Zippy’s Hilo

the lady in the front with the black headband that looks like she hates her job, needs to be fired. she is always rude and never greets customers. i witnessed cooks from the back slide the food plates carelessly and this morning it almost looked as if the girl in the front had to block my plate from falling because the cook in the back slid it so hard. i’m disgusted that i waited over 15 minutes for french toast and a clubhouse sandwich that cost $ 20. the french toast had absolutely no taste. the clubhouse bread was over toasted and the bacon was so over cooked i swear it could chip my teeth. the only thing that was good about my order was the fruit punch. i will never go there again. zippys need to step it up on the cooks and customer service. i honestly rather have arbys back. i wish i could give this place no stars.

Just wanted a large lilikoi juice and I’m standing at the counter looking at 3 girls having a conversation. 2 of the 3 girls see me standing there looking at them. So after 3 minutes of being polite and not rushing their girl talk, one girl comes up and opens a different register and helps the guy behind me and gives me a smirk like she’s happy that she just pissed me off, then I finally get service from another girl. Yes, the mall is slow after 6pm, but your workers shouldn’t be as slow. Give the job to someone who values having an occupation, not a smirking, lazy chick that just wants to talk stories.

Was told about this place by 2 separate places and knew I had to go when I visited Hawaii. I was so pleasantly surprised with the veggie chili with rice. It was so delicious! I highly recommend and my friend got it with the spaghetti which was also really delicious. Service was fantastic and the restaurant itself was very clean and bright. Would definitely recommend it as a must go to visitors of Hawaii.

I picked up Portuguese Bean soup, fundraiser item, at this Zippys yesterday AM. I asked for the cold one, and thought it cant take long to pick up. I had to wait 20 min. to get it, and they served other people who had put in breakfast orders after me. Then when I heated the soup, and tried to eat it last night, soup had some raw veggies inside, and I got sick this morning. I will not be returning to Zippys. Why is this store not consistent with the wonderful Zippys in Honolulu? I have lived in Hawaii over 40 years and eaten at many of their restaurants. Step up to the plate Hilo store…

A childhood favorite continues to deliver exactly the same type of food it has for years. I most always get the won ton min or the zip pac. My sister’s curry saimin was very good. I’ve eaten at Zippys all over Hawaii and they are very consistent in their food. If you want fine dining, you’ll need to find another place. If you want good local comfort food, Zippys is the place!

Go somewhere else. There are many restaurants in Hilo with better service and food. We have been here visiting for 3 days and eating out for every meal and I must say this place has the worst customer service and food we have tried. If you must eat here at least avoid the miso garlic chicken. Every chicken piece I had was fatty.
Try the Hawaiian Style Café, we enjoyed the food and the service was very friendly.

We were recommend Zippys as an example of Hawaiian fast food and we are very glad we went and experienced it. Bright, colorful and spotlessly clean restaurant with super fast service. We tried various dishes to get a sense of what Zippys is known for — chili, fried chicken and (of course) spam! Everything was reasonably priced and tasty. The desserts were the highlight — the chantilly cream puffs are not to be missed!
It’s simple and casual food. Quality is what we were expecting and ultimately we were pleased to have the Zippys experience as part of our first visit to the Islands!

Okay I have a couple things to mention and they aren’t very positive. First of all, no refills.
My recent visit I ordered food with my nephews and mother and the cashier wasn’t really friendly and spoke a mixture of rudeness and sarcastic. Ordered two small drinks and one medium. We went to pick up our food as our number was called and the lady handed us our food and left before I could say anything. We waited a couple mins later and was greeted by another lady asking if we needed help with anything. I mentioned that we didn’t receive our drinks, she then had to go look for that cashier and came back and have our drinks. She gave us 3 medium drinks and I told her we ordered 2 small drinks and 1 medium, in a flat toned voice she says «on here it says you ordered 3 medium sized drinks.» I looked at my receipt and she was right she charged us the 3 mediums, not very good listening skills. I could not stand her attitude no more so we just went to sit down and eat our food.
If you’re going to order a spam musubi I recommend that you don’t. I ordered this for my nephew and I was not satisfied when I seen it. The size of it was just about half the size of any regular musubi, and I’m not over exaggerating I can say it was smaller than an IPhone 4. Also it looked like it was made a day ago because the rice was a little hard and the spam looked a little discolored and dry.
My other nephew ordered the grilled cheese sandwich and just for bread and cheese (probably artificial, it looked like it) it was a very unreasonable price. Also it was very thin, not impressed at all.
Someone recommended me to try their Korean chicken salad, it was not on the menu. All that was inside was Korean chicken with lettuce that was shredded (looked like it came from a bag) and tomatoes. I’m sorry but that is a poor excuse of a salad.
The only good thing that comes from the place is the desserts, cheap, affordable and good. Also the lady on that side was much more friendly then the other one. This is the only reason why there is one star, that and Unilocal won’t allow you to make zero stars.
You are better off at eating else where in the mall, so at least they can give you a good serving size for their price. Trust me save your money. If they can turn all of this around the next time I come I’ll edit this review.

