Hawaiian Drive Inn

Great service and good food! Place looks a bit run down, but don’t let that stop you from ordering. Portions are good enough for 2 people. My favorite is the garlic shrimp and the short ribs. Parking is a bit of a pain because is a busy commercial area. but I recommend

I order the chicken katsu plate. A minute later, Alan says «Okay!» from the counter and hands me the bag.
I get my food and sit down at a big table of wood formica under glass. A couple tables over, someone says «You can’t have Star Wars without Jar Jar Binks.»
The chicken katsu comes with two side dishes: white rice and macaroni salad, plus gravy. That’s right, both side dishes are starch, one with mayonnaise. This is REAL Hawaiian food. Lili’uokalani wouldn’t recognize it, but this is real American postwar middle-​class Hawaiian food.
The Jar Jar guy says that only immigrants are ever successful in America. The person sitting across from him says that everyone born here is complacent due to the success of their parents, so they never make anything of themselves. They are both immigrants, somewhere around age 20. The Jar Jar guy says that unlike immigrants, people born here lack strong role models.
The Spam™ musubi is quite good! Much better than the katsu, I think. It’s Spam™ on top of rice, wrapped in nori. A nice snack, surprisingly flavorful, only $ 1.80.
Now the Jar Jar guy (whose English is quite good) is saying that school wastes the best years of your life.
If you miss Hawaii, you must come here.

Cheap prices are the only pluses I see here. Service is definitely lacking where the staff see’s you more of a hindrance than a potential returning customer. Makes me sure feel like i’m not welcome and likely not to come back now.
Ordered Loco Moco and substituted the rice with the macaroni mix. Brought the food home and reheated it just in case. Burger patties were dry and lacked real taste. The macaroni was excessively lathered in butter and I couldn’t bear eating the whole thing without straining most of it out.
After finishing the hamburger meat I started to feel sick in my stomach. I feel all my energy sapped out of me and this lasted until the next morning. Lesson learned don’t order hamburger meat here or the macaroni.

I liked the taste of the food. It was good! The only thing that made me feel uncomfortable was that they allowed a dog to enter into the restaurant. I think that’s kind of gross. Wished the cashier told the man to walk the dog outside but it seemed like he was ok with it. Idk if this is allowed by the health department or to what extent is it allowed. Don’t think I’ll go back.

Food is decent. The chicken katsu mini plate always hits the spot when I’m starving. I always call for pickup and my food is usually ready within 10 minutes.

I have been coming here ever since it opened and I feel that the quality of the food has gone down a bit. My go to dish is the chicken katsu and this dish has been hit or miss for me. Sometimes it is really tasty other times I am left with a weird after taste. I have ordered the loco moco before as well a few times and I have never been satisfied with the dish. Every time I’ve ordered it, it tastes like the meat they used was left over old meat. The macaroni salad seems to lack flavor as well and spam musubis are mediocre. What is great about this place though is that your money goes a long way because of the large portions they give. The food here is not bad but not amazing. It is definitely a chicken katsu quick fix for me.

This place has really good food and is also pretty cheap. The atmosphere is not great and the tables are a little sticky, but well worth it for the food. Getting the special was a smart move and one meal is basically a perfect quantity of food for one person.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Hawaiian drive in l. I use to go to the high school only a few blocks away and this would be the spot to stop by and get a yummy meal.
The meals are reasonably priced, 5.50 for most mini plates, and 7.95 for the regular plate. I usually come to eat at the establishment, but this time I can’t advise that you come in to eat. Better that you order to go if you live in the neighborhood and eat at home, or if you aren’t from the neighborhood eat at one of the parks in this neighborhood. The reasoning is that for the past 8 years every time I eat there, the tables smell like onion. Today several table had soy sauce on it and the staff wasn’t the friendliest.
Get the food just don’t eat at the establishment. I would have given a 4 or five star if it didn’t continue to smell like a freaking onion. I’m all about supporting local businesses, but clean the place a little guys.

Large portions and not expensive. I love the mac soooo much so I go all mac. Chicken katsu is great, the combo is good too. Warning: you will feel gross after eating a plate of this goodness

Soooo… This is the second restaurant that has done this. I called 15 minutes ago for an order to be picked up. I have two sons and a hungry husband so I wanted to make dinner as smooth as possible. When I came to pick up my order it hadn’t even been started. It’s frustrating when you plan ahead but end up still waiting for your order.

Really good food!!! Large portions and the Staff is friendly! And it’s very affordable!

I like the food but people that work there are not very friendly, actually they are rude! and dont seem to want to learn or teach good customer service skills! Major downfall thhere is no no no appreciation!!! Thats a no no in my book! cash only sucks too!

I come here whenever there isn’t much food at home or when my dad and I need to make a quick stop to eat something. I usually place my order over the phone so when I get there i can just pay. However there have been times where I order on the phone and until I get there they start to make my food. The place is pretty neat and the food is good, especially the chicken katsu. I always choose to get the smaller version of chicken katsu because the normal sized is too big for me to eat it all. Overall it’s a pretty good place.

Place to go for to-​go food with reasonable price. Of course they have tables if you prefer to dine in.
Came here with my brothers and i couple weeks ago for pre-​dinner before the wedding reception since we knew the dinner course part will take a while to come out. Plus this place was close to the restaurant where the wedding reception
We order 3 mushubi and plate combo of chicken katsu, chicken teriyaki, and substitute one of the chicken with bbq short ribs. Mushubi had the right thickness of the rice where it didnt break apart when bite it. Right amount of flavor. I like that it wasnt too salty and too sweet. The plate combo was also good. Good portion of food for the price it was worth. Average flavor but it was good enough to eat
Luckily we came at the time when this place wasnt too busy so we were to get our food within 10 minutes.

I ordered for a mini plate and they didn’t add any gravy plus they also put the boxed upside down.

Food was cold, tables were dirty, and the teriyaki beef was really poorly made.
Don’t think I’ll be eating here again

I used to go here because it is right up the street from my house, and it was the least sketchiest place on this street. But it isn’t all that great. I would just go here because its was the place to go if you’re lazy. If I didn’t live nearby, I wouldn’t go. And that picture of a bug in the rice just grossed me out and I probably will never go back. Ew!

Solid place to grab some food whenever I have no idea what I want to eat and it’s during the awkward hours between lunch and dinner and what I prefer to call ‘dunch’.
Most if their selections is standard to any other Hawaiian Drive In you’ve ever been to. Chicken Katsu, BBQ Shirt Ribs, Hamburger Steak and the ever so prevalent Loco Moco. All the mini and regular plate comes with cold macaroni salad which is little more than mayonnaise, macaroni and some carrots.
The Teriyaki Steak is really chewy and hard to rip apart and their plastic knife doesn’t do anything to remedy this. The Chicken Katsu is a favorite of mine with enough meat to be really satisfying, but sometimes they can skimp on the meat.
Overall, this is a great place to grab a cheap bite of food for around five bucks.

Chicken teriyaki and short rib combo is awesome
Macaroni is so delicious
$ 6.5 only– absolutely wonderful
Staff are very friendly too

Chicken Katsu never disappoints. Macaroni salad + sriracha sauce is the BOMB.
Been coming here since my childhood and it still tastes just as good.
Small little place in the Portola, but if I had to spend $ 5 on food; this would be the place.