HC Drive Inn

I ate here months ago with a coworker and it was good, decided to bring hubby here for a quick bite. It was not the same at all. Sure the lady at the counter has the personality of a wet mop but when I’m doing plate lunch, sit your self dining I’m not expecting Vanna White. The dining area hasn’t changed, seats about 50, very rustic and because they keep the front door open you get a fly or two zipping around, again I came for the food not the sticky table.
Ok the food, yikes. What happened? I had the roast pork/​chicken katsu combo, nice portion of food don’t get me wrong but the salad is more mayo then anything else, the pork while tender had no flavor and gravy was like water the katsu was nice and crispy but the dipping sauce was super vinegary I couldn’t even dip it had to use the watery pork gravy as a substitute.
Hubby tried the kalbi, mandoo and steak combo, again good portion kalbi tasted like most places so no problem there, mandoo looked good and was cooked well but the dipping sauce was more onions then sauce, the inside appeared to be bagged chop suey mix, we weren’t asked how he wanted his steak so we figured they would go with the standard medium well cook, nope it was well done to the point of being like jerky, the Griswold christmas turkey was juicier.
Don’t know what went wrong after my last visit here but after today there won’t be another one.
Oh and the staff were arguing in the back.

HC has some Nay-​Sayers on here, but a lot of it has to do with the dining area and customer service. I can’t say I don’t agree with some of the cons of this place, but overall I give this place four stars. Here’s why:
This place offers almost every type of plate you can think of! I think the menu at HC is arguably better than L&L, and in terms of combination plate lunches, HC dominates!
The couple of times I’ve eaten inside HC was a good experience. Tables and seats aren’t in the best condition, but there were plenty of clean tables to sit at.
I’ve never had trouble with wrong orders or other customer service issues, and I’ve ordered up to 9 plates for my workmates a fair few times from here!
They are really good with phone orders! I highly recommend calling your order in and when you get there, your food will pretty much be right there waiting for you!
The food here has been consistently good in my opinion.
So, this place is a bit rough around the edges, but give them a chance and I think you’ll be happy with your meal.

Hamburger steak, teri chicken, side order of vegetable lumpia… mmmm! Hearty portions are given! It’s a hole-​in-​the-​wall.

Considered stopping here, read all the bad reviews and since no one addressed any of them — decided to skip it. Bummer.

First time… annnd last time. 1 star because the mac salad was decent after adding some salt and pepper. I ordered the meat-​jun plate. Meat-​jun was over cooked so it was tough to chew. The meat-​jun sauce was a weird mix I can’t really describe other than that it tasted bland with a dash of Cheyenne pepper. Wth? Save your $ 8.99 and go to Soon’s Korean BBQ in Salt Lake. Or even Peppa’s Korean BBQ would be better than this place. Smh.

I would’ve given this place 5 stars years ago, because the food & service was great. But not nowadays, as it has changed. The cashier/​worker had a very unpleasant attitude to every customer that came by, the tables and place was filthy & not clean. Instead of her cleaning it, she gives you a rag to do it yourself. Smh. Food came out, looked decent, but was over cooked & no flavor, and Mac salad tasted only of mayo & rice was dry. Sad to see an old Waipahu business come to this & hopefully they fix things, or they’ll only be selling cigarettes & not food.

So, this was the first breakfast place my then boyfriend now husband took me to on the island. I loved the corned beef and always wanted to come back. Well, today is that day (9 years later). I ordered my food and asked the woman taking the order a question about a side and she smiled, rolled her eyes at me and asked someone the answer, then told me the answer. Her initial interaction wasn’t pleasant so it started out all bad for me. Then, I asked for over hard eggs for all the orders and they were all sunny side up. Then another lady serving was yelling at a customer about what she orders. Customer said she didn’t get what she asked for and the older lady working was arguing with her, yelling. Plus I waited over 30 minutes for my order. So, rude service, long wait and messed up order. Yeah, I talked my husband into driving here after reminiscing… I won’t be coming back.

I’ve read some pretty stupid things on Unilocal before but Jay A. from Fullerton, CA takes the cake. Did you read his review? It’s a bad sign when the customers of a restaurant are fat? Jay, do me a favor and STAY IN CALIFORNIA!!!

It’s ok but check your orders most times wrong especially if you order more than one plate, fast service it’s pretty good the food that is, for the English they really don’t get it right on the third time it takes a few times before they get it all in all wish they would allow six cause I would have give one more, oh one stop shop, food, drinks, smokes lighters… rolling papers for the huge bag of tobacco …

I used to frequent here but what happened in the past 2 years? Used to be not bad food with a friendly cashier at the front. But I went there last week I stood at the window and looked in. The lady and the man looked at me but went back to what they were doing. I stand and stare and wait. The lady and man inside just look at me. Long story short, all the staring and stink eye made me lose my appetite so I left. HC Drive Inn DOES NOT want your business! I will never go back here and I shared with co-​workers, not surprisingly, others experienced the same thing. Go figure.

