The Local — Restaurant in Honolulu

Nice selection of Kona beers on tap (3/5 green stars) After a beer and fries at the Mea Inu bar in Lihue airport, and then a short flight to Honolulu, I ended up in The Local at HNL airport, having – guess what? – beer and fries!! What can I say, I was taking an overnight flight to SFO and I wanted to sleep : ) Despite its name, The Local is owned by one of the largest catering companies in the world – HMS Host, owned by the Italian company Autogrill. But they do have local dishes, local beer, and the menu states that they try to source food locally too, whenever possible. Bottom line, the fries were good and at $4 were a bargain for an airport. The beer was considerably less affordable at $9.50 but I was happy to have so many Kona Brewing choices on tap – I’d never tried (or even heard of) their Koko Brown ale, and have to say it was delicious. It’s made with toasted coconut and had the texture of a nitro beer. Staff members were friendly and the bar has attempted to create an island feel with Hawaiian music, fish tanks, and a view into the wonderful garden area in the airport.

I’m also giving them 3/5 Green Stars for social and environmental impact, based on these reasons: • Personally, I just had fries and beer, and was happy to see a large selection of local Kona brews on draught (reducing both the transport and packaging footprints). • The Kona brewery does a lot in terms of sustainability (solar energy, water conservation, GHG emissions, use of local ingredients), community involvement, and fundraising. • The Local’s menu was not very vegetarian /vegan friendly. There were just a few plant-based items: salad minus meat, margarita flatbread, summer rolls, and of course fries! • HMS Host does appear to make some effort when it comes to sustainability (food sourcing, waste minimization, food bank donations, less toxic furnishings and paint, etc.) and did win an Airports Going Green award in 2012. • There’s a statement on the menu that they try to source local and sustainable ingredients when possible but no details and the restaurant doesn’t appear to have a...

This is one of the worst meals and restaurant experiences I’ve ever had. The restaurant was extremely unclean. I had to request our table be wiped down as it had food on it from a previous diner. A bird was flying around the restaurant, which I understand, but there were clusters of feathers on the floor that hadn’t been picked up. I saw servers wiping down tables with paper napkins.

Our individual server was very nice, but any time we tried to get the attention of literally any staff member, they would look straight at us and walk away. I made eye contact with the host and multiple servers while standing in the middle of the restaurant, clearly looking for help, and none of them acknowledged me.

All the food was bad. Mahi dry and too tough to eat, salad with cheap store bought croutons, chips stale, fries inedible.

Most egregious, our baby, who has a severe allergy to eggs (EpiPen, ER trip etc.), reached down in the middle of the meal and picked up scrambled eggs from someone else’s meal off the high chair. We caught her before she ate any, but when I tried to get help from someone at the restaurant, no one would make eye contact with me. When I finally flagged someone down, she was very dismissive and basically told me to wait. No one apologized. No one checked in on us later.

I’ve worked in the restaurant industry for over 20 years, and never in my life, in all my travels in the world, have I had a worse...

Overpriced for what you get. What I didn't appreciate was when I asked, " do you guys take cash?" They answered, "no", but here's the kicker, I was told that my transaction didn't go through. Something with a mix-up with they need to fix the receipt since the regular redbull was sold out & I had another of its flavor.

Doesn't make sense 'cause other flavors was same charge $6. I said to her, "are you sure it didn't go through the charge & she said, "no it didn't". Handed over cash instead, but before I left, I checked my email & sure enough, it went through the charge. So, I showed her the receipt on my phone for her to double-check, to say, "oh yeah, now it shows it went through."

Not cool, was going to get doubled charged and that would have been $100 cad for 1 redbull & 2 Mahi tacos with chips. At $50 it was too much. Otherwise food tasted okay. Just didn't appreciate the waiter saying they don't accept cash to accept cash when making it seem like my credit card didn't go through trying to double charge me.

Not the Aloha spirit that I've come to known from the island. Not sure if it was an honest mistake, but seem to me very sketchy.

So guys be very vigilant. I also think this is where my credit card got...