Hilo Hawaiian BBQ

For the price of the meal, I expected much more. The size and flavor of the short ribs meal wasn’t anything I’d look forward to trying again. The Macaroni salad was drowned in mayonnaise –it felt like I was biting into a spoonful of mayonnaise. I also bought one spam musubi as well as a bbq chicken musibi– they were each half-​finished which says a lot given the fact that I hate wasting food.

Pretty standard place. Sadly everything was super salty, like too much soy sauce salty. The Mac salad had WAY TOO MUCH mayo in it. The food was good it just needs less soy sauce /​mayo /​grease. We had the short rib plate, spam masubi and chicken masubi. It was just decent.

There’s so many various hawaiian bbq spots around but I must say hilo is my favorite. Yes, I understand that this may not be the most authentic hawaiian bbq establishment out there but it does the job! BBQ chicken is on point! Kalbi short ribs is my go to! Spam masubi to die for! Some masubis that I’ve tried for instance at L&L don’t have the spam to rice ratio right but hilo has it down to a science. Their teryaki sauce is absolutely delicious. I don’t know about yall but I like my teryaki sweet with alot of flavor and that is just what hilo offers. For those of you who don’t like spam… they also offer bbq chicken masubi but I prefer the spam. All of the meals comes with tons of food. More then enough to share between two people. What I especially appreciate here though is the customer service. The employees here are always super nice and accommodating. Whenever I finish ordering I sit down and they bring me my bag when It’s done. I usually order all macaroni salad instead of the rice and last night I forgot to mention that. They threw in a side of macaroni for free and refused when I offered to pay for it. That definitely secured me as a loyal customer!

This place sucks. Prices to high for very little food. Rice serving is a little bit bigger than a golf ball. Ordered a hamburger steak and told the cashier to please put a lot of gravy. What do I get, about a table spoon of gravy on the burger and about a teaspoon (if that) on the rice. Hey Hilo, you guys low on rice and gravy? The hamburger patty looke like a nice size until you see how thin it was. To top it off the food was average at best in presentation and below average in taste.
This was not the first time I ate there but it will be the last. I highly Do not recommend this place. Rather go to L&L at the plaza. At least they are not skimpy when it come to the rice and gravy servings. Also their mini meals are about $ 2.00+ cheaper,

Being from Hawaii and growing up eating Hawaiian/​Local Hawaii food I can tell you this place is terrible. A total disrespect to Hawaii and the food they eat in Hawaii. It was overpriced and very poor quality food.

I have no idea why this place has decent reviews. This place cannot compare to other hawaiian barbeque places closeby price-​wise, taste-​wise, etc. I showed up a little early because they weren’t open until 11am (Please note that L&L is open at 10am) and the cashier did not seem happy to see me, which makes total sense! I worked in food business so I understand but come’on! If you’re working an opening shift and you can’t be polite and say hello, then work a different shift. However, the cook was really nice and he took my order. Why does this review get one star? One word. PRICES. DOES ANYBODY NOT SEE HOW CRAZY EXPENSIVE THEY ARE? $ 7 for a MINI meal?! L&L’s prices are between $ 4.50-$ 5 for a mini meal. Whatever. I still gave it a shot and ordered a hamburger steak REGULAR meal. Oh boy, here it comes. Let me tell you, the regular size meal was about the same size as a MINI meal at L&L. Yes! And I paid double the price! The hamburger steak was rather large, lacked seasoning, and onions incorporated in the hamburger steak itself which is something I crave for. I felt so ashamed knowing I betrayed my regular place for this. So sorry, L&L. Trust me, I learned my lesson and this will never happen again ;)

.this place is awesome! Get the seafood combo! It comes with shrimp, mahi and grilled chicken. Soooo good! Portions are huge!

This is a pretty standard Hawaiian joint, where everything is good enough to fix that BBQ chicken/​Kahlua pork jones that you might have.
I had the chicken, my son had the shrimp, and my wife had the pork. Everything was good. Not excellent, but good. The chicken was probably my favorite out of all of them.
The mac salad was ok… nothing earth shattering.
Wait times for the food were a bit high for the type of establishment; we were told to expect a 10 minute wait, but it was closer to 20, and we were ahead of the lunch rush. I have no idea how long the other people after us had to wait.
And the restaurant was COLD. Like, uncomfortably cold. I recognize that it costs money to heat a place, but customers were bundled up like they were at a football game.
Not bad. It’s worth a short trip if you absolutely NEED plate lunch.

