Shay Y.
Yelp
Tanioka's is a high quality locals spot. Plenty of parking in the lot out front. Be prepared to wait in line to order. Come here for the poke, but also stay for the local/okazu/Hawaii-style goodies, nostalgic flavors, and friendly staff!
When you walk in, be prepared to snake in line around the cute shirts, coolers, and other merch while you check out the ono looking food displayed in the many cases. Drinks are up first, I always go for Harder's! There are some desserts and sushi/musubi options, tons of fried goodies (garlic chicken was bomb), fried rice, noodles, and of course the poke counter.
Yesterday, I had the crunchy garlic ahi poke. Honestly, it wasn't crunchy since it's covered in sauce, but the freshness of the fish makes up for pretty much anything and the poke was still good. I think next time I would go back to the classic shoyu ahi myself.
Fried foods galore - 3 kinds of fried chicken, ika, shumai, shrimp sticks, fried ahi musubis (sounds/looks better than I thought it tasted, it was a miss for me), lumpia, shrimp tempura, ahi patties and so much more! I had a hard time choosing which ones to grab for just one person!
Ended up with the garlic chicken, the ahi roll and an impulse buy - a grilled ginger scallion tofu -- packed with flavor!
Always good grinds if you're in Waipahu!