Island Subs & Burgers — Restaurant in Honolulu

Family and I were out and about and needed something for dinner. Circled the parking lot and something about this place stood out from the rest, plus I love sandwiches. Outside on the windeos they had pics of their burgers and sandwiches and it was tough to decide what we wanted to get. We went inside, and the atmosphere has a great touch for a mom and pop restaurant. We got a little bit of everything, the meatball sub, egg plant sandwich, steak plate, and the monstrous 1lb avocado burger with onion rings and fries. Everything had that extra touch of taste and care that most places are missing nowadays. The steak plate was cooked juicy and had extra flavor with the gravy, my son couldn't finish the meatball sub cuz he wasn't use to how much meatballs he got in the sub. My woman loved the egg plant sub but again was just too much to finish. And the burger had just the right amount of fixings to flavor. But it was too much to conquer and I was defeated. And lastly the onion rings, they were the right amount of batter and fried. Not those onion rings that you take a bite and the entire onion slips along with it, but you take a bite get that crunch and the onion breaks along with it. Cuz of covid we had to sit outside and the shop was closing up, as they were leaving I told them thank you and how great the food was, the owner said something to his wife and out she brought an extra drink, and we weren't expecting it and was truly grateful. I will definitely recommend and will definitely come back to try more things off the menu. Loved the experience and wanna come...

Ordered a boneless duck/cake noodle to go, got home about 10 minutes later....something smelled off but dug in anyway....The duck was slimy and smelled off. Then my tongue started itching...called Island Manapua, described the problem/smell/taste...."I tell the cook," uhhhhh telling the cook about it doesn't solve my problem..."you come back," I'm not able to come back today, but it's best if you stop serving that duck...and she hung up on me.....So I called back and told her that I wasn't done talking...."I just scold the cook," (shouting at me)....Excuse me, why are you shouting at me, I could easily call the Board of Health and make a report, please don't be so rude....she continues shouting so I hung up. (We all know that these restaurants use left overs for fried rice, etc., but the least they can do is make sure the product is still fresh enough to use another day (or 2 or 3....). I never had a problem with this place; of late, though, it looks run down, the viewing glass is so dirty that they have a squeegee to clean off the glass with the water dripping right back into the warming food....YUCK...NO THANK...

This is a small mom and pop in the Manoa Marketplace. The food was fair. It could use more flavor or some salt and pepper. A extra kick of umami in the mushroom burger I had would have helped. Perhaps some more salt or beef stock in the gravy for the loco moco, too. It's been around a long time so it's a neighborhood staple. There were quite a few local regulars coming in, I did notice that many were older and the lower sodium was intentional for them. It is a mom and pop store and I believe they were helping their regulars control their sodium. The interior was very clean, a huge plus when so many places lack staffing. The decor was functional and showed age. I grabbed a seat and waited for my order and quickly left to enjoy the cool Manoa air. I would come back to try...