Zippy’s Kahului

This is the worst place to try and call a take out order on a Friday or Saturday night. Waiting on the phone for 10 min is ridiculous. I literally had to hang up. People on the phone are paying customers to. If it’s a staffing issue then maybe management should step it up and hire during ur peak hours. SAD.

Interesting concept to offer so many choices. Actually a few too many choices. Dining room reminded me of a cafeteria. A little too bright, no ambience. The portions were good the prices were fair for the area. Service was OK. Food came quick. I am always leery of what I will get when the menu has so many choices on it. But like I said the food taste was good but it’s not someplace I would suggest. It seems to be a favorite of the locals for a fast meal.

5 years later, Zippy’s sole location on Maui is still going strong. The takeout counter and restaurant side are still open ²⁴⁄₇. I still don’t understand why food prices on the restaurant menu are slightly higher than takeout.
I’ve narrowed down my favorites and flops.
FAVORITES:
Macaroni Salad — The Hawaii plate lunch staple, believe it or not, is really good here. It tastes like a mixture of mayo and a bit of mustard. Very similar to version at the former S&W BBQ in the Maui Mall (which morphed into Maui Mixed Plate and now Oritsu Ramen.)
Chili — While my homemade version blows theirs out of the water, when I’m lazy to cook, theirs will do. It’s a mild flavor with ground beef and beans, and naturally best over rice.
Fried Chicken — When they first opened, it was hit or miss as far as receiving burnt and overcooked pieces. Thankfully they have it down pact. They use thigh pieces with bone-​in and skin-​on. It’s always crispy, juicy, and cooked perfect. Their fried chicken is not made from a wet batter, which is my preference, and thankfully lacks the nasty diner/​buffet line generic seasoning of what tastes like salt and old cooking oil.
Chili Chicken — What the? Yes, it’s a bento plate of chili, 2 pieces of fried chicken, rice, and macaroni salad. The best of all worlds. My all-​time favorite.
Zip Pac — Honestly, this tastes better as takeout, in the plastic tray, with chopsticks; not on a glass plate with a fork, LOL?! 1 slice of Spam, a piece of fried chicken, 1 hoki fish (breaded fish fillet,) a slice of teriyaki meat, and rice. I always axe the teriyaki meat and get an extra slice of Spam or fish. Tastes even better on the beach!
Portuguese Bean Soup — It’s pretty close to being homemade. The flavor is savory as opposed to sweet.
FALLEN FAVORITES:
Saimin, Won Tun Min, and Zip Min — Why did they fall from grace? Lukewarm broth is the only factor. In order to have a good saimin, EVERYTHING needs to be hot — The noodles, the broth, and if it’s being served in a cast iron or steel pot, the pot itself too! I’ll never order saimin from this Zippy’s again.
Their specials can be more miss than hit in the quality and taste departments. Stick to the regular menu items.
HEALTH CONCERN:
At one point a few months ago, they had a major fly problem! More than 3 could be found on the partitions that separate the booth seating, and the window sills. Gross?! There seems to be much less of them currently.

I want to update my review only because of a waitress that stood out among da rest. She was patient, very friendly, and she made our visit this time very enjoyable. She made us laugh including the kids with us. Thanks Alicia.

I love the idea of going here because it’s SO Hawaii, but the food is just basic. Almost like home cooking which is pretty great when you think about it. Prices are great too. You can’t go wrong with most of the choices! For visitors/​tourists — you’ve gotta come here to try it and say you did :) Lot of locals come here and that says a lot about a place — true Hawaiian food!

If you want a true local dining experience come here. There’s an extensive local menu that won’t charge you a ridiculous $ 49 for a plate and $ 15 for a cup of coffee like at a high end restaurant. Those high end expensive dining places barely fill you up and empty your wallets. No no. Come to Zippy’s for a real authentic local dining experience and save your money for a tour of some sort. You’re in Maui!
When you walk in to the left is a sit down dining area and to the right is your casual dining or take out area. In between is Napolean’s bakery. No other restaurant on an island can offer you that. Or the many options they have. Look up Zippy’s Menu and their Daily Specials to discover what treats awaits you.
If you are heading up to Haleakala, spending a day at the beach or gearing up to take on the Road to Hana. Stop at Zippy’s and pick up any combination of their Zip Packs or even a Mini Pack. They pack it perfect for any condition. I was about to take on The Road to Hana and went with the Surf Pack. It comes with two golden crisp fried chickens, two teri beef steaks, spam, rice and Mac salad. Then I ordered their famous Chili and Rice. It was enough for my trip to have a bunch of impromtu picnics along the way. Next day I was coming back from the beach and decided to pick up some Saimen like how mama use to do when we lived on Oahu. Totally hit the spot and didn’t damage my wallet. When I sadly was boarding a plane back to the mainland I ordered another Zip Pack and some musubi’s because Zippy’s is more better than anything at the airports or airplanes.
Friendly workers, super clean store, huge menu, quick service, ATM inside, Bakery inside and the prices are good. The Zip packs come with a lot of food. When you’re in Maui find your way to Zippy’s. Best Local food for quality, quantity, price and friendly service. This is the only Zippy’s on Maui so for that, this Zippy’s wins the award for Best Zippy’s for best view of Maui lol cheers!

