Don Quijote

This is usually our ‘go to’ grocery store but with all of the construction on Kamehameha Hwy, I have been going to the closest store that’s near home.
We were in pearl city, so decided to go to Don Quijote. We always love the great prices, pretty good deli and produce departments.
Tonight was a big customer service disappointment.
At checkout, my husband was bagging our items in our recycled bags, but then the actual bagger took over. I handed him the insulated bag as he started to grab the milk and chicken.
When I got home, I opened the insulated bag and found my milk sidewards, lying down. Are you kidding me? My bag was completely soaked along with whatever was in the bag. Not only that, but it leaked all over my trunk! Great!
I called the store and told them about it. Nothing they could really do. The person who answered the phone was very apologetic.
I scolded my husband and told him, next time, just bag our stuffs. Don’t let anyone take over. :-(

Looking for Japanese goodies? Local favorites? How about a great alcohol selection and cheap seafood? Oh you have to come check out Don Quiote. The name has changed over the years: the earliest I remember is Holday Mart, then it was Daie, and for the last however long Don Quiote. It’s still got a lot of the same things from my childhood.
Japanese candies were always my favorite little goodies from here. Now I also come here for some fishing supplies when I don’t have time to run to my local tackle shops and I still get a good deal for what I need. Can’t forget picking up some bakery items and fresh Japanese style locally baked bread for sandwiches.
Since the state has banned non-​reusable bags you’ll have to bring your own or pay $ 0.10 a bag when you check out. They don’t offer any paper or free bags, I made the mistake of saying I didn’t want to purchase a bag the first week it was a law and ended up having to carry my 6 items out. It’s inexpensive but just bring your own.
Thinking I’ll be here again in a few days for some poke and my usual purchase (Japanese car air fresheners) they make the best smelling ones

don Quijote (both in Japan and Hawaii) are well-​stocked with all those various things for the home that you expect to see such as kitchen appliances, various Japanese brand foods, an items you expect to find in the hundred yen stores. The prices as well as the service from the employees are great.
What keeps me from giving the fifth star for this location, is the layout of the store. For some reason, Don Quijote has two different locations for vinegar, pastas, and various condiment sauces. It would seem that it would be better to keep all the like items together rather than separating them by country of origin or region of origin. Using the vinegar example, I find Heinz vinegar in one I’ll and then get to the Japanese type vinegar such as rice vinegar I have to go to or three hours over to get to that.
One other item of note, it seems that the store has multiple roof leaks. Some of them, are in the middle of Aisles. Besides aesthetics, this is a safety issue. Recommend a repair this as soon as possible.
Bottom line, I really love the store. They just have a couple modifications to make in order to make this the best store on the island.

When I was young I used to shop here with my family. I can honestly say that throughout the years although the general outlook of the store has changed its still pretty much the same. I think since it became Don Q. nothing has been renovated.
I went there a couple of weeks ago. It had been raining really hard for a couple of days. When I got into Don Q I could tell that the insiders knew it was raining. In most store if it rains and there’s a leak usually they would put a bucket down to catch the water. Not here! Their leaks are too big for buckets. They have at least 5 boxes with trash bags in them to catch the water in various areas around the store. Various… as in more than 1. The ceiling is either brown with water damage or gone. Those square tile roof things… a LOT of those aren’t there.
I went in yesterday (12÷12÷15). Although it was not raining I did see a spot with boxes with trash bags with water in them. Another thing I noticed is that the squares on the ceiling are still missing. I thought maybe they moved it but no, they’re actually missing them. I also noticed an exit door with brooms and dust pans in front of it. I may be nit-​picking here but that’s a safety hazard for shoppers and employees.
It seems to me that no ones seems to care about the upkeep of this store. I do enjoy shopping here. The people are nice, the prices or ok and they usually have a fairly good selection. But after what I’ve seen… I don’t thing I want to have rain water filtered with roof tiles on my fruits or any of my food really.
If there is someone important reading this, please fix your store! It is falling apart.

This shop is not quite as organized as the Ala Moana one. Some of their items that I looked at had no matching price. In fact, a whole bunch of arare or rice crackers had the wrong price tags all in a row! So if you’re not careful, you’ll be charged much more than you bargained for.

