Verna's Drive In — Restaurant in Hawaii

Do you want delicious food? Do you have at least $10 in your pocket? If your answer was yes, then you need to stop reading this review and go to Verna's now. This place makes L&L's food seem like it came from a toilet. There are options to satisfy everyone. I had the chili plate, and it is hands down the best chili I have ever had. The Mac Salad is the best Mac Salad I have ever had. Even the rice was somehow more delicious than you'd expect. Their chicken Katsu is perfect. Not Greasy, not overcooked.

I went to this place on my last day in Hawaii, and I am genuinely angry I'd need to buy $400 in round trip tickets to get the best $10 meal I've ever had in my life. We went to Maui & the Big Island. In our stay, the first best meal we had was $100 a person at Mama's Fish House on Maui. The 2nd best meal we had was at Leilani's at Ka'anapali, $60 a person. This $10 meal was the third best meal I had during my stay, and it was easily half as expensive as every other meal I had the whole week.

I am going to stop writing this review because I'm getting even angrier that I am more than 2400 miles from this restaurant. If this place were near my work in Menlo Park, CA, they could sell this food for 2.5x the cost and make a killing. I want to open a Verna's Franchise here so that I can eat...

Have loved going to Verna's for years, but we went there today ordered a total of 7 plates. I am sorry to say the Best plate was the Club Sandwich with Fries. The Local Plates were sadly lacking. The Beef Tomato was tough and excessively sweet. The Kalohe Plate was a mixture, the shrimp were good but the Teri Beef was like leather, the Katsu was soggy and the Mac Salad wasn't what it used to be. It was "wet" and a strong taste of garlic powder that was a bit overwhelming. The Hawaiian Plates were sad! The Beef Stew had tough pieces of Beef, the LauLaus were stringy but tasted okay and the Kahlua and Cabbage was flat in flavor. I feel bad that this is one of the closest places for the tourists to go and get a taste of Hawaii's flavor. While I was there a family asked me what I would recommend, I am only hoping their Plates were better than ours. I don't know what happened but the Verna's we grew up with no longer has the quality of food...

This is just what we hoped for. We can tell it’s a local favorite. Walk up to the window to order and take your food or sit there under covered picnic tables. The service was great and she helped us with questions happily. My husband ordered a combo plate with fried shrimp , teriyaki steak, chicken katsu that came with rice and macaroni salad. He is a professional chef and restaurant owner and said it’s the best Mac salad he’s had, the breading on the katsu chicken and shrimp was perfect and the teriyaki steak was cooked and flavored perfectly. I also had the katsu chicken and subbed the Mac salad for greens. The sauces were good and the rice was wonderful. Our daughter said her grilled cheese sandwich was the best she’s ever had and the spring rolls are very good. We all agreed that the French fries were good! I’m sure we will be back again. Check...