Sura Hawaii — Restaurant in Honolulu

First time coming here and I was not impressed with their customer service. I dont know if this was a bad day for them, or if this is a constant experience. My friend made a reservation online for 8:30pm earlier in the day, and their website says they will call to confirm. My friend took the initiative to call the restaurant to make sure the reservation was made as it was for a friend's birthday, only for them to tell us that if they did not call to confirm our reservation, then it is invalid. It made absolutely no sense to allow online reservation if the restaurant won't keep the reservation.

We got to the restaurant and put our names down for a party of five around 8:15pm, and we were not seated until 10:10pm. The host didn't bother to give us an estimated wait time. She would walk a few feet outside, speak softly a name, then walk back in. We had to keep checking to see if she called our party, as people were leaving in frustration of the long wait time. Their excuse for the nearly two hour wait for us was that the large party was about to leave and they didnt have a table large enough for us. While we waited for a larger table, other parties after us were seated.

By the time we got a table, the table was not ready for us. We sat down as the waiter we had was quickly filling the table with sauces and utensils, but looked rushed and annoyed having to serve us. We wanted to order soju, but by the time we got seated, they stopped serving alcohol. Covid rules. Understandable, but very annoyed with the fact that we came early to try the soju and waited beyond the alcohol curfew to be served. We waited so long to eat, we decided to wait until the happy hour (10:30pm) to order. The waiter was extremely rude to us, and would walk away from us before we could finish talking. The table we sat at only had one burner open, and when we when we asked if we could use the second burner on our table, as our party was struggling to cook on one, the waiter told us the second burner was broken. So you not only made us wait for a larger table for two hours, but seat us at a table with one working burner? Ok. Sure. This guy was quick, but he didn't bother to explain to us how the ordering works, or explain what the sauces go with what food or tricks to using the grill. His rudeness and lack of communication skills made this first impression of service terrible.

About 3/4 into our time inside, a new younger waiter assisted us for the rest of the night. He was very nice, attentive, and was more helpful. He also checked on us regularly, unlike the first waiter. The first waiter came back to collect the bill, and could figure out how to split the bill with two cards. The second waiter had to come back to confirm splitting the bill and then proceeding to assist us for the rest of the time. The second waiter deserves the tips.

The food was okay for the price. They charge $10 extra if you have leftovers per person. The general experience was terrible up until the part the younger waiter served us for the remainder of the night. I don't think 2 hours was worth the wait for terrible customer service. It would be more appreciated if they speak up when calling for parties and have waiters with better interpersonal skills to serve customers. If you want to go here, be prepared to be...

Wow. Ok so I called an hour before we went to see if it would be better to walk or park and the girl said parking is difficult so we walked. When we arrived the same girl asked for a reservation or it would be an hour wait. What? Why didn't you tell me that when I called so I could make a reservation? So an hour later we get seated. The entire place is nothing but graffiti all over everything. Not my idea of decoration but ok. I went to wash my hands and killed a 4 inch cockroach on the way. I'm not too excited. We ordered food and 30 more minutes go by with nothing. The waiter walks up to check on us and looked super shocked we had no food. It's because he forgot. We get the food which I was surprised and happy to get cheesy mac and cheese and corn on the side and even got a side of fries. This was a bonus for Korean BBQ. Well don't get too excited because the corn and Mac had to be cooked on the side of the grill which had been filled with vegetable oil. YUCK. It was inedible. The meat was overmarinated and not good in flavor so we ordered plain meat and cut all the fat out and put it in a spicy soup which was good but a lot of work. The shrimp was not devined which I had to do myself at the table but it was good. The waiter said he would go on break (busy Saturday) which I have never heard of and I waited tables for years so he turned the table over to the girl who already made us wait by not telling us to get a reservation. He knew the tip chance was low since he forgot our food. Well I told the girl I wanted mac and cheese in a bowl to cook without boiling it in a pound of oil and she said she would wipe the grill clean instead. It's not what I wanted but at least it was something but she didn't come back. I had to go up to the front and get my own check. I was there a total of 2 1/2 hours and $68 for 2 people without drinks and no tip obviously. That is a rape job for a horrible experience and I left hungry and done...

Not the 678 (Sura Hawaii) we remember. Lived in Hawaii from 2012-2016 and during that time, this restaurant (Sura Hawaii AKA “678”) was the spot. Best food and service from start to finish. The green onion salad, banchan, tea, and service made the experience memorable every time. Fast forward to 2022, and the place is now renamed “Sura Hawaii,” not sure if the place was bought out by another owner but everything initially appeared the same. Still the same delicious soju drinks that we remembered, however shortly after ordering we find out the green onion salad is no longer being served and their new house salad replaced it…basically chopped lettuce with some sort of teriyaki sauce….did not taste good at all. The green onion salad was one of the best things and to suddenly remove it was a real gut punch after sitting down, but we still had high hopes for the meal. Next the meat comes out, nothing bad about it, and we start cooking it, but as time passes by, nothing else comes out, just rice. As we cook and more cooked meat is put into our dishes, no samjan, no green leaf lettuce, no fresh garlic and no banchan. I end up having to ask our waiter on the status of samjan and it doesn’t come out until towards the middle of the meal (had to ask another waiter for it). I then ask for fresh garlic and he says, only cooked garlic is served. The cooked garlic tasted horrible, like it had been cooked awhile ago and was sitting under a sun lamp. Also, what happened to all of the sides that we used to get at the start of the meal?

Waiter wasn’t very attentive throughout our meal. I don’t believe they had bad intent, I think they just couldn’t multi-task and we were left to just deal with what we had on our table. Left the restaurant feeling very disappointed. I don’t think I could ever bring myself to come back if the service and quality of the food continue to be like what we experienced. Such a waste of...