Hawaiian Drive-Inn

I just wanted to add that the staff here are so nice. They really make you feel as if you are in Hawaii. This time we ordered the lava chicken and before we even began eating, she told us that if it was too spicy for our liking that she would make us something else. Of course the chicken was so good, not too spicy, and mouth-​watering delicious. The employees really have that Hawaiian friendly vibe.

***Review is based on service only.
We came in 30 minutes prior closing time. There were a couple customers waiting for their food and we were standing for a while looking at the menu trying to decided what to order. The guy finally comes out to tell use they were closed. Closed?! Your website and door says your open for another 30 minutes. «Oh well there were no customers earlier» okay, next time learn to say sorry and put up a sign or lock the door if you decide to close early!

this place was close to the hotel where we were staying at. so we decided to give this place a try since there wasn’t much choices of food places to choose from in the small town of Alameda. the people that works there was really really nice!
i ordered «Andrew’s BBQ Mix Plate». it was delicious! very flavorful and filling too! i forgot what my friends ordered but they all like their food too.
so happy that we came across this place. will definitely come back if I’m visiting again!

This is the best «local» food in the bay area! Not a Chinese person in sight behind the counter (I’m not trying to be racist, they just seem to own every «Hawaiian BBQ» joint in the east bay.) There were actually Hawaiians working there.
I had the loco moco and it was amazing. The burger was made in house, which in should be 5 stars itself. The gravy was actually gravy and not brown salt water thickened with a cornstarch slurry (like every other «Hawaiian BBQ» restaurant). And most important the rice was mushy calrose rice like back home!!! Thats how you can tell it was a real Hawaii BBQ. If you’re not from Hawaii you wont understand. I can honestly say that this place was almost as good as Like Like Drive Inn, in Ala Moana. I can’t wait to go back.

Great people, great prices, ono kine grinds!
This place was great! We missed out on the fresh malasadas, but we struggled on… :-)
I had lava chicken and teri pork chop. Both were great, the chicken had a good Kim chee like kick. The pork had freshly made teri sauce on it. It was nice cause the sauce wasn’t syrupy sweet, nice salt and sweet mix. I also had broccoli instead of the Mac salad… and it was nice.
My girlfriend had the garlic shrimp… And was quite disappointed. Now, I know that we are not having fresh shrimp truck love from the North Shore, but these were weak. The garlic and onions were fresh, but the shrimp were rubber. They must have bought them already cooked and then over cooked them, or boiled them a week ago, kept them in the fridge, then cooked them again. Either way, gross. But she did like the Mac salad.
We also had the sweet potato fries. Which were incredible. I asked for that teri sauce for a dip, and it was soooo kine, yeah! Have to go back for that…
Love it and I’ll be back… I just will skip the shrimp.

This is what Hawaiian food should be. I’d pit Hawaiian Drive-​Inn against most any place in Hawaii. Thankfully I live almost 700 miles away from here, otherwise I’d be visiting every single day. Despite that I’m seriously considering finding another reason to get back to down to the Bay Area just to be able to nosh here.
I luckily came late enough to miss the lunch rush from the school, but despite that, service was still very attentive and food was served quickly.
One of the best things here though was the musubi. I LOVE musubi in all it’s forms, and their’s is by far one of the best. Not to mention HUGE portions that are a meal in themselves.
Everything else I tried here over two visits not only met expectations, but exceeded them. They’re worth the drive out of your way if need be, and is well worth risk to your life by driving through Oakland.

Wow! I still can’t get over the incredible food and service I received this past weekend on a large catering order. I had never eaten here (big risk) but had heard great things about the catering. Specifically that you got a good value for good quality food. This place was not overhyped.
We had a party of 50 people and received many compliments on how good the food was. We ordered Lava Chicken and Teriyaki Steak and put in chafing dishes for the main. We also ordered rice, spam masubi, lumpia and macaroni salad… all great. We even had food left over.
I was a little worried when I placed my order with a young sounding high school student but was reassured when an older woman called me the day before to confirm my order and was honest that I had plenty of food to feed my party and she would not recommend ordering more. She even made sure the spam masubi was cut in half so everyone could have a piece.
I also really appreciated the young man who helped me bring my order to my car. He was so nice and genuinely wanted to make sure that my order made it safely to my car and that I had everything.
Hawaiian Drive-​Inn will be my catering ‘go to’ moving forward. Thank you!

