Zippy’s Kahala

I love Zippy’s and when it comes to food I have no complaints. It is tasty. Last week we went to Zippy’s Kaimuki for take out and the staff is superfriendly. I wanted to try their special haupia pancakes but it was only available for dine-​in. They even called the restaurant to make sure it was available. So today we decided to give it a try. Kahala location was busy, it was along wait, then we had to wait again for our drinks to arrive. There were only two server working. I didn’t want the water as the large drink seemed enough, but she brought it anyway. Then we had to wait half an our for our food to be served. I ordered a chili bowl with rice, but I got no rice, had to ask for it. The haupia pancakes very yummy. My husband had barely finished his meal and the plate was cleaned and the server immediately brought the bill, like telling us to get out. I am not going back, will stick to other locations.

Food poisoning at Kahala Zippy’s. On 1-​16-​2016 my 4 year old son had one piece of fried chicken for dinner. Soon after he showed signs of food poisoning– Vomiting and diarrhea for the entire evening. Its now the next day and we did not get much sleep. I’m am hoping by writing this bad review that the manager at Zippy’s inspects the food handling process so no one else gets sick. By the way we do love Zippy’s just not so much today.

I come here because nothing else is open late at night. Staff are okay for a chain store. The food is always Luke Warm or cold. The portion are small and tastes like warmed up frozen food. After having a potato bacon soup, found hair at the bottom. It is convenient but could improve the food and service.

This location is a sit down and order restaurant, kind of reminds me of Denny’s. I had quite a few breakfasts here with my family. Service was always friendly, coffee was always refilled. I had the vegetable omelette and the broccoli cheddar and bacon omelette. I preferred the broccoli cheddar and bacon omelette. My dad and family seemed to enjoy the Portuguese sausage. Coffee shake was more vanilla than coffee. Lots of options here, the menu is like a book!

I ordered an Asian Chicken Salad and was surprised to find that they served old chicken which tasted like it was about to turn. :-(They couldn’t mask the freshness this time because it was grilled instead of fried.

January 2, 2016 with 4 stars now
Tonight my two friends and I came back again to give it a try. We sat by the window section area but the man did not greet us well with no good customer service.
But we are thankful now to have Shalei as our waitress. She was really good and customer service oriented. We ordered Nacho chili something… And 2 plates of Hamburger steaks. The waitress was helpful and really good not like last times visit last December 25, 2015. Shalei kept coming back to check on us and made sure we had enough water on our glass. Thats what I call a great service there and especially her being on top of things and smiles back.
Foodwise, I love my food. The hamburger steak was really ono! Delicious! I chose Potato Salad as my side dish instead of mac salad. Potato salad was okay and so so but everything was all great. Loved the gravy sauce but I felt like I wanted to eat something spicy. So I added tobasco sauce… even took 2 yello chili peppers
from my friends nacho chili plate haha. And it all blasted well with flavors. I felt super good and contented. Thanks again for tonight to Shalei for taking care of us in our table.
Tonight was really good.
December 25, 2015 as 2 stars
Tonight I went out with my friends to eat dinner. It was a windy night. I ordered two special deals the Korean Bbq chicken w/​shrimp & veggie tempura and miso soup for $ 11.50 and side order of sushi roll for $ 12 something i think. It was all good but I got a bad headache from the tempura sauce or either the korean bbq chicken. The Korean waitress was so rude and has no customer service. We laughed and tried to smile… but I barely cant hear her well… She doesnt explain things clearly… Even when I asked for half water as she was trying to refill it, she said no and filled my whole glass instead… what a waste of water which I wasnt able to drink all the way through. My food didnt look presentable… and it didnt look well like on the menu… my experience with the location, and sitting is alright but customer service was poor. food presentation is poor. taste wise okay…
Maybe I will try next time to see if there will be any improvement

The service was a bit slow but friendly waitstaff. Disappointed we couldn’t order sautéed mushrooms in the sushi bar. It would have been better to eat in the restaurant and order Japanese food there. They also did away with the battera dish.

We drove with a local friend all the way from Wakiki because he says this is «the best» Zippy’s on the island. We didn’t have a chance to compare, but man, we were sold on this location.
Zippy’s is a lot like a combination diner/​fast food joint. We ordered the Loco Moco and a Zip Pack (Fried chicken, Teriyaki beef, fried fish, fried spam served over white rice with nori and cole slaw– gravy on the side) and both were fantastic. The Zip Pack is for those who really want to fill up on some Hawaiian fare. Our friend said it’s all best paired with the fruit punch, but hey with the sweetness of that juice and the saltiness of the Zip Pack really compliment each other. Definitely worth visiting.

