The Pono Hukilau — Restaurant in Florence

After taking some time to think about whether or not I wanted to review this place I have decided to do just that. I was very excited to have found this place on the internet as a stopover on our honeymoon. We were going to be traveling through Florence on our way to Steamboat. Since it was the end of her honeymoon I decided we would pick up food for premiere for dinner to enjoy in our little cabin on the Umpqua River. I was very much anticipating this is being a part of our honeymoon restaurant experience. I do not fault the restaurant for being a local popular and favorite place to go. However my one star review is based solely on how they treated me and my husband. Upon arriving it was super busy and we happen to get there in the middle of lunch. I can understand being busy and I can understand being understaffed. However the note on the door telling the customers that they would be replaced with nice people if they acted entitled was a bit much. I'm sure I was perceived as one of those entitled people but that's not farther from the truth. I felt the servers did not care one bit if we stayed left did decide to order food or anything. I felt that they could not be bothered to do a takeout order and treated us as if we were a burden to them and they couldn't believe that we would ask to even do a takeout order. I was basically hostilely talked to by the server who might as well been yelling at me with her tone of voice. I have been a server in a restaurant and I have been busy and I have worked retail and I have never once spoken to a customer the way she talked to us. She could have told us kindly we are very busy and it might take a little longer than normal but suggested things we could do if we weren't from the area or any number of things that were kind. For the place demanding kindness from their customers they sure were anything but to us. It was this is though we could be spotted as being a tourist. We were told that take out would take at least an hour and a half but with the way they told us it seemed like they didn't even care that stayed around. I went from being excited to try this place out to feeling like I was a burden and therefore decided to leave and go to another place in town. I was met with excellence service prompt food and ended up with an amazing dinner from organic noodle. I probably will never step foot in this establishment because of the service. I came home and made my own Hawaiian food to make up for it which...

I just wanted to start off this review by saying that the food is phenomenal. This is easily one of our favorite restaurants in town and the service has been spectacular.

On October 7th 2025 at 11:30 am, our server, Michael (this was the name on the ticket), briefly greeted us. My husband mentioned immediately that he thought our server was extremely drunk. We waited nearly 40 minutes just for water. While waiting for service and trying to track him down for our drinks, we observed him carry and spill a margarita (no one the patio had ordered alcohol), another patron waited too long for her check and to-go boxes so cash was placed on the table and she left. A patron next to us had ordered a coffee which he never received. After we received our water, we noticed he came out with an other tray with several glasses of water 10 minutes later. He stopped, looked confused, mumbled something and then placed the water tray down on an empty table and went back inside. The water tray was still on the table by the time we left. 15 minutes after finally receiving the water, our food was brought out by the head chef. My husband immediately asked the head chef for to-go boxes and the check because we were so uncomfortable. Our final interaction with him was when he finally brought out the Diet Coke I ordered. He then also realized we didn't have silverware, my husband told him we were waiting on to-go boxes and we didn't need any, the server said "okay" and still placed them down.

As we were packing up our food, a waitress who had been called in ran inside to grab an apron and assisted everyone who had been neglected on the patio. She was brisk, attentive and professional. We got more service in 60 seconds with her, than the 75 minutes we were there.

This experience that we had today, was not at all typical of an experience at Hukilau. The chefs are outstanding and the wait staff is normally exceptional and attentive. This experience was absolutely ruined by a single individual and we left the restaurant very put off...

TL:DR Won't be returning, terrible service, long wait times, mediocre food. I would leave a negative review if possible. I had been here one other time and had previously, and generously, offered a 4 stars review. Even though we waited nearly an hour and a half to get our order taken, have food brought out, and pay the check; but the fish tacos were fantastic so we gave it another try. We again waited nearly 15 minutes for drinks. Food wait time was about 30 minutes (once the server finally got around to taking our order). This time I ordered a chicken sandwich of sorts, it was AWFUL. It was just chunks of dark meat chicken that wouldn't even stay in the bun. The chicken was gristly and dry. My husband's order came out wrong. We had to wait another 20 minutes for it to be re-made. I asked for a beer, the server brought me a sample but never returned with the beer I ordered. I had to go get my own cup of water (because I had nothing to drink to rinse the nasty taste out of my mouth). After the server messed up the order she NEVER returned to our table. I had to either go up to the register myself or ask another server passing by for refills, boxes (because by that time my husband was over it and just wanted to take his remade order to go), and then had to go to the register to ask for the check. A DIFFERENT server came out with my check and took my payment. Never got a single apology from the manager/owner nor the server who took care of us. They did comp the remake, but it didn't make up for the lack of professionalism displayed by the server. We will not be returning! This place was busy both times we went (once for lunch and once for dinner), but I feel it's because they lack competition. Their staff really needs to be retrained or they need more staff as neither time were our servers friendly or attentive. Seems as though the locals get all the attention, so I guess...