The Pastele Shop — Restaurant in Honolulu

In my entire life, I have never been disrespected this badly until coming here. Being a mainlander in Hawaii I’m aware of how locals have a stereotype/ narrative collectively of how all mainlanders are, but not all of us are what they assume. To begin with, I’m born and raised Puerto Rican and prior to our visit, we checked the website and had an order in plan of what we would’ve liked and truthfully thrilled to have some food from back home. We got our plates and noticed items we seen were not as we thought they would be and not necessarily what I could eat either bc of allergy and being in the customer service/ restaurant field I understand how it is and felt terrible and told them how sorry I was and we hadn’t touched our food. Manager came out but less than a minute of interaction just started progressively became more passive aggressive, louder with her tone not letting me finish my sentences when trying to explain myself like if I was her kid !! vile attitude and touched my hand in the middle of this which you just don’t do that. She got offended I put hand sanitizer but I felt uncomfortable truthfully. Her continuous smart remarks were just beyond disrespectful like “if you don’t know what the food is you shouldn’t go to a new place to eat”.. I know what my food of my own culture is.. learn to treat customers with respect and not be discriminative. I cried for 10 minutes after this interaction but I only hope that the way they go about misunderstandings and scenarios that happen usually at any other restaurant could be be handled properly in the future with professionalism and respect. Please be kinder to customers, we’re all going through something, may...

This little jewel located in Kalihi is an amazing place to eat! My first time here, my friend Keli told me nostalgic memories of her youth and eating at this establishment.

I picked the number 1 spicy! Which included bacalao salad, gondule rice, pastele and chorizo. The other option was pastele stew instead of chorizo.

The pastele was tasty and has a (traditional?) Olive in it. The spicy choice is not really THAT spicy, but I enjoy really really spicy food. So the spice level is probably appropriate. The chorizo was quite good for not being house made. And the gondule rice was the appropriate yellow color and had good flavor.

I liked the bacalao salad with the dehydrated cod fish. The dressing is on the side which makes for crispier lettuce when it comes time to eat.

For myself and probably in accordance with the National Dietetic Association, the portion is large and turned into two meals for me.

There are other selections that I am interested in trying! So I will be back! The girl that was working there is upbeat, friendly, and if I may say, pretty cute. She gives good advice when picking out your items.

I believe they are offering a slight discount off of the original price of pastele due to Covid! Go check them out.

Disclaimer: I am a foodie and not of any descent that would be able to judge the authenticity of the flavors. I can just tell you how I felt...

This place is fairly decent, food here is a solid 4.5 stars as far as taste and freshness goes. My only complaint is the gondule rice. It could be better. Please don’t hate me for saying that you’re still my number one. The bacalao salad is great and the always fresh. The girl at the counter is very nice and friendly and gives off family vibes. The pasteles here are the best I’ve had on the island spicy is my go to. This place is a hole in the wall establishment almost quite literally. Their menu is very limited which is what makes everything so good. They have a pastele stew that is great when mixed with rice and the pastele lumpia which was new to me is a delicious fusion. The price here is amazing and you can get a whole hot meal for less than $20. The portions are very generous. And the taste is very very close...