Hawaiian Drive Inn

No different than L&L really.
Loco Moco and spam musubi was good. Yum.

I’ve never gotten anything else but Spam & Eggs with rice; it tastes amazingly good! However, the price is kind of high though. Each order only comes with 3pcs spam, if I were to add an extra piece, the total of the order close to $ 10.
Customer service is alright, I just never seen much smiles on their faces.
Perhaps I should go try other stuffs on their manual and do an update later.

I mean, it’s like L&L’s…

I’ve been here several times before & this place is quiet usually just one or two customers, Maybe it has to do with the time I come in. I’m glad I can just come in & get out.
Service is eh! It’s like the guy is bored or seems like he hates his job?! But whatever I just ordered musubi. Next time I’ll go by curtner the service there was great.

Spam Musubi for $ 2.75 plus tax!
I only ordered the Spam Musubi to get my Spam fix, so my rating is based on the price of my one item.
I was über disappointed with the price. :’(I’m used to paying $ 1.99 for the same item at other Hawaiian joints in San Jose. It was yummy, but I feel it was greatly over priced. The next night I just made my own.

Good’n’greasy — I got us a chicken katsu mini-​plate and a BBQ beef mini-​plate and they hit the spot. I wasn’t planning on getting fries until I saw they have crinkle fries, so I threw in an order of those too.
$ 13 for food for both of us on a «goddamn I need to eat something that’s bad for me» kind of night, and it’s reasonably close to the house. Noted for future reference.

I went here twice this week. Both times were great. This location is more convenient for me than L&L.
The Chicken Katsu and Kalua pork with cabbage is really good here. The katsu has a nice crisp crust and goes well with their home made «tonkatsu» sauce. Lots of flavor in the pork. Not dry either.
Their online menu prices are outdated. Most items are about 0.25−0.50c more…
Quick turnaround. Less than 5 minute wait for my orders.
The parking lot is shared with 4 other restaurants so it can get a bit crowded. You can park behind the hotel if you need…

Not sure why it’s hard to get excellent Hawaiian food in the south bay. It just is. Ever since Hukilau in PA went away I’ve not been back to that group of restaurants and have been trying to find a new one. Went to HD for lunch with the co-​workers recently. Lau Lau and Kalua Pork combo was the bill. Pretty decent on both products but not phenomenal. Co-​worker said Spam Musubi was solid. I guess Ill have to try some of the other items on the menu but the pork products are decent enough. 3.5 stars

Chicken katsu mini… yummerz :0)
Luckaly I have never had a problem with a wait since I have lunch late. But the down side… they sell out of ahi poke fairly early due to the heavy lunch traffic.
For a fast food joint food here is very good. The portions here are very generous and the prices are very reasonable. I am not a bigg portion eater myself so Mini is just right for my belly :0)

It was a Cloudy and Overcast day and it reminded me of Hawaii. So I rolled to HDI. I was Happy to see their Wednesday Special was Kalua Pork and Chicken Katsu two of my Favs so I ordered that. It comes with 2 scoops of Steamed Rice and a Scoop of Mac Salad. I was presented with my food 13 Minutes later. The Kalua Pork was Moist, Succulent and Rich. The Chicken Katsu was Breaded and Deep Fried Morsels of Chicken goodness and huge portions of both. Islander style. Yum Yum.

Correction: An regular here is equivalent to a large and a small here is equivalent to an regular.
Don’t let the name fool you. I got an regular bbq chicken rice plate thinking that small wasn’t enough. It turned out to be a large bento box and got me really full.
The food here is descent, the price here is fair, but just be prepared to wait during lunch hour.

4.0 Stars
When I’m in the mood for Hawaiian food I like to stop by Hawaiian Drive Inn. This place is conveniently located in a food plaza right on 1^st Street. If you have trouble finding this place look out for the Holiday Inn or the Chevron station.
The food here reminds me of a fusion between Korean/​Japanese with a slight twist. If this is your first time eating Hawaiian, you’ll notice your orders comes with a side of Macaroni Salad!
This place is pretty cool because they let you substitute your sides (Rice or Macaroni Salad) for steamed veggies instead. I kind of miss the option for Brown Rice. Probably not a lot of people ordered it because you had to add $ 0.50 extra per scoop, so they took it off the menu.
The portions here are very generous and the prices are very reasonable. If you’re feeling extra hungry order the Regular, if not the Mini size will be just about right. I generally order the Mini because that is plentiful for lunch. They usually run for about $ 5. The Regulars are $ 2 more than the Minis.
My favorite dishes here include the Kalua Pork & Cabbage and the Loco Moco. The Kalua Pork & Cabbage dish is really simple. It’s just shredded Pork and Cabbage, but it tastes so GOOD. Add a little Sriracha sauce for a little kick! The Loco Moco consists of a Hamburger Pattie and Eggs smothered with Gravy. The Gravy is super yummy too and it goes really well with the White Rice. They’ll also cook the eggs in any style you like.
Lastly, the servers here are also really friendly. The food is tasty and the price is right. What more can I ask for?
== A MUST TRY! ==

Yeah, it’s pretty darn tasty. You already probably know that the way to experience «epic» Hawaiian food is to get the short ribs (always MINI sized — don’t food coma!) with the macaroni salad. But what about all those other things? The chicken katsu, curries, shrimp?
Mixed.
Got the shrimp curry and it went nicely with the macaroni salad and rice — a nice contrast. But it wasn’t up to the quality of a Thai or Indian or Japanese curry — or to that of the spare ribs.

