Aloha Cookin' — Restaurant in East Lansing

This place has the most delicious Hawaiian food I’ve had in a long time and being from Vegas, there’s a lot of great Hawaiian food. This place stands up with the best of them. Everything here is delicious. Their teriyaki (both chicken and beef) is great. The chicken is fresh and cooked perfectly as is the beef (which is ribeye I believe). The teriyaki sauce is perfect. Sweet and tangy the way it’s supposed to be. They also have a spicy teriyaki option if you’re looking for a little kick. My favorite dishes are the short rib, chicken katsu, and - BY FAR - their Loco Moco (hamburger steak patties, eggs, rice, and gravy). So the short rib (which is similar to Korean kalbi or galbi ribs) are amazing. They obviously use top quality meat (more meat than fat but still has that perfect marbling). They also cook it to perfection and the sauce and seasoning is perfect. The chicken katsu is by far the best chicken katsu in Michigan (south east anyway). The outside is perfectly crispy while the inside is tender and not overcooked at all, which is a delicate balance to keep the chicken moist while making the outside crispy. The katsu sauce is delectable. Perfect mixture of sweet and savory. Now the star of the show is the loco moco. The hamburger patties are cooked to perfection. The eggs are done just right so that the yolk squeezes out perfectly over the dish without being runny. And the gravy is to die for. It complements the patties, eggs, and rice perfectly. It’s that perfect hearty brown gravy that just adds the perfect touch of flavor to everything else. Each dish is served with rice and a choice of side. All their sides are great too. Their kimchi has a great flavor with a nice kick. The mac salad bursts with flavor as well, unlike some macaroni salad that’s kind of bland and flavorless. But this place does it right. Their picked cucumbers are also great. But my favorite sides are the kimchi and mac salad. They also have incredible spam musubis that they serve with a side of their teriyaki sauce. I come here at least once, sometimes...

$20 for a poke bowl is just plain price gouging firstly. For the amount of toppings and the quality, it’s too high a price.

Secondly, my bowl had no flavor a character beyond the sauce. The fish was spongy. The seaweed salad taste like it was store bought. And the other toppings were undercooked or just not the freshest tasting. Not to mention, they were all cheap. Nothing that constitutes the price. AND my rice was a mixture of mushy and crumbly, and hard. Probably old considering that. I have zero respect for restaurants who can’t put effort into making the basic staples right. The Mac salad taste like mayo and msg and it gave me an upset stomach. The miso taste like it came out of a bag.

Lastly, I was given a 25 minute eta, but my food was ready within minutes (a good thing). However, I arrived 30+ minutes after putting in the order. It was a deluxe poke bowl. The main ingredient is raw fish so I’m not understanding why orders like mine aren’t kept in a cooler until they’re picked up. By the time I got home, the fish went from room temp to warm. It’s such a small thing but you can tell which restaurants do well because of their location (college town, locals/visitors who don’t know better about quality and price point) and which restaurants do well because of their attention to detail, customer service, and quality of food.

Maybe the bbq at this place is good. I’m willing to atleast try once more but my hopes aren’t high. Maybe they prioritize putting effort into done in customers, and take advantage of carry out...

The place always seems dead but they have good poke bowl so I always get it here. This will be my last time since the portion gets smaller and smaller each time. And this time around the host was in the bathroom so she couldn’t seat us. We had to seat ourselves. I wouldn’t get annoyed if the cook or whoever that guy was from the kitchen would have told us to take a seat instead of just letting us stand there and walking back and forth. The Asian guy who also works there sat at the last table but his eyes were glued to his phone and didn’t even say anything to us about taking a seat either. I know it’s not their job but if the host went to the bathroom for a good 5-10 minutes someone needs to cover for her. It’s team work! It’s not a big or busy restaurant so they need to do better. We will not be coming back to this place.

Edit: replying to the owner. I said “IF the host went to the bathroom for 5-10 minutes”.. keyword IF. Even if it’s two minutes someone should cover her spot. Making customers stand in the front waiting is never a good look. I get if the restaurant was busy but it was dead. It doesn’t hurt you as the owner to open your mouth and just say take a seat and someone will be with you shortly. .. right? Host didn’t even ask us for drinks and we were nice about it. I didn’t see any Avocado in my poke bowl and didn’t complain as well. So tell me again...