Hawaiian Drive Inn

The food here is really cheap and tastes really good.
I’ve ordered the Katsu Mini Plate and it comes with a large portion of Katsu.
Also, I’ve ordered the Spam and Fried Eggs and rice which is on their breakfast menu but is available all day. That is really good too.

My kids love the fish sandwich and hamburgers here. They also give lots of fries. It’s an alternative to IN N OUT Burger. The owners are very nice and service is fast!

The hole in the wall that has been around for as long as I can remember serving out enormous amounts of food for the money. This is by no means a luxury restaurant, it’s a divey, use whatever you got to make it happen type of place. Mom and pop to fullest and that’s what makes it a favorite of mine.
The staff is awesome and the food comes out hot and crispy! From the Katsu to the shrimp, short ribs to the BBQ chicken, it’s all on point! Everything on the menu is exactly what it seems, damn good… Did I mention the portions? The mini meals will feed a linebacker and the regular size can feed a small family. Where else can you feed four people for less than 15 bucks including tax!?!
The mini meals include one scoop of rice and your choice of meats, chicken, fish or shrimp. And the regular plates come with two scoops and your choice of the said items above. There are also fish sandwiches and burger meals that come with fries and a drink.
Make sure and try the Masubi’s, they are legit my kryptonite…

Love this place! One of my favorite Hawaiian restaurant. They have large portions, reasonable price and they always deliver at a fast pace. They usually don’t come with broccoli but I always order my food with it and they charge you almost nothing for it. Nice Chinese folks.

Chicken katsu is good. First time trying Hawaiian food and satisfied with the result.

i’ve been coming to Hawaiian Drive Inn número uno since high school and i still love it just as much as i do now.
i’m sure they don’t have the cleanest facilities (you can just tell by walking in), but it’s cheap and good and the portions are good.

This is pretty much a hole in the wall, maybe a somewhat big hole. The entrance way is pretty narrow, and as you situate yourself you see the meat being grilled behind the counter and the old school menu above the grill. You order at the front and wait for your meal, and we had a bit of a wait since there were a good number of people ahead of us. The wait was not too long, though the area is a bit awkward with very limited seating (the eat-​in tables are a bit far in the back), and most people getting their food to go would not go sit down anyway.
I enjoyed my BBQ chicken mini meal, which came with 3 cuts of chicken along with the usual rice, veggie salad, and mac salad. For less than $ 6, this was more than enough food – I suppose the regular portion would be suitable if you were extra hungry. The chicken was very tender and flavorful, while the salads provided a good contrast, particularly the mac. Finally, there wasn’t substantial interaction with the restaurant staff, but the lady helpfully offered to wipe down the table for us before seating so that was a nice plus.

I went to a friend’s house party and enjoyed some of the katsu chicken with the sweet and sour sauce. It was your standard fried chicken with a thing breaded crust. The sauce was on point with the sweet and sour flavor. Best of all it was great value for feeding a large party.

I grew up in the neighborhood and still enjoy coming back around and grabbing some BBQ chicken every now and then. The place itself is small, crowded, and dirty but considering most restaurant kitchens probably have the same violations behind closed doors, I really don’t care.
Can you find better Hawaiian food elsewhere? Well yeah, probably. But if you’re not ridiculously picky or stuck up, this place is A-​OK in terms of having a decent and filling meal.

Well I was finally introduced to Hawaiian Drive Inn by my brother recently. How did it take me so long to finally try this hole in a wall?!
A mom and pop kind of place so don’t expect anything fancy. The price in exchanged for the amount of food they offer you is great. They give you so much Chicken Katsu for $ 5 (mini plate) which I can barely finish. It also comes with rice and macaroni salad. It’s perfect if you are in the mood for something quick but satisfying.

