En Fuego Grill & Catering

It was my friend Ray’s birthday, when my partner and I came here for lunch this past Saturday together with him. We were already in the vicinity, when Ray decided he wanted a kicked up plate lunch as his birthday meal. Uh, okay. So, I immediately thought of En Fuego.
En Fuego is located in the Kapolei Marketplace near Tesoro, and a bunch of other eateries. In addition to their everyday menu, they also have specials of the day, and a catering menu.
We all ordered from the everyday menu, and each got a combination plate. I was surprised that my partner got a combo plate since she eats like a bird, and the portions are rather large. Anyway, here is what we got:
Teriyaki salmon and mochiko chicken combo: I think they may have forgotten the teriyaki sauce? We could barely taste it. The mochiko chicken was a good choice.
Furikake salmon: Good seasoning, but a little dry.
Garlic ahi and garlic chicken combo: The ahi was good, but the garlic chicken was even better.
Now, the not so good. Ray found one of those twisty tie things in his toss salad. Probably came from the salad bag itself. We brought this to their attention, and they gave us a complimentary order of garlic fries. The fries were very garlicky and greasy, but we appreciated the gesture since they do pride themselves in these fries.

The food is really good. I love going there for their Garlic Fries, Garlic chicken, Furikake Salmon, Pork Chops, Lomi Salmon, Poke, etc. The price isn’t outrageous and the portions aren’t too bad, either. The environment is usually always decent and not dirty. The parking is usually not too bad, unless you go at night on the weekends, then good luck. lol
The only reason why I didn’t rate this restaurant with more stars, is because of the customer service I received yesterday. I called in an order for a small pan of Garlic Chicken, to go. When I got there, the cashier was very nice and patient with me. I asked her if I can add on, an order of garlic fries and 2 scoops of brown rice.
She repeated my order: «Okay, I have a small pan of Garlic Chicken, Garlic Fries, one order of brown rice and another order of brown rice.» I said, «yes, that’s correct, but can you please put the two orders of brown rice in one plate please.» She said «Yes».
I sat down, waiting on my order. 10 minutes later, I heard «order for…» I get up, & the girl was packing my food into the plastic bag and I seen that both the brown rice and garlic fries were in the SAME plate. I told the girl that I wanted it separate (like why would they include both of them in the same plate?). She showed me the receipt and said «it says ‘same plate’.» I informed her that they orders of brown rice were supposed to be in the same plate not the fries and rice in the same plate. While I was speaking with this girl, an older Hawaiian lady turns to us and says «what’s going on?!». While the girl that was helping was explaining to her what happened, the Hawaiian lady told her to just send it back have them separate it. When she telling the people in the kitchen thru the little window that THE CUSTOMER wants it separated. A local girl, (kind of tiddah-​ish, in her 20’s) walked from the back to the front, in a «stomping kind of matter». She walks to the front and points to the receipt and says: «doesn’t that say SAME PLATE?!» with an attitude. The cashier that took my order then turned around and said to them «she just wants her brown rice together.» The Caucasian girl that was helping me, the Hawaiian older lady, & the «tiddah-​ish» girl all parted ways after the cashier said something.
When they fixed my order, the Caucasian girl handed my bag of fries and rice. I asked her about the small pan on Garlic Chicken, she then was confused. UGH. So apparently they got my order mixed up with an order they had a couple hours later. (luckily, it was the same thing that was ordered for the order a couple hours later.) so the older Hawaiian lady said: «Just give her that one. it’s the same order».
Anyways, some of the employees there made me feel as if I was wrong. I was not happy about that. All they could have said was «okay, sure. We’ll change it.» But NOOOO… They HAD TO PROVE A POINT. Not even an apology, very unprofessional. SMH.

I love that they have healthy options here and brown rice! I love their garlic ahi combo with hamburger steak. I get mine with brown rice and tossed salad. Their house dressing is pretty good too. They also have Hawaiian plate options here as well. This place caters too! Great spot for lunch or dinner when you’re in the Kapolei area.

Food was awesome… but the place is like L&L…un organized, everything is everywhere… hope they make the place much inviting. Nowadays people would like to go to a place that looks expensive with good quality of food but reasonable price… hope this will help improve the place… other than that _​_​

Stopped here after a hike up in Makakilo. The locations very convenient since all you had to do was drive down the road. The portions were more than sufficient. I picked the combination garlic chicken and hamburger steak plate with mac salad. (You have the choice of greens if you want). It tasted like a homemade hamburger patty and there were three pieces of boneless garlic chicken.