If you don’t have a Marukai membership, this is the place to come for your packaged Japanese food cravings & needs!
Having friends on the mainland, I came here to get some local snacks and some Japanese comfort foods. The store is pretty difficult to find things in so I found myself walking around looking at every aisle description trying to find what I needed! I couldn’t find where the chazuke packets were so I asked a worker. He told me he didn’t know and continued working. I walked away because it didn’t seem like he was going to ask anyone else for help or help me look. A couple minutes later he found me and told me what aisle they were in. So customer service, eh questionable…
I got the Japanese food products I needed and was looking for the Diamond Bakery section because I saw online they had a bunch of new flavors of crackers! I was sooo excited when I saw they had EVERY flavor in stock! I got Coconut & Kona Coffee Cream crackers and Furikake & Sweet Chili soda crackers. There’s a bunch of other flavors but I wanted the local flavor ones! I was also pleasantly surprised to see the crackers had $ 0.25 instant savings stickers so I saved a little over a dollar! Yay!!!
This is now not only my go-​to place for Japanese foods but Diamond Bakery crackers too!

Usually Don Quijote in Pearl City is ok, but today they were really bad:
Due to the rain, there were boxes lined with garbage bags placed in different areas of the store. Seems like the building is breaking down, and had a lot of leaks on the roof. But what I was a little disappointed of was that some of the refrigerated foods were not accessible. Either they are renovating or moving things around.
A 3 stars because compared to the other DQs, they are not as clean, and the produce aren’t as fresh. Their hot foods looked good and is geared toward the japanese dishes, but their hot meats were pre-​packed and not as fresh as the Waipahu DQ. I tried the turkey tail, and it was smothered with sauce which tasted powdery and not mixed well, which also made the meat mushy, that I couldn’t eat it and threw most of it away.
Other than the above, overall, they are a convenient stop over coming from town to the leeward side and have asian products and local produce that are a little cheaper than the other grocery stores. Lots of parking, and next to Foodland, as well as CVS and other stores downstairs. If you forget your bag, they charge 10 cents for a plastic bag, or you can just pack them back in your cart as is.

Never buying fresh meat from here ever again. Not only is there meat department pretty unsanitary looking… i just opened the boneless skins less chicken breasts I bought yesterday and got a whiff of the most DISGUSTING smell ever. It wasn’t even a rotten chicken smell it was worse and I can’t find a word to describe it.
Grossed out doesn’t even come close to how I feel right now… the fact that I can’t recognize the smell makes this so much worse.
This store is really only good for their Asian items…

Most people think of don quiote for grocery shopping. We come here for the hot food section. This location has premade bentos and a plate lunch section in the back. They always have several entrée option and the food is good. You can tell the food is good and reasonably priced when there’s always a long line. And this place always has a long line. They have different prices depending on number of entrée choices. Comes with rice and a side. They also offer their entrees ala carte. The premade bentos are really good also. Many different selection of bentos. From katsu to butterfish. If you haven’t tried it already, you should.

Never ever ever would I have thought that my favorite play ‘Man of LaMancha’ aka don Quixote would be this greatest place on earth all purpose store. From hello kitty sweatbAnds to gigantic cans of Mexican hominy! Yup, a little of everythg.
Whenever I’m shopping w my mom I realize that we get a few treats. …aka mochi!!! It’s our little treat. Azuki beans and peanut butter! Game on! Game on…
Thank you for being that aMazing store — for the ones that cannot find that specific type of Goya beans for a yuppified version of pastelles stew!

I’m torn and confused about this particular Don Quijote. It seems old, outdated and unorganized… But yet it’s got all the great things Don Quijote usually has.
And this is what makes this location suck compared to the Waipahu one, which I love:
–Small selections of everything. Compared to the Waipahu one the aisles seem smaller with less stuff.
–No tater tots in the freezer section??? Only that fancy lame ‘potato puff’ organic brand crap.
— Fish/​seafood selection is small.
–Local produce bins are also smaller than the Waipahu one. There was only green beans, eggplant, onions, okra and tomatoes.
–No Red Bull freezer near the cashiers!!!
–Grouchy miserable Japanese old lady cashier that looked like she hated her job.
–Parking is okay here but there’s rarely any cart return areas near the Foodland side so I guess people just leave their carts everywhere.
Ah well… I better get used to this location…

This place is great! Whenever you want to cook some Asian food at home, this place will hook you up with all of the ingredients. We usually get our noodles and sushi ingredients from here. I never knew I would see so many frozen dumplings variation! YUM! Sometimes things are pricey, but they do have sales. This shopping center also has a bank inside the store, a liquor section, automotive section, electronics and more. It is like the more you walk, the more things you find. It is almost like the Asian version of Walmart! Best of all, it is in a strip mall with many other places so after you are done with your shopping you can get food or whatever you may need. I do have to say that one time we tried their bento lunch plates and it was not good. But overall this is a neat place to shop!

