Kealani’s

I’ve only had their chicken dishes. I’ve yet to try the kalua pork dish. So far the dishes I’ve had have been really good. And I like that this is close to my home.

I went here after another restaurant was closed, thinking it would be similar to L&L’s Hawaiian BBQ. My boyfriend and I got the chicken katsu with Mac and rice. We were shocked when the chicken tasted like frozen chicken tenders, even the Mac was bland and a waste of calories. How do you mess up fried chicken and Mac? I asked for extra sauce because I love to dip, but ended up not using any of it because it tasted like ketchup. We were pretty shocked… Not sure if L&L’s is just over the top amazing or if kaelani’s is just a place for tourists to go to get ripped off. Lastly, they only take cash.

This Resturant is very clean and the employees are super nice. Easy to get to and great location but the food was plain Jane. My family is from Hawaii and we have tasted/​tried out different places before. This place is below average for me.

good hawaiian plate lunches but id stick with the bbq chicken. tender, very good marinade, could be a bit more charred, but way better than their beef jerky like short ribs.

Great authentic Hawaiian local food and as good as it gets he Huli Huli chicken is authentic as well as the rice and Mac salad I love the amount of food u get for the price as well and it’s great if your looking for the Hawaiian vibe too great customer service as well stoked this place is still going!

The malasadas are awesome. Really good. They have a decent, but small, selection of Hawaiian trinkets and goods as well. The food was ok. I had Kalua pork and no complaints. My companions had other dishes, like chicken katsu, which won’t be going down in the record books but the service was fast. I can’t give it more than 3 stars because the restaurant itself has a dingy feel. It seemed overall clean, but couldn’t help noticing it was a bit on the run down side. But again, if you’re searching for good malasadas, who cares? For that, I’d choose Kalani’s over L&L. They were good!

I worked here for, like, a week and being born and raised from Hawaii, this food does not cut it.
— Small portions
— Unauthentic food (example: chicken cutlet is supposed to be chicken katsu, but topped with brown gravy, not that frozen peice of school lunch chicken)
— Speaking of frozen foods, that’s basically everything they serve
— Dirty place (nats everywhere because of sticky surfaces)
One good thing I like is that they sell Hawaii merchandise including clothes, packaged food, and trinkets.

Been to other Hawaiian restaurants and this, by far, has the most plain food there is. Great location, give them that, clean and authentic looking too, but the food needs improvement. Service is typical, nothing wow about it. Parking could be horrible, depending what day and time, because it’s street parking next to the beach. Ordered chicken katsu, ahi poke, and mahi burger. The katsu tasted like any katsu from a cheaper restaurant, the poke was bland, and so was the burger. Wish there were more seasonings. It just seemed like something was missing in each of their food. Don’t think a second trip will be happening anytime soon.

This was bad. My boyfriend and I went there today looking for a nice lunch and this was not it.
I ordered a mini Kalbi Ribs and a side of french fries. My boyfriend got the Mochiko Chicken. Not worth the $ 25 we both spent in total here.
I only got the Kalbi because the cashier recommended it and said it was good. It really sucked. My ribs were very chewy and drenched in teriyaki sauce. The meat tasted old, like it was reheated and not made fresh. The teriyaki sauce also seems generic and store bought. My boyfriends chicken was over cooked and dry tasting. There was also a hint of it not being fresh.
Have you ever reheated meat the next day in a microwave and its just not the same texture or taste? Yep, that’s how I felt eating here.
The rice was also old tasting, with bits of harder chunks on the edges. Im asian and I eat lots of rice… so this was unacceptable.
The Macaroni salad was bland as well. A bit peppery as well.
The only thing that tasted good and fresh was the french fries. She delivered the fries first and after trying it I was so excited to taste the entrée, thinking it was going to be as good and the fries. I was SO WRONG.
I can’t believe I paid of this «Hawaiian food.» I could have just bought a dollar cookie next door at ⁷⁄₁₁ and i would have been way happier.
Ohh and the water tasted like there was either no filter or the filter hadn’t been replaced in a while. It had a distinct dirty tap water taste.

Dirty, Hot, won’t take cards. My loco moco was served on paper… the gravy ripped up the paper and before I knew it I was eating loco moco out of a plastic tray dripping Gravy and had chunks of paper all in it. This place could be really great. It just seriously needs to be cleaned and how they serve their food needs to be thought about because mine was ruined from all the paper they served it on. It wasn’t edible halfway through the meal unless I wanted to be eating paper and out of a plastic basket that who knows how many people had touched before me.