Nothing beats the comfort food of your childhood and nothing beats coming back to Zippy’s to remind you of that. It’s always good. And its always fun.

Each time when I’m back to Honolulu, I need to get my large Lilikoi drink fix. It’s been a week & their Lilikoi drink machine is still down
Also their white rice at times neither too dry or too soft. Other then that, I have no other issues with this location. This Zippy’s is the nearest to my place. Parking & customer service always great here.

Gone are my childhood days when Zippys dining room food seemed so delicious, and my parents must have seen it as a good value. Im happy that the servers have still remained the same pleasant, local waitresses i remember as a kid.
Zippys dining rooms have slowly gotten lower in food preparation quality, and more expensive in price. Even on a late night, and everything else is closed, i cant suffer through the sorrow that results from sitting in the over-​priced parade of poorly made food that is what Zippys dining rooms have become.
Until management either drops prices, or improves food preparation quality with better kitchen staff, my own kids will grow up never knowing Zippys dining rooms the way i did.

I still love Kahala Zippy’s and I’m still here almost every Sunday with my in-​laws. It’s a great place for larger groups to get good local kine food fast and at reasonable prices. And the Kahala Zippys is one of the nicer ones in terms of décor and atmosphere.
Why did it drop from 4-​stars to 3?
One of the things that made Kalaha Zippys really unique and special was the Japanese menu they offered. Zippys chili, saimin, loco moco and such are great but every once in a while you want something different — the Japanese menu was a great alternative and the Japanese specials were always delicious.
Unfortunately after the remodeling of the sushi area the Japanese menu has been drastically reduced and they no longer offer the monthly specials. To make matters worse its really difficult to order Japanese food when dining in. We were told by an employee that we could order take out at the sushi area and then bring it into the dining area. No good.

Just ordered a grilled tuna sandwich with cheese, lettuce, tomatos and onions. When i picked it up I checked it in front of the cashier. she asked me whats wrong and i told her umm there is no tuna in my TUNA sandwich?!? And no onions. she looked at me and said what? She took it in the kitchen and they all started laughing… they slabed on some tuna and gave me back the same plate. only the guy who made my drink apologized.
Not only was my sandwich now cold and not even melted for this so called grilled tuna sandwich, but the onions were still not there! Ugh i gave up and walked out. I don’t care if you don’t like your job or are tired. you do your job right and treat your customers nicely. is that so hard to ask?

Can’t believe it’s taken me this long to review this location. This is a usual dining spot with the fam — convenient and consistent. Love saimin, fried chicken (sub mashed potatoes for rice), chili nachos with homemade tortilla chips and shredded cheese, Korean fried chicken salad — with house dressing, and portugese bean soup! There are many others — these are just the usual suspects on our table.
I will definitely dine here again!

Honestly, I’d give this Zippy’s two stars based on my experience last night, but considering I’ve taken out food from the counter multiple times in the past, I’ll let it slide and give it three.
Last night we decided to be fancy and get seated in the dining area, as we had some time and I was with a group of six friends, so we’d figure we’d sit and chat. We got seated really quick and they got our waters going. Our waitress came around and took all of our orders — we’ve all been to a Zippy’s before, of course, so we knew what we wanted immediately — and off she went. Not too long after, another waiter came out and delivered part of our group’s food. Literally two people got everything they ordered, while I was waiting on a side of fries, and other friends were waiting on entire meals.
Being the polite and nice people we are, those of us who got our food didn’t touch it so we could all eat together. A long while later, two friends got their food, but we were still missing some side orders. This is where our waitress must of met a man friend and went to a movie or something, because she was MIA.
We ended up eating anyways, but something like a half hour had gone by and we hadn’t seen her at all — all of our waters were empty, I was basically done with my food without ever seeing my fries, and my sister, who only ordered a side of garlic bread and fried rice, never saw her fried rice.
FINALLY we tracked her down and asked about all the missing items and asked for some more water. She seemed confused as to why we hadn’t received everything and ran away to presumably tell someone off… but we still didn’t have water. We had been at the beach all day, we were parched man!
Long story short, we finally got all our food items, got some water, got the bill, got the bill separated, and we were on our way. It ended up being a much more difficult experience than I would’ve liked so the message is — stick with take out at this Zippy’s, okay?

