Aiea Manapua & Snacks

i pass by this place every day on my way to work, but never had time to stop in until yesterday. I left for work early for once and decided I wanted some manapuas for lunch. I got there around 7:00 am (they open at 5) and there was lots of parking and a few old guys sitting out front drinking their coffee. I opened the door and was greeted by a nice lady that saw me staring at the menu on the wall. she told me to let her know when I was ready. She was wonderful and very helpful and friendly. I got my manapuas, pork hash and half moons, paid in cash and was out the door in 5 minutes. excellent!
manapuas:
ham and egg — good breakfast in a baked bun. very easy and quick to eat on the way to work.
Pizza — my bf thought it was weird. he ate it anyway. I liked it. what was different was the smoked sausage they put inside with the pepperoni. not something you would normally put on a pizza, but I liked it. also this was baked.
vegetarian — my favorite! I love steamed manapuas. I’m definitely going to get a few of these again next time. there’s a mix of mushrooms, cabbage, onions and probably a few other vegetables inside a nice steamed bun.
lap chiong — steamed manapua with Chinese sausage inside. the bf ate it and said it was good. better than the one from 7 – 11.
half moon — very big and kinda sweet for my taste. it’s a dollar, but you get what you pay for. the ratio of stuffing to wrapper is good.
pork hash — a bit oily, but tasty. and very big. a good compliment to the manapua. definitely get some more next time.
over all, I’m glad I stopped in at this little shop. i’ll definitely be back again and will recommend it. I’m going to try the noodles next time too. rating it 4 stars because it’s a bit pricy for the size of the manapua. everything else is wonderful.

Aint that great. Service and attitude sucks. Past OWNERS… were better… And I know who they are… Quality Lackluster for sure…

I remember always coming over here during small kid time from whenever I used to go to the former/​old Aiea Public Library or just cruising around after school time. I would always go over here for manapuas of course. They have one of the best baked manapuas on the island in my opinion. Their steamed ones are pretty good too. The staff and customer service is aight. That is the only thing I would have to put a «meh» on. It is a family run business and there is usually one guy running the manapuas and ringing everyone up. Their manapuas have gone up in price I noticed, probably to compete with Chun Wah Kam manapuas. Their manapuas now are almost 2 bucks per manapua! They have other snacks and foods too like pork hash and stuff but if you come then you must get the manapuas. There is a decent amount of parking right in front of the store. It is also right next to another local food business (M&M) plate lunch place.

A friend brought over some pork hash, manapua, and something deepfriend mushroom something. The pork hash was bland and filled with pork fat. Wasn’t appetizing at all. The manapua bun was very dry, not much filling too. The deep fried mushroom something was drenched in so much oil, I took one bite and pimples started coming outta my forehead. The only saving grace is that I didn’t pay for it. Anway, it was the thought that counted.

4.6 of 5 stars. Didn’t expect much from the outside but very impressed with what I found inside. Got 2 Manapua, teriyaki dog, pork hash, and gau gee. Excellent quality, Manapua was stuffed with lean tasty meat. Never had a teriyaki dog before but very pleasantly surprised. Will definitely go back!

Love this place when I get a craving for manapua and pork hash. Live in Halawa so this place is so convenient. Their chow fun is the real deal… so tasty and their gaugee is too. If you like almond cookies… you gotta try theirs… so light and melts in your mouth… don’t know anybody else that makes it that good. Great selection of manapua for such a small hole in the wall snack shop.

I find myself in Aiea Village Square every week because I take my niece to her ballet/​tap lessons. What do I do to kill time? I eat!!!
Today I had the weirdest craving for a manapua and pork hash. Ordered some pork hash & a spicy sausage manapua & boy was it good! The pork hash was huge & tasty and the spicy sausage was a full sausage (pretty spicy) & the bread to sausage ratio was alright in my book.
Aiea Manapua has a pretty wide array of items to choose from, which is great. Prices are also pretty decent. I do intend to try more items especially their deep-​fried goodies!

Had the steamed char siu, lup chong, shoyu chicken manapua. It was sooo good. Lots of filling and the bun was really tasty too. But the best is their pork hash. Very very good. Definitely coming back for more.