Long line, long wait. And then they gave my food away to another customer who just walked in. They didn’t even offer a refund or discount on my next purchase. I don’t think I will return

Support local business. As usual, I like to start with the things that I don’t like. First I like to say that the size portion of the mini meals are not quite as big as what I can get elsewhere. However, I come here for my Chicken Katsu. Soo good, and it’s a place to hang out at during summer. There’s nothing I don’t like about this place. I give it 4 stars.

I love traditional Hawaiian and the bbq beef is super tasty! I’ve eaten here a few times and they’re reasonable, relatively fast and have always been good.

If you are in American Canyon and you are in the mood for some Hawiian BBQ, you may want to stop by here. They give you hella food! This is what I picture it to be in Hawaii.

Visited here on a work trip and ordered a Loco Moco. First, the hamburger patties were handmade which is a big plus. Most places uses pre-​made. It was good but the placement of the food in the container could be better and the amount of gravy wasn’t near enough. Let me explain since I’m trying to help the business. First lose the bed of cabbage in the main tray. Place the rice in there instead covered by the patties and eggs. Then put a scoop of Mac salad and cabbage or veggies in the smaller containers. COVER the rice patties and eggs in gravy. It should be swimming in gravy. The gravy included was about ¹⁄₃ of what should have been in there. Anyway good place that could improve on the Loco Moco that was clean and had nice Hawaiian music playing.

I can’t believe people rated this place 4.5 stars. The chicken katsu tasted plain and only 1 scoop of rice in the combo compared to L&L’s 2 scoops of rice. The fried shrimp tasted bland and the sauce that came with it was terrible. They can’t duplicate L&L and need to go back to Hawaii to see how local food should taste like. Price is the same as L&L and should be worth less.

I have nerver had Hawaiian food before but its really good and the cashier is sweet and patient because i did take a while to see what i wanted their sauces are really good i got the Hawaiian bbq chicken it was great will keep coming back.

After trying to redeem the 1 buck offer on Unilocal for the Island spicy mini meal, I was shut down! Cashier said it was expired after showing her the active offer on Unilocal.Pretty shady of them if you ask me! Lets see if they respond to this post. What kind of excuses they will come up with. And for the record, my bill was 27+. Most likely a gimmick to attract customers. Be aware everyone.

It’s ok. Pricey place to eat. There mini meal is a dollar cheaper for half the food. Drinks are way over priced. Friendly, not overly but good enough for a fast food joint.

I love Hawaiian food. I like the food here in Hilo but it’s a bit pricey. Came in because of the $ 1 check in deal & was advised that it’s no longer available. But it’s still in Unilocal and the deal stays till March. See the picture?! Still went on & purchased food since the family and I were hungry. Next time I know to go to L&L than Hilo.

When you’re a broke ass college student looking for an affordable yet filling meal, Hilo Hawaiian BBQ is the place to go.
I tried both the Hawaiian BBQ and Chicken Katsu on different occasions. Both of those entrees were scrumptious and bomb lickin’ fantastic. The Chicken Katsu had the perfect crunch, and the Hawaiian BBQ was savory goodness. I like the entrée combos. You get two scoops of rice, some macaroni salad, and your chosen entrée. The spam musubi is affordable too, it’s about a decent $ 3 and 60 something cents plus tax, and even if you have two pieces of it, you might be already full!
Staff could be a little more engaged with the customers. It looked like the cashier had this «Damnit, I don’t want to be here today» face. I say fake it until you make it. ;) Other than that, the place is pretty clean and pretty empty. I think by the time my co-​worker and I left around 7 PM was when the place became a full house.

Winding down on our road trip, we came here after wine tasting in Napa since we were staying for the night in the area. I was actually kind of glad that there’s a place like this here, because I was really craving rice. I got the Loco Moco, and my friends the the Hawaiian BBQ mix and the Chicken Katsu. I was really glad I got the Loco Moco because it was really what I was craving. An sunny side up egg on top of hamburger steaks, a bed of rice, and gravy to top it off. It wasn’t the best Loco Moco I’ve had, but it really hit the spot. My friend’s Katsu looked a little dry, and my other friend’s BBQ mix looked a little oily. However, I tried the BBQ Chicken the day after and it was so good (but maybe because I was really hungry).
Overall, this is a good place for a cheap and filling meal. You get a good portion for what you pay for. I’ve definitely had better, but this place is A-​OK.