This was my first time visiting this location… and I was beyond disappointed…
It would have been useful for someone to have mentioned that this place is RIGHT IN FRONT of a high school that obviously has off-​campus lunches (if someone DID mention this in a previous review, maybe I just didn’t see it).
Had I been aware of that… I would not have gone today.
I was extremely disappointed as all I wanted to order was a simple MINI order of the BBQ Chicken with just rice, since I’m not a huge macaroni or cabbage fan. What I got was a very hastily thrown together SINGLE (should have been double since I didn’t get the macaroni) scoop of rice, and a mere two extremely thin, bland two-​and-​a-​half to three-​inch long pieces of chicken. The rice did not taste right, the chicken was rubbery…
Perhaps I’ll give this place another shot when school is NOT in session.

My in-​laws are always asking me for something. I don’t let it bug me as I’m used to it after 10 plus years of marriage. I guess back in November I promised them that I would feed their church group on some random Sunday in February. Fast forward to 1^st week of February and I totally forgot and had to scramble.
I called Hawaiian Drive due to Unilocal reviews and location. I talked with Mai about the various plates and asked her if she could whip up 80 plates (it was Wednesday and the event was Sunday). She said no problem and called me back the next day with a quote and menu selection.
I arrived on Sunday to pick up and Mai had all the plates boxed up, labeled and loaded onto a cart for easy transport to my car!
The group raved about the food. I loved the garlic shrimp dish and thought the macaroni salad was nice and not too «mayo-​ey». The steak plate was delicious too. They are known for their chicken but I didn’t get any as people were swooping down on the plates like crazy!
This place not only has great food but excellent customer service.

The burgers here actually *taste* like Hawaii, if that makes sense. I lived in Kailua for a few weeks last year, and I swear most of the burgers I got at dingy restaurants and greasy spoons tasted exactly the same.
Which is, not to say, exactly a good thing.
While the ‘comfort food’ factor is large, the fact is the burgers here are entirely average at best. The accompanying side of sweet potato fries are decent, but not enough to compensate for the rest of the meal.
So why come here? Two reasons — it quite literally is a perfect example of the type of fare (and atmosphere) you’d get in a small restaurant in Hawaii — and it’s DIRT CHEAP.
Burgers are $ 2 – 3. Larger fried meals clock in around $ 6 – 7. Two people can easily eat for under $ 15 with no problem. Your stomach might not forgive you later, but your wallet certainly will.

Great service and has a lunch special! The lunch special/​Happy Hour is from 2 – 5 M-​F.
Try their Spam Musubis and also their delicious Lava Chicken. Their mac salad is pretty bomb. They do charge a fee for CC purchases less than $ 8 I think?

Happy Hour:
tiki menu 3 dollas from 2 – 5 mon — fri
+ great service w/​out door seating
+ decent food
+ cheap prices $ 5 – 8 bucks /​plate
I like to eat Hawaiian food and pretend I’m back in Hawaii on vacay. I went in with a small group a few minutes before they closed and they were very accommodating. I had the garlic shrimp over white rice w/​macaroni. It was yummy… but something was lacking.
This place hasn’t earned 5 stars from me just yet since it didn’t quite live to my high expectations, but I would definitely return for the great service, environment, and give the rest of their menu a chance.
Aloha

This place is a typical fast food Hawaiian place. The reason for the low stars? Because the macaroni salad was not good! I’m comparing it to L&L Hawaiian BBQ and Ono Hawaiian BBQ. The macaroni salad makes the plate! Everyone can make chicken katsu or chicken teriyaki. That’s the easy stuff. And and no cabbage to go along with it. What’s goin on? Also, the arty spam loco moco was very salty. The gravy was so salty and tasted funny. Yuck. I rather go to a big chain where they do it right.
They have college shirts up on the wall. Dont know what they mean though cause they have signatures on it from random people? A little confused.

Pretty good Hawaiian BBQ. Probably one of the better ones in the east bay, but i’m not really picky with it. When it comes to Hawaiian food, all I ask is that -
1. The mac not make me sick.
2. The loco moco not be dry.
3. The spam musubi not be mushy.
Happy to say Hawaiian Drive-​Inn was not guilty of any of that. Lava chicken was ok. The kalua pork was tender. And I’m looking forward to trying the Lau Lau’s next time.
My only gripe is that if you shouldn’t call yourself a drive-​inn if there is close to nowhere to park in the area.

First, let me state that this joint is family owned which I really like and they serve quite a varied menu, including Pandam waffles (green HK Waffle in other words) and other Hawaiian desserts.
My hubby and I were luck to find them open the day after Christmas, due to someone else reserving the place for a large group. We were allowed to dine until about 7pm.
Ordered:
1 Mixed plate with BBQ chicken and Kalbi
1 mixed plate Volcano or some type of spicy BBQ chicken and chicken katsu
1 Hawaiian styled donut holes with powdered sugar instead of crystal (made fresh btw)
Aside from the spicy BBQ chicken dish, the Kalbi was practically inedible due to being so tough and chewy. The Katsu was average and the BBQ chicken lacked in the grilled flavor that L&L had. I also have to say both of us still prefer the Macaroni salad from L&L as they add some pepper to it.
Now the donut holes on the other hand were warm and delicious. I was a bit disappointed that they had not prepared any Pandam waffles that day as that was my main reason for wanting to go.
Overall, it’s family owned, the service was very friendly and we didn’t wait too long. The food to me was just average, although I still have yet to try the Masubi’s and the rest of the desserts. But by all means do come down and try this place as everything’s very fresh and there’s a good variety to be tried.

