The Local @HNL

Do not eat here!!! Says the food is fresh but it’s obvious that everything is previously frozen. Absolutely pathetic that they claim to be a Hawaiian diner. At one point I was forcing the food down my mouth. Terrible food. I will say the waitress was very nice patient esspecially because of how much disgust I showed, she was the best part of the restaurant. Go to burger King or anywhere else and do yourself (and your stomach) a favor by ignoring this place. PS my family ordered Loco moco, fish and chips, and the chicken salad

Great food. Good atmosphere. Pleasant servers.
Prices are a bit too high but then again, it’s in an airport

Ordered cheeseburger– no flavor — zero. Better off going to fast food joints next door. One attendant was nice the other rushed and stressed.
Second visit: could not find a sitting spot next door. Better service today. Food still a filler. Soggy tomatoes in salad

Awesome supper! Wanted a quick bite and was surprised by the generous portions ordered the mahi tacos (three per order) and the Kaula pork sliders (four per order).
Food was ono!
Service was quick and friendly!

It’s a decent airport restaurant. The lava flow tastes good, the Kalua pork slider doesn’t look appealing but it actually tastes quite good.

Oh my goodness this place is awful!
Bf and I were headed back home and we wanted to get some food into our system before our flight. Stumbled upon this place and just headed in.
We walked in. nobody greets us, yet 2 waitresses see us and proceed to ignore. We didn’t know if we were supposed to seat ourselves or wait for them to seat us. We ended up just seating ourselves.
Our waitress was so BLAH. Totally unprofessional and just lazy looking. She was snacking on food while she was waiting for people to come in/​people to order/​etc etc. Also, she was asking about one part of our order with her back towards us. HUGE no no.
Any​way​.bf and I got some mixed drinks (not worth getting, won’t even mention the names) They were overly sweet, and it literally tasted like pineapple juice only.
For food. I got their cheeseburger & bf got their shredded beef sandwich. I asked for extra onions & she said they could put it on the side. Not sure why they can’t just put it in. but whatever.
Food came out in less than 10 minutes.
Tiny ass burger with absolutely no flavor. It comes with parmesan fries. and there was like 10 little sprinkles of parmesan on it. Super luke warm. just tasteless. AND she forgot my onions –_​_​– AND. ANDDDD they didn’t have ranch. UGH!
Bf took one bite out of his sandwich and said, «This shit is disgusting» LOL.
He also ordered a beer which thankfully didn’t disappoint him.
We didn’t even look at the prices of anything. so before we got our check we were guessing how much the total would be. He guessed $ 57.I guessed $ 63. We were both wrong. it was $ 74.are you freakin kidding me?!
Please do not waste your money here. mixed drinks are $ 17 each. that is CRAZY. I’m pretty sure they just put a splash of alcohol in there, too.
Such a disappointment. so disappointing that I didn’t even want to bother taking pictures of the pathetic looking food.

3.5 stars but rounding up because this is an airport, my standards are admittedly quite low, and I’d be fine with coming back here on another trip to HNL.
There’s a good-​sized space with plenty of tables, and the air conditioning was a very welcome reprieve from the hot and humid airport hallway. The server was prompt and made sure we got to our flight on time.
My husband’s BBQ kalua pork sandwich was flavorful and the meat was moist. My mahi mahi fish and chips were very freshly fried. I liked that the batter was super crispy but not at all thick or doughy. The fish tasted pretty good and actually wasn’t fishy at all. I enjoyed both the double pickle tartar sauce and the other lemon aioli. The only thing we didn’t care for were the french fries; they were flavorless and dull and starchy.

This review is for 12/​31/​2015.
It was around 9pm and we were hungry and didn’t want to go on a 6hr flight without having had dinner yet. We weren’t interested in the food court (except pinkberry) so we settled for here. The reviews were off putting but we didn’t have high expectations for airport food so who cares!
We seated ourselves and our server came by immediately and got our drink orders. We perused the menu and both settled on tacos (one mahi mahi and one beef). Our food arrived quickly and each order came with 3 tacos. They were delicious and perfectly seasoned. My only complaint is that there was too much raw red onion which I didn’t like but that’s a personal taste issue. The pickled onions, the slaw and the avocado crema were all jiving with the respective proteins and we couldn’t have been happier. Delicious. I’d eat that again if it were in a non-​airport setting because those tacos were really good!

