Romy's Kahuku Prawns & Shrimp — Restaurant in Oʻahu

Short review: Long line. Long wait. Food just okay.

The wait was mostly in the shade, but the last 5-10 minutes are in the blazing sun. Waited 30 minutes to order. Got the #1 butter garlic scampi on both the shrimp and the prawns, as well as a pound of the steamed prawns. Got a side of pineapples... well, just because. The lady ringing up the orders would stop after every order or so to call out the orders that were ready, which explained why it took so long to order - it isn't the crazy long line as there were only about 15 people in front of us.

The pineapple had the lihing powder, which gave it a nice tart tang on top of the natural sweetness of the pineapple.

The wait for the steamed prawns was about 25 minutes. There was a total of 5 in the one pound order. Some of the prawns were plump, and some looked like it had trouble filling in its shell. The internal meat size discrepancy was disappointing throughout the order. Taste was good otherwise, but felt underwhelming at $5 a prawn. Once the massive head was taken off the tail was about the size of a large shrimp tail.

The garlic scampi style took another 30 minutes or so of waiting (total wait over one hour after ordering, and 1.5 hours total including the wait to order). It was a bit underwhelming considering the wait. There was a tinge of burnt flavor on the garlic as some of the other reviews noted. Might have been better if they cook the shrimp and then throw the garlic in a bit later...? Between the shrimp and the prawn, the shrimp was the better of the two. If you like your garlic shrimp spicy, this is definitely not the place for you... the spice factor was totally non-existent.

The service was super friendly, so no complaints there. The workers in the shack were hustling. The restrooms were clean, the large tent area was great. Want to like this place more, but the wait has to be factored in somewhere...

They seem to do phone orders, so maybe try that to avoid the long wait just to order.

Recommendation to the establishment: Try to have the entire line covered from the sun. It would make waiting to order a bit more pleasant. Either that or have two people working the register and food pickup. The one lady bouncing back and forth taking orders and then calling people out to give them the food is why it takes 30 minutes to take orders from ~15 people. Ordering quickly, then sitting and resting at a nice red picnic table with a cool drink and some tasty chilled pineapple would be better IMO. Regarding the slight burnt flavor, maybe try adding the garlic later in the cooking process after the shrimp have...

Never believe the hype!!!

Wow, was touring the Northshore of Oahu and following the guidance.of the big blue book of oahu. Well from now on, I will use it to find natural locations and skip the food reccomendations.

This place and I suspect most of the other shrimp trucks along the way live by their reputations. Has a long wait, approximately 40 mins just to place the order then 50 mins to wait for the food

We were served overcooked peel.ans eat.shrimp.that was cold.with a burnt garlic topping, bland rice, a few.lettuce.leafs.as a salad and half corn cob.that needed at.least.a touch of salt, but it was the only thing actually warm. The fried shrimp is essentially Tom Tom shrimp as.served in Thai restaurants as an appetizer, how this shrimp was cold and greasy despite my husband retrieving the food in 1 min after our name was called is beyond me. The sweet and spicy sauce is store bought sweet chilli sauce.

This stop was a waste of two hours, a waste of $45, and the only negative of our day 🙁

They were ringing bells announcing people who had bought their 10th and 20th plate there. I'm convinced so many people simply don't have good palates.

Sadly we overlooked the little Farm to Table restaurant across the road, had to stop just to see what they were about. Cute place, friendly staff,, beautiful selection of garden pizza, veggie panini, fresh soup, and garlic bread that we had to try for $2 that was so yummy and better than anything at Romy's. Also had a fresh smoothie. With their small.fsrm as a backdrop and they cook what they grow.

Had we skipped Romy's and went here, we would have been on our way within an hour with happy tummy's and had a great day without disappointments.

Bottom line, if this is supposed to be one of the better shrimp trucks then I say skip the shrimp...

This place has changed and not for the better.

Each time we've gone there these last year, regardless if we come early or late, weekday or weekend, they're always out of prawns. Not sure why. So we get the shrimp.

But that's not all.

Even with the shrimp, a few times including this last trip, we ordered Butter Garlic Shrimp but they're either out of it or we have to wait up to an hour for it. So, we take the alternative recommendation coz that will be ready in 15 mins - streamed shrimp with the butter garlic sauce on the side. DON'T DO IT. It doesn't taste the same. Also, the Steamed shrimp is more expensive for a couple more shrimp (they'll tell you that you will get a whole pound of shrimp if you order the steamed shrimp).

And the butter garlic sauce they claim is the same if we were able to order the actual Butter Garlic shrimp? NOT the same. The Butter Garlic sauce they gave us was mushy garlic floating in oil in a little plastic cup. (See picture)

At this point, it feels like a Bait and Switch style of selling shrimp. Make people drive all the way to Kahuku then upsell them on the steamed shrimp to pay extra or wait the 45-60mins for the dish you really want. Who wants to wait that long after a 45 min drive to get there? And, yes, we try to call ahead. They have NEVER answered.

So why keep going back? Because before the pandemic, they've always been able to deliver what we liked. But the past 2+ years when our family/friends come to visit the island and we take them there, it's been bad. This last trip with family who insisted on their cravings got disappointed, we felt defeated. We felt so bad they were disappointed, we made the extra few minutes drive to a different shrimp truck to get them what they really wanted - shrimp with butter...