OK. This place is NOT for the trendy, style-​conscious, want it to look nice types. HC is for real locals that understand that the best plate lunch usually comes out of the ugliest spots. Portions huge — get a mini. Mac salad (if you eat there) comes out ice cold and is ono! Steak plates are awesome along with all the regular BBQ items. It’s not a place for katsu. Stick with the Hawaiian BBQ-​style plates and you’re all good. Best portions and quality for the price. There aren’t many of these spots still around. So go support if you know what I’m talking about. Similar to Keneke’s in Waimanalo, minus all the Bible verses :-) — both are outstanding for what they are and they’re not pretending or even trying to pretend to be what they aren’t.

Came here with my friends to experience if the food is really «on-​point», place looks kind of ghetto with the bars inside the glass, but that’s a great boss! Anyways, tried the HC special & it’s pretty damn good compared to other places I would «treat» myself too.
There is a lot of parking, but the stalls are a little right & the roads around it isn’t wide either, I would suggest driving slow.
The employees are a little hard to understand, but it’s not any worse than any McDonald’s I been too.
I’m definitely coming back to this place especially since I live on the west side.

I would give this place zero stars but they make delicious ADOBO FRIED RICE! It’s all I order here.
The location is not the greatest and the people around here well… this guy tried to sell me some MK shoes while I was ordering LOL. The cleanliness is questionable too. I probably wouldn’t come around here after sun down.

Yes, i’ve eaten at this place. I ordered the beef curry. I would have to say they are very generous as far as the portion sizes go. I mean I barely made it to the table the plate was so heavy. The beef curry had lots of meat in it too. The funny thing is that they have a jumbo skill crane game that is empty, yet they keep the machine. Weird.
Anyway, the food is good, but the staff needs to focus more one keeping the dining room tables clean. I mean all the tables were littered with food and no one wiped the table clean. Also, they have a side window where they also do business. They sell cigarettes and other things, which kind of attracts some shady looking people. Not the kind of place I would come to eat at during the night.

Customer service is the worst on the island dont speak well english are rude and the place is dirty they never wipe the tables food is OK…

The service was friendly, but the food was horrible.
My mom got a hamburger deluxe and the patty was burnt on both sides, they shouldn’t have even allowed that to leave the kitchen.
I ordered a medium rare steak and it was really well done.
The yakisoba was super oily and bland.
We also got two garlic shrimp plates, and the garlic had that bite like it was burnt. They also advertised it as north shore shrimp truck which was not even close to that quality.
I don’t think they have any pride in the food they are serving and would not go there again.

Should of seen all of the bad signs:
1. Less than 10 Unilocal reviews
2. The place was dirty
3. All the customers were plump
This place should be called AC dive in not drive in.
I ordered the BBQ pork. It had more fat than meat. Threw away most of it. Macaroni was swimming in mayo. Unless you want diabetes don’t go to this place.

So went here to pick up some bentos for the kids which were $ 5.50 for choice of rice or fried noodles, hot dog, spam and chopped steak… it was okay except for my kids didn’t like the hot dog which looked like it was refried polish that was sitting for days!
My husband and i both got the saimin combo which was fried noodles and bbq chicken for $ 7.50, the bbq chicken was good except for the fried noodles, very oily and basically was just noodles harldy any garnish except for like 3 sliced pcs of fish cake and maybe 5 pcs of green onion and that was it. I was so looking forward to eating it but after that never again!

After a long days work and coming back from a evening class in Pearl Harbor my stomach gave me the signal it was hungry. Realizing it was already after 8 and most of the good local restaurants are now or about to be closed by the time I get there I think I spent a good 15 minutes driving around Waipahu. I could always go to McDonald’s or Zippys but I’ve been there way to many times and I always like to try something different and places that are one of a kind and local, non of that franchise crap that I could get any where else in the world.
This place is located along Farrington, you can’t miss this place without not noticing their gigantic sign with the name of their restaurant. You can access the parking lot only through Leokane St. and there is plenty of parking available.
You can either order from the front or inside. They have plenty of selections to choose from and if your one of those people who likes to see pictures of the food they have that posted all over their take out window and inside on the walls.
I ordered their Chicken Katsu curry to go. Wait time took around 7 minutes. The price is reasonable and the portion size is plenty. The chicken katsu is really good and it taste even better if you add the sauce, their macaroni salad and curry is OK I was only able to eat half of it and save the rest for later.
This place is not too bad its almost like the cousin restaurant to L&L but with its own style.
Unilocal 365 Challenge — #013/​365

I come here on occasion for breakfast which is a pretty decent deal and pretty much get the standard Portuguese sausage and eggs what can you say unless it is over cooked or undercooked it usually is standard goodness.
Lunch is great here and the plates are decently piled with what every you order nothing extra special than a good decent plate lunch but that to me is a good thing, if I’m not complaining it’s all good.
Parking is pretty decent though it gets crowded sometimes and once in a while there is somebody who thinks they are some kind of VIP and makes their own parking but usually not problem finding one
Lots of seating so that’s never a problem.