Hilo Lunch Shop

This place is a local favorite. It’s like a deli customized with Hawaii’s Japanese favorite foods(Okazuya style). A lot of people get a meal or a quick bite to eat because the prices are so affordable versus a traditional restaurant. The food is made daily hot and fresh. And just to note, there’s a minimal amount of seating. So take out is recommended. There’s lots of free parking, and you might want to Google map this place because it’s on a side street.

The food here is OK. Nothing to write home about. UPDATE: 5.24.24 got food from here today with the hopes of it being better from the last time BUT What a disappointment it was. The sweet potato tempura was hard and crunchy, it was cooked just enough for then batter to be fried up but the potato was raw🫤 The hash patties were burnt so i scraped off the burnt parts, their meat jun has no taste. Why do you even charge so much for food that isn't made with QUALITY anymore. Once upon a time, places like these were good, now even that like everything else here are a thing of the past. Do yourself a favor and go elsewhere. Never going here again

A very small local Japanese restaurant. Love their food! Very traditional old school Japanese food! Price is unbeatable! Very very cheap, nothing is more than $3 on the menu. Most of the food is $1-2! Love their fish cake, fried fish and fried chicken! A lot of local people come here to buy food, not a lot of tourists. Although food is a bit salty, you can order more rice that will balance out. Highly recommend!

The quintessential Hilo bento box lunch shop sits right across the famous Edith Kanaka'ole Stadium. When I danced in the Merrie Monarch Hula Festival, I have memories of scurrying across the street to get bentos to recharge the body for the dance, and this Hilo Lunch Shop was ready for all the hungry 'ōlapa with premade bentos, I was so thankful. On a recent visit with my dad and brother I ordered shrimp tempura and maki sushi and corn beef hash parties and nishime that was broke da mouth! We stood around in a circle eating our bentos while discussing the Hilo politics and chicken feed. The cashier and the servers at Hilo Lunch Shop are so sweet and kind, too, they'll help you if you don't know what to order!

An absolutely wonderful place for Okazuya style food. They have an awesome selection to please everyone in the family, group or party! I have been coming here over 30 years and have always been pleased by the quality of their food! Whether Catering for a Party, or grabbing a meal to share at the Park or Beach, the Hilo Lunch Shop is an incredible Choice!

This place was awesome definitely one of me favorite, it’s easy to share the food and great for long days on the road.

I love Hilo lunch shop, they are the best okazuya shop on the island. I can't really say there's anything that I've had that I didn't like, and I've tried more than half of what they have on their menu. My favorite is the maki sushi, nori chicken, and hash. I'd recommend getting their dipping sauce as well, which is usually included at the end (Get extra sauce, it tastes good on a bunch of their food items). I feel like there's always a line, so be prepared for that. The wait can be 15-20 minutes long at times before they take your order. There's not a whole lot of space for the people in line, so it gets a little cramped in there. And there is no seating, so be prepared to take your food to go. I haven't perfected the perfect time to show up. If you go too early, sometimes not all the food is made. If you go too late, they do run out of food quickly. I've heard the best is to call in your order so you can hopefully get everything you're trying to order.

Have come here since I was a kid. Best place for bento style food for field trips, beach trips, picnics, or just plain old bfast. I go every time I visit home and get the works for a reasonable price. Got my husband into it and now he looks forward to it whenever he's visiting with me. :) Because of the price, we always get a lot to take home to share with my grandparents. It's best fresh but still delicious as leftovers. I'm hungry all over again. Lol.

The place to go for locals - so you know it's good. Go early because they say they are open til 1:00 - but once they run out of stuff, they are out. You can order a bento or a box of items. Everything is "to go". They pack chopsticks or forks and napkins for you. Be prepared to wait in line. It goes pretty quickly. I could tell I wasn't a local because they were all there in their zoris. Service is efficient and nice. You order at the counter as they fill your box. We had 7 pieces of chicken, 6 pieces of sushi and macaroni salad for a total of $23. We ate it for lunch and dinner. You can't beat it! I would call to make sure they are open, because they close for catering done days. We got lucky!