I avoid most airport food and there is good reason. The Local @HNL is reason number 7 539 475 437 that my first statement still holds true. We were looking for Kona brewing which used to be located here, but after scouring the airport, we realized Kona had become the Local. We didn’t have much interest in any of the other food options we had walked by so decided to stay.
First and foremost, service is painfully slow. That is one thing that is unacceptable for an airport restaurant. There were too many long gaps between ordering food, getting the food, asking for ketchup, asking for the check, etc. People have planes to catch! (Thankfully, we had enough time). If you are going to have the unfortunate destiny of eating here, you might want to let the waitress know how much time you have before your flight.
The bf and I shared the Kalua pork sandwich. The pork was a little dry and a little under flavored. A little too underwhelming for me. The only thing that wasn’t little was the fact that it was overpriced.
I would only come back here to have a beer at the bar before a flight. Skip the food!

Tried out The Local today after we realized Kona had closed. It looked just renamed to us. The menu was limited. No kids menu. I seen there was already mediocre reviews, but there really isn’t much to choose from at the HNL airport which is pretty surprising to me. I ordered the Kalua pork sliders which had tasteless coleslaw, soggy Kalua pork and the bun was falling apart because it was so wet. It look like someone took a large hamburger bun and made it look like a square. Disappointing. The BBQ sauce on the side was revolting. It had a zing for the after taste. It took quite awhile for me to get the taste out of my mouth. He ordered the local burger. It was ok. It tasted like a regular burger. Probably better off getting BK next time and I try hard not to get fast food. My daughter got Parmesan fries since there wasn’t a kids menu. She ate a few. That was probably the best out our meals sadly enough.
Our waitress was slow even though it wasn’t busy at all. She forgot out waters. We had to ask again after she delivered the milk for my daughter. I give it a 3 due to the lack of choices however it would be a solid 2 star if it was anywhere else.

Definitely try this place! Good experience & good food. :)
We had the mahi tacos & the local burger. The mahi tacos were good, they had sweet marinated onions and a good sauce. Would have them again. The Local Burger was a great classic burger & good job chef for making me a perfect medium rare burger! It had a great grill charred flavor, just enough to make it taste authentic. I would definitely have this burger again!
For beer we had the Koko Brown, it has a great toasted coconut finish and was delicious! Highly recommend. Ask for a taste first if you are unsure.
For service, our server was very nice & remembered everything we ordered. She had the whole back half of the restaurant so she was running all over. If you are pushed for time, maybe sit at the bar. We had time before the flight so we had a nice and relaxed dinner.

Service could have been a little quicker for an airport food establishment. We didn’t eat but saw the food items coming out and they looked pretty good. Huge portions so even though the prices look high you could easily split an entrée. We tried the house chardonnay and the cab… they were ok. Kind of pricey but to be expected at the airport.

Let us start by asking if you have ever had truly good airport food? It happens so rarely I don’t expect it. So so here, as I knew it would be.
This place appears to formally be the now gone Kona Brewing Co. spot at the airport. They serve Kona beers and have their logos all over the restaurant but it goes by this new name. They also have a completely different menu.
Beer was flat. So flat. We had some pub chips, tacos, and a burger. All were also average or below average but we wanted more than just Burger King before our long flight home overnight.

Used to be Kona Brewing but now The Local @ HNL. Pretty average but not a a bad option. The upsell on the beverage left me with a toasty buzz before my flight. Kalua pork sandwich was good but know the slaw comes ON the pork. Fine by me, but might not be a reference for all.

No breakfast even at 10am so that was a bit disappointing. This place seemed like the best choice restaurant of all the choices I saw at the airport. It was me and the 3 kids so we took 3 meals and shared, chicken teriyaki burger, hamburger & fish tacos. All were a bit pricy @ 16 each but the food was good and flavorful (a little messy) we especially liked the tacos the best as well as the chicken burger.
Service was slow so be sure you have plenty of time.