Mmmmmmm… I love this place too, for Hawaiian BBQ. Perhaps one of the only reasons why I frequent L&L more than this place is because of proximity – L&L is pretty close to my house, and Hawaiian Drive-​Inn is all the way across the island. For a quick lunch, sometimes I just don’t feel like taking a longer trek than I need to.
In terms of ambiance, I really like this place a lot more. The decorations are fun and kooky. The food is good too! I’ve tried the spam saimin (YES, I do love spam!) and their katsu chicken. Now that I think about it, I should come here more often. The food here is great!
Ah, and also, parking is hard to find in this area. That’s another reason. But don’t let that deter you from some good Hawaiian BBQ!

I LOVE MUSUBI!!!
And the musubi here is deliciously made. It’s not very hard to make, but the meat was perfectly cooked, and that makes a big difference between okay musubi and awesome musubi. My friends and I got the BBQ chicken musubi and spam musubi, and they were gone before you knew it.
I also got a guava-​mango smoothie here, and it was amazing as well. It was cute that the bill came in a little coconut shell. Prices are pretty average/​affordable here, and service was very friendly.
I’m going to Hawaii in less than two weeks for a 2-​month internship, so my view of this place might change, but hopefully this place will hold its own so that when I come back, I’ll be able to come here for a taste of authentic island food. =D

So I found a coupon in one of those mailers and they proudly proclaimed that they now have Mochiko Chicken. Coupon was for $ 3.99 Mochiko Chicken plate.
Mochiko Chicken?!? Google search revealed fried chicken coated with a mochiko (sweet rice flour used to make mochi) batter with shoyu (Japanese soy sauce), garlic, and green onions (among other things). Garlic, salt, and fried chicken? 3 of my favorite things!
Came early to avoid the high school lunch rush and ordered the plate plus a Spam musubi.
First out was the Spam musubi. Relatively thin slice of Spam (
) which had a nice fried crusty surface which tasted great. The rice, though, was undercooked. Each grain had a slightly hard center. I wasn’t looking forward to the plate.
Wow, big serving of chicken (
)!! Luckily it appeared the rice on the plate lunch was from a different batch and was fully cooked. The macaroni salad was good; not too mayo-​ey. The chicken was just OK. Tasted a little bland; I expected more flavor from the shoyu and garlic. The smaller pieces also were dry so I asked if they had any sauce I could use and they gave me some of their katsu sauce which helped.
While I was eating they brought out 2 little donut hole type things (mini-​malasadas?
). It was a cute touch, but they were undercooked and doughy in the centers :(
Maybe 2.5 stars overall and still ranks 3^rd for my Alameda Hawaiian ranking behind Ohana and L&L.

I was a little hesitant to try this place after seeing SPAM referred to as «Sliced Hawaiian steak» on their menu… but I’m not one to judge a place without trying their food. In short, this is my take on the place:
I was disappointed that they didn’t have any haupia or laulau!
I didn’t really care for their mac salad because it tasted like something you can buy from Costco or Raleys or Safeway.
However, their kalua pig was on point and tasted almost as good as what I can get back home.
Kalbi short ribs were good, and so was their teriyaki steak.
And their portions were HUGE!
I’d have to say that this place was better than some of the other «chain Hawaiian restaurants» I’ve tried like L&L and Ohana’s. Will I come back here again? Sure if I’m ever in the area… I’d also recommend this place to anyone who’s in the area and needs to get their local fix.

I’ve never had such huge, plump spam musubi’s before. DELICIOUS! With a little bit of light sauce (soy?) on it. mmm. get it.
Breakfast of champions for me! (Spam, eggs, and rice) SPAM OVERLOAD yum. ready for drinking. So comforting…
No alcoholic beverages here, tho. But you can always drive a few min and hit up the bars nearby :) (Forbidden Island Tiki Lounge!)
EXCELLENT service. Kim’s and Jack’s food came out hella burnt but the chef lady came out to apologize and offered to make new ones. She even gave them more rice and macaroni salad. YAY to leftovers and great customer service.
Very casual, chill layout. Quick bite. I recommend. ALL HAIL SPAM!