Unilocal 100 Review Challenge 2015: ⁴¹⁄₁₀₀
+Cheap Prices
My mom’s been going here for years, picking up manapua before church which has led me to pick up manapua for my co-​workers on occasion and sometimes just a small snack for myself. The prices are much cheaper than Chun Wah Kam and most downtown manapua places. But get it in the morning when it’s most fresh.
–Parking
Limited and tight parking. I have gotten scolded from the security for parking in the lot over or even the Aiea Library parking when I’m only going to grab manapua in less than 5 minutes so be aware.
-/+Customer Service
It’s a hit or miss. Once I had to order food without shrimp so I asked the worker if there was shrimp in their pepeau (just double checking) she said «No» to my surprise so I ordered a few. The manager/​owner (obviously not dressed as a worker) interrupted from his phone conversation and corrected the employee saying «Yes it does». Uh okay, employees aren’t informed?! For people with allergies be careful!
+Quality
Sometimes you’ll get a really greasy pork hash or something but I just wipe ‘em with a napkin and it’s still good! Taste & delicious.

I’ve always gotten Manapua from here from a friend but never bought so today was the day.
It’s located in Aiea shopping plaza before the post office. I’m not sure what the official name is. It’s across from old Aiea library.
Few parking stalls are available in front but kind of tight. More parking stalls are in the back.
It’s a small store. You can fit maybe 3 people at a time. Luckily, no one was in the store at the same time.
Their manapua flavors are hotdog, Kalua pork, pizza, Shoyu chicken, ham and cheese, and of course char siu. I call these kid friendly flavors. They taste good too! It’s $ 1.69 a piece.
Service was good too.

Food is ok. I like that they have veggie crispy gau gee. I have also liked the pizza baked manapua for years. The rest are so so. But the other reviews are right, the service has gone down hill. We visited around lunch time and the guy that helped us was so rude. The way he spoke was like he really didn’t want to be there and couldn’t care less about customers.

What happened to Aiea Manapua? The service and quality of food has really declined. I bought a steamed manapua yesterday and it was mostly wet, soggy bun. That was gross! The filling was two chunks of hard gristle and not much else. The stuffed mushrooms were dark and looked over cooked so we passed on those. They used to be the to go place for me for potluck s until the time they forgot to make my pan of fried chicken. The new employees have no customer service skills and quality of the food shows that kitchen staff doesn’t care either.

This is a great place for a variety of manapua! We tried the kaluha pig and pizza which was really good! The chow fun was good but lighter than others I have had. The cheeseburger and lop cherng were good too! The stuffed mushroom was yummy. The pork hash was good too but the rice noodle got a little stuck to the bag. This little place was very cheap and quick! They do accept credit cards too! Definitely come to try steamed or baked manapua! The staff is friendly too!

I grew up in Aiea and going to this location since the early 1980s. Not much has changed and it still can drum up some nostalgia from my days of walking from Alvah Scott, stopping off at Aiea Manapua for a snack before ending up at Aiea Library and then Japanese school. But I kind of didin’t like their manapua and pork hash back then and I found that I kind of don’t still. It has too much unknowns in it for my taste.
But let me tell you what I super love and will go back there again for…
#1 Pizza Manapua — kids love it!
#2 Almond cookie — theirs actually has almond chips in it. It is buttery and flaky. It is hands down the BEST almond cookie of my life.
#3 Rice cake — old fashion layered or regular rice cake. Can’t find it anywhere else around this area. Good stuff! (This is what I used to buy when I was a kid)
#4 Boiled peanuts — they got the jumbo peanuts. Good flavor, almost bordering on salty.
#5 Icee float — ice cream & strawberry or cola icee (I needn’t say anymore. If you haven’t had, you haven’t lived. lol)
#6 Portuguese and other sausage selection — it’s frozen so you can take it home with you. I bought some, haven’t tried it yet, but from what I can see, it looks pretty good. Plus I love unique/​different items.
Ok, I think that is a lot said. This place doesn’t need to down comments because like in true manapua shop fashion, this place has a not so personable guy providing the service that is pretty much damaging on its own. Take this as your fair warning & don’t be upset when you get there. You have been warned. Just stay focused on the mission and remember, all good things are worth working for.
Manapua on!