This is for the napoleon’s bakery. What can I say pretty sweet. I love it i love the pianomo roll. That’s what I go for. I’m always sad when I walk in and I see they have none. Sometimes I will go just for that and if they don’t have it I will leave. The workers are usually always nice and friendly. That’s a plus with me.

Gals behind counter, seat yourself side, very nice. Ordered katsu & pork cutlet. Horrible. Had to ask for a real knife, the plastic one couldn’t cut cutlet. Using the real knife we broke the plastic fork. Haha very chewy kinda old tasting. Katsu, borderline burnt. The meat it’s self, about ¹⁄₈ of an inch thick, wish I had the knife they used to slice that paper thin! Dessert killed us. Long john, the entire thing had, about 1 tsp of filling. Will never go back.

Maui’s 24 hour diner by the airport. Great place to grab a quick bite after a long flight, especially if you get in late and nothing else is really open.
Service and food were both OK with nothing special. We ordered the BBQ pork saimin and a mixed meat plate. The hot broth of the saimin literally tasted like soy sauce + hot water, making it way too salty. However, the bbq pork was good and there was a large portion. The mixed meat plate was interesting, it had a bit of everything — fried chicken, spam, grilled beef. Meat was cold & rice was hard. I guess that is what you get for coming in at midnight.

Ok… I’ve been back several times because I’m hooked on the chili. Who knew it would be good on spaghetti? I’m also hooked on the Korean Chicken with a side of real mashed potatoes and gravy. This is a great late night spot on Maui when everything else is closed. I raised my rating to give it 4 stars. I still can’t eat the chicken Katsu after my first experience. See previous review.

Zippy’s is an Oahu institution that finally made it to Maui several years ago. I hadn’t been to the Maui one until recently. Zippy’s is known for their chili, but their other food is so good.
The sit down side has a larger menu, and it costs a little more than the take out side of the restaurant. Either way, the food is really good. I am a huge fan of the fried chicken (with a nice light breading) and the Korean chicken (the shoyu is not overwhelming).
There is a menu with daily specials, so check those out. The chicken katsu curry was excellent.
I highly recommend checking out Zippy’s (even if you’re a tourist) for an idea of what local comfort food is. So ono!

I believe this is the only Zippy’s on the entire Maui island. Zippy’s is just fast, comfort Hawaiian food. Come here for your chili bowls, loco mocos, rice plates, and more! It’s open ²⁴⁄₇ when the rest of the island is dead quiet, so it is a lifesaver when nothing else is open.
We ended up needing a late dinner on one of our nights in Maui, and struggled to find a place that was still serving food. so Zippy’s to the rescue. We got there, and both ordered Surf Pacs (as opposed to Zip Pacs). The only difference between a surf pac and zip pac is that the surf pac comes with 2 fried chickens, beef, and spam… whereas the zip pac comes with 1 fried chicken, 1 fried fish, beef, and spam over a bed of rice. So your order really depends on whether you’d rather have 1 or 2 fried chickens.
For some reason the food tasted extra good and comforty (is this a word? If not, I just made it a word. :))… the chicken had extra crispy skin and was really juicy, can’t go wrong with spam, and the beef was marinated well.
Come here for good ol’ comfort food any time of day or night! Zippy’s is a Hawaiian classic.

Sadly, Zippy’s did not taste good. Also, the place itself was not well kept and the restrooms were disgusting. We decided to stop in because we were told it was one of Hawaii’s better fast food type spots, but it failed to impress.
I love fried food, but their version took fried to a whole other level. I tried their fried chicken and fried fish, and both tasted like they had an excess of oil they were dying to get rid of. I did finish everything in sight though, so would not feel right rating them below 2 stars.
I would be willing to try out a different location because I have heard their food is usually pretty good. This specific location just did not do it for me personally. Maybe I caught them on a bad day, but for now, no, I would not recommend this location to anyone.

