The Counter — Restaurant in Honolulu

This was our second visit here. We enjoyed the food so much our first time that we decided to drive all the way from Mililani on a Saturday evening just to eat here. The wait for a table wasn't too bad, about 10 minutes. My husband ordered the fried onion strings off of their "Starters" menu and we both selected our main course at the same time. The onion strings came within a reasonable amount of time. After that is when it all went downhill. We sat there for eons waiting for our food. It wasn't until the couple on the side of us that arrived at least 10-15 minutes after us got their food did I really realize that there was something wrong with our order. We probably was waiting at least a half hour. My husband had to ask the hostess to call our server because he was nowhere to be found. He appeared and apologized, said he did not know why our order was taking so long, and that the manager would be coming by to speak with us. About 3 minutes later our food appears. What made me angry was that it had obviously been sitting there for a while. The food was lukewarm and the bun was soggy. The lettuce on my burger was wilted, and my fries were cold. The final straw was when I realized that the sauce I had ordered for my burger was missing. But our server never came back to check on us during the whole time we sat finishing our meal. The kitchen manager (who had come by earlier to apologize) had stated that he would come back to check on us. Obviously, that never happened as well. I walked out of the restaurant while my husband had to once again approach the hostess to ask for our bill so we could leave. The manager came by to speak to my husband again. He gave us 25% off and his card for a free meal when we return. Honestly, he should've comped us the entire meal. That's how bad the experience was. I can understand that it was likely just the failure of one employee and it shouldn't color my perception of the restaurant as a whole. However, the manager could have done more to diffuse...

My wife and I happened to visit Kahala mall on a Saturday. It was lunchtime. We were going to eat at the food court but we were looking for something not found near my home in Leeward side. The Puka's at Wholesale Market was closed so we end up at the Counter Custom Burger. It's tempting to make my own custom burger but since we're new to the place, we'd rather try their burgers in the menu. My wife got the Bison is Good burger and I had the Breakfast burger. We both have are burgers at medium. The Bison burger has still some pinkish color in the middle and we both like it. It was juicy, perfectly cooked. The beef on my Breakfast burger has less pink color and looks slightly burnt on the outside. It was good but I feel like the Bison was better. The Bison feels healthier to eat. The Bison has spinach while the beef has tomato. The beef had the Applewood bacon which adds smoky flavor to the Breakfast burger. Both had eggs so kind of messy to eat. Both eggs were cooked right. It was gooey but not too runny. The Bison comes with their house made thousand island; while the beef comes with sweet sriracha sauce. Both sauce were delicious but I wouldn't recommend to put a lot of it on the burger. The burger is the star of the dish and you don't want the sauce to overcome it. We did have the Buffalo cauliflower as our app and that was good, too. We had the buffalo sauce on the side so we can control the heat. The ranch sauce also helps mellow the spiciness. My wife tried their mint peach lemonade while I tried their pom-berry lemonade. It was not something we like after we tasted it. I mean the drinks were on the meh side for us. We feel like we can skip those drinks next time and try something else. Speaking of next time, if we come back here again, we might eat the Bison is Gouda again. And then maybe I will make my own...

What are your feelings on premium burger places? This is an a-okay burger place at the Kahala Mall, focusing on upscale hamburgers with options like vegan veggie patties, kale, and gluten-free buns. The location and menu are all 5-stars but the quality of the food, unfortunately, brings the overall score down slightly. Upon sitting down for dinner, I was impressed by the menu offerings -- a separate menu, allowing customers to build their own hamburgers, is particularly impressive. The BYO hamburger menu has both delicious favorites like beef and American cheese as well as more exotic stuff that not available on a typical hamburger such as kale, mahi-mahi, and smoked gouda.

I had a vegan veggie burger with pepper jack cheese, jalapeno peppers, kale, carrots, and sriracha sauce. I'm not sure why it sat out so long, but the burger came out stone cold which is not good service. The wait for food was on the longer side, so I suspect a delay of some kind bringing it to the table. Great hamburger places make their own veggie patties, and The Counter is no exception. It was a good effort but I have had much better veggie patties, even from Boca in the freezer aisle, so I recommend that they improve their vegan veggie patty. Premium hamburger places also need to have great hamburger buns and, while The Counter has a wide variety of bun options, the actual bread is on-par with what is available at the grocery store and not worth the trip to Kahala Mall.

Overall decent burger place, but you can make a better burger at home with ingredients from Whole Foods next door. I suspect that, if the quality of the food was improved, this place would be...