Kona Kitchen - Lynnwood — Restaurant in Lynnwood

Kona Kitchen is a good fix to curb your Hawaiian cravings.

We went in for lunch and the ambience transported me back to a diner you can find in Hawaii. The decor and Hawaiian music was reminiscent of my childhood; oh, the nostalgia. I had gotten take out from here before, but I wanted to get the full dine-in experience.

We were seated promptly away from any other guest and staff were all wearing masks. The restaurant was very respectful of COVID-19 protocols.

The service was prompt and friendly.

We ordered the “Da Kanack Attack”, the “Northshore”, a classic Loco Moco, and a Saimin.

The Saimin was simple. A clear soy broth with noodles, BBQ pork, and an egg. It reminded me of the Saimin I grew up eating, but it wasn’t anything special. The BBQ pork was my least favorite part; it was a little tough. This was the hottest served dish.

The Loco Moco was standard. The beef patty was cooked well-done, the gravy was thick (seasoned well, but simple with no depth of flavors), and the egg was runny. The rice was the star of the dish to me. The rice was cooked perfectly and saved what the dish.

The Northshore is a classic Chicken Katsu dish served with Rice and Mac Salad. The Mac salad reminded me of Mac Salad I had growing up and I could’ve had multiple scoops of this bad boy. Once again, the rice and the Mac salad saved the dish. The Katsu was crispy, but was over cooked. The crispy vegetable egg roll was a nice touch!

The Da Kanack Attack I had a love hate relationship with. The Teriyaki Beef was great and had the sweet and savory aspects I look for in teriyaki and was cooked well. The Mochiko chicken served was cooked and marinated well. The downers of this dish were the Portuguese sausage and the spam; two things I loveeeee to death. Both of the things were barely pan friend and didn’t have any sear or crisp to them, not reminiscent of what you find in Hawaii. It was disappointing to say the least.

The weird part of the entire meal was most of the food seemed lukewarm... Which was a little strange to me.

The food was reasonably priced as we paid about $50 bucks for all of it.

Overall, if you’re in the area and craving Hawaiian food, Kona Kitchen could curb...

We are a family of three and we came here after church. We've had good service and food in the past so I have no idea what the heck happened! We were told a table would be ready In 10 to 15 minutes. We were waiting by the door and the hostess said we can't stand there because it's a fire hazard. That's understandable so we moved by the bathrooms away from the door. The hostess then came and practically yelled at us saying we can't stand there either and "go outside". We contemplated just going somewhere else but we were giving them the benefit of the doubt and expected the food to be good as it always was. We ended up waiting 35 minutes for a table no worries places get busy. The hostess sat us at a booth and said " we normally don't sit a party of three here but we will make a one time exception". Keep in mind we didn't ask for a booth or any specific table they texted us that our table was ready. We asked her to get the manager and the manager came over. We explained the situation and she said " she is a highschooler and we have other stuff going on ". I said " I was hired as a highschooler as a hostess and moved myself up to a server and in My 5 years of working in a restaurant I have never treated anyone the way we were and age doesn't have anything to do with customer service or just being polite ". She walked away not saying another word. The food came out and my eggs were burnt and My bacon was practically raw. I just ate my hashbrowns and English muffin. When we got up to leave I made eye contact with the hostess. She crossed her arms and rolled her eyes at me....

I don't know if this was the hunger talking but, I was very disappointed on how they organize their seating queue. I was dining alone and was told there's a 15 min. wait, I looked around the restaurant and ALL bar stools seating was empty and a couple of other tables. I understand that they may be short staffed and that they weren't able to cover all tables, what disappointed me the most is I was there first but 5 other groups (groups of 2 to 5 each) was seated before me. I'm sure they have a good explanation for it but I find it very rude. I would think first come first serve basis is still honored in restaurants. When I was finally seated I observed that the young lady receiving guests aren't the best at explaining about the wait and saw a couple of groups felt annoyed too because they were asked to wait in the wet and cold outside.

Food was okay, serving was massive. An order of the combo plate can feed at least 2 people. The wait for the food was a little long too, I feel like this is due to short-staffing so It was fine. The servers were SO nice (the young lady might need a little more experience) and you can see they're really trying their best to keep up with the continued flow of customers coming in.

Back to the food, the spring rolls were served hot which is good. The rest: Spam, Sausage, Beef, Mochi Chicken, Rice were all served room temp. The flavor is there though and the serving is huge. Overall, okay dining experience. Might be better to go on a weekday and...