Little Joe's Steakhouse — Restaurant in Honolulu

Aloha,

When she dropped off the drinks she said again shed bring the bread out. When the food runner brought out our first appetizer we enjoyed that. 8.50 for 4 pieces of toast with some tomatoes on it, it’s a fancy night out for birthday, may as well splurge.

They then brought out the soups and I always love the French onion while the wife got the relatively new clam chowder. The clam chowder bowl looked half full and my wife who never complains actually said is this for real?

Anyway, she took our entre orders and informed me that the larger TBone wasn’t available so I got the smaller one and asked for it Rare to which she said “since it has a bone rare can be chewy so how does medium rare sound. I agreed and said good call please make it medium rare.

When the steaks came out mine was charred. A little odd to see a lot of char on a medium rare steak. I cut the tip off and it was cooked well done. My wife said, check the center. Sure enough in the center of the steak by the bone it was also, well done.

The first time in my life I was going to make a complaint to the waitress. When she came by and checked on us, I showed her the cut piece by the bone and asked her does this look medium rare? She looked at the meat and said “I can check with the chef to see if they cooked it medium rare.” I never have sent food back and wasn’t about to start so I told her Ill eat the well done steak.

The waitress only refilled our water and drinks once, despite us not leaving until 9:00. So we were there for 90 minutes and only asked to have our drinks refilled once. The waitress took so long that other patrons stood up and went to her for the checks.

I never want to tell a business who to retain, however unless this server was brand new she is costing you business by pushing customers away. I am willing to bet that she also told the kitchen to cook my steak medium well. She may be extremely polite, but this was unacceptable.

Update for June 11th 2023.

Brought out the food in wrong order, my wife had to wait 30 minutes to eat after I got my food

Manager didn't offer any condolences and said "you weren't supposed to get the food you got, it was supposed to go to the table there" like she was guilting us for her workers bringing the same exact dish I ordered at the same time our appetizers came out.

Not coming back any time soon. Service is too hit or miss.

And the server tried to charge me for a salad they completely forgot to bring out.

Horrible service from beginning to end...

June 2022 Updated the review *

Came back again and the server was great, the food price was still ridiculously high but that amazing server trumped it!

** June 2020 It's a new restaurant and its still covid time. I guess the managers were not ready for alot of people to come so they were a little short staffed.

We didnt wait at all for a seat and sat right down. After a little longer then typical they took our drink order. Then after about 15 minutes of sitting they brought our drinks and we waited another 10 to put our order in.

We ordered the ceaser salad and French onion soup. The salad was absolutely tiny for the price and so was the French onion soup. The crock was one of the smallest I've seen. However aside from the tiny portions the food was good. It was weird seeing tomatoes in a ceaser salad.

We also ordered fried mushrooms which were really good, but only 7 came with the order so that's over a dollar a peice for a mushroom.

The entrees and sides are ala carte so we got the...

As someone who has dined at Little Joe’s Steakhouse over 15 times, I never imagined I’d be writing a review like this. Until recently, it was one of my favorite places to unwind, known for great food, ambiance, and reliable service. But my visit on April 6, 2025, left me disappointed, embarrassed, and completely disillusioned.

I ordered the Surf and Turf, asking for my steak to be cooked Pittsburgh-style — charred on the outside, medium inside. What I received lacked any char and was clearly not made to specification. I politely returned it, repeating my request. The replacement came back overcooked, completely missing the mark again.

I asked to speak with a manager, The new inexperienced manager Brandon came over. Rather than offering help, he took a condescending tone and proceeded to lecture me about steak — completely ignoring my clear instructions. He refused to remove the dish from the bill and repeatedly spoke over me, offering no apology or resolution. I ended up sitting for nearly two hours without eating, trying to give the staff the chance to make things right — they didn’t.

To make matters worse, I had a party of six with me, including one of the owners of Assaggio’s Restaurant. The entire experience was humiliating and left everyone with a negative impression of what was once one of Honolulu’s most respected steakhouses.

This isn’t the first issue I’ve encountered here — I previously raised concerns when a same-sex couple from my staff felt mistreated, but I gave the restaurant the benefit of the doubt and continued to return. After this most recent visit, I contacted the corporate office, Yummy Corporation (which owns Little Joe’s, Yummy BBQ, and Signature Steakhouse), expecting accountability. I received none. Corporate offered no help, no apology, and instead chose to stand behind a manager whose behavior was blatantly unprofessional.

After spending thousands of dollars here and recommending this place to countless friends, colleagues, and family members, I can say with certainty: I will never return. The complete disregard for customer loyalty, respect, and basic hospitality is unacceptable.

I do not recommend Little Joe’s Steakhouse to anyone. It has gone from being one of the best in town to a place that no longer values the people who helped build...

Was disappointed with my first visit.

Our first steaks came out over cooked, on both surf and turf plates. We asked for medium and both were medium-well, closer to well done. Our server agreed and went to grab management. (My best guess is they sat under the heat lamp for too long on the super hot plates)

Management came to check on us and with a condescending tone asked if we wanted our next steaks medium-raw or raw. We declined asking for them to be cooked medium. She took our plates In agitation and left.

We tried to enjoy the surf while we waited another 15 minuets for our steaks.

There was no effort put into firing our steaks in any sort of rush. Steaks don’t take 15 minuets to cook.

New steaks arrived delivered by the same female manager and she promised to return to check on us.

This time bloody and purple. Not even medium raw, but just seared on the outside. It felt like retaliatory behavior from the kitchen and management, if I can be quite honest, because of the comment she made when she took our plates.

Management never returned to check on us, so we waited and waited and waited. Eventually we spotted our waiter and asked to speak to her again, express our disappointment and that we were fine taking our steaks home to cook some more ourselves. (At this point we were fed up, and not with dinner.)

Management was apologetic, but in the most minimal way. Her fake demeanor really shined at this moment. No sincerity was felt from her. She knew how to put on a fake smile, nod like someone who’s pretending to care before walking away and letting us go home having had a terrible experience.

With all the great places to spend your money in Honolulu, you can find a better steakhouse without issue. This isn’t Applebees, nor are they Applebees prices, so you expect something more than the mediocre, well that’s what you’ll find here.

Our evening was lackluster to say the least, we wanted to enjoy SURF and TURF. Instead we got some surf… waited for our turf and by then we were ready to leave and cook the steak ourselves at home.

Disappointed is an understatement, do yourself a favor and SKIP, little Joe’s steakhouse. This is not how fine dining is done. The standards...