Nalu’s Island Grill

I love Nalu’s for many reasons: the menu is creative and healthy, food is good and you get a reasonable portion for what you pay, atmosphere is great, folks that work here are warm and friendly, Love Nalu’s locomoco, island french toast, burgers are good, salads too. And then there’s the fruit infused water — yum! Local music adds a great touch!

I’m in-​love with their Spicy steak katsu, I get it about once a week and I can never get tired of it. I’d give this place 5 stars, if it weren’t for occasional mistakes with the order. They forgot to put the sauce on the steak once and forgot the macaroni salad another time. My advice would be to inspect your food before taking home to ensure accuracy. Other than that I have no complaints and would recommend to everyone.

I’m giving Nalu’s a 1 star not due to their food, cause it’s very delicious, but because my friends and I went at 11:30 to order our food on 2÷19÷16, there were 3 people in front of us, and it took our food over 45 minutes to be ready. Unfortunately my 3 co workers and I were on our lunch break from work so we couldnt even enjoy eating our food there, we had to go back inside after 45 min of waiting and ask to have our food prepared togo. We were very dissapointed because it usually takes no longer than 20 minutes to get our food. Unfortunately we can’t spend all day waiting around, we will take our business elsewhere.

My family loves ordering the pineapple chicken. The rest of their food is really good. Nulu’s serve generous servings but I’m a little annoyed that they didn’t put the Mac in the food we ordered. Mac comes with the our order, this is the second time they missed putting the mac in all three entrees we ordered. Are they too busy to put in what I payed for? It’s a little annoying!

Their katsu chicken is my favorite. So crispy and tasty! Portion is huge. I can usually do 2 meals with just 1 order. We also like their Tutu’s Bento. It like a sampler platter with a little bit of everything. It’s big enough for 2 people to share. We used to get their poke all the time, until one day we got a bad batch. The fish wasn’t fresh and tasted really fishy and funny. We never ordered the poke again. But it used to be good before.

My boyfriend and I came in today for the first time. My grandpa is Hawaiian and I’ve made plenty of Hawaiian dishes and had plenty of Hawaiian inspired foods. This place is amazing. The food is cooked great, the portions are big, and the staff is super friendly. I definitely recommend this place. Prices are pretty cheap too for the amount of food you get (: happy eating!

I come here for the poke!
Great quality fish, filling portion size, and comes with mac salad and a crunchy scoop of slaw. Pair it with a Hawaiian sun drink and you’re set.

Excellent fish and sides. Signature Tilapia and Mahi Mahi well seasoned. Reasonable price

Asian coleslaw is yummy as well as the macaroni salad. My go to order is the grilled chicken, grilled salmon for the kids, and then share Seafood. Kimchi soup. You can’t go wrong.

I always, always, always wish for more vegetarian options at these suburb strip-​mall type establishments, but have to give the review/​stars because my husband love-​love-​loves their poke bowl. Disclaimer: he has not gone to all of the fancy hipster popular Chipotle-​esque poke places that are popping up everywhere, but he has had a number of poke bowls here and there — and a big thumbs up for Nalu’s.
The amount of food with sides you get for the price is a good value, plus lots of parking and indoor/​outdoor seating around this area.

Ehhh. We rolled in here at just a few minutes past 8 and found it pretty quiet. I ordered the chicken katsu, which is a Japanese favorite of mine, and my wife got the yakisoba.
The katsu combo was definitely serviceable, but nothing really stood out as great. It’s pretty standard fast-​food style katsu, just crunchy enough to pass the test, with a sticky sweet (and a little too thin) katsu sauce to dip. The macaroni salad and Asian slaw on the side kind of outshined it.
But the 2 stars review really comes from the yakisoba — Tasted like they cracked open an instant ramen and tossed it with sesame seeds and a little splurt of some kinda siracha based orange mystery sauce. No real flavor at all, and pretty dry.
Add to that, and it’s one of those places that figures they put closing at 9 on the door, but would rather not get customers after 8. They start closing all around you, shut off the music, and glare at anyone who comes in past 8:30. Not that the cashier smiled to begin with. Not real welcoming, and we probably won’t be back anytime soon.

I truly enjoy this location and the food that is provided. I recommend the chargrilled teriyaki chicken with white rice. Nalu’s allows a variety in options. As I am not a fan of the coleslaw, a substitution of an aditional mac salad is an option. Staff is very informative and the location allows an open seating area. Prices are great and the guava drinks are dank! Very complimentary.

My usual hawaiian food order is the grilled chicken plate. When I ordered the same food from Nalu’s I was surprised to see that they have grilled breast or thigh meat option. So I go with their grilled breast ($ 9, same for thigh meat too). I was looking forward to seeing some greasy sweet meat laid on rice. But I was wrong. The meat was not sweet, perfectly grilled, dry (better than having oily teriyaki grease on it) and tasting great. For $ 9 you get cole slaw, mac n cheese (very tiny portion of mac n cheese though), plenty of rice topped with meat.
They have outdoor seats and they will gladly bring your food outside where you are seated.
They have noodles, seafood options. I wanna try their noodles and update my review :-)
I’m definitely a returning customer!

