ALOHA TABLE Waikiki — Restaurant in Honolulu

The biggest issue was the lack of transparency for wait time. We arrived at 5:20p local time. 3 parties ahead of us. The place was empty with 3 parties inside. This ended up 1 hour 15 minutes wait for which a total tourist trap. Happy hours end at 6p during week days. The vast majority of customers are Japanese tourists (staff are mostly Japanese speaking) that made online reservations and they showed up on time and skirting all wait. This is the issue with the waiting folks. Every time a table leaves, no movement on the wait line as reservation is already taken but not clear to the crowd. The location unfortunately was facing the refuse storage across the street of a high rise commercial hotel building. Occasional gust brings a whip of fragrance that I don't want. It's always warm there. Therefore I think it's a permanent issue. It's on the second floor and the waiting area is on the stairs. Our table was outside, so the fragrance did come about. The restaurant had open windows and was set up to be a garden theme/Hawaiian, so perhaps everyone gets that fragrance occasionally. First up- furniture. The shaky tall bar stools for the tall table were concerning. Glad they worked for my heft of XL sizes. Given an hour plus of studying the menu on the stairs, we knew the menu but had to look around to see the sizes. $33 for loco Moco of normal size. It tasted ok despite whatever award it claimed to have. These award things are overly used like Vegas "voted best whatever". The pork chop was thick, an inch thick as presented already cut, but the skill to do it right wasn't there and overcooked as it was dry. The hot plate sirloin was ok. The meat wasn't juicy or favorable. Caution on ordering given its hot plate so it would continue to cook after it arrived. The nacho was good. The wait staff was in short supply. So get all you need when you grab one. The immediate neighboring restaurant had "live" music with a singer that could...

Updated Review from September 2023: *Highly recommend a reservation to avoid a long wait. There were a lot of people waiting and we walked past all of them with our reservation.

This place is also not the easiest to spot. Keep your eyes peeled - it’s upstairs and the sign isn’t the easiest to notice.

We visited this restaurant in January 2020 and decided we liked it so much we wanted to have it again in 2023. Last time, we had tried Loco Moco here and I haven’t been able to replicate it at home though I have tried quite a few times. This time, they had a special menu for an Okinawan Feastival and we tried the Sampler and the Loco Moco Taco Rice. We were both super happy with our meals.

The atmosphere was a little weird because the music they were playing clashed with the live music from another nearby place. Since they leave their terrace open to the indoor restaurant, I’d recommend they either turn their music up or turn it off when there’s very loud live music nearby. Other than that, it was clean, well-kept, and exactly what you’d expect from a restaurant a bit off the beaten path.

Ending the review with my first statement: I highly recommend a reservation to avoid a long wait. The host stand is not actively monitored and there’s a sign up list you add yourself to. My only complaint about service was a number of servers and staff walked by and didn’t acknowledge the people waiting or standing right next to the stand. There is also not a lot of seating for waiting. I think they’d benefit from one of the text/phone based systems for waitlist, and for someone to stop by more actively to answer questions, provide wait times, and check for reservation arrivals.

Original Review from January 2020: This restaurant's menu is in Japanese and English. I had the Campari Tomato & Rucola Spaghetti and my fiance had the Loco Moco. We both had clean plates at the end of our meals, the food was so delicious. Great...

Initial Observations: Upstairs next to the  Beef Jerky shop.   A little difficult to find using Google maps.  It's located off the main street. Ceiling fans and open air seating really cools the place down.  It does not feel hot at all.

Service: Stars out of 5: 5 Greeted quickly and seated.  FOH is friendly and patient.  Staff is very friendly and responsive.  We got boxes and the check very quickly when asked.

Food: Stars out of 5: 4

Taste of ALOHA Appetizer sampler $32 -Tomato and onion is refreshing; onions were sweet -Mochiko Chicken is really good...juicy and seasoned; really good crunch -Tofu poke was good, had edamame and what looked like samphire. Sesame/soy dressing. -Ahi Poke tasted ok...could have been better; but the dressing does wonders for the onions -Garlic Shrimp flashed fried shrimp; juicy and flavorful

Beef Kalbi $37 I am speechless....   The Garlic rice is terrific and the ribs were perfect and full of flavor.  The sweet and smokiness of the ribs with the savory garlic rice hits me just right... but then you go for the sweet kernel corn on the side...the only thing missing was butter for the corn.

Kobe Style Loco Moco $23 2 small patties 2 sunny side eggs smothered in beef gravy.  Honestly I think this dish was just OK.  I had it in other places before and really did not notice any major differences.  There was nothing that jumped out at you as being special or unique.

Rest Room: Stars out of 5: 2 The men's room is at the end of a short darkish hallway. Single Urinal/SIngle stall/Single sink.  The room is a bit small; the automatic towel dispenser was empty at the time of visit.

Overall Opinion: Stars...