Zippy's Kahala — Restaurant in Honolulu

This concerns only this visit. Most previous visits have been good.

TD;LR: Zippy's needs to have their online/app system reworked so it gives more accurate pickup times depending on how busy they are at that time, and also should train their employees the first thing out of their mouths shouldn't be excuses, when customers are waiting, and don't make assumptions. Oh, and, older/manager level people should not pull junior staff from what they're doing before finding out what they're doing.

I would recommend not ordering for pickup on Fridays probably between 5:30 and 7:30 pm. While previous visits were good, this one was terrible. I ordered through their app for "curbside pickup" (where you contact them when you arrive and they bring your order to your car in their upper deck lot). My pickup time was 6:29 pm. I arrived at around 6:30, followed the procedure to let them know that I was there, which stall, and vehicle description, got the usual text acknowledgement that my order would be brought out.

As it was very busy, I could understand that they might be a bit backed up, so I had no problem in waiting a bit, expecting that my order would be delayed. After around 25 minutes, and other cars that arrived after me had gotten their orders and left. I texted the number that gives the arrival acknowledgements, per their instructions in the original text, if the customer has any questions. No reply.

Ten minutes later, I opt to go inside to check, something that obviously would be better avoided, which is why I opted for the curbside pickup in the first place. There were around six or seven employees all gathered around the gap between the counter and the kitchen all trying to check paper order receipts or the one electronic screen, presumably that tracks orders. I ask the guy at the counter to check on my order as I'd seen others arrive after me and leave with their food. I gave him my name and order number and made it clear, up front, that I was okay if I had to wait a little longer, but I just wanted to be sure my order was in and being worked on. His first response was, "Sorry, we're busy. Some people have been waiting for 20 minutes." i told him I'd already been waiting nearly 40 minutes. So, he went into that mass of employees to try check on my order.

He was young and kind of timid, so he seemed to keep deferring to others trying to get orders sorted out with the kitchen. Then, an older guy pulled him out and had him look for someone else's apple pie order. Still, nothing about my order. After they sorted that out he finally found out and told me they're waiting on just one more dish to complete mine. So, I went back to my car and waited. Ten minutes later, he comes out and tells me they just ran out of one item so if I could order something else. I chose something else and he did offer to give me free drinks, but I declined as it would difficult to transport.

An hour after I arrived, I finally got my order. As I said at the beginning, don't order on Friday nights. Or, their system needs to be revamped to give more accurate pickup times, based on the number of orders pending.

I thanked the young man who was helping me and made it clear I appreciated his help, it was just their system, and that apparent chaos that frustrated me. The can see that sort of confusion happening if they just started this online order/curbside pickup system, but you'd think, having done this for months now, they'd be more organized...

My son and I have been to many Zippys, but this was our first time to this location. We were out running errands in the area and thought we would stop in and have lunch. When we arrived, we went straight to the counter to place our order just as we have in all of the other multiple Zippy locations we have been in. We placed our order and then walked over and sat down in a booth. Both waitresses in the area saw us and never said anything about it. In particular, one of those waitresses was at the counter when we first walked in and told us that we’d have to wait for somebody to come and take our order because she worked on the other side. That’s fine, however, that says that she knew that we were at the counter placing our order before we went and sat down in the restaurant and yet she never came over to say anything to us until my son was walking back with our tray of food, and she practically runs after him and in a very loud voice saying you can’t sit over here and eat. She said this area is for dine in only and I said well that’s what we wanted to do and she said well you ordered takeout and that seating area is on the other side of the restaurant, you can’t sit here because this is where a waitress comes and serves you. I said well this is our first time to this location so we didn’t know that. I expected her to say, oh, I’m sorry, but it’s OK - just so you know though for the next time. However, she said you’re going to have to move because you can’t sit here. By this time, because she had been so loud and obnoxious about it, everyone in the restaurant was looking at us. In fact, another two tables of customers who had sat down after us, got up and started moving over to the other side because they heard her yelling at us and they too had unknowingly ordered takeout Clearly, it’s a problem that they need to address with how they label their areas. That would be a much better solution than embarrassing their customers for something so silly. So as we started walking over, I just stopped at the counter and asked to speak with a manager. I explained the situation to the manager, and while she apologized, she still stuck to the well you have to sit over in the takeout section. If perhaps they had been busy in the dine in section, I might have understood their concern, but there were literally at least 20+ empty tables. At that point, I just asked her to pack it up, so we could just bring our food home with us. I had no desire to sit in a restaurant at that point where I had been embarrassed in front of other customers by their employee. So of course, by the time we got home, our food was cold. On top of that, the kalua pig was average at best and the lau lau was gross. So not only did we get horrendous customer service, we paid $40 for food that is not up to the quality standards of all of the other Zippys we have dined at. I highly do not recommend this location and will...

First stop Zippy's! Let's face it, for anyone born and raised here, Zippy's is in a category all it's own. Despite the rising prices, we still love a good chili chicken mixed plate and my sons love saimin.

But today's experience at Kahala Zippy's was just unacceptable. We arrived at 11:30am and it was busy. I knew there would be some wait time, and we came prepared with quiet coloring activities for the kids. Luckily we were seated right away and I got our 2 kids settled in with some coloring. Our waitress stopped by with menus saying she would be right back. And then we didn't see her again for a good 20 minutes. In that time, she took a number of other orders, had plenty of time to chat with her regulars and generally ignore us. When she finally came back we put in our order immediately. Nothing complicated... A saimin for the kids, chili burrito plate and a kokua plate.... Oh, and 2 waters PLEASE. She then disappeared again.

At 45 minutes into our visit, I can SEE our food sitting in the window getting cold and she hasn't even bothered to bring us our waters. When she finally does bring the food, it is completely cold. But at this point, there is no way I am wasting any more of our day...especially with a 2 year old who is quickly nearing the end of his rope and needs a nap soon. We eat quickly and ask for our check. After waiting awhile to pay, my husband finally goes to the front. They take it and five minutes later our waitress is back giving me the check AGAIN... only now my credit card is missing! The lady who took the check from my husband is completely rude and dismissive to him, the waitress is running all over the kitchen looking for it and I am about to lose my cool. Thankfully a customer (seated in the middle of the restaurant) sees my credit card on the floor and turns it in. How did they manage to lose my card when my husband WALKED IT TO THE CASHIER?

Look, I know that eating at a restaurant takes time... We take our kids out to many nice restaurants and they know how to behave and be patient. But, a big reason we choose to visit Zippy's is the fast and usually friendly service. While the restaurant was busy when we arrived, it slowed considerably while we were there. I also saw that other tables and customers were getting great service and that our waitress had time to chat with her regulars. I also saw her walk past our food a number of times (as it sat and grew cold in the window) to pick up other orders and serve them hot. This was probably the worst Zippy's experience in memory and probably our last visit to the Kahala location. Unless you are a regular there, I would suggest going to another location. The Vineyard and McCully locations always...