Mike's Kiawe Broiled Huli Huli Chicken — Restaurant in Oʻahu

Huge tourist trap, this place is a rip off. I've driven by many times and have always wanted to stop but never did. Then I saw this place featured on at least two different TV shows (travel channel, food network etc.). So today on the way home from the North Shore we stopped. First thing I noticed was how expensive it is, but hey, I figured it most be amazing. Nope, it's chicken, as plain as chicken can get. You could throw a chickan with no seasoning on your Coleman grill at home and it would be just as good if not better...AND a half chicken won't cost you almost 15 bucks to boot like this place. They were out of Mac salad too, so they gave me an extra scoop of rice. So that made 3 scoops of gummy rice. They do give you Mike's Sauce... another literal rip off. Mikes sauce is Frank's Red Hot sauce mixed with a little simple syrup to sweeten it up and dilute it so their rip off sauce goes further. I have never written a negative Google review, but this place needs to be exposed. My fault though, everything in Hawaii is expensive, but if there were no locals sitting down to eat then I shouldn't have bothered either. Thank God I didnt make the mistake of spending 18 bucks for chciken and shrimp, a quarter chicken and probably 3 small shrimp. Do yourself a favor and avoid this place! Plenty of places to go eat and get over charged that are...

Overall we had a decent experience at Mike's. I only give it three stars because the prices where high and the food was okay (portions and taste). This place was featured on that DD&D show in Food Network so go figure. We tried the kalua, the shrimp, and of course the chicken. The shrimp was as good as any shrimp scampi on the island. The kalua was probably our favorite thing we tried, it had a good smoky flavor and was moist. Considering that the chicken is the main draw I found it a little bit lacking. The seasoning was good but it had a strong season salt taste to it, it's not bad but it tasted like something that would be served at home. Additionally, the skin on the chicken was too soft for my liking. This might just be my preference, but personally I like when the skin gets crispy or cooked to the point it loses thickness. The special sauce that everyone told me about also tasted a bit too familiar. If I were to take a guess I'd say it's mainly some sort of Buffalo wing sauce (like Frank's) mixed with Polynesian sauce. If your in the area I'd say stop by and be your open judge. Apparently a lot of other people like it and think highly of it. At the very least you can cross it off your list of places to try while your...

Today was our third visit to Mike’s! Obviously, the first two experiences were so good that it had us wanting to come back! We really enjoyed their Kalua and chicken combo on our first visits. I was even looking forward to bringing family to come try some of Mike’s Huli Huli chicken when they come to visit! However today, we were in the North Shore area and decided to make the drive over to grab some Kalua and chicken from Mike’s, but when we got our food, we were so disappointed! It was like we were given someone’s leftovers! Not only did the portions shrink, but the food was still slightly cooled and looked like leftovers that were just reheated! Explains why we got our food so quick when they had just opened for the day! I mean the Kalua pork was unappetizing, it was runny with some kind of liquid (maybe some water to rehydrate the dry leftovers) and the chicken was overly dry and flavorless! Our plate of food did not live up the expectations of the kind of food...