I’ve only tried the Chargrilled Tilapia with rice, slaw and steamed veggies (an additional $ 1 cost), so this review is solely based on my experience with this dish.
First of all I adore seafood, and I’m willing to spend extra money for good fish. This place, however, did not meet my expectations.
My main caveat was that the Chargrilled tilapia (with garlic butter ponzu, says the menu) was very dry. I had expected some garlic butter sauce on top of it (like at California Fish Grill), but it was just seared into the fish. Silly me — I should’ve researched what ponzu meant (citrus-​based japanese sauce, nothing creamy). It topped the rice, which made it extra dry. I felt there should’ve been some special kind of sauce to dip the fish in since it was going to be so dry. The fish was not very moist either, not like the tilapia at Rubio’s. Sorry, Nalu’s Grill. I’d very much expected to enjoy it, especially with the hefty price ($ 9 for this meal, $ 10 with the steamed veggies), but I didn’t, and I won’t be paying the price for this again. Not when I could be enjoying must tastier tilapia at California Fish Grill or Rubio’s.

Bomb Hawaiian food and actually my first time having poke!
Poke was bomb I thought it was just a little to heavy on the sauce. There macaroni was good also!
Masubi was I point.
Chicken katsu damn near cooked to perfection with the white rice!
Staff was friendly and suggested what they liked since I had a hard time choosing. Overall great experience!

This place is great when you want something quick and casual. They have a nice website where you can call ahead and order to take out. I was in the mood to try the ahi tuna bowl, however, unfortunately they were out of ahi. There apparently was a problem with their daily delivery as they get it fresh every day. I like that they do not use MSG or Trans fat, and the chicken is natural with no added hormones or preservatives.
I got the kaluha pork plate. It was huge and came with cabbage, macaroni salad, rice, and slaw. I had enough pork left over for another meal. The pork was tender and well seasoned. Someone else ordered the pineapple chicken plate. That was so delicious that I may get that next time. It came with rice, steamed veggies, and slaw.
The place is clean and has seating both inside and out. The price is very reasonable for the amount of food you get. I will definitely be back!

It’s the closest Hawaiian local food spot to my home so I drop in every now and then when I’m craving a plate lunch or Spam musubi.
It is, however, just average for true local food. I have probably tried everything on the menu and nothing has ever stood out. They used to serve a very good kalbi, but took it off the menu.
I almost always order chicken katsu from any local food place because it’s a staple of plate lunches and reminds me a lot of home. The one thing that distinguishes authentic katsu from the others is the katsu sauce. And Nalu’s gets it all wrong, serving the sweet variety that Haole’s like as opposed to the tangy flavor that all locals prefer.
And all the food is similar in that there’s just something that keeps it all from taking it to the next level.

Headed here after a long day at the beach, and I was starving and Hawaiian sounded perfect. My girlfriend and I ordered the chicken katsu w/​brown rice, the garlic shrimp, and the teriyaki fries. Definitely satisfied our hunger and Hawaiian craving!
The katsu was good and I enjoyed their katsu sauce. Their Mac salad and cole slaw is also great which was a bonus. The garlic shrimp was really good! So good we wanted to mimic it at home lol. Good amount of shrimp too, very filling! Then the teriyaki fries are on the sweet side but really good for $ 2. They offer brown rice and vegetables to make your meals a little more clean, which I found nice.
Overall I can’t think a reason to give less than 5 stars and if I’m ever in the area I’d come back!

Aliso Viejo has a very short options of food, Compared to other places around this area this place you can get a 10 – 11 dollar Poke Bowl. It’s a decent amount but not an amount they will make you unzip your belt!
What’s in the Poke Bowl?!
Well there is a coleslaw Salad, Drenched in sauce, not bad! the Tuna is okay, It doesn’t have a fish taste which is always good, and the Macaroni salad is what you would expect!
TL:DR It’s not the best but there’s really nothing around so its A-​OK! Just get the poke bowls!

Place reminds me of a Wahoo’s inside… similar décor and casual vibe, but much smaller. Menu is based around fish and Hawaiian dishes, but more like Hawaiian take-​out (chicken katsu, mac salad, etc). Tons of fish plates, chicken plates, salads, sandwiches and even shaved ice on the board.
I came here strictly for the poke. You can get a poke salad or a bowl, I went with the spicy poke bowl ($ 10.00) but they also have crunchy or regular (shoyu). Pretty average price for poke, and honestly I wasn’t expecting to be blown away by the fish here.
I ordered it to-​go and it took 15 minutes or so and the box was huge. I thought I just ordered a poke bowl (poke and rice) but this came with mac salad and some sort of asian broccoli carrot slaw. Whatevs, the portion of food was massive. The slaw was actually amazing and as for the poke… not what I’m used to. The fish wasn’t ice box cold like I like it and the white rice it was served over was HOT, in turn making the poke hot. Not at all what I was craving and more of a savory and filling meal than a light and refreshing one.
The quality and flavor was good and I would definitely come back here, just not for poke.