Hawaiian Bros Island Grill — Restaurant in Lee's Summit

EDIT: It's been a few weeks, after sending multiple emails (just one a week) with my info to the email suggested by the owner about my review, I've heard nothing back from them about this incident. I've also seen similar reviews that reflect my own experience. I'd strongly suggest going to a different location until they get their management team figured out.

My wife and I decided to try eating here yesterday and it was amazing! Quickly became my new favorite place to eat out after one visit. We decided to splurge and come back and try it again tonight because it's quarantine and who cares, it was delicious and relatively cheap. While I commend the fantastic drive through strategy that they're currently using, it tends to fall apart if things dont go righ. We ordered a huli huli and a molokai and realized about halfway home that they didnt put any macaroni salad in either of our orders. So we drove back to be greeted by the awesome business that they're currently getting so we had to wait in line for another 20 minutes after being told by the security people at the end of the line to talk to the guy at the front of the line directing traffic for people leaving and entering the drive through. We get to him only to be told we have to go inside... so we do and theres nobody there really, so I walk to the cashier . I tell her that we just came through and that they had forgotten our mac salad and showed her the half empty containers. She looked at me skeptically and went to talk to her boss I assume who looked up and narrowed his eyes at me. A few moments later she returned and asked, "okayyyy... so what do you want us to do about it?" I was a little dumbfounded by this so I just said that I wanted our macaroni salad that we had paid for and not recieved. She seemed puzzled by this for some reason and slightly annoyed, I get it, us customers are annoying... she took my boxes and returned them to me a few minutes later closed. I said thanks and asked if it might be okay to get a free drink or something for the trouble since our food was now colder than the macaroni salad she just gave us. She said, and I kid you not, "Umm.. I could, but as you can see, we're pretty busy at the moment so I don't really want to mess with the flow of everything..." obviously I can take the hint that they were skeptical of me at this point so it was whatever and I said thanks again and walked out. At the car I opened up our orders again and saw that they only gave us like maybe a 1/4 of what we got the night before eight the mac salad... at that point I said I'm done and we left. The food was still great, but I feel pretty bitter about the piss poor customer service, you guys made a mistake, I get it, but at least own it and make it right when a customer has a problem. I understand they're new as well and just opened, but this seems like basic knowledge for treating customers at a business. Anyway, it would be a 5 stars from me because it is truly delicious food, but I care more about service than anything. I'll see if they reach out to me after this, otherwise I would just go the another location around the kc metro until they get the simple stuff...

Ok, I need to write a review about this place and am kind of surprised I haven't already. Let's get into it.

Pros:

Friendly and helpful staff 99% of the time. The night crew isn't as friendly as the daytime crew, however, they're still better than most in Lees Summit.

After trying almost everything on the menu at this point, it is by far the MOST consistently good food in town.

I said good food in the last one, but I mean great food. There is something almost transcendent about it. I honestly didn't know Hawaiian food could even have as much flavor as theirs does. It's insane and amazing.

Cons:

you have to practically take out a second mortgage to afford to eat here at this point. It's very, very expensive... yet somehow still worth it. I think it's because the food is great and the portions are big enough to give two full meals in one plate. The cost is a bit silly since it's mostly macaroni noodles and rice (both of which are dirt cheap), but I'll let it slide for now because they truly turn the items into gold. The second that quality dips it will be a straight up rip-off so they need to be careful about that.

As stated in the first "pro" comment, the staff friendliness varies. It's mostly great, but sometimes the teenagers working there get pretty rude if it's busy and they're overwhelmed. They need to breathe and realize they're doing a great job and not to take their stress out on the customers. One bad interaction can ruin the entire experience and that would be a shame given their food is so good.

Conclusion - Hawaiian Bros is a solid 9/10, only docking a point because they've almost priced themselves out of being anything outside of a 6-month splurge.

I also fully believe that Hawaiian Bros is the best place to eat in Lee's Summit. Finding consistency in this town is almost impossible, but this place nailed it (I've waited over 6 months to write this just to see if they'd slip and they never did).

Thank you Hawaiian Bros for being THE example the rest of the Lee's Summit restaurants should follow.

If you're passing through and haven't tried this restaurant yet, you...

Final update 9/18/2020: It seems that Hawaiian Bros had a change in their customer service protocols, and someone finally reached out and was able to rectify my issue. Changing to 3 stars due to their new process of reaching out.

Update 8/2/2020: changing from 2 stars to 1 star. I emailed the store as directed from the official response below, and it has been nearly 4 weeks without response. The only thing worse than a poor initial experience is a false promise of customer service. Now, won't ever be returning and will continue to support other restaurants in Lee's Summit instead. Sorry for the missed opportunity, Hawaii Bros.

Food was great, but the experience left a bad taste in our mouths.

We were excited to try out this new restaurant as there are no Hawaiian options near us. At first, the layout of the parking lot and organization of the order-taking seemed impressive, but unfortunately that's where things started heading south. We had our 3 month old with us who began to get upset as she was late for her nap. "This won't be long", we thought, as we pulled into the drive-through line. Boy, were we wrong. After ordering, we were told to pull up to the front and wait, which we did for 35 painful minutes while everyone in front of us and behind us quickly received their meals. Finally, we received a bag--only to realize that there was only half an order in there. Frustrated, I then approached the front desk, just to find out that not only was it a half order, but the one meal that we did receive was not even one of the ones that we ordered. They then had to prepare our meals from the start with a quick "sorry about that", rendering our total experience 45 minutes long.

In summary the food was very good but does not make up for what seems to be poor accuracy and processes, which really hurt what I so badly wanted to be a great experience. Strongly recommend any corporate office reading this to review accuracy/quality assurance processes at this location. Until then I will likely not return as it destroys the notion of "running by for a...