Hula Hut (Little Elm) — Restaurant in Little Elm

I wanted to like this place so bad, it was a disaster.... almost 2 hours, I'm not a complainer because I know service has ups and downs but the employees don't know anything about the menu.

So we all sat down (I have my kids for my oldest sons birthday) and we order food, we ask what is kid appropriate on certain bundles and about 20 mins later the guy comes to tell us that they are out of half the stuff we ordered, hey no big deal I can roll with the punches, so we had ordered 1 order if fried banana aswell and he said would you like us to bring you more plantains or whatever they are called. Well no lol that's $60 worth of plantains if you do that so instead I asked if they could do like kids items and I asked what is in the kids chicken quesadilla, they said chicken and cheese so I said let's do that, dude disappears and comes back later to say yes they are willing to do that. Well.... They aren't, they have tons of different spices or something (I get it, Hawaiian place or whatever) but taste funky so kids didn't like any of it, hey no biggey right, roll with the punches so I ask what is kid appropriate and they tell me the flautas are a very good item, and this is the 1 reason I'm writing the review, almost 2 hours guys. ... I ask the guy specifically "hey man so sorry to be repetitive but before we order are you sure there is nothing spicy or anything on them? They don't do spicy man" and the man says absolutely yes there is nothing spicy on any of those items actually they are very popular with the families. So they come out I wanna say it's been like an hour, hour and a half and the chili con queso never made it out and so i asked about it, the lady disappeared and the guy comes back with the flautas, with spicy sauce all over them, and I tried them to make sure my kids were making a big deal outta nothing but sure enough it was hot lol, so I'm getting bummed out because now we are getting close to 2 hours and we have to leave to make it to the harry potter exp for my son's birthday, they billed me for everything and i had to ask them to atleast take the queso off as it was never even brought to us.... but half the stuff we ordered wasn't available, half the stuff we got wasn't explained or described correctly at all, and I'm very thorough about that kinda stuff on vacation cause nobody wants sick kids, it would be different if they told us upfront and the kids didn't like it. But that was like $130 loss or so of just nothing.

Anyway, I will say, the staff was pretty friendly, really it was a nice play, service, food and menu knowledge just was lacking...

Have been wanting to go to this location based on some friends suggestion and had the chance with our club's meet up. Got there a bit early to have a beer at the bar and found the place a little in need of some "fixing up" but that also could be it's charm.

Went in and sat at the bar and expected a bit more of a lively place, but it was mid-week so call it timing on my part. Was a bit disappointed that I could not get a seat that had TV views due to a few people at the bar, but no worries, ordered up a beer (small but good selection of local beers on tap, as well as the normal choices) which was good and cold. Service at the bar was great. As people at the bar got seats (I found out that they had many open seats but perhaps not enough staff, so plenty of open tables) I moved to a view spot for the hockey game. One thing is that it is a feeling like your at a tropical themed place, but also a lake location, but the place is a bit off the Little Elm bay of Lewisville Lake.

We had a group of about 20 or so, and once a number got to the place, we were seating very quickly. Chips and salsa served up fast, and orders for drinks as well. The wait staff were attentive and friendly, and checked in on our tables often as we had two large tables and some side tables for others. They were able to take orders on separate bills which is always nice and accommodating when with a large group so no figuring out who had Surf and Turf and who only had a taco.

The only bad was my meal and not getting a drink I had ordered and a bit of time getting a water. I will say we keep the staff busy so no fault on them, but sure was thirsty! My hamburger however was another story. It was burned pretty bad and the bacon was also overly crisp that it fell out in pieces on every bite. The meat had no taste and the pickles were limited to two slices and one was an end piece. Tried to eat it, did not want to complain as 1) it would take a bit to get it, and 2) we were wrapping up in a bit. Still was appreciative of the place to get our tables up and again the staff were very nice.

I'll go back if we meet up there again, or if with someone who wants to go, but it won't be a go to for me. I am sure the other food selections were good, as some said their meal was good, or okay. Mine was not, but the...

It is so sad what the new owners have done to this place. We used to love coming here, we would drive 45 min to get here.

We are here tonight. We had to wait forever to sit. The tortilla lady was busting tables and greeting and she was busy.

They brought us a bunch of silverware that was dirty, but they brought clean silverware when we asked.

The food took a long time to come. When it did come the rice was indescribable. Imagine rice pudding but no sugar. It was watery mush. They used it like it was food in all the dishes. I showed the owner and she was like “I bet that is the old rice from the bottom if the pot”. A little while later she came back all excited saying “I was right, it was old rice from the bottom of the pot!” as if that was an acceptable thing.

We ordered a full Hawaiian fajita, but they brought less than half. We told the waiter and he said “I knew it wasn’t right but I wanted to see if you would say anything”. Then we noticed the salmon in our daughters bowl was really bad, like jerky.

They investigated and found out that the vendor sent the wrong salmon, they sent salmon that was precooked. Their “scratch made kitchen” ignored this fact, threw it in the grill until it was jerky and brought a bowl of mushed slime rice covered in burned salmon jerky flakes to see if we would accept it.

I asked the owner what she thought the kitchen was able to cook and she suggested a medium hamburger. She didn’t want us to order it well because she thought the kitchen would over cook it.

They were very nice, but unable to actually run the place. It seems that they have completely given up and are just trying to get through the days.

One of our favorite restaurants has turned into absolute amateur hour.

It is really sad.

I have to walk back the recommendation for the key lime pie. We took a piece home because we had been there so long. We figured we could enjoy it at home.

We were wrong. The three of us used to love it, but the new recipe is bad. We tasted it and threw it away. I miss the previous...