I love a good okazuya for breakfast! Decided to try this place out during my trip to Hilo. As expected, wait times were a bit long. But that's how you know it's a pretty popular joint! I got a bit of everything in my takeout box including the nori chicken, ogo salad, bean sprouts, maki, spam Musubi, shoyu hotdog, tempura fish cake & corned beef hash. Everything was amazing. We'll definitely come check it out again when I'm back on island.

Time to update my review of da world FAMOUS - Hilo Lunch Shop in sleepy Hilo town. Whenever I eat okazuya, I can't but help to think about my Yelp buddy - Bruddah Dan O., as he is da KING of okazuya! Lol! While working in Hilo two weeks ago, I made it appoint to stop by one of my old favorite stomping grounds, as you never can go wrong by coming to the Hilo Lunch Shop. The okazuya selection is pretty immense, and while I was waiting in that long line to place my food order, one can just go nuts thinking about what to order when you see all that deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelicous food! At the end, I ended up getting - 1. Korean Chicken 2. Egg Omlet or Egg Foo Young 3. Nori Chicken (I got 2 pieces) 4. Shrimp Tempura (I got 2 pieces) 5. Vegetable Tempura 6. Nori Musubi Outstanding prices for all this food, as it was just $12.00 bucks & some change. Can we say - DEALAGES Yo!!!! Parking is easy, as there is a pretty large private parking lot. There is no inside or outside seating at this place. It's basically a grab & go kinda joint. A very POPULAR eatery, as da locals really dig it! If you like ono kine GRINDZ, this is definitely a place you should check out!

Long time Hilo establishment conveniently located right off the main road. One of my "gotta go stops" in Hilo. Served okazuya style. My favorites are the shrimp tempura and sweet potato tempura (which I bought the 3 last ones). They run out of the top items pretty quick and the line can be long (luckily they move the line efficiently so it goes quick). Their tempura batter is a bit on the heavier side, more similar to Okinawan style, but that's why I like it. Always a recommend, just go early

We were in need of some quick breakfast/lunch before our hikes for the day. This place really delivered on our needs. They have prepackaged bento boxes in the morning with a good variety of entrees. We grabbed 4 different ones and everyone in our group was happy. We added on some rolls as well. The beef one was really good. As far as the entrees the egg was my fav.

We've been here a couple of times when we were cruising Hilo side. Prices are good and the food is pretty good too... (except my fried chicken was super dry like jerky) other than that, food is tasty. Workers are pretty nice too. Lines are long depending on the day and time you go but be patient, it's worth it. We will be back!

Hilo Lunch Shop is ALWAYS one of our first stops when in Hilo, especially since it's so near to the airport. They have their own parking lot but during morning and afternoon rush hours it does tend to get pretty busy. It is small inside with probably only one table with two chairs. When you get to the front of the line, it's all local guys and aunties taking your order. They're usually nice but sometimes they're a little cranky or you can tell they have an attitude. But don't let that make you afraid to ask what the dish is in front of you or if they have spam musubi and cone sushi in the back. One thing we did notice though is that the cone sushi did get smaller but still super tasty. They make everything fresh and sometimes what they have out front varies, but some of the stuff we got was: sweet potato tempura, eggplant tempura, veggie omelette, spam musubi, Nori chicken, cone sushi, yakitori chicken, long rice, cucumber namasu, bean sprout salad, fishcake, Korean chicken, shoyu hotdog, and corn beef hash. Everything that we've tried is super delicious and we've never had any complaints about the food. Overall, it's one of our favorite places to stop by when in Hilo and we will definitely be coming back again and again.

Great food, super friendly, and amazing prices. Definitely worth checking out. A real gem in Hilo.

Since my son moved to Hilo a few years ago I've been visiting about four times a year and have been discovering all the great places to eat. I always wanted to go to Hilo Lunch Shop forever because I love okazuyas and I realize that someday there will be none left. When we got there there was a full line inside the shop. My son told me that sometimes the line is out the door, but the line moves pretty quick. It was nice that when customers ask if there are anymore of a certain dish, they would replenish their goods with trays from behind the counter. There are enough employees to handle these big crowds. And, some of the customers order huge portions of food. The food here is excellent, everything was delicious. My favorites were the vegetable tempura, the hobo salad and, of course, the hash patty. I definitely will be back, this place is a winner.

