Hula Dog

It was good, but not incredible. Maybe too hyped. Honestly, it tasted very similar to Costco’s, except Costco doesn’t have all those tropical relishes (which I found to be too sweet anyway).

We aren’t exactly Hula Dog connoisseurs but as far as a $ 6.70 tropical polish dog with lemon-​garlic sauce, papaya relish & hawaiian mustard goes — its pretty good. I wanted to go vegetarian but am not partial to soy/​tofu dogs. Keisha was friendly and quick. Mahalo!

My friends and I decided to do a little north shore shopping trip and pick up some Aloha trucker hats and see if there was any cute swimsuits out. I had been wanting try hula dog for quite some time. I ordered the bacon taro dog with lilikoi mustard and starfruit relish. It was phenomenal. I really loved it. It was so huge that I made it into a meal and a snack. This little food truck is awesome. I definitely recommend. Everything is so different about anything you try here. A foodie lover’s dream. Best dog in my life.

Fast & friendly service. Ordered the polish sausage on a taro bun with spicy sauce, mango relish & tangy mustard. Bland. I think it was just bad ordering on my part. Oh well. Next time, I’ll order a spicier sauce (maybe the extra hot) and tangier relish to up the flavor.

Polish dog with taro bun and mango relish and mango mustard FTW! Everything goes so well together! Sweet and savory! The taro bun has bits of bacon pieces in it too! If you’re ever in the mood for hot dog then come to this spot in the North Shore!

I was not at all impressed with this specific Hula Dog. I’ve had their hot dogs before when they were in Waikiki, and I thought they were delicious. Needless to say, my visit today was beyond disappointing… and I will not be coming here again.
I don’t know if it was just a bad day, but there were HUNDREDS of flies flying around their truck. Very unappetizing. Regardless, I really wanted one because of my long ago previous experience with the company (not this location), so I ordered and took it to go. The bread itself was hard in random spots, and there was barely any lemon garlic sauce inside. Needless to say, I ended up eating the hotdog and throwing the bread away to the chickens in the McDonalds parking lot. Definitely not worth the $ 7 I paid… let alone $ 2. Save yourself and go get a hot dog from Costco for $ 1.50. On another note, my cousin ordered the strawberry lemonade, and she took one sip of it and said she wasn’t drinking it because it tasted «off». I tried it, and that is exactly what it tasted like. It was almost as if they squeezed a lemon into weird tasting water and added very artificial flavored strawberry syrup… hence why we ended up at McDonalds where I had the chance to feed the chickens my stale bread. Again, save yourself the money and go get a freshly squeezed lemonade with real strawberries from McDonalds… for cheaper!

Super cute concept, delicious veggie dogs (my favorite) and creative relishes and condiments. It’s located in a beautiful area of Haleiwa and close to tons of shops/​places to walk around.
I would give 5 stars but the past few times I’ve gone, the workers were awful. They have an attitude and act like they’re doing the biggest favor for you. No aloha spirit.

Normally the workers here are fast and efficient, I just had to have the weird lady take my order. She kept questioning the choices I made on my hula dog and was so ridiculous that the person behind me left and went to storto’s down the road to eat because she was giving me such a hard time.
She burnt my hula dog and she didn’t even put all the choices I wanted inside. Two stars until I come back and I get better customer service. LOL

This place is AMAZING! We drove by and saw the sign saying it was on the food network, and knew we had to check it out! My boyfriend ordered the polish sausage dog with 3 different types of relish and the Hawaiian mustard, and my god it was the best hot dog we’ve ever ate! This is a must go while in north shore!!!

