Diner’s Drive-In

Got the BEEF BBQ plate. Nothing «BBQ» about it. Very bland taste, but salty, like it had been marinating for weeks. It tasted like beef jerky from a bag that you’ve been chewing on for a while. It came with rice, Mac salad, and cabbage. Rice is rice. Mac salad was very bland, but at least the mayo was cold (still not sure why people here eat Mac salad with mayo…) and the cabbage was overpowering and salty. Not worth $ 10. Not even close.

We come here every so often. Tend to come back for the super saimin which is a fave of my husbands.
Prices are really expensive for a drive thru– type of plate lunch. I could probably get better portions and tastier food at Aiea Heights for a better price as well. Unfortunately they are already closed.
Menu for the night:
2X Super saimins (rainy night, saimin it is)
Cheeseburger deluxe, no tomato
Shrimp burger
Parking is convenient and atm nearby. Right next to it is a liquor store so sometimes there is a slight change in crowd late at night but conveniently to the other side of Diners is a mini police station. Lol. So no time for acting up!
The staff is okay, they could work on the customer service.

Come here solely for the cheeseburger and the deluxe saimin (which my mister and I split by the way!)
Price is affordable, the cheeseburger sauce is a mayo/​mustard base with just a smidget of ketchup. I know the mayo/​mustard combo sauce sounds unappetizing, but it reminds me of the type of cheeseburger I recall my parents buying for me at Big-​Way Burger in Wahiawa which closed down. The deluxe saimin, comes with generous amounts sliced up luncheon meat, and couple of teriyaki beef slices. The portion is enough to split if you have a cheeseburger with. It’s difficult bite into the teri beef slices, because it isn’t sliced up, the soup base hot, and it’s sorta tough in texture. But it’s good enough for the price.
When my sister from Maui comes to visit me, she ALWAYS has Diner’s Drive-​in on her agenda to eat exactly this. I never would have given this place a try if it wasn’t for her, and she would remind me «remember, we use to have this type of cheeseburger growing up?»
Lots of parking, lots of tables to sit…

So I keep forgetting to check in when I come here, not good, LOL.
Anyways I should be a queen here for as often as we come. Diners has never failed us. We make the drive from Mililani for their Oxtail n Pig Feet soup. Yes I said Pig Feet:)
If you havent tried it dont knock it, like the saying goes «Dont knock it till you try it» hehe. They give really good size portions and every single time we ever came here the food never failed us. A little pricey but worth it.
We mostly come in the evenings, but this last time we were able to make it out during lunch and was able to catch the buffet line, yups they have their buffet line during the days and if havent tried it yet, try making some time to come here during lunch, thats the best time to try a lito bit of everything.
Lets talk about the cleanliness of this place:)) For an older restaurant I must say this place never fails to be CLEAN n the bathroom is ALWAYS clean n smelling fresh like its just been mopped. Tables are always wiped down so you wont have to worry about cleaning your own table:))

I grew up with this place, my mom use to work at the City Mill & we would hit this place up for their sandwiches. This is a hole in a wall kinda place & been there for a very long time.
When I went last week I noticed they did some changes inside the table areas & decorations (miss the old times) even the prices went up too =(
I always order the double cheeseburger deal that comes with fries (fat kine, yummy) & a drink & my mom gets the shrimp burger (its really good)…
The people over there were really nice to us & fun to talk to…
The only thing I am a lil disappointed is the prices…

Wanted to try this old spot I came to as a kid, but now I wish I didn’t. The people barely speak English & prices ain’t worth the quality. The Teri beef was dry and no flavor, garlic chicken took 20+ minutes and was oily with no flavor as well. The green river was too sugary too! This will be my last time eating here, until it changes. Sad to see an old local establishment go to waste!

This isn’t about the food as I have been an occasional patron here.
It’s about having to use the restroom but only if I pay $ 10 minimum with my card since I have no cash. Even after I plead with a please? It’s not like I’m homeless and using it for hygiene purposes. Did I mention that I have been a customer here before? Smh. Greedy.

Folks, I think one just shouldn’t expect soooo much from a plate lunch place to begin with. I mean, are you hoping for first-​class service and Five Diamond Pacific Rim cuisine or something? Before you do, look around… this eatery is in a freaking strip mall among other casual establishments, so PUH-LEEEEZE…give it a rest!
This is our little go-​to place whenever we want a quick, hot, not necessarily healthy, local food. There’s almost always a place to sit inside. There’s always a lot of parking… nice to not have to fight for a place to park for a change! And when you pau eat, you can run your errands at the Safeway across the way or get your caffeine fix a few stores down.
My fave plates here are the teri beef and the meat jun/​barbecue beef combo. I love the way the food always come out steaming hot here! I’m not scraping around the inside of my styrofoam container looking for more food either. The portions are pretty decent and I always have leftovers. And the prices, I think, is pretty comparable with other plate lunch places.
Oh yeah, one more thing… it’s down the street from another plate lunch place, so it’s not like you’re «stuck» having to eat their food.