I’d give you guys a 3 ½. The parking kind of sucks here because it shares all these other little restaurants like a phở place, subway, and chipotle. i ordered the bbq mix plate to get a sample of everything they had. thumbs up on the quantity of food! the i got about 4 medium sized chicken breasts not dried out or anything so that was good. a couple pieces of bbq beef which was a tad bit dry almost like if it was any dryer it could of been jerky. and the korean short rib was okay, nothing like korean style short ribs but hey its a try. the flavors of the meat were all there, only thumbs down though is the macaroni salad. oh man did it taste nasty, i think thats one thing that makes should be done right, i guess for me that was a plus cause then i didnt eat much of the macaroni salad and we all know how bad that stuff is.
all and all i would go there for the bigger portions than L&L. It was a bit pricey almost 8 something. I think i could of been satisfied enough with a mini plate, because I’m the type not to waste food so I always force myself to eat the rest haha

You know, I could take or leave this place, to be honest. The food is alright, but not fantastic. The portions are large, but this isn’t necessarily a good thing. However, they give you a lot for the price you pay.
Honestly, I’ve had better Kalua pork, but that was at a legit Hawaiian restaurant (King’s Hawaiian in Torrance, if you’re curious) instead of one of these fast food places. I did feel the burn after eating here, so I’d caution against going here before dancing your tail off all night long, but that’s just me.

This place is the closest place I’ve got to work that serves something with rice. Being Chinese, I require my quota worth of rice for the week or something bad will happen.
Moco loco: Patties are kinda dry where the gravy doesn’t really neutralize the dryness. Some people really like this but it was a heart stopper for me. Please substitute the potato salad with veggies if you want to live past 40.
BBQ mixed plate: Chicken was pretty good, and the rib bbq was good too. However the beef bbq in between was somehow bland. Again pick veggies over potato salad.
I know there’s a lot of mixed feelings in here but I tend to pick this place over the places next door.

Didn’t know there was one near my work until Wilhelm Y. mentioned this place in his review. Out of the Hawaiian Drive Inn I have been to in the Bay Area, this one is probably the most cleanest. Probably it’s in a relatively new strip mall. Plenty of tables inside, and a few outside ones.
Gotta say, people behind the counter are pretty quick. Took less than five minutes for the food to come out after my order. Instead of eating in, I had it to go. Plate lunches from most places are generally pretty hefty, so I’m not sure what I was thinking when I decided to order a regular-​size roast pork plate lunch.
When I opened the styrofoam container at work, there were 4 thick slices of roast pork, smothered in gravy, along with the traditional 2 scoops of rice, and one scoop of mac salad (see photo). What was I thinking? This will surly put me to sleep afterwards. Coworkers walked by my office as I was eating my lunch, and gave me and my lunch a double take, and that «are-​you-​really-​going-​to-​eat-​ALL-​of-​that» look. The roast pork was moist, not dry, with nice caramelized crust at the edges. A little fat on these babies to give it that right texture, and boost up that cholesterol level.
Overall, pretty decent, and on par with the other plate lunch places in the area. Don’t think I can eat like this for lunch every day, but an option if I need that meat fix.

I never realized the chain of Hawaiian Drive Inns reached all the way down into the South Bay. All of the restaurants appear to be independently owned though. This location has a menu about double the size of the Hawaiian Drive Inn located near my house in San Francisco, and the prices are slightly higher too.
The portions are incredibly huge though. I walked in a few hours after running the half marathon last Sunday and ordered the BBQ Mix Plate, and even on an empty stomach I found the portion to be too much food.
The order was loaded up with a mountain of meat (
). I found that the rice was a bit too soft and mushy for my liking, but the mayonnaise-​intense macaroni salad was very good. The short ribs were among the most tender that I’ve had at any Bay Area Hawaiian diner being only chewy around the bone. The teriyaki steak was somewhat tender, but the batch I had was a bit on the fatty side. The teriyaki basted chicken dark meat was very good too.
It’s too bad I no longer know anyone who raises live chickens because I ended up tossing most of the two scoops of rice and the bit of shredded cabbage on the bottom of the styrofoam container.

Due to the bankruptcy of ATA and Aloha we had to postpone our trip to Hawaii until later this year. So until then, I need a little Aloha spirit in my life and some Hawaiian Mix plates in my stomach.
And Hawaiian Drive Inn delivered! Decent Hawaiian food near my work for a good price = 3.5 stars!
Just like Andrew C. I got the spam musubi and mini kalua pork! And the portions were pretty generous. There was enough kalua pork packed in there to feed me for two meals, and the cabbage was cooked well so it still had some firmness but wasn’t crunchy.
The one thing I liked about the musubi was that they put sauce on it for added flavor. Many places just give you the spam and that’s it. So that was a nice touch.
Fast, friendly service and reasonable prices. I’ll definitely come back again to try some more of their other entrees.
Can’t wait till later this year! Shaka!

I got a «Mini» Kalua Pork and a Spam Musubi.
I could barely finish the Pork and had to save the Spam Musubi for later. The pork was juicy and flavorful without being greasy. A lite smoky flavor. The macaroni salad was decent too. It wasn’t as mayonaisey as some of the reviews had me to believe. Maybe it’s mixed up in house and depends on who’s at the helm that day?
The Spam Musubi tasted good as well. The cut of Spam was a bit thin for my liking, and it had some sauce (Teriyaki maybe?) between the Spam and rice which added something to it.
The prices are higher than what’s on the website (e.g. $ 1.99 instead of $ 1.50 for the Spam. the other musubis are over $ 2), but still pretty good value for decent quick grub.