Hawaiian Style Café

My favorite is the Hawaiian plate. It is probably the best Hawaiian plate I’ve ever had in a restaurant. Unfortunately, they only serve it on Friday and Saturday and I’m not with it enough to make it to town on those days Bert often.
The breakfasts are also very good.

Everything here is good, except the hamburger, check out the specials where you can find 4 and 5 star gems. Don’t be intimidated by the lines (lines are a good sign right). Service is good, coffee style type service. The price is right.

OMG this place is awesome! Our favorite place to dine on the island. Every meal better than the last. Large portions of delicious food and spectacular service. Mahalo

Second time eating Hawaiian Style Café’s food in 4 days being on island. The morning before I arrived from Honolulu, my brother & sister-​in-​law brought my mom & her husband here for breakfast. I got to eat some of their leftover banana Mac nut & haupia pancakes. I thought they were delicious. The food was so delicious that my sister-​in-​law decided we had to come back again.
I ordered the «Guy’s Portuguese sausage & eggs» plate with white rice & haupia pancakes. WOW. If the leftovers on Saturday was delicious, eating the food hot & fresh was HEAVEN. The haupia cream on the pancakes is to die for. Not overly sweet & they also top it with a dab of whipped cream & shredded coconut. You don’t even need syrup on it. Just be aware that their portions are giant sized. The sides of pancakes are the same size as the oval plates they are served on! We had 2 orders of pancakes between 3 adults & we still filled up 2 full-​sized To-​Go plates of strictly pancakes. It was a struggle for me just to finish my food.
The staff is friendly & very observant. We accidentally dropped one set of utensils on the floor before our food even arrived & one of the bus boys brought over a new one almost immediately. We didn’t even have to wait to ask anyone. Whether you live in Hilo or are just visiting, don’t hesitate to check them out!

Loved this place!!! Portuguese sausage, white rice, scrambled eggs, side of country gravy topped it off. Oh not to mention the huge side of pancakes for your sweet tooth. The staff was super friendly and very efficient. A pleasant find for us.

Great place for good food at a reasonable price! Ordered the Garlic Fries, Wailoa Bowl, and Korean Plate. Everything was delicious and friendly service. Also, the shakes are the best! Ordered a Mango Frosty and Chocolate Shake. The shakes were so good, we went back the next day to get more!

We went there for brunch and there was a short line. We were seated and the table was clean, even the surrounding area. Our table was really close to the next table so it was difficult to have a conversation or to ignore the next tables conversation. The servers were busy but they could have been more attentive. Our server took our order and we did not see her again till it was time to get our check. There was no aloha. The bussers were great. The food was good. The portions are huge but some of the plates we ordered lacked flavor. The pancakes were delicious, I would go back just to try another flavor. Please bring the aloha back so you can earn 5 stars!

The food is awesome! Always tastes good, huge portions. Sorry, only 2 stars because the wait staff sucks! Every time we have been there even we get sat right away the waitresses are very slow and unfriendly. The busboys are on it though… always checking our drinks and refilling our waters.
The last time absolutely did it for us! Took the waitress over 10 minutes to come and take our order after we were seated and placed our closed menus on the side. We ordered A soda and an iced coffee, the wailoa bowl, Kalua pork quesadilla and poke nachos. We received the wailoa bowl and quesadilla… and halfway through finishing our food we overheard the waitress telling the table next to us that their poke nachos were coming up. We wondered where our nachos and drinks were because we were seated before the other table.
When the waitress came around again I asked her to cancel our drinks and the poke nachos. She blamed the cooks for not having our nachos ready and then told us it was coming up and we could take it to go. I really just wanted to cancel the order but felt like she was pushing us to take it. It was upsetting that she blamed the cooks when clearly it was her because she also forgot our drinks. My boyfriend works at a restaurant as a server so he always watches for customer service whenever we go out. We both left very disappointed and will never come here again to sit down in the restaurant to eat. However we will order take out.

Cheap giant portions of authentic local dishes with no pretensions. We ate half of our mok-​asaurus and saimin and literally didn’t eat for 30 hours afterwards. Enough said.

Stopped by for dinner, wasn’t thrilled. The server was very friendly answering questions about ‘li hing mui’ margarita, and let us try the powder, too. We ordered two dishes, The Captain’s Platter, and the Korean Plate. The calamari seemed over-​fried.