Good portion size even for the «mini» portion. My Chicken Katsu was more batter than chicken and was either kept too long in the oil or the oil needed to be changed because the exterior was a dark brown instead of golden. The chicken was all dark meat and dry. My wife’s Grilled Salmon Salad on the other hand was very good, so maybe I’ll try that next time.
Menu variety is excellent, service is quick and courteous, and the restaurant appears clean. I might give them another try when in the area, but there are better choices.

Hawaiia Asian Fusion. Great Poke! I also enjoyed the spice ahi. Everything we tried was excellent and we left very full and content. We will return soon.

It’s a bit out of the way for me but when we are in the area we do tend to stop by. I haven’t really ventured off the beaten path when it comes to my food choices, I normally just order the Spicy Garlic Chicken or Hamburger Steak. pretty simple and hard to mess up. The workers are always extremely friendly and I like that there’s Furukake at the condiment stations. Seems lame to others but it’s the simple things :)

Haven’t been here for a while… the Grilled Salmon salad was very delicious. The garlic fries are stupendous… well worth the $ 1.75 upgrade charge. The batter on the fish was disappointing… very heavy & no flavor. :(
We’ll definitely be back. Lots of variety & most items are very tasty.

This is my other half’s new favorite place. Prices are very decent and food is extremely flavorful! The menu is pretty wide spread. Everything I’ve tried I’ve liked.
The spicy garlic chicken, hamburger steak, furikaki salmon, and garlic fries are my top picks, for now. They also have ono fresh poke and deserts.
Plates are around $ 10-​$ 15 but it comes with a lot and the more expensive plates are only the ones that include fresh fish or Hawaiian food.
The staff are very friendly and offer you choices when you order your meal. I like that! This is a great place to bring the family.

Tried out this spot for the first time, and the food was amazing. I got the salmon and garlic chicken combo and it was soo good. I literally ate everything on my plate.
The reason I had to dock a star is cause of the service. The service at the register was good but no one cleaned the tables after the previous customers left? They weren’t busy and my friend and I waited and waited for the workers to come by and clean the previous customers dirty plates and cups but no one came. Finally after they brought the food to our table the lady asked if we were done? (Assuming the plates on the table were ours also?) And we told her it wasn’t ours and it’s been sitting here for the past 15 minutes while we waited for our food. The other empty tables still had dirty dishes on them too. Maybe we’re supposed to clean it ourselves? Idk I was confused lol.
I would probably come back when I’m in the Kapolei area but will do take out so I won’t have to deal with the seating issues lol.

I don’t usually come to kapolei but since I came down here tonight to do my taxes, I wanted to try somewhere that isn’t available near me (Aiea). So I chose en Fuego. Parking was plentiful. When I walked in, it was nice and clean. It’s not a real fancy place but it’s a little more upscale than your L n L. The trio combo came with garlic chicken, hamburger steak, and pork chop. It was pretty good. I also got a steak plate which was pretty good too. We got them both with all toss salad and I enjoyed their toss salad. It wasn’t your usual ice berg lettuce that you normally get at most places. Although the food was pretty good, I must say that the best part about going there was that I met a fellow Unilocaler (Michelle) for the first time, who happened to be right in front of me in line! It was so nice to meet you Michelle!

Seared Ahi, mochiko or garlic chicken, teri salmon = best combos! And I don’t know what’s in their salad dressing but it’s amazeballs!!! Highly recommended!

Of the things I have eaten here I really love the GARLIC CHICKEN and their SHICHIM AHI SEARED SALAD. If you love garlic and chicken it is garlicky and goes good with brown rice or white rice.
The shichimi ahi is a japanese spicy seasoning on top the ahi which gives it a little kick. The ahi is maybe 4 or 5 oz in size with a lot of greens. If you like to cut up your meat nd mix it in with the salad and their SWEET CHILI SALAD DRESSING it is delicious… at least for me. You can purchase the salad dressing as well if you wanted to put it on your own salads at home. I am considering to buy it the next time I go.
I have also tried their squid luau, spicy ahi and hamburger steak on different occasions which were pretty good.
Overall it’s a casual place to go whether its on your lunch break or to have lunch/​dinner with family or friends. There are TVs in the restaurant so you can watch and eat if you please, each time I have gone it was on ESPN. Prices are decent. I just wish the meat to salad ratio was equal. I felt I had more salad then I did meat.

GARLIC CHICKEN
This is the best garlic chicken on the west side. If you want to bring a dish for your potluck order this. Get the sauce on the side so the chicken will be crispy. When everyone is ready to it mix the sauce with the chicken. Wait to get the pat on the backs and the, «mmmmmm, yummy, it’s so good,» to come out.
My family has used this business to cater one of our children’s 1^st birthday and they did a good job. They were on time, friendly, and we also got to taste the food before we choice the menu.
Remember get the garlic chicken.

