Elim Korean Barbeque — Restaurant in Oʻahu

Elims has been apart of the Ewa beach shopping center for as long as I can remember. mom and pop shop, cardboard everywhere but still nicely intact, food counter is clean cold drinks are laid out nice and the banchan area is always filled. I thought to come here instead of pearls chain restaurant just to support local cuz id be sad to see them fold.

I ordered the classic kalbi & meatjun combo. Now, the reviews may be right about the meatjun. It’s not the best, meat was kinda tough but flavor wise was ok, I’m all about having a good sauce to cover that so i ordered extra meat Jun sauce.

Kalbi was freakin good. Way better than pearls because the marinate and smoky taste from the grill comes thru. It’s also not overly sauced up like some places, it just tastes like homemade kalbi cooked on a grill. You don’t need to get the meat Jun, but you gotta get the kalbi.

4 sides: 2x mayo potato (always good lil sweet) noodles, and seaweed. Didn’t taste old, very good flavor!

Price: $23 and some change cuz I ordered 2 xtra big cups of meat jun sauce lol. Free parking....

When my husband and I moved to Ewa, we wanted to try all the Korean restaurants in the area. We are fans of Tasty's in Waipahu, and that's kind of what we compared it to. In Ewa, we found this place and Pearls. We tried Pearls first as it was closer, and then here.

I wasn't pleased with this place. CASH ONLY here. If you are purchasing food for more than yourself, who really carries that much cash around anymore? I'm just saying.

The food wasn't that great. I had the meat jun/kalbi plate all veggies (cucumber, potatoes, kimchee). The meat didn't have any flavor, but at least it wasn't dry. The different types of kimchee tasted like they just made it an hour ago. The cucumbers still tasted like a cucumber with chili paste slapped on there. So disappointing!

We definitely won't be...

Food is okay but the service is horrible. The mama San is nasty with no people skills. I phone ordered a mini meat Jun- came to pick it up, paid for it but my food wasn’t ready. Upon looking at the menu I noticed that I got overcharged and asked about it. The mama San insisted that the price is correct and started arguing with me, only to realize that she got my order wrong and continued to insist that I ordered the kalbi (which Is why I got overcharged) I know exactly what I ordered and it was not kalbi. Instead of trying to correct it- she wanted to argue with a paying customer smh. I asked for a refund which took her for ever to figure it out. So disappointing and I won’t waste my time coming back- sorry but I also won’t recommend to my family, friends and social media...