I’m going to have to be the black sheep here and say I’m not a fan. In fact, thinking about the hot dog I ate earlier is still making me feel sick.
The sauce might have been off. The hot jalapeño or the hot chili special sauce was definitely not spicy at all. I think my order was completely wrong, because I ordered papaya relish but swear it was pineapple. I also ordered onion relish and there was not a trace of onion (I even asked the girl to double check if she put them and she said yes). The liliko’i mustard did not have a strong flavor. All together the sauces mixed into a sweet wet cocktail that drowned the bottom half of my dog.
I love my hot dogs crispy on the outside, hot and juicy inside. The hula dog was well hung in terms of size, but it was lukewarm and wet. Like it was pulled out of a tub of bath water. The wet dog just slide around in all the sauce and made me end up without the right meat, bun, sauce ratio. It was like bobbing for sausages.
The bun was good, and the concept of bread wrapping and caressing my dog the whole way round is a good one. But it was a lot of bread. The taro bacon taste was good though.
The girl working the counter was sweet but I felt like working was secondary to her social life. She was on her cell phone when we walked up, then busy talking to her friend who came up to the window.
I felt queasy after I ate there and have no desire to go back. My stomach was built for eating Mexican hot dogs off the street in Nogales with no issues. True story…

The concept is well designed– drill a hole and put sauce on it– then hotdog cap it with sauce. The hotdog are really good and the bread gives a equal taste that somehow improves each bite you get. The only caveat i have is the bottom part of the bun. Since the bread is longer than the hotdog. Thats 1 star off. The other is taken off of the location. The place is on the middle of one if the busiest place in the city. So parking is a hard thing. The worst thing about it all is that they dont have a restroom access to public– on top of that when you ask the people working on the other stands rmthey seems to have this bad aura– yeah this is the place i felt like they dont have the aloha spirit.
Again love the food. Hate the location.

Just as I remembered from my first taste in Kauai. You have a choice of a huge polish or veggie dog stuffed into a taro, wheat or white bun and lotsa condiments including the quintessential ketchup and mustard. What makes it different and delicious are the choices of relishes which include, mango, papaya, pineapple and other island choices.
Definitely try a hula dog. You won’t be disappointed.
Oh and the lemonade is fresh and perfectly sweetened. A must refreshment drink in the warm Hale’iwa temps.

I think it’s definitely the relish and mustard combo that fuel the hype around this hotdog stand.
The woman serving up my order was on the phone the entire time, realized she made my order wrong, then rushed as she made the correction… Customer service not on point.
My thoughts on the food:
–The taro/​bacon bun tasted like any other bread
–The veggie dog (wasn’t going for a 100% vegetarian order) didn’t stand out
–The relish was good but mine had way too much squeezed into the bun (hence the rushing) so I ended up squeezing a lot of it out
It was definitely nice to try once but I don’t think this food truck would be my first pick next time around.

I actually really liked this place. The prices were also super reasonable. The lemonade was very good as well as the hot dog with taro bread. All of that can be had for less than $ 10.

When you see a food truck on the side of the road with a giant sign that reads «Anthony Bordain Loves Us,“you do what any sane foodie would do, slam on the brakes and hope your car slides into the nearest parking space. I know I’m getting ahead of myself here but If I ever run into Anthony, the first thing I’m going to ask him is, «what were you thinking?!!»
While the name is kind of cute and the staff are very friendly, I cannot in good conscious give them more than 2 stars because the hula dog I ate here was just disgusting. Too sweet, too messy, yuck! I ordered a med. hot polish sausage, in a taro bacon bun with papaya relish. With each bite, more and more sauce oozes out all over your hands, and face. This is by far one of the messiest things I’ve eaten in my life, and if it was utterly delicious, I could overlook the mess. Unfortunately, everything is so overpowered by sweetness, it was more of a dessert hot dog than it was a satisfying lunch.
I won’t be back. No way! If you insist on eating here, ask them what the least sweet relish/​sauce is and get the spiciest dog they have to offset the sweetness.
You have been warned.