This place is small, dirty, sticky, hot, and cash only.
BUT they have thee best chicken katsu I’ve ever had! I always get the mini plate for $ 5 which comes with a HUGE portion of chicken katsu with sauce and a scoop of rice and macaroni salad. Definitely a bang for your buck kind of meal!
The chicken is fried to order so you can watch the chefs fry, cut, and prepare everything right in front of you. The outcome is a very fresh crispy katsu that will satisfy your fried-​food cravings :)

The food has been consistent over the years coming here and absolutely amazing! Cant go wrong eating here… just dont look at the details like why the chefs have been wearing the same hats forever now. And the little mess around the cashier but youre not going for the table service!
This is the place to get your grub on for beat price to out does the great tasting.
Now now dont be hitting on the customers here, boys or girls…7/10 they go to the high school around the block. Unless youre into that stuff… than ure a creep and should be hanged, but of course if youre under age. play ball.
Theyre also super friendly too! They havent said no to anyone I seen to use their artful bathroom. Its really a museum seeing all the taggings and knowing where they keep some supplies in.
Remember people, this is about the food and not about the owners spoiled children they might have that drive new lexus off the lot and go to some UC school to do drugs and party like a rockstar. Ignore all that and you might truly enjoy this place if you were thinking what i was…

5 stars for Excelsior… for those who don’t know, this means a lot. One of the best hole-​in-​the-​walls in this neighborhood for sure. I came here after a recommendation from Ruby C. (thanks Ruby!!) and the rest is history as they say. It was love at first bite.
I don’t have too much experience with chicken katsu, so all I can say is that my taste buds were very pleased. For $ 5, you can get a mini portion that is actually massive– complete with white rice and macaroni salad. Roommate had the lemon chicken and she enjoyed it but did say the sauce borderline tasted like lemon-​aide.
Occasionally I am a creature of habit, and when I find something that I love, I will come back again and again and stay loyal for a very long time. This is definitely one of those places I will come for a reliable, tasty meal. They’re open til 9:30 which is handy for pseudo late night eats. Cash only unfortunately, but there’s a bank of america close by. I would also recommend calling in your order so you don’t have to wait if you’re taking it to go.
Plenty of seating. Parking is a little scarce, but there is residential parking just a few streets up or down of Mission.
Looking forward to trying the spam musubi and lumpia next time.

Serious hole in the wall, non conspicuous restaurant. It looks as if they haven’t changed since they opened, and it looks like they opened in the 90’s…
Warning: cash only.
Regardless of how it looks, I really enjoyed the food!
There are tons of options to choose from, the location is small and they cook all the food as you order it, basically in front of you. There is a board above you with prices all under $ 10. This is good, considering it is cash only.
I ordered the chicken katsu (chicken was a little sparse) in the mini plate (one scoop of rice and one scope of mac salad). Honestly it filled me up! No complaints, especially because it was $ 5! It is worth your money. My friend got the short rib in the mini plate for $ 5 also. Amazing.
The reason I’m not giving it a 5 star rating is because the place is definitely not the cleanest and it doesn’t accept card. The best reasons to come here are because of the low prices on amazing options for Hawaiian food and they have big bottles of Sriracha!

This is possibly one of my new favoritest places ever. For those of you who know me and my penchant for Micheline meals, you may be wondering why I’m giving this place 5 stars, but the food here is DELICIOUS and it’s ridiculously cheap so 5 stars. You go, Hawaiian Drive Inn.
I actually ordered them through
for work. Their menu is simple but extensive. There are a couple of lunch plate options, stand alone items like musubis, but I went for one of the meat dishes. Depending on if you get one or two scoops of rice, the price changes, but I got a chicken katsu with one scoop of rice and one scoop of macaroni for $ 4.99. Where in San Francisco can you find lunch for that cheap? Correct answer: no where. I tacked on a fried egg for an additional dollar.
Portion size is HUGE. This is definitely Hawaiian comfort food at its finest. The quantity of food I got was easily enough for two meals, but it was so good I scarfed it down in half an hour. This place has some of the best chicken katsu I’ve ever had. I noticed that the katsu itself was a lot thinner than typical katsu where it’s chicken breast meat and on the dry side. I doubt they actually used dark meat, but it definitely looked like dark meat – despite not having any sauce, the katsu was breaded perfectly, tender, and extremely flavorful. The macaroni salad as people have mentioned, is pretty darn good as well. There’s nothing actually special about it, it just tastes good with the chicken katsu. I much rather would have preferred two scoops of macaroni salad than the rice, which is clumpy and pretty mediocre. But who cares if the rice is mediocre when the chicken katsu is so mindblowingly good? It’s easy to have okay chicken katsu but spectacular katsu? That doesn’t happen so often.
Spam musubi was also pretty on point. They have a thin layer of sauce underneath the spam that really gives the musubi great flavor.
And can we just recap that this entire lunch was less than $ 8 even after tax?
tldr; delicious food at a ridiculously cheap price! yeah it’s comfort food and probably not the healthiest meal. but who cares? it’s delicious — go for the chicken katsu!

