinner to go from waipio restaurant but I wanted to try Pearlridge location this year. The only down fall was finding parking because of the early Black Friday shoppers. Other than that 6pm pick up was about 15 minutes late. No big deal. It is thanksgiving day so it’s understandable.
I love their turkey dinner to go. I usually get half turkey and it comes with all the trimmings. Turkey is always juicy and good as well as mash potatoes, stuffings, yams, gravy, corn, cranberry sauce & pumpkin crunch. It’s about $ 100 but it’s so worth it.
Thanks Big City for another delicious turkey dinner on Thanksgiving!

1 star for service. Went there during happy hour. Never been for happy hour so the waiter said us that the pupus are half off with 2 drinks until 6pm (it was 5:30 when we order). Ordered a beer and a soda and a bunch of pupus. Got our food and was watching a game on their TV. He came around to give us our bill at 6:15 and everything was full price. I asked him to put the half off on the pupus. He clarified that both my wife and I had to have 2 drinks each. So first… he never came around before 6pm to tell us happy hour was going to end. Second… he knew I was ordering pupus for half off cause I told him. Third… he couldn’t come back to tell us that we had to drink 2 drinks each?! Thankfully I had a giftcard to use and probably won’t go back.

I really love Big City Diner. I usually stop at this location or the one at Ward. The parking here is a lot better!
As always great customer service. The food portions are typically very generous in size. They offer weekly specials in their food. This most recent trip was Week #1 and it had 3 specials to choose from.
I choose the Poke Bowl. It was yummy with a avodcados and furikake sprinkled all over the rice and pike with a wasabi aoili sauce. My friend tasted the aioli and promptly asked if she could have a side of it for her fries. This was her first time at Big City Diner. The calamari is in strips with panko flakes. The Pan fried noodles are delicious.
They have a bar are here and outside seating.
When you walk out they have a treat box for the kids. My nephews thought that was cool.

Went here to grab some dessert — the brownie was so generic tasting. It was rubbery. Not a fan.
I also had hot chocolate, which they couldn’t mess up.
The chair and tables looked nice like an old diner, but the chair was sticky or the table was sticky.

The service was friendly and accommodating just our food took long. Food was good just one complaint was the big city club sandwich bread was too thick for me. A carb overload with 3 layers of bread. Love the garlic fries and fried rice (Kim Chee)

After 7 minutes of waiting for someone to take our food and drink order, I was frustrated, hungry and ready to leave. I told hubby that people came in after us are being helped and that the table was icky. Hubby tried cleaning table with his napkin.
I had my handbag and was about to get up. but Hubby being the nice guy let the manager know that we were ready to order and that his menu was sticky. The waitress came by so I sat back down and we placed our order. Hubby told the waitress that the table was sticky and she was so sweet and wiped it down.
The waitress took good care of us after that and the food was okay. But after the initial frustration and the icky table, it was hard to enjoy the rest of the evening.

So we frequent this place once in awhile… but for some reason the last couple times we’ve come here, the food was much too SALTY.
Hubs and I, just got the hawaiian food because it is Friday… it was disappointing… the kalua pig was semi warm and salty and the lomi salmon more like salt with tomato and salmon… the haupia was fine and the beef stew was white sauce which is a nice departure from the usual tomato base. Maybe because we were eating dinner at 915pm but come on!
We also got draft beers which were good, too bad the food wasn’t up to par. Next time I’ll stick to the norm stuff like the burgers, loco moco, or fried rice.
They do have good service here and the atmosphere local kine style diner. They just need to lay off the salt.

The outside of the restaurant looked promising. Interior is clean and can accommodate a good amount of customers. The food was just alright. We had a hard time deciding on what to order. But based on reviews we ordered the Garlic fries and Uncle Danny’s Fried Rice. I didn’t care for the bottled garlic used for the fries and no bueno on the peas in the rice. I ended up picking them out and the meat too. It just didn’t jive with my taste buds. If I return, it’s only because I’d want to try one of the weekly specials for $ 10.99. The regular menu didn’t seem so appetizing overall. I wanted the fish plate at market price but it was going for $ 17.99.

We came here with my family for Breakfast and food was great! Waiting for our seats, for the orders to be taken, and for the food was okay. They were busy but everything happened at a reasonable amount of time. 4 stats only because their menus need to be cleaned and reviewed. ⁵⁄₆ menus at our table had torn sheets and food stains on them. We came around 10am-​11am so it’s either they got messy right in the morning or they never wiped their menus from the previous night. But service and food quality was excellent.

Forgot to mention service. The service at the pearlridge location is awesome. The staff is very friendly and accommodating.
Service is always important and for that, 4****

The 5 stars is for INCREDIBLE service provided by Kisa! Her bright smile, positive attitude, and attentiveness really sets apart this branch from the others.
Although the food was just okay, I was blown away by the incredible service. Sometimes, I receive great service but it’s not real or there’s some fakeness to it, but with Kisa, she seemed really genuine and it shows how much she loves her job. I’ve been to high end restaurants and she actually beats those waiters at the expensive restaurants.
One of the best waitresses I’ve ever had in my entire life!