Newtown Drive Inn

Fried rice tasted like oily rice that they just put on a flat top and threw in onions, spam and bacon. Their trash can had a horrible stench that was lingering around the whole dining room. The cashier was throwing thing around, seemed like she didn’t wanna be there.

Went twice. Once they were out of saimin noodles. This time they were out of Teri beef. Food is ok. Service?

Hands down the BEST pastels stew I’ve ever had! It’s not too oily and has generous portions of olives, huge chunks of pork and masa mixed in. Came with 3 scoops rice for $ 10 no tax. I was too excited to eat it that I totally forgot to take a picture of it. It didn’t look like the pictures already on Unilocal.It wasn’t topped with tomatoes and onions and was less red and oily and I’m definitely not complaining. I’d definitely go back for the pastels stew. Go there right now and see for yourself… it’s AWESOME!

So they stopped serving beer and only got 1 person working. She’s the cashier an the cook. People were leaving because they got tired of waiting to place an order. I’ve been coming here for years and I’ve never seen the service this bad. It took over 20 minutes for fries. On a Friday you should have at least 2 – 3 people working. Hopefully it will be better next time.

Huge portions of amazing food at awesome prices! Located at Newtown Driving Range, so you can watch people smack some balls if you want. Outdoor but covered seating, so plan accordingly.

Ok, yes I read the reviews on how good the Pastele Stew was. It’s just that I WAS in the mood for Chicken Katsu. In fact I’m on a constant quest for the best Chicken Katsu always. Well, on to my review, first of all I don’t rate places on service, ambiance, or how good the parking was, my reviews are strictly on the food. Anyways, the Katsu was very good, better than most places I’ve tried, the only pet peeve I have is reheated, refried Katsu. Half of the Katsu was obviously thrown back into the fryer because half was way crunchier the the other half, also you can tell when Katsu was thrown back into the oil after it’s been cut. Aside from that the other half was excellent and deserved the 3 stars.

This was my first time here. Got the pastele stew which was very good not to mention a HUUUGE portion. Ate just ¼ of the plate. My boyfriend got the bacon cheeseburger. That too was delicious. Everything here is homemade. You can taste the love they put into their food.

Stopped by today because I had no dinner. It started off good, plenty parking and something smelled good. Looked at the sparse menu only hamburger, loco moco, pastels stew, sandwiches. I ordered the chicken Katsu which was fried in panko, it was better than L and L where they Pound the chicken to paper thin, I also liked that it wasn’t salted or spiced. The potato spaghetti salad was decent.
I was totally disappointed in the pastele stew. A thin layer of stew on a huge mound of rice and another thin layer on another scoop of rice in the small compartment of a styrofoam container. The olives tasted like it was thrown in and not cooked for a long time. Looks like they topped it with chopped round onions so you couldn’t see how little stew you were getting. Oh well, maybe I shouldn’t compare this with HFD pastele stew, oh my it’s so good, my expectations were high. Although I won’t be ordering this again, I may try the pizza.
The 1 star is for the parking, the other is for the aroma coming from the brick oven.

There is a great place for food tucked away at a driving range. Located right behind the range sits a place that serves great food with new specials often and beer for a great price!
The parking makes it easy for you to make a stop on your way back to town or away from town. Ample bench area to sit and eat. I really like that there are a few great everyday items as well as the menu from inferno pizza. But if you really want to make your trip worth it, follow their Instagram to see the cool items they are cooking up in the back.

At 3.5 stars, this place is severely under-​rated. In my perfect world, reviewers on Unilocal would stick to rating only THE FOOD and not include the service, parking, atmosphere, attitude of 1 waiter, etc, in the rating. I’ve been looking for a great burger place in the Pearl City/​Aiea area & finally found it here.
This is the best burger I’ve had since I had the Umami Burger in LA last year. This burger was absolutely delicious!!! & only $ 5!!! Ruby Tuesday’s burger for twice the price is not even in the same league as this burger & Teddy’s burgers… ughhh, so sad.
I grew up making and eating pasteles with my grandma. Many would say that hers was the best and ordered by the dozens, so it’s hard for me to taste any pasteles or pastele stew without them falling short on some aspect compared to hers. The pastele stew was heavenly. A delicacy! The flavor was awesome and it was loaded with tender pork. I only wish that it had (or had more) pieces of masa in the stew. There was mostly pork and olives. It was hard to find or had no pieces of banana but with the delicious flavor and consistency, I was overwhelmed, couldn’t stop eating, totally looked past that and thoroughly enjoyed it.
The onion rings were delicious!!! Crispy, just the right amount of light batter, and tasted like they were basted or fried with butter. The garlic fries looked different without the little pieces of minced garlic but had the aroma and taste of garlic fries. They were great too!
The smoked meat, like everything else, was awesome! The place looks a bit odd without a typically mounted menu board and menu boards that look like they were written and put out on that day but of course… looks can be deceiving and you can’t judge a book by its cover.

I’ve been wanting to try this place for a while after seeing so many photos on Instagram. I was looking forward to trying their ribeye moco, but it wasn’t on the menu today. I was gonna try one of their pizzas, but was told it wasn’t available until 3pm. So I ended up getting the pastele stew (on the regular menu) and the smoke meat plate (special for today). The pastele stew was pretty good. Very tasty and the meat was soft. I didn’t really care for the smoke meat plate. The meat was kinda tough. Hopefully, if I’m in the area, I can try their other items.