If you love deep-​fried heavily saturated with oil foods, then this is definitely the place to go. After eating one mushroom tempura, two steamed porkhash, one bite of fried boneless chicken, and one bite of chow fun, I feel like I have to run 10 miles just to burn that off. That’s a bit of an exaggeration, but I do get super full after only eating that much because of the excessive amount of oil used.
The food items I just listed are the usuals that we get. All but the chow fun are worth trying. The chow fun was a bit bland. We also tried their hotdog. It’s good when you dip it into shoyu and hot mustard (I know, kind of weird). However, it’s such a small hotdog in such a large bun. I always end up just taking off majority of the bun before eating it.
They do have a pretty large variety of food items here. AND… It’s super cheap!

Best manapuas! It’s helpful to arrive early, or get lucky with a fresh batch but not a prerequisite to having a tasty breakfast or snack.
The kalua pork tops the manapuas and pork hash for the sides. The spicy dogs are okay (I like the spice but not the dog, personal preference). At the bottom is the chow fun.
It’s a small shop and lines can be long, but everyone is trying to help and the end result is a happy stomach!

Located on Moanalua road next to aiea public library, open early on weekdays, 5am, yay!!! Plenty of parking in the front.
It is best to call in your order the day before because this is a small old school shop and when it’s busy it’s busy. At times the line is out the door and if you need to get to work this is not good. So check out the order online so you can be prepared.
Menu is varied with many different flavors of manapua. Shoyu chicken, pizza, ham and cheese, blah blah, etc. my favorite here is the stuffed eggplant with pork, that’s a winnah!!! Since we always have pot luck at work, this is da place to go. Very reasonable prices and Ono! I also love their fried noodles.
Staff is friendly as can be, except when u go unprepared and stand in front of food not knowing what you want? This is me plenty of times but have since changed my ways. My eyes are bigger than my stomach and always wanna order errrryting in da store.
All positives for me, only negative is I live in west side, wish we had one on our side! Good for relatives in mainland too!!!

This place flat out SUCKS!
I pass this shop a lot & finally stopped by. I get in with only 1 person in front of me, & just as my turn comes up the phone rings. The girl asks me if its ok to take the phone first. I guess she the only one doing the front of shop, so i was fine with it.
After a 10 min phone order, i pick the 1 pizza manapua (many Unilocaler said this was the best?), 1 pork hash, & 2 pepeiaos.
& they all pretty much sucked.
the Pizza Manapua has a portuguese sausage tasting filling & i think that was it. Not sure why its called a pizza manapua. There wasnt a whole lot of filling inside. the bun was soft & big and the sausage gave it enough flavor.
the Pork Hash had NO flavor at all! I was just gonna eat it plain but instead had to pour hot mustard all over to make it taste proper. The texture was nice & a good size.
the Pepeiao WAS THE WORST!!! I reached to my bag to grab out a pepiao the size of my palm & i thought «score», but as soon as i took a bite i realized i got a mouth full of just the out translucent skin. & i totally wouldnt have mind, EXCEPT it was 1in thick! The filling was minimal but fine. After i ate the filling there was still half a patty of skin left… & i bought 2
–_​_​_​_​_​_​_​–
Ive concluded that this little shop values quantity over quality. Filling you up but still leaving you feel empty inside.

My favorite place for pizza manapua, other places can’t compare! I am like Pavlov’s dog, my mouth is watering just thinking about the baked manapua stuffed with pepperoni sausage.
I also really like the chow fun — it’s a little bland but they are very generous on the thick noodles, and they limit the amount of veggies… just the way I like it! The single serving can serve at least 2 people, as they often stuff the paper bowl to the point where it is overflowing with noodles. My fave. :)
They have a good variety of both steamed & baked manapua, and they have some breakfast bento and musubis for sale as well. I don’t care too much for the pork hash because it has huge chunks of water chestnut, which I’m not a huge fan of (but that’s just a personal preference).
Tips:
–Get there EARLY! They are often sold out of the popular items when afternoon hits!
–Great for GATHERINGS — place in an order at least 24 hrs ahead of time!
–Don’t park by the LIBRARY or in the BACK! The security nazi will stalk you like a hawk and leave a stink ticket on your car.

Would have rated higher if it wasn’t for the piece of steel wool found in my half moon. Yuck. At least you know they scrub their equipment. Lol.
I was mid chew when something stabbed my gums when I spit it out it was that piece of scrubber.
I gave 1star because the size of half moon and pepeiau were really big. Taste was just so-​so. Don’t really care for the Manapua at all but it’s a personal preference.
So if you’re still gonna eat here be careful of what you might find in your food. You’ve been warned. .lol