This Zippy’s and the HK location are tied for my favorite Zippy’s locations. Let’s face it, pretty much all Zippy’s are consistent in their food, what gives this particular Zippy’s its charm is Auntie Moon. Auntie Moon is a character and provides tips and opinions on what you should or shouldn’t order or if you should try something new because you got the same thing too many times already. She cracks me up every time I go in there and I’m always disappointed when I go in and she’s not working. A few years ago I realized I wasn’t alone when the meme started floating around Facebook about going to Kahala Zippy’s to see auntie moon.
Oh and a tip to all of you who order on the takeout side-​Korean chicken salad and chocolate pudding parfaits are the best but only offered in the dining room so definitely sit on the dining room side one day to try those because they’re bomb.

Well, we were on our way to an appointment in my old «stomping grounds» of Kaimuki/​Kahala when we decided to grab a quick bite to eat. Our thoughts wandered through dining possibilities in Kaimuki town but, being that we only had little more than a half-​hour we chose to have lunch at Zippy’s Kahala.
Zippy’s Kahala offers ²⁴⁄₇ local diner foods with dine-​in and takeout service. There is even a localized European-​style bakery (Napoleon’s), and a sushi bar (Kahala Sushi) all under one roof. There is a parking lot located on the same upper deck of and under this elevated restaurant with stairwell and elevator access up or down. When we arrived, the parking lot was quite full but we still managed to find a parking stall under the shade. There was line of 4 people ahead of us but, at least 12 people were waiting to pick up their orders along the front wall. While standing in line, we perused the menu board and settled on one of the day’s specials and a Zip-​Pac.
We realized that it had been a while since we’ve stepped foot into a Zippy’s but we were really surprised to see the price of the day’s special (Pork cutlet plate) AND the Zip-​Pac at $ 9.30 each. For some reason, there was a backlog from the kitchen and it took 15 minutes for us to get our order. But, our food was served steaming hot and the fried items were crisp. Usually, Zippy’s is really quick about with their service and this was the longest we have ever waited for our food. This delay seemed to be out of the ordinary and we think the issue was resolved.
Around the corner is a self-​serve dining area that was being cleaned by Zippy’s employee, Larry. He was going around wiping down the tables and chairs as patrons came and went. In between cleaning, he chatted a bit with a couple of people who had their laptops plugged in and using the area as a pseudo-​office. We hurriedly gobbled down our tasty and locally comforting meals then and left to our appointment.

Yay Zippy’s!
I like Zippy’s simply because it is a cool Hawaiian family restaurant… you can’t get it anywhere else on the mainland… unless it’s frozen. This particular location is pretty cool because it is 24 hours.
So this is my usual airport stop… if I am flying out early or really late, I know that I will be able to pick up a zip pac for the plane.
I do enjoy the ample parking upstairs and downstairs. The elevator also makes it possible for everyone to easily get upstairs as well. The waitstaff is usually pretty friendly and this restaurant is relatively clean.
Most of the time I get take out from here, but I did have a chance to eat here recently and it was a nice experience. I was here with my family and there wasn’t enough room to seat us so we sat at two booths adjacent to each other… worked out.
I had:
Corn chowder
This was good… not the best corn chowder I have ever had… but I would get it again
Beef curry
This was on special and I wanted to try it. It was good… but probably not a repeat for me… I do want to try the sushi here the next time.
Usually for breakfast the chili moco is my go to… or the zip pac.
It is true the portions are getting smaller and the prices are going up… but the same is happening everywhere else too… bummer!
But I will be back!

East Side vs West Side rivalry comes to a head when comparing Zippy’s Kahala with Zippy’s Pearl City. Both locations boast having the best sushi on island and are something special as far as local diners go.
Zippy’s Kahala consistently provides a clean, friendly and civil atmosphere; very different from other locations around town. The wait staff is attentive and polite.
The sushi isn’t quite as good as the Pearl City location. As a matter of fact, there isn’t a comparison. The Pearl City location has the best spicy tuna donburi and miso soup, as well as raw seafood classics. Somehow the fish doesn’t taste quite as fresh at the Kahala location.
Bottom line, I would go to the Zippy’s Kahala location for my local favorites, but would make the drive to Pearl City for sushi. West beats East this round.

Took home a few donuts. One chocolate covered and one ultimate donut. This ultimate donut could not be healthy, it was about double the size as the regular donut and smothered in chocolate and Reese’s peanut butter cups broken up.
The donuts average, nothing to write home about. Parking is abundant in the garage and location is conveniently close to Kahala Mall.