Checked this place out for breakfast one morning and showed up for lunch on another day.
The line inside and the folks waiting around outside hinted at the popularity of Hawaiian Style Café.
Our wait was about fifteen minutes before we were seated. Not too bad at all.
Once seated we noticed the clean dining areas and nice décor.
The Mrs and I both ordered eggs, Portuguese sausage, hash browns and split the ginormous Haupia pancakes.
Our fantastic server served up our meals hot and fresh with a big smile and loads of Aloha!
So, the restaurant was clean and well appointed, and our server rocked. But how was the food???
FANTASTIC!!!
We thoroughly enjoyed each bite of our amazing meal.
Eggs= cooked perfectly.
Sausage= bold flavors and delicious.
Hash browns= crispy exterior and tender inside.
Haupia pancakes= OMG these are magical!!! Seriously, these beauties put all other pancakes to shame.
Yes, big portions. But the quality is not compromised at all. So «bigger is better» really does exist!
OK, so we visited for lunch on another day and we we equally impressed.
Again, our server was attentive and super friendly.
This time the Mrs selected the Teriyaki burger and I went with the Kalua pork sammy.
Both entrees were so perfect. Big flavors, cooked on point.
This solid restaurant is a must-​visit when in the Hilo area.

I love this place because I love my regulars. My favorites here are the haupia pancakes, kalua hash, mac salad and lechon. I haven’t really strayed from these dishes because every time I do, it all falls short and disappointment settles in.
Haupia pancakes are huge!!! The batter is pretty good I must say. The pancakes are fluffy and light and topped off with a thick, creamy and sweet haupia topping. I love this dish. Oh and don’t forget that they’re huge because one order is enough for 4 so don’t go ordering 2 orders lol unless you’ve been starving for a week or two, I doubt that you’d be able to finish them.
The kalua hash is one of my fav breakfast items from Hawaiian Style because it’s simplistic and delicious. The kalua pig used in the hash is well seasoned and super tender and it’s served with white rice and two eggs. The patties come corned beef hash patty style, not hash like meat with potatoes and veggies stir fried.
The lechon is my absolute fav! So simple and so tasty. Their lechon is roasted pork tossed with tomatoes and onions in patis (fish sauce) served with rice and some really ono mac salad. I could eat this every day, no joke. The Mac salad is really good as well. It has tuna in it, so if tuna isn’t your thing, I don’t recommend it.
Now let’s talk portions. Omg huge!!! Kanaka sized portions throughout the entirety of the menu. Trust me, you won’t leave hungry.

Massive portions is an understatement.
I crave Hawaiian food when in Hawaii and this place does not disappoint. I just wish i had a belly that was big enough to eat the standard Hawaiian serving size.
I got the fried chicken and short rib combo and had to roll my belly out of the booth.
For a nice cap to the meal, we waddled over to the Big Island Candies at the other end of the parking lot.
Our next stop in Hilo will include a stop here but packing half to go home.

Woah, talk about a KANAK ATTACK! This place does not shy away from huge portion sizes.
My family and I come here for breakfast when we’re in town and they never disappoint. The wait staff are nice, local people.
I usually get some type of benedict (the kalua pig one is my fave!) but this time I decided to get the Two Egg Breakfast w/​Bacon and I substituted fried rice. The plate also came with 2 GINORMOUS pancakes! I would recommend sharing a plate and pancakes. Because you’ll be full with leftovers.
I love this place!

Very good selection. Great service Worth a stop in and check out their specials.
Oh and come hungry. Huge meal

This is Hawaiian comfort food. Amazing service, good food, big portions, what more can you ask for?!? We came here after zip lining near Akaka Falls. The place closes at 2pm so we were rushing from our morning tour.
They had a lot of different things on their menu. I’m not a big fan of sweets, but I had to try their Haupia Cream pancakes because of all the reviews and pictures. It is definitely a must try. It is so delicious and HUGE. Pancakes were really fluffy and the cream was already sweet so we didn’t need to add much syrup. I only ended up eating a fourth cause it was so huge. My boyfriend ordered a version of the loco moco, the one that comes with spam and fried chicken, also very yummy.
Everything was fairly priced (~$ 10). Place was clean and all the workers were very nice. I believe there is another one on the other side of the island in Waimea.
+ HUGE portions

We got seated right before the huge lunch crowd so we had no wait on a Sunday morning. We ordered the Kalua pork hash with fried rice and the haupia pancakes to satisfy both our savory and sweet cravings. The Kalua pork hash was delicious and we got our eggs over easy so we could eat it over the fried rice. Once I had enough of the savory, I switched over to try to make a dent in the ginormous haupia pancakes! It comes with two huge pancakes with haupia syrup, whipped cream, and coconut shreds. The pancakes were fluffy and the sauce was amazing. Since we’re haupia fanatics, we wished the pancakes were also haupia flavored, but think they use the regular pancake batter with the haupia sauce. We tried our best but could only finish one pancake!
Great breakfast and lunch place with lots of local food options.