If you frequent this establishment, or plan to, there are 3 things worth mentioning.
1. It’s not about the price, with exception to point #2. They’ll have specials here and there, but on average you’re just as lucky to find deals elsewhere.
2. Clearance produce. Green shelf off to the side away from the fruits. Just today I needed ingredients for a soup, limes are such a rip. Found enough for multiple servings for 1.49. Same story with my jalapeño peppers. Walked out with my missing components and a 4.08 receipt (garlic and an onion).
3. Produce dept. workers are nice AF. Always cheerful and eager to help.

I always go to Don Quijote when I want tofu. There is almost always some brand or other on sale and even their regular prices tend to be cheaper than other markets. Their produce is of varying freshness so be sure to check what you’re buying. When they have a cheap in-​store special, they might be trying to clear out something from last week to make room for the coming advertisement. But if you can use the produce right away, everyone wins. One of the big draws, of course, is the large selection of Japanese groceries at reasonable prices. Like the tofu, even when not on sale, many items like furikake and ramen are cheaper here than at the neighboring Foodland. Another big plus for the store is that there is a post office contract station at the back. Much shorter lines than at the typical post office.

After leaving my message on Don Quijote’s contact me link, Liza from their PR department reached out to me in response to my incident. I spoke with Liza today, and she was sincere in her apologies and promised to take action in the form of retraining for the entire group. My intent of speaking out was to insure that this type of recklessness and unprofessional behavior was corrected. Of course the individual involved should be reprimanded, we all have off days and I fully sympathize with the employee, however safety and excellent customer service should be the goal of any successful business. I thank Liza for being an attentive listener and taking swift action to correct the problem.

Very similar to the location in town, I like this location as the parking lots is larger, and despite sharing the lot with Pizza Hut, the bowling alley and Foodland, you’ll likely find a stall without having to drive around. Clientele here is more locals than tourists but I’m fine with that. The selection is fairly good here and pretty similar to the other location. I noticed near the bathroom there is a postal office although it was closed when I was there. The checkout area is a bit weird for my liking but that’s just nitpicking.
Only real negative is the bathroom. It’s been hit and miss but this most recent time it smelled horrible and I couldn’t help but gag at the smell. It wasn’t even a #2. It was #1! Yikes :(
A solid 3.5 stars for me, but because the parking here is better than in town, I’m rounding up to 4 stars.

This is one of 3 Don Quijotes on Island. It is also, for the Leeward, Central, and North Shore sides, the only one which is close enough and sells a LOT of Japanese food and other items. If you want to travel further East into HNL, you will find Marukai and another Don Quijote which both sell similar things. This one is closer.
We went in for Carrots for New Year’s Eve and ended up with a cart full of goodies. From sales on Christmas gift sets and tea selection to more veggies than you can shake a stick at and a decent drink selection. I think the Waipahu Don Quijote has a lot better selection of drinks, though what’s the difference, right?
This is THE Don Quijote to go to for your daily and Japanese needs on our side of the Island. Actually… there is no other place on these sides of the Island for these items! Parking is a hassle, though still worth the trip.

Located in the pearl city shopping center, next to foodland and McDonald above Longs drug store. This use to be the old Diae store.
The store looks outdated but nonetheless still love coming here. They have your griceries, electronics, liquor, deli, poke station, and even souvenirs for tourists or out of town family or guests. I can stay here for hours.
They have other things you would never find at your regular grocery store. Many oriental food products and home décor. Staff friendly and helpful, no complaints from me. If you come Chinese New Year they have that lucky Dragon to give you luck thru out the year!

I love to shop at Don Q. However I noticed many buckets and cardboard boxes on almost every aisle to my recent visit. I happened to look up to the ceiling and man it’s not a pretty picture up their. Many water stains are on the ceiling. Okay, Don Q., you need some kind of renovation of some sort. It was a challenge for me to navigate through buckets and cardboard boxes through the aisle. Hopefully it doesn’t rain for awhile. I might have to bring an umbrella next time.

This is by far the cleanest location!
There is ample parking and a good, affordable selection of foods & goods.
The «Japanese» goods section isn’t as large as the honolulu location but it suffices my Asian fix.
Only once have a ever bought string cheese here that was «expired» and black/​green in color but customer service was helpful in allowing me to exchange the cheese I had just bought the previous day — with the receipt.
Other than that, this is my favorite grocery location!