We arrived at around 8 am and while there was a line of people, we were helped very quickly. There were also quite a few people behind us. However, I feel like the workers here are very efficient. The shop always provides that warm nostalgic atmosphere. We ordered a box with nori chicken, fish cake, vegetable tempura, shrimp tempura, hash, and ono tempura. These are my family's favorites and go to choices here. As always, it tastes amazing and somewhere I always make a point to visit when I come back home to Hawaii.

Local style okazuya. Take out only. Always a line but it moves fairly fast. Staff is always friendly. Food is always very good. Lots of choices but my favorites are the tempura ono, nori chicken, spam musubi and cone sushi. Almost every time I come to Hilo this is one of my favorite stops.

Long time established business to get okazuya . Hilo Lunch Shop has been a local's favorite place that to this day, the line is still out the door. The fact that we got all that food for $17 is such a steal! Come here early or plan accordingly. Parking lot is quite small. Despite the line, service can go by fast as long as you know what to order before you get to the front.

Need omiyagi to bring back from Hilo? Try the fish cake. This is one of family's go to. Nice and fresh and so delish. Need to call ahead or go in person to preorder. The rest of the okazuya is killers too!

They make the BEST fish cake and warabi salad! Love all the flavors of everything I've ordered.

Food... how's it!? If you're here, you are; better know what you're ordering BEFORE you line up/ called upon. Service is great. Keep in mind the volume they serve, the variety and the indecisive customers they fave in hundreds each day along with time they start errday. If you're there at 11, they've been there for 7-8 hours already. Be patient but get your order straight ASAP, before you order, bc they run out fast like. Ambiance is like a donut shop but in a good way - what your choosing fr was made that day. Get 'em while they last!! Prices de good too. Heavy Okayuza/ finger/ fresh foods. Warabi Salad is

A hilo iconic lunch spot but I would recommend getting there before 1130 otherwise you run the risk of standing in a long line and/or items are wiped out. My go to is cone sushi, spam musubi, nori chicken, Korean chicken, nishime and Mac salad. Ono food at a reasonable price which is hard to find these days.

Best okazu-ya in Hilo ! Their nori chicken and cone sushi is amazing. Only got sick once. Pretty good odds, actually! Regards Beau Toichi

LUNCH time. My friends and I ventured to the Big Island for a weekend getaway recently. Thanks to Yelp for helping us find a local breakfast place. COVID PRECAUTIONS: 1. Staff wearing masks. 2. Social distancing while waiting 3. Face covering/masks required for entry 4. Limit of people entering enforced; please wait for a staff member to call/wave you to enter. 5. 1 door used for entry and another used for exit. 1. Yes, there's parking. Although the lot can fill up fairly quickly as we discovered on the day we visited (1/15/22). 2. Yes, the menu can be daunting and overwhelming for first time visitors. We passed the time waiting compiling a list of our order. The menu is listed behind the counter and is ala carte (please see photo attached to this review). Basically, customers order menu items and "create" their own bento box so to speak. 3. Yes, the food is awesome! My favorites included the cone sushi (so good!!), nori chicken, hash, and the fish cake. Highly recommend the cone sushi. 4. Yes, the staff is very friendly. The guy that was assisting us with our order was so patient....and even more patient answering our questions about the food. 5. Yes, they take card! After filling up our bento box, I handed over my card to pay and we were off to enjoy the delicious foods of HLS. BOTTOM LINE: Friendly staff. Delicious food. Recommended.

Found this place on Yelp and stopped by to grab some goodies for breakfast and to-go lunch for the flight home. There was plenty of parking, and lots of fresh food. We got a box and just ordered whatever we wanted. Everything was delicious! I especially liked the spam musubis, chicken nori, and Portuguese sausage. The corned beef hash bites were just ok, more potatoes than beef though. Staff were kind, and service was great! Would definitely stop in again next time!

This place is amazing. I'd recommend this to anybody who is looking for an affordable lunch. Everyone in there was so friendly and so quick to attend to my order. I will be visiting this place every time I go to Hilo.

My first trip to big island in about 10 years. Right off the plane my boyfriend was adamant that we go Hilo lunch shop for breakfast. The nori chicken seems to be the best seller so I had to try it along with the yakitori chicken, vegetable tempura, and hash patties. The food was ono and we ate breakfast on the bay front down the road. Breakfast with a view....yes please! Check them out!!