Go big or go home right? It’s that kind of attitude that prompted me to order the Mok-​A-​Saurus. Would I normally order a loco moco with fried rice, spam, hamburger, kalua pork, chicken cutlet, two eggs and drenched in gravy? Probably not. But hey, I was hungry and on vacation and I freakin love loco moco. Sadly, I only made it through about a third of the deliciousness before I had to call it quits. Fortunately, my family was on deck to the eat the rest, which they totally did. Another plus of not eating the whole thing was that I still had a tiny bit of stomach space left to try my cousin’s haupia pancakes! Omg so amazing!
Last year when I was on the Big Island, I visited the Waimea location which is a lot smaller. The great thing about the Hilo location is that it has the same great food in a bigger setting AND (most importantly) it is conveniently located right next door to the Atebara potato chip factory and a block away from Big Island Candies. Be sure to visit all three — I call that the Hilo trifecta!

Come here instead of Kens if you want the correct teasing of the tropics. They do try to look and feel more café than diner like and their grease is actually manageable (as opposed to Kuhio Grille), which is a plus if you’re like me and make yourself feel way too terrible about grease.
Our go to plates are part of their specialty breakfast menu (not the whiteboard specials):
1) Biscuits and Gravy, and 2) Chicken Fried Steak with Gravy. Always. All day. Mahalo! The gravy is what makes it, takes it, bake yourself in it if you can. Delicious. My man’s fave so he always orders an extra bowl. Sometimes two (and they never give us the stink eye for it; lord knows I would, that’s alotta gravy; they are seriously the sweetest). We don’t know where else to get gravy like this (that doesn’t taste like it came from a box) besides Buns in the Sun in Kona. I will say however, the original Hawaiian Style Café in Waimea serves their biscuits homemade (or at least better) than these here in Hilo. On that note I’ve found that a few of our favorites from Waimea tastes slightly different than Hilo, but I kind of like that. Crazy I know. Shows the true grit of the original location.
Smothered in gravy is the way to go, because the biscuits are still very good. Not the flakiest or chunkiest with two textures like I want, but sufficient and tasty nonetheless. Their chicken fried steak is not theeee best I’ve had either, but it’s still most definitely a winner and very delicious. The peppery batter sets it apart from so many bland steaks, and the meat is more than decent, I was actually pleasantly surprised. And amazing portions. I’d highly recommend it if you like chicken fried steak.
Sodas are free refills :) *snicker
If you get the regular breakfasts they come with a «side» of monster pancakes. More like a house. You’ll hear that they’re so delicious they make you wanna slap your mama… or something like that. No. Just no. They’re just really ridiculously huge pancakes. Sheer size-​mesmerizing, where you revert to being a kid at Christmas again and the biggest toy is the best even when it isn’t. Like who is really that gluttonous? If it’s you, knock yourself out, they do the trick.
TIP: I’ve found that this location is fairly light handed with their eggs. For example, when I order my magical medium cooked egg, with a gooey center like a soft boil, this place will always send me out over easy. So I decided to start ordering «over hard» and voila, ooey gooey yolk has arrived.
So if you run into the same issue, try ordering rarer.
Today I actually tried something different, the Kalua hash, two eggs and fried rice. Asked for «over hard» eggs and got my perfect medium. But! The fried rice was disappointing and one dimensional. Not undoable, but not worth it. I was wishing it’d turn white the entire time. The Kalua hash however was much better than I ever expected. I really liked it and could totally do it again or maybe I’ll see if they can do a Kalua hash loco moco, if they haven’t already. Nix the fried rice – this is the kind of hash that needs to be eaten with white rice anyway; if you’re local you get it – and then some gravy would make it perfect. It states on the menu that the dish is their «specialty» and I am going to assume they only mean the Kalua hash because that’s what I can sell. So I would definitely recommend you try it if you like Kalua pork and local style hash browns and wanna see them married. Photo below.
The service is ALWAYS impeccable and friendly, and truly Hawaiian style. This is rare for me to state, people. But they are just sooo nice.