FOOD: Won ton min was my favorite especially since I love soups. Korean fried chicken was good too. Mahi mahi sandwich was okay. Loco moco was decent. Hawaiian fast food with seating inside. I felt like I was eating good Hawaiian food.
WHERE: This location is shared with a bakery. Multi family car parking outside is a first I’ve never seen that before. You basically double park behind someone else. ATM inside.

Ticking my rating down a notch after today’s meal.
Lots of flys everywhere… seems like an easy fix for a food establishment.
Ordered the Zip Pac. After checking the chicken I had to ask the waitress if the piece of fried chicken was a week old… she apologized and asked if I wanted a new piece… it took her all of 30seconds to produce a new piece… ugh…same result. Fried chicken should be made to order…
Service was good otherwise.

There aren’t many places on the island you can go and have a midnight «snack“unless you are picking up drive thru at a fast food place. Zippy’s is open ²⁴⁄₇ in both their dine-​in and take out. (Including holidays)
We came here just before midnight for a super late dinner. I ordered the Zip Min which is one of my faves. I also really like their Fried Rice Loco Moco. The food is good, the service is fast and friendly, and of course a trip to Zippy’s is not complete without getting something from their bakery. A lot of people LOVE their Napples. Tonite we went for a slice of Peach Bavarian and a slice of Dream Cake. Both were moist and light and hit the sweet craving we were having.

This is the Denny’s of Hawaii. And yet far better service and better tasting food. The unique thing about this location and I’m not sure if others are like this, it had a fast food part attached to it. You could get your stuff to go. It also had a killer fresh bakery that you could purchase things from. Got a couple of danishes on the way out and they were equally amazing.
We dined in and had terrific service. We were promptly greeted and quickly seated. Our server did an excellent job of telling us about the menu and keeping our drinks completely filled.
I had the Moco Loco and it was spectacular. I highly recommend it. Just writing this a few weeks later has me craving one. Talk about comfort food. It is probably a best thing that is a five hour plane flight to be able to get one.
The wife ordered bacon and eggs and fried rice and was extremely happy with her meal also.
Next time you are in Maui and over by the airport I highly recommend trying this place. You will be glad you did you may never go to another Denny’s in your life.

Zippys, where to begin. Zippys has been a long long time favorite for locals. The love for Zippys is even stronger for people who live on the outer islands, because there are only locations in Kahului (Maui) and now Hilo (Big Island).
This review is not solely for Kahului, but Zippys in general. Like McDonalds, no matter where you find a Zippys, you know what you are going to get, and you know it’s going to taste exactly how you know and like it.
There is a large menu with tons of local comfort food, from saimin and spam musubi, to more mainland-​friendly dishes like spaghetti and meatballs.
My go-​to has always been pretty much the same. I like to order a small chili with rice, a small Portuguese bean soup and a large lilikoi juice. I have recently found out how delicious the grilled corn bread is though, so that also gets thrown into the mix sometimes.
The chili at Zippys is legendary. It’s not like any other chili I have had anywhere else. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what makes it so special, but try it once and you will see what all the fuss is about.
Portuguese bean soup is another old school classic comfort food brought by the Portuguese over 100 years ago, and is loved by all.
The lilikoi (passionfruit) juice is outstanding. I have never bothered to ask exactly how much juice is really in it (my guess is less than 10%), but it’s wonderful, so I won’t ever ask, because I don’t care!

It is like Denny’s. It’s open ²⁴⁄₇. Has the local spam and eggs for breakfast and many more.
Landed late one Friay night from our very much delayed flight and was craving spam and eggs. Zippy’s saved me. Believe me it’s difficult to find spam elsewhere at 11pm.
Staff were pretty helpful and polite. Food came out fast and check was there like magic too. It’s actually funny. In a pink I’ll art here again.

We have not eaten for hours since we got off the plane and this was our first stop for a very late dinner as recommended from the Rental Car employee. Even as hungry as we are, this didn’t wow me too much so I gave it a 3 star. The Mahi tasted and reminded me of a filet-​o-​fish at McDonald’s, the teriyaki sauce on the beef was kind of bland, and the fried chicken was nothing special compared to any fried chicken you have probably eaten (minus 1-​star).
One thing I really like here was their Chilli! Something they are known for and im glad i tried it. Best part is being able to choose to get it with or without beans! Been always wishing for a place that made it without beans! So I was happy with this one.
The employee were nice but as a local joint, the locals didn’t seem to be too welcoming here (or at least when we were there). Many gave us this weird look like «Why are these tourist doing here?» Felt a bit uncomfortable for that. Lastly, its not too costly but only because their portions are very small and barely enough for me which makes it quite expensive for what you get (minus 1-​star).