I would give this place no stars if it were and option. The service was fast and I got my Loco Moco in less than 5 minutes. I should’ve took that as a bad sign already. When I went to eat my food I noticed the patties were pre-​maid and were super tough to cut through. They gave me a little splash of gravy. What’s a loco Moco without the gravy ?! Never eating there again.

Friendly customer service, good food. The inside is a little run down but it’s expected since this place has been around for such a long time.

With all the negative reviews, I felt like I went to a different place. I ordered the Hawaiian plate at 3:00PM. About 2 minutes after I ordered, out came 2 scoops of rice, lau lau without a ti leaf wrapping and mac salad.
The scoops of rice were small. It was as if they wanted to make sure they didn’t want to give me a grain more than fit in the scoops. Most places fill those scoops so they look like huge icecream scoops. These looked more like pool ball cut in half. All that being said, the rice was cooked perfectly. No dry grains or grains split open. Too many plate lunch places use the cheapest rice and overcook it. Not here.
The lau lau was fine. I loved that they took the ti leaf off. It saved me the trouble. It was probably Keoki’s lau lau like most of the plate lunch places on Oahu. Tasted good and was moist and warm.
Now the best part was the mac salad. I’m not a local boy and generally don’t like mac salad because it is warm and bland. This was cold, had lots of black pepper, and just enough mayo to cover the maccaroni. The macaroni was still overcooked like every other plate lunch place in Hawaii.
I’d take this over L&L but not over Yummy. Not great but not as bad as the other reviews make it out to be.

To call this place a dive is putting it nicely. The food is mediocre but if you’re hungry, it’ll work. U probably won’t return when there are so many better options around.

I don’t know how this place is still in business, seriously. Island plate breakfast about $ 7…u get a container that feels like nothing is in it, then you open it and realize it’s partially true. Small egg, small frozen hash brown and a meat choice. This should be no more than $ 3.99 in my opinion. I think that with the opening of pancakes and waffles just a few doors down, Diners will have to step up their quality and quantity.

A simple island breakfast $ 6.95 (2 scoops rice, 2 eggs, bacons) with coffee ($ 1.95) costs me $ 9.26. Damn this expensive breakfast for me. Not worth it. For a simple breakfast I expect to pay no more than $ 7 with coffee too. So disappointed. I hope this place out of business soon. And replace with cheaper meals for locals.

Decided to try here again after several years. Disappointed to be charged for a tiny water cup. My friend ordered a mini garlic chicken for over $ 8. Had a mixed garlic chicken and chicken katsu. Portions were on the smaller side. Taste was OK. Grace’s inn down the street is a much better deal!

Since it’s right down the street it’s been one of our goto places for a quick meal. The spam musubi is good but how can you mess that up? They make it to order which is the way to go. Otherwise it’s just ok food.

My son just ordered a saimin to go, there was a piece of wire tangled up in his noodle. I will be calling and speaking to the manager!

I got the bbq chkn as usual. It was not good, but ive eaten worse so it’ll get two stars.
service was ok, and the prices were normal, so i may go back if im in the area…

If you visit here with the right expectations, you’ll leave with a good taste in your mouth. After visiting Office Depot across the lot, my boyfriend and I decided to get a quick dinner at Diner’s. I’ve never eaten here before so when I asked him what type of food they served he compared it to Grace’s or Loco Moco, I figure okay another platelunch place. Besides, it was hot that day and he confirmed there was air condition.
The cashier was very friendly and I decided to try the garlic chicken plate with brown rice, banana lumpia, and my boyfriend got a grilled cheese and longanisa breakfast with two over easy eggs and brown rice.
The banana lumpia was made with apple banana and didn’t have any sweetness to it at all. I know everyone makes their lumpia different, but it could’ve been better. The garlic chicken came with a lot of vegetables but it was more like a mochiko chicken instead of garlic chicken with no substantial garlic taste. My boyfriend’s food didn’t have any complaints there. Probably the best thing I would have to say is their mac/​potato salad, it was served cold (I hate warm mac salad!) even though the rest of my food was hot and it was probably the best seasoned thing on my plate.
I think what I adore about this place is the fact it’s still old school, they have the fridge with drinks from Hershey’s chocolate milk boxes to Yoohoo to Diamond Head sodas and a freezer filled with ice cream. It would be cool if they closed one day just to do some cleaning, the air conditioner vents were disgusting.

BOOOOOOOO! BOO THIS ESTABLISHMENT!
For $ 6.95 I got two oily, unseasoned eggs, 4 skinny pieces of bacon and an effing premade hashbrown patty. My kids’ pancakes were kinda slimy in the middle. My husband’s fried rice had big chucks of unfried rice in it. So lame. Eff in the place in the A. They charge for water cups, too.
We should’ve just went to MacDoh’s.