5 stars for their Haupia crème pancake!!! Don’t get the Hawaiian plate from here tho, it was the worst Hawaiian plate I’ve ever had in my entire life :/​Everything on the Hawaiian plate was tasteless and terrible. Idk why that plate was so horrible when their other food is decent to exceptional. I’ve eaten here about a dozen times and I’ve tried almost everything on the menu. Their Stews are the best. You can pick any of the three and can’t go wrong, beef stew is always good, tripe if you like tripe this one is a must and the pork luau YUM, little on the salty side but very delish. All breakfast items is decent.

No matter what time of day, Hawaiian Style Café will always be busy. Busy is good and that means their doing something right.
We had dinner here earlier tonight. 5 pm is the start dinner service so we went there as soon as it opened. Sure enough, a gang of people were already flooding in. They only take reservations if your party is larger than 10, other than that it’s all walk-​in status. We had about 5 adults, 2 children and a 1 year old haha.
Was our first time eating dinner there. The specials were like it’s own menu. Specials from wall to wall! I promised myself next time I’m gonna order dinner specials instead of the regular menu.
I went there with a headache, not feeling so well. After I ordered, I started feeling better. I got the Hamburger steak with onions and brown gravy. I ordered it medium with white rice and Mac Salad. Honestly, the best hamburger steak up to date.
Service was great, ambience very local and the food superb. LARGE portions to satisfy everyone that walks through the door. Highly recommend to the people of the world… whenever you’re in Hilo!

I must admit, pretty good! Our fam in Hilo said we should stop by for lunch. So all 7 of us did! The wait was about 5 – 7 minutes and once we sat down and decided what to order, our waitress came to jot down our random selections like the mixed plate, poke bowl, Kids meals etc.
Our food came pretty quickly. My husbands chicken cutlet was interesting– chicken on the bone with gravy. It was still good, just interesting. My poke bowl was very good and the garlic chicken was wonderful! One of the kids had chicken nuggets which were the Mickey Mouse ones that we could get at Costco. The other loved the grilled cheese. Someone else ordered kalua pig and cabbage which looked great too!
It was a very comfortable place with nice laid back service and a family environment.

My first loco moco experience and it was extraordinary! I was on a quest to experience this infamous loco moco dish that I have heard so much about and I believe I succeeded!
This café was recommended by a kind local of the town Hilo and I was so grateful he did. The café is a decent size with plenty of booth seating. My friends and I arrived as soon as they opened for dinner at 5:00pm and there was already a line.
They had daily specials like the poke nachos what! Yeah that’s right poke nachos. I ordered that as my appetizer and OMG portions here are out of control! The poke nachos just blew my mind, I had never heard of such a thing. The nachos were covered in tons of delicious avocado and the poke was incredibly fresh and yummy.
After conquering that dish I was ready for my loco moco. Of course I had to order the biggest one they had called the moco-​saurus hahaha! It came jammed packed with spam, beef patti, pull pork, fried chicken all topped with yummy gravy a sun side up egg top. I was in loco moco heaven! It was very hearty but very tasty. All the meats were cooked to perfection. The pork and spam were exceptional, I didn’t care too much about the beef patty but it made the dish well rounded. I cant believe I ate the whole thing. So as you can guess I was in a food coma for the rest of the evening but I do not regret a thing. hahaa!!! I will always remember my loco moco experience at Hawaiian Style Café!

My boyfriend and I came here for the first time after telling someone we were going to Ken’s, and they said that this place was better, so I was interested. We didn’t have reservations and although they were very busy we didn’t wind up waiting more than twenty minutes. The restaurant is very cute, cheery with pictures everywhere, it gives off good vibes since everything is so bright.
I can’t really remember what I ordered, but I do know that whatever it was came with pancakes. Now my boyfriend and I came into this completely blind, we had not heard anything about this place. You could not imagine how excited and surprised we were when we each got handed a plate with two pancakes bigger than our faces. This was supposed to be the side to our meal, and it was bigger! We were like two kids in a candy shop. I drenched mine in syrup and began digging in, but damn, those guys are big. I only ate half of them and him even less, we wound up taking them home.
I would give this place 5 stars but the service was a bit slow, and the fact that I can’t remember what my actual order was is a bit troublesome. I should be able to remember the pancakes AND what I actually ate, not just the gimmicky giant pancakes.