Hawaiian Bros Island Grill — Restaurant in Austin

I had been craving Hawaiian BBQ for some time and got excited to see that this popped up near my work. I drove down there, disappointed to find that it's one of those shared/ghost kitchens with a ton of restaurants in the back geared towards food delivery. I went to order on the tablet on site and noticed that the food prices were around $2 more expensive there than ordering through the restaurant's website. I placed my order online and it said my meal would be good to go in about 10 minutes and I'd receive a text. I waited in my car but no text came, so I pulled up the confirmation email and hit the tracking link and it said my items were ready. There are people there that manage the orders/drivers for the building and they were too busy trying to run food to manage the front desk. I asked about my order and they said they would check in the back with Hawaiian Bros. I asked again 10 minutes later and got the same response. Finally I asked again 10 minutes later and they had my order ready to go the whole time, but placed it in the lockers for Doordash pickup. Since I was not a Doordasher with a QR code, those wouldn't have worked for me. Unfortunately, the food I got was not good enough and cold at this point to offset the service that Hawaiian Bros trusts the building to provide. This would've easily been a regular stop for lunch near my work but I'm never coming back here again as long as it's a ghost kitchen. There were even 2 plain clothed building management representatives there at the time who also proved to be...

I'm always unsure whether to leave such a low review on a first impression but I feel the food I got was representational. I got a takeout lunch with two meats - huli huli chicken which is supposed to be their signature dish, and pulled pork. It came with a mac salad and plain rice. The Huli Huli Chicken was just a sweet soy sauce glaze. I would not deem to call it "teriyaki". Uninspired is the term I would use. I would have expected maybe some accents of pineapple or something to distinguish it but no, you can get better at any Chinese Buffet. The pulled pork was likewise uninspiring. It has smoke flavor but nothing in the meat would indicate that it had even been near a BBQ pit or grill. The macaroni salad was one of the nastiest things I've ever eaten It was simply cold macaroni with what tasted like a blend of Ranch and Blue Cheese Dressing. The rice was as mentioned plain sticky rice - same stuff you get by the buckets at Chinese takeout. I took leftovers home to feed the dog and my wife tasted portions and agreed. The food is edible but nothing special to rate being a "Hawaiian Grill". ** Response to owner response While I appreciate the diligence the owner shows in responding to this review, I can't take it serious since I spelled out exactly why I rated the way I did. So if the owner wishes to improve then re-read what I wrote. There will not be a next time as there are far too many other places to eat rather than waste my money on a repeat...

I was really excited to try this place as I had heard great things. I also didn’t realize it was a ghost kitchen (should have read the reviews) but then I actually was excited that I could order a bunch of different things. Well, you can’t lol only two of the restaurants out of maybe 8 were “available”. I think the second was Fuddruckers (very odd that restaurant would be in a ghost kitchen).

Staff inside the restaurant were friendly and efficient. I noticed that the prices on the touchscreen didn’t match the prices on the Hawaiian Bros website where you can place a takeout order (surprisingly the touchscreen on-location prices were about $2+ higher). I asked about this and was told it’s more expensive to order on-location because of the costs to operate the ghost kitchen.

I got the classic mixed plate with huli and honolulu, and both were unfortunately very underwhelming. Flavor wasn’t super strong, not enough sauce, and chicken was dry (tasted like it had been made in bulk and sat out for a long while under a heat lamp). Mind you, they made my plate in less than 5 minutes so there is no reason the chicken should taste dry. I was really disappointed since we have a Hawaiian place back home that we went to on a weekly basis and their food was so good, tender chicken and large portions, and more reasonable pricing. For $16 total… I expected more. 🤷‍♀️

Should have gone down the road to Pedrosos which was my plan A, but didn’t think I could finish a whole pizza...