Pizza was still good, but lost stars for service. Not sure if it’s the same people from the last visit, didn’t seem very with it. Waited over 30 minutes for 3 pizzas when they said it takes 5 minutes. They ran out of mushrooms and are now charging additional for take out boxes. Granted, their pizza is good, but think for price to value, we’ll go to Boston’s Pizza next time. Sorry guys.

2 stars for the bad customer service, 5 STARS FOR THE AWESOME PASTELE STEW.
I called them in the morning to find out if Pastele Stew was on the menu. No one called me back.
Later that morning since I had to go to Safeway, I stopped by Newtown Drive Inn to see if they had Pastele Stew. They did!
I only saw one woman working the food window. I decided to eat there to see how busy she was. She was folding napkins and looking out the window the whole 40 minutes I was there (and I was the only customer she had the whole time I was there). Too busy to return a phone call?

Unilocal 100 Review Challenge 2015: ¹⁷⁄₁₀₀
This is not the same Newtown Drive Inn I remember eating brunch at in High School.
After an intense workout, my friend and I decided to grab brunch in our hometown, Aiea/​Pearl City. I recalled having brunch here several times, back in 2007-​08, before hitting the driving range and felt it would be nostalgic to revisit this small, outside eatery.
I got the 2 eggs (over easy), Portuguese sausage and rice ($ 6) while my friend got the Kim chi fried rice with an over easy egg. Oily, greasy, gross is how I would describe our food. I could hardly woof it down while my friend ended up throwing most of hers away!
This place has become run down! The lighted menu that once illuminated pictures showing their delicious menu is now taken apart revealing electrical wires leaving the entire menu to be handwritten on a white board in front of the order/​pick-​up window. There are so many good eateries in central oahu that this one just doesn’t make the cut.

Though there are so many yummy places to eat on the Leeward side, my husband and I wanted to try somewhere new. We also wanted to go somewhere close to home. We thought we’d found the perfect place when we came across Newtown Drive Inn on Unilocal.It looked like there was a variety of delicious dishes.
However, when we got there, we were disappointed to find that there were maybe seven things on the menu plus a handful of expensive pizzas. We were disappointed that many of the things we’d wanted to order were no longer available.
I ordered the hamburger steak on fried rice and my husband got chicken katsu curry. The hamburger seemed homemade but it was on the small side. The fried rice was good enough. On the other hand, the chicken katsu was dry and the curry was mediocre.
It was kind of entertaining to watch people at the driving range while waiting for our food, but only for a few minutes.
Who knows, if they expend their menu, we might just go back again. But until then, we’ll stick to the places we know and love.

Great service! Such a nice team there. Good pastele stew. But just a heads up, they garnish it off with onions, tomatoes and cilantro. So if you don’t care for any of these in your pastele stew, you may want to let them know. We also tried their Truffle Pizza which was pretty dang good! Definitely a go to spot for take out dinner for sure! So trying their Kim Chee rice next time.

We had the chicken katsu plate and a cheeseburger with fries. My son added bacon and onions. The burger was ono! It had some kind of tasty sauce and the bun was grilled. The thin cut fries were really good. My daughter loves the katsu!
What caught my eye is their pizza oven. It’s huge. I definitely will be back to try the pizza.

Where else has pastele stew everyday besides the side of the road? Lol well this place does and prepare to go to sleep after because they are not shy on the helpings

This is a repost of a Newtown Driving Range review:
So — January 2015 … I was practicing my golf game at Newtown driving range, and my mouth was all ready for the Korean lady’s excellent spicy pork plate lunch. SHOCKER! The Korean concession is gone and a NEW restaurant has replaced them. I didn’t see any signs, but when I asked, the girl I talked to said they are calling themselves «Newtown Drive Inn».
Dang it. I hate it when places I like close.
Disappointed (no spicy pork, then — crap!) I looked at the surprisingly extensive menu. They seem to specialize in loco mocos. Kalua pig moco, sliced ribeye moco, pastele moco (?) and the standard hamburger steak moco. «Haleiwa-​style» shrimp … I had to try this place.
Excellent. Awesome. Superb. I’m not taking anything away from the fine Korean plates that WERE served there last year. But this stuff is GREAT.
The pastele stew is the best I’ve had anywhere. The spicy garlic shrimp was cooked PERFECT (every other plate lunch that featured shrimp cooks them into rubber eraser consistency). The sliced ribeye swimming in gravy reminded me of Yoshinoya Beef Bowl — a restaurant chain in California that FOR THE LIFE OF ME, I cannot figure out why someone hasn’t brought here, to Hawaii.
I’m looking forward to the next time my golf game needs a tune up, just so I can eat at this place again. Highly recommended. A– food at C+ prices. Chance ‘em!!!

Super Secret: I have a confession to make. I only go to the driving range because I want to eat french fries. Shhhhhh don’t tell my boyfriend. He thinks I go along to be supportive and let’s lead him on for as long as humanly possible so he’ll continue to pay for my deep fried addiction.
Not only do they serve up some tasty french fries at Newtown Drive Inn, but I was surprised to see they have a full breakfast menu starting at 7 am. It’s old school comfort food so leave the diet at home along with any expectations of healthy fare. You’re getting good old heart clogging cholesterol filled gut building eats! Teri burgers seem pretty popular here and I’ll probably get one next time we’re at the range. What I thought was great as well is that the dining area is really clean and very well kept. Happy eatin’!