Aina Steak and Seafood — Restaurant in Honolulu

I don't understand these good reviews at all. We were gonna go to a more traditional steakhouse down the street that seems to be everyone's go-to but we said let's try something different. The reviews here seemed great so we decided to go here.

Wow were we let down. Although it was a little early, the place was empty. That should have been a red flag right there. I think only one other couple came in while we were there.

The pics of the ribeye in these reviews look amazing so we had to get that. I asked specifically if the ribeye was fatty. I was told "no, not at all". Let me back up a little. Before this, I asked the waitress a few other questions and she didn't know the answer to them or had the information wrong. Again, that should have been a red flag.

So we got the 33oz ribeye to share at $150. Crazy expensive but this was an anniversary dinner so if it was a great experience, it's worth it.

Steak comes out and it definitely looks nice. No steak knife is given i figured that was a good sign since the reviews mentioned how tender the steak was.

First thing I noticed was that it wasn't hot. Barely warm. As I started to cut into it, I also noticed the fat. I had to saw through it. Hmm. Maybe just a bad piece. I'll try another. This wound up being the entire experience. Oh and the steak was bland although they give you stuff to put on it yourself, none of which I was into.

So for our very special dinner I had low quality, very tough and fatty steak that I literally had to saw through with a butter knife. Really killed the entire vibe of the night. So it wound up being $155 with my wife's beer for a horrible meal. Outback is way better. I think anywhere would have been better.

Some other person came over to ask me how things were going and I didn't hold back. She went to tell someone else and then the waitress came back to explain that ribeye is fatty. Yeah, that's why I asked earlier if it was fatty!!!!!!!!!! I wouldn't have ordered it if they said "yeah, it can be really fatty". But again, it wasn't just fatty, it was tough. I showed her that I had to saw through it. Their only response was "sorry".

Maybe this place was good previously and now they switched out what they serve. No idea. The steak comes with mashed potatoes and they were also cold.

So unless you like bland, fatty and tough steak that you have to season yourself, go...

When we walked in, there were only 2 people dining. First red flag. The staff were very kind and attentive. The place is off the beaten path but not too far. I wanted to find a highly rated steak house but did not realize this was a steakhouse with more of a Hawai’i vibe as opposed to a traditional steakhouse vibe. For starters, I did not like that there was no ranch dressing for the salad. They only have their own homemade dressings, which were not horrible but was not what I wanted. The next thing were the brussel sprouts which were flavorless and barely cooked. They took them back to “cook them longer” and they came back 2 minutes later tasting like they threw them directly on some charcoal. There was no oil or butter or seasoning used to properly sauté them. We ate less than half. When we ordered dinner, I asked for a side of bernaise with the steak. Instead we got the bernaise asparagus. We essentially got a side dish we did not order. The next issue was that we got our potatoes 15 minutes before our steak. By the time the steak came, the potatoes were cold and had no flavor. The steak however, was very tender and tasty. That was the only thing we enjoyed. They have a fine dining price point and we did not experience fine dining quality for anything besides the steak. I was really irritated to have spent that kind of money ($268) and it not live up to the price point. I hope that this honest opinion will help the restaurant to make the necessary changes to improve the quality and...

We reserved a table by the window for dinner for my birthday and when we arrived, we were promptly greeted. Unfortunately, they didn't actually reserve a table for us. So we were sat elsewhere while we waited for another family to leave for a window seat. We didn't wait long and were sat by the window and the waitress took our drink orders and dinner order... But we didn't get our drinks for about a half hour until we requested them again. A table of four was sat next to us later on and they actually got their drinks before us. To be frank, we were left ignored for most of the night. The salad they brought us later on was good! The seafood plate takes a long time to put together which is understandable. When our food arrived we tried a little bit of everything. We liked the shrimp and lobster, the crab was pretty good but overcooked, and all the raw fish was not our favorite but that is a valuable lesson we learned. We were ready to leave as we had been there for about an hour and half so we walked up to the front register because we knew the server wouldn't come back for a long time. She came by and asked us, "do you guys have a reservation?" and literally didn't recognize us. Makes sense since she only came by to twice. We paid and left. Even tipped too, though the service definitely didn't deserve it. Nice...