Hiro’s Place

I’m not sure how my wife and I heard about this place, but we did, and gave it a try. We went there for a quick breakfast on the way out to Volcanoes NP. Not much to look at, but definitely a crowd. Seating is outdoors at picnic tables. Ordering food is cafeteria style, and there’s a line of locals out the door. We tried one of the Loco Moco’s with two fried eggs, fish, rice and gravy. Turned out to be tons of food. The fish was tasty, the eggs good, the rice perfect, and the gravy delicious. Talk about sticking to your ribs. If your not into appearances give this place a try for locals fare.

Located in a busy strip mall where the KTA supermarket is. Ordered the loco moco and was surprised how generous the portion was. The rice was good for 2 people or maybe even 3. The burger patties were a bit tough but other than that I enjoyed my food. Noticed a lot of people buying to go.

Only giving this place a 2-​star for their prices and quantity. The chicken katsu was less than desirable. it was cold, not even lukewarm, bland and quite greasy. The Mac salad was just ok. The only enjoyable portion of the meal was the rice. Trying to support the local businesses but would have rather eaten at McDonalds.

The food is pretty good here, come here for breakfast all the time. Never disappointed

Great cheap food! Perfect for a quick lunch. Lots of great food quick and cheap. They almost rush you in line because they think you should know what you want. No hurry me braddah. Onolicious!

Very fast service, conveniently located right next to KTA. The spam musubi, sweet potato tempura & nori fried chicken were all delicious. I have to say though, this is NOT health food. Okazu-​ya are all about deep fried greasy food at a great price.

No frills. Pretty good cheap food. I don’t know if they make things to order though. When I ordered the Korean chix the server had to check in the back to see if any fried chix was available. Lucky for me there was a batch just made. Fried chix was very crispy and flavorful. I would recommend avoiding the Mac salad. It’s more like mayo with pieces of macaroni.

Since I’m a Musubi fanatic, I go there to get my Musubi fix. The prices are cheap. They prepare great local food and that’s why I go there.
5 stars for the consistency of the food and their very affordable prices. Love it!

I came here for just a quick snack, and ended up getting the fish sandwich. It was just ok — a pretty small sandwich with a fair amount of grease. At least the fish tasted fairly decent. The service was quick — I got my food in a timely manner, making it an easy to-​go snack.

Eek! In my oppinion, this was no better then low quality cafateria type food. The plates were massive, I feel like this place is more about quantity over quality. I know some may have a taste for this, but it was definitly not for me.

Great prices for tasty bentos. The food is always fresh and the line gets long sometimes but the service is quick. I like the fried rice.

It’s hard to pass KTA without wanting to run into Hiro’s to grab a quick breakfast or plate lunch. My weakness here is the sweet sour spareribs. They’re sweet, sour, salty, and savory — flavors that the local palate loves! You can either order from the counter (Chinese takeout style) or from the kitchen. I’ve never had anything bad from Hiro’s!

The prices are great, the servings are huge. It’s not very healthy — but what do you expect?
The katsu I had was great with the mac salad and rice, even if I couldn’t finish but half of it. It kept well though and made a great dinner that night!

WOW! They had Filipino comfort food! The pig blood and pork adobo reminds me of my mom’s cooking. Great place for fast comfort food!

What this place has going for them is a) large selection of entrees b) big portions and c) low price.
What it doesn’t have going for it is a) staff is not at all friendly to tourists b) fried items are excessively greasy and c) food is warm but far from hot.
Would I come here again? Probably not. Like another Unilocaler said, there’s better places nearby. However, they seem to shut down earlier than Hiro’s. So, if you have a hankering for some quick and cheap Hawaiian style food, I certainly wouldn’t steer you away from here if this was your only choice in places to go at that time, but I certainly wouldn’t recommend it if somewhere else was open either.
One two item combo and one three item combo plus two medium drinks = $ 19.

Cheap good bentos.
I had time to kill while my mom was grocery shopping inside KTA. Waiting outside, I got hungry. Saw Hiro’s Place. It was around brunch too! I was defo hungry.
Went inside and they have premade bentos already. The smallest one they had had spam musubi. But I got greedy and got the chicken katsu grande venti bento. It had hotdogs, spam, eggs and of course, chicken katsu.
It was actually delicious! I enjoyed the chicken. It wasn’t burnt, wasn’t to breaded and actually used chicken meat. LOL.
Would defo come back. Defo.

My friend bruddah Ken, had told me a few times to check out this place just next door from the KTA (Puainako Branch) — Hiro’s Place.
Well last week Friday, while running around in the Pahoa & Keaau area… while heading back to Hilo to catch my flight home, I had a little time to stop by & finally try Hiro’s.
I’m glad I stopped by… it’s kinda reminds me of a local style Panda’s, or a Patti’s Chinese Kitchen, but instead of serving Chinese food, they sell local kine grindz! They also serve pre-​made Bento’s, & plate lunches. But since I needed something fast that day, I just picked whatever they had as far as hot entrée choices avaiable at that time.
For my lunch, I ended up getting a two choice place, which I picked — Fried Chicken & Sweet/​Sour Spare Ribs. It comes with White Rice, Brown Rice, Fried Rice, & Mac Salad. I ended up just getting Fried Rice, & I skipped out on the Mac Salad.
About the grub — The Fried Chicken was crispy, but it wasn’t temperature hot. As for the Sweet/​Sour Spare Ribs… ummmmm! It had little chunks of pineapple & some other kind of vegetable in it (don’t know what it was). The spare ribs was all so soft, and the taste of the sauce was just perfect! I would come back here just to eat this again!
There is no inside seating… you order your food, and go outside & sit on the open tables outside of the restaurant, There is lots of parking, as Hiro’s is located just next door to the KTA Super Store, and other businesses. Check ‘em out gang!

Hiro’s Place is a hole in the wall eatery located down a few doors down from KTA. It’s a great place to go for a cheap and quick breakfast or lunch. They have bentos available in different sizes as well as a variety of hot entrée choices to make your own customized plate lunch. Get the korean chicken; it’s tasty and crunchy!

I stop at this place every time I fly out of Hilo– their bentos make the best airplane food going back to the mainland.
Really good specials, too.

Came here to check out their loco moco. When in Hawaii.
Parking is plentiful as there is plenty of space in the strip mall out front.
As I had never had loco moco before, I didn’t really have anything to compare to. Service was a bit slow, but the food was pretty decent. It was a bit on the bland side, but this may not be a bad thing. it’s comfort food. I especially liked the gravy. Mmm.
Seating is available outside (picnic benches), but it was a bit gross as there was dried ketchup and other food bits all over both the tables and seats.