In an effort to find out who is the "best" Okazuya place in Hilo, I went to both Kawamoto's and Hilo lunch shop. What I found was interesting... Hilo lunch shop has parking! Parking was easily found and there was a similar line as found at Kawamoto's. Hilo lunch shop though was much faster and efficient! The line moved and in possibly half the time, I was inside. Once inside there were lots of choices. Almost mind boggling on how many items were available. Even lau lau, kalua pig and poke were on the menu! Warabi salad, tofu salad, mac salad and more were available. All the usual items like nori-chicken, shoyu pork, roast pork and more were available. There were so many choices!!!! All looked good! Once home, I found the food to be delicious. I though that Kawamoto's cone sushi was more tasty overall than Hilo lunch shop, but the roast pork from Hilo lunch shop was awesome! But then the shoyu pork was dry..... too dry. But the poke was great and the mac salad good! Finally the service was fast and efficient and friendly! Based on this, I can understand why Hilo lunch shop is one of Hilo's most famous and visited okazuyas!!!!! What a great place!

Stopped by this lunch spot while I was in Hilo. We sadly couldn't try a lot of things such as their poke because we came in too late! So for advice, if you want to try their wide range of food, come early! During our time here, I felt as if we were rushed to get through and order what we needed. Understandable, if you're on your lunch break and you're trying to get back to the office. This place is great for a picnic though. We ordered their nori chicken along with their spam masubi. We would have ordered more if we had a chance to just see their menu, which wasn't quite so clear. I would suggest having that menu online so people know exactly what they want and can get out of everyone's hair. Or at least have the menu for the day posted outside so people can decide what they want and so there won't be any slow down in ordering. Overall, both the chicken nori and spam masubi were pretty delicious. The chicken was well seasoned and I enjoyed the spam masubi. Simplistic, yet filling for sure. Our orders did consist of a lot more chicken though and I'm glad it did. Would definitely recommend to come here early and take it and go to a park and eat while staring out at landscapes! I rather have this every day instead of corporate fast food.

LOVE THEIR SPAM MUSUBI. Favorite place in town to grab. So perfect! Also got a selection of other stuff for my buds, but really focused on the musubi. They had some chicken and other things, but the musubi stole the show.

The food is great. The portions are good-sized portions. Best to go early for better selections. Towards midday, some of the food runs out such as the shrimp, nori chicken, gobo, and cone sushi just to name a few. The service line is long at times but well worth it. There are a few counter persons that are extremely pleasant but then again there are one or two of them that need to vamp up their attitude and not be so cocky. There is no ambiance there. The place needs to be cleaned. You can see a lot when standing in line.

Amazing food. No place to sit and eat but food is cheap and delicious. Only open a few hours a day. They sell out

September 2,2022 - Saturday Did a weekend trip to the Big Island of Hawaii. We stayed on Hilo side and the goal was to find an Izakaya location since we would be on the go & this was a perfect place that we decided on. If you're looking to get grab & go's this is great spot for YOU! Pricing is definitely great I guess coming from Oahu you would expect everything to be expensive but this location shocked us in a great way. Payments can be made using CC or cash. With the amount of items we decided on you would think it'd come out to about $50 at least BUT it was only around $27 for our total. Tip: Get in early because honestly the line can get long but the wait is so worth it. I would like to say we waited for about 30mins before it was our turn to pick. OUR ORDER: Chicken w/Nori Rice Musubi Vegetable Tempura Tempura Shrimp Tempura Fish Spam Eggs Tater sauce Everything hit the spot for sure & it was nice for a beach day + food. We decided to stop at a beach near by which was near the airport area. Such a beautiful spot to enjoy our delicious breakfast items. I would recommend this place to anyone who visits Hilo because it's that good.

Hilo lunch shop looks like it's busy with lots of locals. The parking lot is tight to get into so please be patient. My assorted okaZuya was very affordable. What you see in that box was 13.50 all together but I found the proteins were either overdone, greasy or lacking flavor. This was especially true of the nori chicken. The spam misubi had no flavor- there was no attempt to do anything with the rice and the spam was just plain. Nice folks but would go elsewhere.