Had the Furikake Salmon and Ahi Wontons. Salmon had good flavor but a bit on the oily side because they pan fry it. If you’re watching your diet, you can ask them to broil it and they also have brown rice. Ahi Wontons were a good little
snack. Nice and crunchy crust and came with a wasabi shoyu. Very friendly service and the food comes out fairly quickly.

Slightly bad experience today. We came here because we bought a school fundraising card and there was a promotion to get a free drink with purchase of a plate. Well… apparently they didn’t agree to it and were misdirected in taking it out on me. Hey… I didn’t make the card… All I did was buy a fundraiser card and visit this establishment because of it. Customers are victims here!
All that after we circled round and round for parking and walked past all the dirty tables and warmer than outside temperature.

This place has one of the best hamburger steak I have ever tried. They don’t use just a hamburger patty they make it!!!
The garlic ahi is also very good.

Good food? Check.
Good prices? Check.
We came all the way to Kapolei to try some new food places that we wouldn’t be able to find in town and we were right! Food wise, this place was so very delicious. You can order your food either as a bento or a regular plate lunch. And you can even order combination plates where you get two entrees not much more in cost. The usual combo plates come just under $ 11 and the special seafood choices come out to $ 11.50.
I ordered the combination plate with mochiko chicken and seared garlic ahi and it was SO GOOD. The mochiko chicken was fried nice and brown and the sauce that came with the seared garlic ago was literally to die for. Although I would say that the raw part of the ahi did cut out a little stringy and stretchy. Plate lunches come with two scoops of rice and delicious Mac salad. For the food, I’d definitely come back.
So why did I take away one star though? Sadly when we walked in, we weren’t acknowledged and it even took us a while to actually get some help. While the food is delicious, service is still important to me as a consumer soooo, sorry En Fuego. But only 4 stars this time.

I’m not someone that gives out 1 star reviews lightly and I really do not like to because each new place we go to is a new adventure in my mind and I /​want/​to like each and every one of them but for this location I can’t think of a reason to rate above one star. I was initially thinking between 2 and 3 but after thinking about it as a whole I really could not bring myself to use either.
As usual, I will be breaking this review down into categories.
Dining Room: I can tell that the staff cleans the tables and chairs but other details have fallen through horribly, the bottom of the front doors and the groove they close into are covered in/​filled with dirt and shoe debris, 3 light units are burned out with each unit carrying 3 lights. The dining room is also connected to some sort of behind the counter kitchen extension looking thing.
Staff: The girls we spoke to were nice, all smiles and we remained hopeful for good food.
Food: I’m going to break this down by item, the food here was the main reason for my one star review.
Bacon Cheeseburger (Pictured) (Cold): The bacon on this wasn’t incorporated very well at all and basically fell out of the burger as I tried to eat it. Rather than being laid on the patty it was chopped into pieces and fried then placed on top. The cheese on the burger wasn’t melted either, not entirely.
Fries (Pictured) (Cold): These were disgusting, not only did they come to us cold like the burger but they tasted bad, I don’t know if the oil in the fryer is old or if they are a frozen product but that is a taste I never want to experience again.
Chicken Katsu (Pictured) (Cold): Regular chicken Katsu, if you’ve had chicken Katsu anywhere else on the island it’s pretty much the same but it was served cold, which is not an improvement to an already popular island favorite.
Spicy Garlic Chicken (Pictured) (Cold): I have to say that this was pretty good, but it was also served cold so it gets a fail from me.
Pork Chop (Pictured) (Cold): I would describe this item as a bit dry but tolerable
Hamburger Steak (Pictured): Out of everything served this was the only thing to come to us in temperature and that was just barely, it was warmer than everything else but wasn’t of-​the-​line hot.
Rice (COLD!!!): I don’t know how you serve cold rice, I just don’t.. .I mean it’s a rice cooker it keeps the rice warm.. .
Let me explain something real fast now that the review is over. I have never been to a restaurant that has served me cold food before. From classy places like Hy’s steak house all the way down to run down holes in the wall like Dong Yang Inn and all the Mom and Pop stores, chain restaurants and fast food joints in between I have /​never/​been served cold food.. . so to get just over $ 30 worth of it tanked their review prospects.
I don’t know if it was food that was sitting and they just plated it or if it was just sitting on the pass forever.. .heck it could have been a combination of the 2, but to wrap it up.…Cold food and the nastiest fries ever to grace my gob hole have earned «En Fuego Grill & Catering my one star review.