Yong's Kal-Bi — Restaurant in Hawaii

A truly mom & pop shop with great service and great food. This Korean restaurant has the regular Korean food but also some daily specials using whatever they get from the market that day.

I have been wanting to try dishes made with breadfruit, also known as ulu on the island. I was pleasantly surprised to saw on their daily special, Korean pancake made with ulu & mungbean. This dish was truly vegan, just 2 simple ingredients. It was so good, I came back 2 more times just to eat this pancake, and I’m not even vegan 😁.

Their plates are huge and generously priced. Each item comes with 3 sides + rice or 4 sides. The boss lady run the front, and her husband is the chef in the kitchen. There are drinks for sale but you could also just stick with the free water and hot barley tea.

We came back on the last day before leaving the island to eat the ulu pancake one more time. Unfortunately, it wasn’t available that day because the ulu wasn’t ripe yet. The boss lady was so nice, she presented us with a free kimbap before we leave as a...

I had high hopes before stepping into the restaurant based the Google rating/reviews but the food gods were not on my side today...food was bland/watered down.....perhaps to meet local tastes? But in an effort to meet local/everyone's taste, they stripped away the bright/fiery/bold flavorus that makes Korean food so special. If you have the time, it's best to drive 60 min more to Hilo and try Cham Cham Korean BBQ Restaurant (the best Korean food on Big Island in my humble opinion). My wife and I had the following dishes: 1) Kimchi Chigae/Stew (watered down/bland taste); 2) Seaweed Soup (not bad but a bit too salty); 3) Fish Mahi Mahi Jun (tasty but a tad salty)....we got 3 side banchan for each dish....all were tasty and what made the review rating go from a potential 2 to a 3 rating. If you're in the Waimea area and don't have the time to drive to Hilo, would stick with Bibimbap....we didn't order this dish but it looked like a lot of locals were eating that + hard to...

We ordered Kalbi $29, and bugogi $18. Both dishes came with rice and 3 sides, big enough to share. We also ordered the mushroom pancake of the day. You order at the front and they bring you the food, and you have to bus your own table. Flavors were good, kalbi wasn't too tender and didn't have a char bbq as one might expect, bugogi was three large slice of beef (not like the pre-sliced version we had in the mainland US). It took me some time to cut the bugogi, and the meat got cold real fast. I wish they'd served them on the hot plates. Interior looks old, but big enough to not worry about seating. This place would not do well in mainland USA, but probably ranks top on this island. I would come back if...