First time here at Hilo Lunch Shop, will definitely come back next time in the Big Island! Cozy cafeteria style Okazuya Mom & Pops store, limited seating of 1-3 tables. Service line was fast, while waiting you're able to see all the different variety of food options. Grabbed a regular plate consisting of 2x Musubi's, 2x Sumo Chicken (Tempura fried chicken wrapped with seaweed belt), 2x Shrimp tempura, 2x Shoyu hotdog, 1x Fried saimin, 1x Kimchee cucumbers, 1x Warabi (Fern) salad w/tomatoes and onions "really delicious", and 2x White Monstahs! Next time will have to try the other selections of Potato salad, Pickled Ogo, Lau Lau, fried vegetable tempura, eggplant Torta, fried chicken, fried luncheon meat/Spam, and Meat Jun. Ample free parking, cash or credit accepted, and no cash app payments.

Always something on the line that will sate my hunger (my ono) for local style foods!

Good cheap food with a gigantic menu if you know what to order. As a tourist who does not know what to order though, half of the items we got on the menu were way too salty. The other half were pretty good though which puts this review in an awkward spot. The shop also ran out of rice by the time we got there around 10, a couple of hours before closing which is also really strange to me. Might just be a Japanese lunch shop thing where you really need to get there early but not really understanding why they don't just make more since there was still a long line of customers there. The good stuff combined with the price was enough for me to still like it despite these flaws, but you probably need to go here multiple times to really enjoy it and find the items you like. Highlights - tofu salad, Kalua pork, long rice, nishime, Mac salad Too salty - roasted pork (so salty that we didn't touch it after one bite), green bean salad, bean sprout salad

The classic local style delicatessen with lots to choose from. Their nori chicken is da bomb! You also gotta try their warabi salad...so ono. Get there early to have more to choose from. You'll get fast efficient service from the old- timers.

All the dishes at Hilo Lunch Shop are delicious. Go early to get your favorites! The workers are so friendly and helpful. If you want authentic and tasty Okazuya go to Hilo Lunch Shop!

Such a great find! Stumbled upon this gem on Yelp when looking for a place to get coffee! Hilo Lunch Shop will definitely be one of my go to spots when ever I'm on the Big Island. The workers were very friendly and takes pride of their food. The worker who helped me even let me take a snap shot of my order before packing it up. Hilo Lunch Shop offers a variety of delicious ala carte local foods. I ordered musubis, mochiko chicken wrapped with nori, shrimp tempura, vegetable tempura and a few fish cakes. The food I ordered were soo good. This mom and pop shop gave me homemade food vibes of when my mom use to make me musubis and fried chicken for lunch. Other items on their menu were a bunch of different types of fried chicken and tempura items, sushi and tofu patties to name a few. I'm sure I could've ordered everything they got to offer, but I had to stop my self cause it can add up! Perfect for on the go, will definitely be heading here again before venturing on long drives on the Big Island.

Go early since they always run out early! I really like the sushi, inari, and fish cake. Everything else was a bit too heavy and oily for me, but if you like fried food for super affordable prices, definitely try Hilo Lunch Shop out!

If you want to get some quick picnic food, this is the place to go. There is a park right down the road with a good view and plenty of picnic benches and parking. We enjoyed our spam masubi and nori chicken. If you come earlier in the day, you will have more options. We came in 1 hour before closing time, and they were out of poke and several other spots. I did feel rushed by the staff and the customer behind us in line. I felt like we didn't get the chance to carefully look at the menu or the food trays. Oh well.

Da Best Okazuya!!! Definitely gotta get there when you go to Hilo! The best Nori Chicken hands down too.

Awesome local place to grab delicious okuzuya items! It's a tiny shop but it's worth the wait.

Been here twice since moving to Hilo. I miss the foods on Oahu but this is close enough. The shop has lots of selections and they take American Express and that's a plus for me.

