Pounders Restaurant — Restaurant in Oʻahu

I have eaten at this establishment twice thus far and I must say that both experiences were very pleasant. The atmosphere is fairly ambient with good levels of lighting and artwork. During both my visits, the staff were very pleasant also. They were informative, kind, and easy going. They also had great recommendations which can sometimes be hard to come by. The inside temperature can get a little cool in the evening so I would recommend bringing a light top just in case it becomes a little cool.

I have personally eaten the Hawaiian burger, the Fish & Chips, and have tasted a range of their desserts which include Guava Cheesecake, Banana Cream Pie, Chocolate Chip Cookie and Mango Cheesecake. In fact, there is quite a large selection of desserts on display to choose from so what worked best for our family was to order our meal and after wrapping up, grabbing some desserts to go. There's a lot to see in that area right next to the Polynesian Cultural Center, so we found that browsing through the area whilst nibbling on our desserts was the way to go for us!

The portion sizes are very reasonable for the price. The average meal with a drink and side will set you back around $20. The desserts range from $2.50 to about $5 and I felt that there were reasonably priced as well. To give you some perspective, a slice of cheesecake from the Cheese Cake Factory is about $7 for the same portion size and at Pounders, it costs $4.50.

Based on my families input, in general we found that the burgers tasted really good. If you like runny eggs, you'll love the Loco and Hawaiian burgers. The meat has a good level of moisture in it and cooked to order. The buns are lightly toasted with a soft flavor. The ingredients in general have great flavor and synergy. Who would think a Loco Moco on a burger would be a thing! I've also had the Fish & Chips with a side of Tartare sauce. They were OK. Not great but OK.

My boys had a cheese pizza and also pepperoni pizza. They're mini pizza's so they're a good size for a small child and maybe not enough for a hungry adult. The pizza's were very tasty, nice buttery like crust and good amounts of cheese and pepperoni. Their fries are fine.

The desserts are really quite tasty. Of all the desserts I mentioned, I favored the Guava Cheesecake. I found it to have a solid balance of Guava topping vs Cheesecake body. The other desserts were very tasty indeed and very reasonably priced for their portion sizes.

Overall, Pounders Restaurant was a great dining experience. If you live local, you can get a Kama'aina discount which is 10% and if you're lucky to come across BOGO fundraisers, they'll make the cost of your dining experience a lot cheaper.

Ultimately, you're looking at roughly $20-$25 a head ordering a main, refillable drink...

The service was very nice! Young man servicing us was polite and attentive however I ordered the pounders burger and I guess I expected better from a James beard award winning chef.

The pounders burger to me sounded amazing, burger with pineapple, Mayo and this sauce with that was like a teriyaki that when combined with the Mayo and pineapple tastes good traditionally.

The problem I had with it was that there was not enough sauce and the burger was dry and not juicy at all. The taste was ok and it wasn’t horrible but sue me for expecting one of the best burgers I’ve ever eaten and then realizing this was easily beaten by the same burger at “Red Robin”.

The French fries were good and crispy but the ketchup provided was weird as if somebody tried to get fancy with it but adding cocktail sauce and ketchup.

For a 20 dollar burger I expected juicy, I expected to have to lick my fingers clean from the sauce.

While it wasn’t disgusting and tasted ok, I was disappointed.

My wife had the fish and she said she couldn’t taste the fish because it was covered in this sweet sauce and over powered the fish.

Kids had pizza from the kids menu and they had no complaints.

We were exhausted and tired at the time and I am pretty sure that any thing I ate was going to be amazing due to our hunger level at the time. Says...

I'm a local and believe in always supporting local. I had a large family, size 13 and my reservations were at 6:30pm. Here’s some pointers to consider when placing a reservations at this restaurant especially with a large party:

Your whole party needs to be there in order to be seated at your table. So arrive early and together!

When seated be prepared to wait at least 10-15 minutes for your waiter to take your drink order. I would suggest to place your appetizer and meal order when placing your drink order.

Be prepared to wait an hour half for your meal to come out. I had a toddler in my family and waiting for a whole hour half for our food, is ENTIRELY unacceptable. By the time we got our food, we were eating cold steaks. Eeek

If you desire to split checks, I would suggest to make your waiter aware before ordering.

If you decide to get surf n turf entree, for those who are on a keto diet the butter and garlic shrimp is battered in which they don’t mention on the menu. So it will surely kick you out of ketosis if you choose to eat it!

Considering some of the minor major down falls I have experienced during my visitation my waiter was very caring and apologetic so we tipped him good because of his...