My wife and I had lunch here before our mainland flight home. It looked like possibly the best spot to eat in the airport. 1pm on a Tuesday we found the place half full and seated ourselves by a window over looking the airport garden.
Our server popped by shortly thereafter to get our drink order of two Longboard lagers on tap. Menus are on the table. My wife picked the pork sandwich and I picked the chicken one both served with Parmesan fries and a pickle slice. We found our sandwiches to be excellent and the fries to be lacking. In particular my Aloha chicken sandwich was tasty and sweet with a full slice of pineapple on top and plenty of messy teriyaki sauce on top. The fries lacked any flavor even with the cheese grated on top. Very disappointing but I didn’t need those calories anyway.

I rarely eat at airport restaurants because of the premium price of the foods. This was no exception, but since I had an hour to kill I decided to go, and they look busy which could be an indicator or just an indicator of a good location.
I had the Mahi Mahi tacos and they were delicious! see photo.

Stop by if you have like a 2+ hour layover, cause service sucks. You can see a couple of dirty tables around the restaurant. It may seem like the waitresses are busy, but then you sit down at look around, they aren’t busy. The restaurant isn’t that busy. We came here with a few customers watching television. My husband got fish tacos, which he said was good, but the wings I got were cold! Ironic? I got cold hot wings… Never checked on us, got our order, dropped it off, and never came back. Couldn’t even tell her the wings were cold. It took forever for us to even get our check. Head to McD’s, at least you know what to expect.

Decided to get a bite to eat and a drink while waiting to depart. Restaurant is a good size and lots of windows that look out into the atrium. Waitress greeted us quickly but wasn’t very friendly. We ordered the following:
Coworker — Kalua Pork Sandwich and a beer
Me — Hamburger and a Doctors Orders speciality drink.
Coworker said the bun on the sandwich was very soggy and there was a very little amount of meat however it tasted good. Fries were cold and not fresh. 2 stars
My burger was very juicy and cooked as ordered but had one thin, limp piece of lettuce which was kind of disappointing but not enough to complain. My fries were cold and not fresh as well. 3 stars
My drink was very disappointing. It was mostly ice and tasted like orange juice with a hint of nutmeg. 1 star
Check came and I nearly fell out of my chair! My weak, mostly ice and juice drink was $ 17.00! It cost more than my meal!!! I have been in Waikiki all week drinking at high end hotels and never paid more than $ 12 for a speciality drink and they all were better than this one! DO NOT ORDER SPECIALITY DRINKS HERE you will be disappointed and robbed of your hard earned money! 1 star for being over priced.
Service 2 stars
Food 2.5 stars
Price 1 star

Airport bar & grill. It’s a given that your wallet will feel raped and pillaged. Deal with it. Think of it as your last meal in Paradise, where you’ve been paying these prices anyway.
As an airport estab, The Local does their specialty up right. Service was friendly and knowledgeable, if not speedy. When in Hawaii, you must become one with the lack of urgency everywhere. They understand that life’s experiences are to be savored, and not rushed. Once you’re on board with this, you find yourself no longer angry when your Tropical Itch is not delivered within the same 3 minutes that you order it. It’s a good thing, people. Relax.
Hubby had the pizza, which he really liked. It was a bit small for the price, however, and came with absolutely nothing else. I had the Kalua pork sandwich, because it came with fries. They also offer Kalua sliders on the appetizer menu, but… no fries. It comes with a side of what looks like ketchup, but in fact is BBQ sauce for the sandwich. Not the best sauce, but better than no sauce. The pork was pretty good, but certainly not a contender for the best.
The music was good — they played a mix of stuff we hadn’t heard in 20 years along with the latest hits. In combination with our drink buzz, this got us nice and relaxed for a loooong flight back home.
All in all, not a bad place to chill and grab some last minute grub and adult bevs for the blinding siege of madness that is an airplane cabin.