Okazuya style food stop! First timer here! Everything I chose was yummy! Tried something different. It was an eggplant/spam tempura. It was interesting but don't knock it til you try it! However the spam musubi didn't taste like a spam musubi. It tasted like luncheon meat instead of spam :( but this is a spot to check out when in Hilo! Right around the corner from where the hold merrie monarch hula competition

For the food itself, I would probably give this a 3-4 star rating. Flavors aren't always on point. There are better places like this in Hilo. For service, I would give a 0. We were being rushed through the line even though we couldn't physically move due to their COVID rules (customers were kind of clumping together in the line). It felt very rushed even though the staff was not very efficient at what they were doing. The lady helping us kept impatiently asking if we were finished (even though we couldn't see most of the food to select from, because we were stuck in the line). She kept rolling her eyes at us, even though we were trying to keep our questions to a minimum, such as "Which one is Nori Chicken?" This totally ruined our mood for the morning. Needless to say, we were relieved to get out of the store. The line was very long, just to get in the store (45 mins). This ended up being more of a headache. Again, there are better options in Hilo.

When I visit Fam in Hilo, this is where I go before I I head to the beach. My kids & I love it here. Wasabi is my favorite yummy

Long time local okazu lunch shop with a variety of food stuff at affordable prices. Nori chicken and ono, and laulau are my favorites. Early morning pocho breakfast w/ a side hash patty is also my go. The reviews from mainland haoles commenting that this okazuya is junk makes me laugh. Insert eye roll. When you never had okazu in your life, then want to comment negatively on it...as we say in Hawaii...beat it! Nobody cares about what you think here.

Great place to get lunch to go. Economical and delicious. It's definitely a local favorite place. Everything is charged by piece. Love the nori chicken and egg Maki.

Small mom & pop local shop. Yummy snacks :) so unique too - I don't think I've ever seen stores that sell treats like this! CASH ONLY. Tried a bunch of items here (prices ranging from .90 to $2). My favorites are the purple sweet potato tempura, Ono tempura, and the fish cake. Some things were pretty oily but mmmmm grease I love it!! It's nice that the prices are still humble even given the tourist traffic they get on the daily.

Hilo Lunch Shop was the first okazuya we went to this morning. It took us about an hour from entering the line to leaving with the food. The man who helped us was really good, but I noticed in general that the workers face their backs to the customers--although I'm sure they were busy, it felt a little like they weren't helping customers as much as maybe they could have. Come early, and budget about an hour. That being said, the food was fantastic, for the most part. The fried food was a bit greasy though, so I think I prefer the competitor's fried tempura products (see my other reviews). That being said, the sushi was on point, and so was the corned beef hash. The maki sushi was just as it was supposed to be, and it wasn't sweet like their competitor's--it was more vinegary, which is what I'm used to. The cone sushi was juicy and not as sweet as their competitors. I had higher expectations for the tempura, but the nori chicken did not disappoint! All in all, it worked out well. And the prices both here and at their competitor could not be beat when compared to Oahu okazuya prices!

My grandsons loved the spam musubi, I should've gotten more. We also tried the mini lau lau, it was not so great, but the eggplant tempura with spam was amazing. 5 stars for that. Staff was very friendly, just like ohana. Will definitely go back when visiting Hilo. If you have a pot luck, you definitely have to stop here and order some grinds. They will not be disappointed.

A must when visiting Hilo side! Be sure to get there early since they sell out fast! I've been coming here my whole life and the food is the best you can get!

As good as it gets! First and foremost I suggest you place a phone order because 1) they will more than likely run out of food, 2) you will save time waiting in the constant long lines and 3) you will be able to at the food sooner than later. It's been 6 years since my first review. It's time and HLS is deserving of an update. On that note: 1- lines and wait time still the same if not longer, depending on the time you decide to stop at HLS 2- menu same with a few (maybe 3-6) more items. The have consignment items, like boiled peanuts and smoked aku 3- new Eco bags on the walls available for purchase 4- employees STILL same from 5-6 years ago 5- and the best??? prices still the same from 5-6 years past My order (nope, not a phone order so I had my 15 minutes wait in line) was my usual fishcake tempura ($1.40 each, $.10 more than 5 years ago), cone sushi, and Oh Oh NO MAC SALAD!!! (Wait! It's only 9:30 in the morn..WTH?) and Nori Maki... One upshot on the line and wait is you make new friends and run into old friends .... #HiloOhana #localgrinds #oldiesaregoodies 93/100 Yelp Review Challenge Los Angeles