About 5 years ago, in Kauai, there was a place called Puka Dogs. I believe it is still there. This was my very first experience with this concept. Although I did find it a bit bready, the dog was still a bit longer than the bun. The sauce & relish were great and the perfect mix of flavors. I’ve been craving it ever since. Especially when we go to food truck rallies here at home and I always say that there should be a Puka Dog truck.
Imagine how happy I was to find Hula Dogs on the North Shore during our last visit to Oahu this October. Same concept, same relishes, same mustards. Total knock-​off except that Hula offers a taro bun. So my husband and I order to dogs because I was not going to share. This was going to be all mine!
Sadly, the similarities ended with the copycat menu. It wasn’t bad. Don’t get me wrong. But first of all, the dog was totally lost in the bun. My first and last bite was just bread. Additionally, although the mango relish & lilikoi mustard were as delish as I remembered, the dog was just swimming in the sauces. Seriously, there was just so much of it that it was dripping all over the place.
I may still go back to Hula Dogs to get my fix. But I will probably ask them to not over do it on the condiments or maybe ask if I can get them on the side.

We stumbled upon Hula Dog during one of our stops while exploring the North Shore. We were super full but were sold on sharing something since it was different and they were featured on the Travel Channel and Bourdain’s No Reservations.
So this is how you order–
1. Pick a kind of dog– Polish or Veggie.
2. Pick a secret sauce– original, jalepeno, chili pepper, habanero.
3. Pick a relish– mange, coconut, pineapple, banana, papaya, star fruit. There is also ketchup, mustard, sweet pickle relish, hawaiian mustard and lilkoi or guava.
It was hard to decide what to get so we went with what was what most popular in the Unilocal tips! We had a polish dog in a taro bacon bun with mango relish and lilikoi (passion fruit) mustard. Yup it was a mix of sweet and salty, in a good way. The polish dog seemed to have experience some shrinkage so it kind of small compared to the bun. You probably could have fit two weenies in the soft bun, even with all the sauce. The bun was good, I like the taro flavor but didn’t taste much bacon. With both sauces pumped into the bun it got a little messy. Both sauces were good but you really only need one since both are sweet– mango and passion fruit. The Hula Dog was good and I’m glad we got to try it but I think next time I’ll save more space and stick with the shrimp trucks. (But great find if your not into the shrimp trucks or any of the other food trucks around!)

A MUST TRY!
The dogs are full of flavor. They take a bun and remove part of the middle from the top. They then put the sauces and everything else inside. Lastly they add the dog as all the sauces look like lava flowing out. The taro bread with bacon is heavenly. That alone would have been delicious enough. The mango relish along with the lilikoi mustard to finish it all off…
I can barely finish this review thinking about the food.
My advice, Just Go Get ONE!

I jumped on the chance to try Hula Dog while in Oahu because I had something similar on a previous trip to Kauai (and it was AMAZINGGGG).
The bacon taro bun was delicious and perfectly toasted to get that crispiness inside. The polish sausage was good as well! The «spicy» wasn’t spicy at all. I got both mango relish and lilikoi mustard which I ended up regretting because they put a TON of sauce and my hot dog ended up being so sickly sweet. I had to squeeze a lot of the relish and mustard out.
Don’t get me wrong– it was pretty dang good and definitely something «different» but I’ve had better variations of this type of hot dog. Next time I’d probably adjust my order and ask them to go easy on the sauces.

During a hike my friend asked if I wanted a hula dog. Food?! Of course I do!
Located in the middle of Haleiwa Town, it is one of the food trucks almost across from the First Hawaiian Bank. Parking is right in front, but if you can’t find a spot, there’s many places to park, but you might have to walk.
They have a step by step ordering sign. Very simple to follow. First you start with your bread, then your dog, then a special sauce, next is the relish, and finally the traditional stuff like ketchup or what they have to offer. The service is fast!
The owner was there. She was very friendly. Even came out to talk stories with us. If you mention that you’re Kama’aina, you’ll get 10% off.
I had the taro bacon bun, polish dog, original garlic lemon secret sauce, mango relish and lilikoi sauce (instead of ketchup/​mustard). It was delicious! I do say try it!