Dirty, hot place! When ordered a drink, I was told fridge was broken. Drink was warm. Really? Portions were small, taste was fair. Employee talked about quiting as we eat! Last time for us…

Alas, like most things of our «Youth,» not as good as I remembered. Maybe an off day for the cook… but still good enough to keep us coming back!

For a little taste of Hawaii on the mainland this is the place.
I love the Kalua Pig brada!
And the teriyaki chicken salad is great for those looking to keep the calories low.
But remember the cash they don’t take plastic!

Ok, I have gone here for years and loved the place. But things seemed to have gone downhill. The Teri Chicken tasted like it was boiled… all soggy and wet. Nasty. Mac Salad is still pretty good but not quite the way I remember it. Also, I walked into the manager/​owner (?) yelling at the cashier. She looked at me and didn’t even say Hi. I may try one more time… I hope they can turn it around!

A go to anytime before the beach. The food is great for being main land Hawaiian.
They are reasonably priced, and they have a great selection of specialty items for purchase from Hawaii that you can’t find else where.
Their mini is big enough to keep you full all day.
only down side is cash only, so it requires a little planning. In today’s world cash only is a killer to a business

We ordered the kaibi ribs and a passion orange guava drink. On the other side of the restaurant they have a little shop with kona coffee, clothes and the like.
The restaurants next to the 7 – 11 and there were a few big rigs in the parking alley (blocking my view. Of me people watching :(The booths are decorated like little huts. My mom had asked the young lady to put the fan on inside. Even though we were near the door, it was hot today! When our food came we split it, it came with white rice & macaroni salad. My ribs were juicy and fell off the bones as I bit into them. The sauce was teriyaki sweet sauce really tasty. It did have some fat on it, then when o tried moms. Hers was overcooked. I really had to chew. Not consistent on how they cook.
We also ordered a shaved ice with cherry and watermelon. They hooked up the syrup

I really liked the Kalua pork here. It wasn’t dry like some of the other reviews have said. It was moist and had a lot of flavor. I also got the spamasubi which I loved because they were very generous with the portion of the rice. The Mac salad was alright, kinda tasted plain but I only had a little so it didn’t bother me.
Parking literally took me 20 minutes since they don’t have a private lot– just all street parking, so that was the only downside. Everything else was great to me.

Hawaiian BBQ how I love you so!
The food here was okay. It was not terrible and at the same time nothing to memorable. The chicken was moist & the fish was dry. The portions were generous for the price. On the plus side the people were friendly!

Food is really good. I love their rice and teriyaki sauce. Their a little shiesty with soy sauce.

It’s not fantastic, but it’s not horrible. The taste is almost there, but it does have a number of problems. It may be better as a two star place, but I liked it enough to keep it at three. So, how was Kealani’s?
I had the Chicken Katsu, where the cutlet was small and thin, making it dry out after cooking. The katsu sauce was good, but it should have something thick and juicy to go along with it. The mac salad and rice that went along with it was standard, not homemade with some zest and character, but kinda like it came out of a pre made tub.
My love had the Kalbi Ribs which also had a good sauce and taste, but the cut on the ribs was near paper thin and one of them was obviously from the end of the rib where half of the meat was crisp fat. I don’t really mind a bit of fat, but seriously, half of the entire rib was a thin strip of near see-​through fat.
We also got a Kalua Pork Musubi to split, where the pork had a good smoke to it and was prepped well. I would have liked a bit of sweet teriyaki to go with it, but we stole some from the kalbi to drip on it.
So, the basic gripe about this place is that it kind of feels everything is coming out of a kit. The rice, macaroni salad, the meat, and the sauces, everything is kinda store bought and pre made. Thankfully, the sauce is damn tasty for pre made, but the sides are not. And, the biggest gripe, the cuts of meat are WAY to small. There’s no shame in having a mini plate consist of one cutlet or just a few ribs, but at least make sure that what little meat is there is enough to feed even an 18 month old.
Yeah, my baby went away a little hungry.
Still, I do have to say the Kalbi was very well cooked, thumbs up for that alone. If only everything else could have been at least 4-​star in taste along with it.
EDIT: My girlfriend spent some time going through the pics from other Unilocal reviewers and she pointed out that current shots of the food, compared to past shots of the food, show a decisive contrast in portion size. Apparently Kealani’s has started using much smaller cuts while keeping prices the same. If this is because of the economy or greed or laziness or whatever, it is worth noting…