Aloha Kitchen — Restaurant in Mesa

Usually we'd give Aloha Kitchen 5 stars for a great local place with delicious food, always served piping hot. Alas dining on Sunday late afternoon was anything but...the teens running the place were clearly ready to go home. Our favorite dish of the short ribs was not available, all sold out we were told. And honestly, we should have left then and come back another day. But we ordered a different dish instead. All the while a fellow teen friends were chatting at the counter the entire 45 min we were in the dining room, I felt like I was in a high school cafeteria with the rumbling of teen chatter. We ordered around 4:20 pm and thought that was enough time to enjoy a dine in dinner before the closing time of 5 pm. But our food took 20+ minutes to be served and was presented in to-go containers, the first hint that they wanted out to leave. We started eating our luke warm food - unlike the usual serving temp of fresh from the kitchen served as your dish was ready - amid the teens putting the chairs on the tables, turning off the open sign, and generally cleaning up. We took the not so subtle hint and left to come home and heat up our food. We'll certainly try one of our favorite local places again, as frequent visitors to the island see our college student at UH, we enjoy a delicious plate lunch and know that Aloha Kitchen is typically as good as described in the Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives show. In the meantime, our advice to the owners/managers is implement a more professional front of house policy with the teens running the show and for diners, don't show up for dine in within an hour of...

This is my number one pick for Hawaiian food. From the specialty meat plates, to their Hawaiian noodles, and of course the classic "tasty meat thing." The manapua is a soft, thick, sweet bun with yummy bbq pork inside. Even their bolkogi sandwich was delicious.

The char sui-won ton saimin "Hawaiian noods" had a surprisingly tender pork that almost melts in your mouth. There were three noodle types that I could see, including a short thick noodle that was chopped into two inch segments, as well as a classic wavy noodle, and a large flat noodle that complimented the savory broth. I added spice sauce for a little kick.

The staff was very friendly and quick to correct any minor mistakes that were made (a forgotten app order which is understandable with how busy they were) and even with our group of four being there past their closing time, we never heard them get upset or tell us to leave. The cooks were kind and everyone seemed to be looking out for each other. We came by around 7.20 and left just after 8 and up until closing they had at least 8-12 people on the restaurant. Not overly loud but definitely had some good food and plenty of returning customers.

I highly recommend this place to anyone trying Hawaiian for the first time, or just want a solid place to eat near mesa. This is a very casual lunch or quick dinner place, you order at the front and eat or take to go. With appetizer and drinks was sub $50 for four of us.

Thank you Aloha kitchen! Compliments...

I love this place, if I could give 4.5 stars I would. This is one of those spots that blows my mind every time I come here, because I don't come here very frequently(unfortunately). The portions are quite large, and the prices are still low even though they've gone up since the hype. The food is authentic Hawaiian, and feels just like something you'd get on the islands. You even get styrofoam plates and cups, which really suck.

The beef bulkogi, teriyaki chicken and katsu chicken are all fantastic, I recommend any combination of the three. The macaroni salad is also awesome, I think it's the reason I started liking macaroni salads. The cake is alright, I'd give it a 7/10. I don't usually get it because I'm usually so full I don't have room

I've been coming to this place since before it was on diners, drive in and dives and I can say it has definitely gotten more traffic since then, and their prices have increased. This place used to be the spot, when only locals knew about it, and prices were lower. The food is still amazing though

Only points off are for the usage of styrofoam in everything, plates, cups and to-go containers. That's not eco-conscious at all, styrofoam is outdated for food use, they're just being cheap there. Also the increased prices, even though they're still decent for the...