I am reviewing the seat down portion of Zippys and not the take out portion. I have to admit that I was surprised with the menu. I’m used to just waiting in line and ordering food. But the restaurant section had a lot more on the menu and super friendly service! Thanks to our waitress, Gretchen, and guy who makes the best banana splits!
I have to admit that the oxtail soup was one of the better ones I’ve had in Hilo. I was pleasantly surprised! It was full of meat and the broth was hearty (and not too salty or watery). She gave me a plentiful amount of ginger on the side and the peanuts made the veggies tadte even more nutty, which was great! It gives the soup more notes, then the average one dimensional soup. I was super full, but satisfied. Again, pleasantly surprised!

This is the ONLY Zippy’s in Hilo… and it’s in the ONLY indoor mall in Hilo. So if you need to get your grub on and are also looking for AC relief (ie. to cool off!), then this is the spot. They had a special of «Saimin Salad»…and I got that one day, but they were already out of it by the next… so not too happy about that as it’s been hella hot/​humid here and cold salad could’ve really hit the spot. They DO have cold somen salad… but dang it, I never can get saimin like in Hawaii… so was totally bummed. Anyway, they DO have malasadas (yes, almost as good as Leonard’s!), andagi (hey, that’s the donut of my peeps, the Okinawans!), and jin dui (sesame balls)…so that’s a BIG plus. And, of course, I had to have a piece of Guava Cake… because I LOVE it and miss that on the mainland. We came here a lot over the last couple weeks here because my dad’s house shipment hadn’t yet arrived and we couldn’t cook dinner at home (and it was too doggone hot anyways!). So had Korean Chicken, Hamburger Steak, Won Ton Mein… and a host of other choice menu items here. I even tried the Kokua Pak (which is currently the charity promotion to benefit the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation — Zippy’s will donate $ 0.25 per Kokua Pak ordered)…and so my Portuguese Sausage/​Spam/​Tempura Shrimp w/​Furikake Rice was totally the best deal ($ 10.25) AND it benefited a great cause!!! Yay for me! In HIlo everything closes early here… so one thing that is great is that this Zippy’s stays open on Fri/​Sat for 24 hrs a day. The rest of the week, you gotta have dinner on time… and no late night breakfast for you teetotalers… lol!

Visiting from California, stopped for lunch after visiting Volcano National Park. Great food and friendly service. Ordered the zip pac: fried chicken, fried fish, spam, teriyaki beef and rice. Everything tasted great and happy we stopped here to eat!

I don’t get why the ratings here are so bad?! I love coming to eat here whenever I’m in Hilo… A nice change from what the old food court use to consist of… Arby’s, Chinese food joint that kept changing owners, etc. My go-​to is the Korean chicken salad… Wham bam thank you ma’am! SO delicious. I think any of their fried chickens are on point actually! Always comes out freshly fried! Yum! Service is average; never really had any complaints about it. Don’t forget to grab some made-​to-​order malasadas on your way out from the bakery! ONO!

Ihop was over crowded so we decided to give Zippy’s another chance. I’ve been to just about every Zippy’s on Oahu. The Hilo restaurant is probably the cleanest Zippy’s in the chain. The hostess seemed a little unsure of herself when trying to figure out the seating but she was very polite so no problem. The food was ok. I was a bit surprised that they don’t offer free drink refills. That’s something management may want to change if they are expecting customer loyalty. That being said it was definitely a better experience this time around.