This place is still good. The service is still fast and friendly. It has not changed very much at all. I like their Moco Loco platter.

I woke up this Morning still CRAVING the food here! I’m Happy to know that I still have left overs from my Bento Box! :) Smiles ALL DAY!!! Like the Hawaiian Sun Shine!
OK Visit this Place Yo! Make the Courage and Journey to visit the Excelsior for this SPOT! Ignore Farolito next door and walk in here to have the BEST Chicken Katsu, Bento Box, Loco Moco and SPAM Musubui in your LIFE!!!
They are Delicious! and it’s Time for my Lunch! So Good Bye!

Hawaiian Drive Inn is my dirty little secret. Literally.
It’s the type of place that Gwyneth Paltrow would get her pristinely white silk granny panties all up in a bunch.
For one, just standing inside Hawaiian Drive Inn would turn her porcelain skin to the shade of Kim K’s greasy butt. Yah, I know… old news but that greasy butt that Kanye taps will forever be ingrained in my head. Thanks, Paper magazine.
Yeup, it’s dirty and grimy but Hawaiian Drive Inn is ridiculously cheap and the portions are insanely huge for SF standards (prices have barely increased since my college days). With nothing over $ 7.75, you can get a gut-​busting meal (with leftovers) that costs less than a McD value meal. Cash only.
Don’t expect much for the price though. It’s quantity over quality here. Regular lunch plates ($ 6.39-$ 7.75) come with two heaping scoops of overcooked, clumpy rice, a scoopful of mushy mac salad drowning in mayo, and your choice of a carniwhorous meat pile: Loco Moco, BBQ Short Ribs, BBQ Chicken, Pork Chops, Chicken Katsu, etc.
To feel less like a gluttonous pig, they have mini meals for $ 4.99: one scoop of rice, one scoop of mac salad, and your choice of protein.
Not a fan of msg-​y, salty, saucy items like me (IMO, their BBQ is too salty)? Then, the Chicken Katsu is the way to go:
. It’s two layers of hot, extra crunchy, and decently tender fried chicken cutlets. Just don’t tell me where they source their chicken from because in this case, ignorance is bliss. Cheap, gluttonous, and greasy bliss.

I’m so happy I found this place! I planned to eat at El Farolito but we decided to stumble into this gem instead. This place is a hole in the wall establishment. The décor is dated but there was a constant flow of customers and we weren’t disappointed. After some tough deliberation, I decided to try the Katsu and BBQ Chicken along with a Spam Musubi.
Chicken Katsu and BBQ Chicken Mini Plates were SO GOOD! The Katsu became a bit oily at the end but the BBQ Chicken was fantastic! VERY reasonably priced at $ 5 each. Way better than a 20 piece McNuggets!
Spam Musubi was also pretty good. I might be crazy but I think the musubi sauce was a little on the salty side. I could probably eat 3 or 4 of these bad boys with a nice guava drink. Best $ 2 money can buy.
Bottom line is that this place exceeded expectations. I HIGHLY recommend making a visit here for some great food with very reasonable prices. I’ll be back shortly to try their burgers and fries!

When I think of drive-​ins, I think of pulling up my ride into a diner and have a waiter on roller skates taking your order. Some places in Hawaii do it, I am certain of that.
Unfortunately, you won’t get that in San Francisco, especially along lengthy Mission Street. Obviously the Cantonese owner (s) does not know what was he and/​or she was thinking.
However, you will get Hawaiian meals at an affordable price. For dinner, I had the Chicken Katsu meal for $ 7.00. The meal has thick and crunchy fried boneless Chicken breast cooked Hawaiian-​style, two-​scoops of macaroni salad and two-​scoops of rice. This small restaurants’ version is generous and legit. My only
problem is that the restaurant adds too much mayonnaise in the macaroni salad.
This little place is a popular hangout for high-​school kids. Some of them have shown their childish behavior.
It has been a while since I had Hawaiian-​cuisine. The price is right. The atmosphere and location is indeed questionable.