Bob B.
Yelp
Shaka is ono!
We spent 4 great years living in Hawaii when I was in the Navy. It had a lasting impact on us - even now, every Friday (Aloha Friday) we keep the Dish network tuned to channel 981, the Hawaiian music station, and we say "Aloha!" to each other in the morning. To say that we occasionally jones for a little bit of Hawaii every now and again would an understatement.
So the other day we decided to go to Portillo's in Grandscape. We saw the hour-long line of cars, decided a hot dog wasn't worth that kind of wait, and looked for something else nearby. Yelp! said there was a Hawaiian place nearby. Now, aside from a chain of restaurants in California called Ono!, we've been disappointed in anything calling itself Hawaiian food since we left back in '97. We didn't have high hopes, but being the haoules we are, we decided to give it a try.
Boy, are we ever glad we did!
This place is the real deal. No, they don't have an imu pit where they cook their kalua pork (they need to use an oven for obvious reasons), but aside from that the food brought us right back to our adopted home, in Zippy's style!
My wife had a combo plate of chicken katsu, teriyaki chicken, and kalua pork. The meat was tender and amazing. And the macaroni salad is easily the best we've had since leaving the islands. I went with the "healthy" choice - Loco Moco! 2 hamburger patties over some perfectly cooked rice, with two sunny-side eggs and an extra ladle of gravy - yum! Okay, so it's not exactly healthy, but it was awesome and I wasn't hungry until the next day...
We spent a few minutes taking with Welby, the owner (I think). He spent some time living on the Big Island so he knows what the food should taste like. Incredibly nice guy, in an incredibly tough business. He's conscientious about the food, and exudes aloha when you talk with him.
I can't say enough about this place. It's authentic low-brow Hawaiian food joint. We eat out a lot at places like Fleming's, Davio's, and Eddy V's, and this is definitely NOT that kind of food. This is Hawaiian comfort food, at its best. We'll be back, and when do go back I'll be doing some musubi (that's Spam and rice wrapped in seaweed, for the uninitiated - something you'd find at the counter of every ABC store on the island), crispy shrimp, and an Aloha plate with all the trimmings.
If you miss Hawaii like we do, this place will bring you right back home. It's ono! Aloha!