I walked up to the take out bakery and Ordered Chantilly cream puffs. After I gave my order the worker opened the refrigerator behind the counter and her back was faced towards me and managed to throw the chantilly cream puffs in the box. However, she did manage to land some the correct side up, so not all of them were upside down and sideways. but still!

If I could give this place a negative stars, I would. I’m very disappointed. I’m a previous resident of Hilo and used to come to here all the time with my family. I moved to Kailua-​Kona and suggested to my husband that we eat here since we always try my favorite Hilo restaurants.
To my surprise, the service and food was severely lacking with the staff working. We were seated at 4:30 pm and left at 6:30 pm (mind you, this is only a party of two adult individuals and we finished our meal in 40 minutes). Host and servers had a unpleasant demeanor and this made my dining experience a little uncomfortable.
I am a manager of a popular food chain as well and I would not let behavior and work ethic like this slide in my establishment.
The food was alright but not something we would come back craving to eat.
Please improve on the service.

Go in and get the Chicken Katsu Curry Ramen. Do it right now.
Do it.

Coming from a culinary background and that I was a former employee of Zippy’s Hilo I must say the food is actually pretty good. That is if they get the order right and the timing on point.
The ambience is casual. Seating is okay. Korean Chicken… get it!

Imagine a grungier Jollibee in a grungy mall food court.
While Zippy’s is not exactly in a food court, it might as well have been. In terms of service and environment, let us just leave it at that.
I got the Korean chicken plate and a mini meat chili with no beans. The Korean chicken was pretty tasty with its sweetness and crunchiness. The meat chili was also tasty. It reminds me of a spaghetti meat sauce mixed with a can of beanless chili.
Overall, not much to say about this place. Tasty when you are feeling chili but if you’re trying to decide whether you want Panda Express’s orange chicken or Zippy’s Korean chicken, you really could go either way.

I don’t have a problem with this Zippy’s. Went twice and both times it was close to Honolulu Zippy’s. No wonder because lets be honest, the chili is out of a bag. So it’s the same chili. !EDIT!
I just found out that Zippy’s has raised their prices in Honolulu as well. ~$ 5 for chili/​rice — and a somewhat small portion is too expensive IMO.
Food came out at about the same speed as in Honolulu. I also tried the chicken katsu. It was ok, a little over cooked but not bad at all.
I think this place is a nice addition to the mall.

Its Two Hōkū (Star) Tuesday again!!!
Before you start hating on me for giving the venerable chain Zippy’s Two Stars, my rating is based solely on the service. The only Zippy’s on the Big Island is located in Hilo, in the Prince Kuhio Plaza Shopping Center.
We ordered oxtail soup ($ 14.95 — no pic. seasoned w/​five spice), large saimin ($ 5.65), small wun tun min ($ 6.70 — no pic), chili chicken mix plate ($ 10.55), and chili cheese fries ($ 5.90). My cuz had the oxtail soup, and I tried a bite. It was better than the one I had at Zippy’s Nimitz on O’ahu. The broth was richer and the oxtails were meatier: 4 Stars. Saimin is a staple, and Zippy’s does a pretty good job. My other cuz was stuffed from her soup that had nice fresh greens too: 4 Stars. Wun tun min is essentially saimin w/​5 wun tuns. My other cuz liked hers and the wun tuns were not broken: 4 Stars. Unfortunately, the chili chicken mixed plate was very «mixed». Chicken: Very good, moist and tender. Chili: Very good also, but the portion was small. Salad: Terrible. It was like leftover lettuce. Overall rating: 3 Stars. Lastly, the chili fries were very good. Zippy’s makes good chili, so when you put it w/​anything it is automatically good: 4 Stars.
The ambiance is nothing to speak of: Basic Zippy’s: 3 Stars. However, the service was horrible. Our waitress Kiara was not on top of things. She took another table’s order before ours, the food took a long time to arrive, she kept saying she would refill my froo (fruit) punch, but it took her a long time to do so, and the noodles came out w/​no chopsticks or Azn soup spoon: 2 Stars.
I wouldn’t normally rate a place 2 Stars solely on the service, but I will make an exception here. I love Zippy’s, but not this location. The service is too slow and not what I am accustomed to. They need to get their act together.