Uncle Bobo's — Restaurant in Oʻahu

Keep in mind that this could have been a very "off" day for Bobo's.

Service - The person working the counter (the owner, I assume) was frantic and practically having a meltdown, and would vaccilate between lashing out and apologizing for it. Apparently something wasn't going well this day. Tried to order several things I had seen from reviews here (tri-tip dip, teritaki chicken salad) and was informed that I couldn't because they were no longer on the menu, which he kept pointing to as it was posted on the wall by the order window, but then at the last second said they could make me a bowl and just substitute greens for rice, so I got that. But the owner gave me tri-tip instead of chicken, probably because I initially asked for the tri-tip dip, and in all the confusion and amid the chaos of his stress/anxiety I just took this because I was uncomfortable. This wasn't the worst mistake on my part though, as it was delicious, which I'll get to.

Atmosphere - Fine. Limited seating, this works better as picnic food to take with you down to Kahana Bay (Swanzy Beach is a little dirty). The few tables that are here are nice and clean, if available.

Food - the meat is absolutely to die for. Although I didn't actually get what I wanted, I wasn't disappointed due to how tasty this bbq is. That said, everything surrounding the meat was sorta meh. I mean, the greens were super fresh, but for a $20 'entree' salad I expect more. It was somewhere in size between a side salad and an entree salad, came with a couple cherry tomatoes cut in half and a sprinkle of what I think were bean sprouts (maybe). For a full dinner salad, it needs to be slightly larger and have a couple more veggies. Like, 1/2 an avocado and some cucumber slices would have been great. Also, the dressing was forgettable and I had to ask for more because they give you a tiny thimble full at first. If it wasn't for the amazing bbq tri-tip I might have been mad.

Recommendations - clear up the confusion, streamline the menu, offer consistent and reasonable menu options. The theme is chicken/beef, teriyaki/bbq - no reason you can't serve any of these combinations in bowl, salad or sandwich form, they are interchangeable. A teriyaki chicken sandwich is just a teriaki chicken salad stuffed into a grilled sourdough roll. I wasn't even sure if they still offered fries as these aren't explicitly on the menu (but appear in pictures). Clean up the process, hire help if you need to, and above all never influct your stress on customers who are just there to buy your tasty food and support your business.

One more recommendation, I would gladly buy your bbq meats by the pound and take it to the beach with me to make my own sandwiches. Consider offering this as an option as it's really the perfect picnic food and you are located in a prime spot for peopke to...

If you have a group (not sure the threshold, we had 2 groups of 7 and 3) either reconsider, or prepare for a barrage of passive agressive comments after you pay about how you are keeping them from other business and it’s just the two of them. I have never felt more caught off guard or more uncomfortable just waiting to get an order of food at a restaurant! Note: we were not in any hurry and never made a comment or anything stating otherwise. We were just hanging out enjoying our scenery and our group which consisted of a birthday girl and her friends and family out celebrating her day and this is where we chose to eat for lunch. The wife who took our order was sweet and unassuming. We were all happy and relaxing until the man came out making us feel like we were rude and wrong for ordering so much food at his restaurant since there were only two of them. Again, we did not care if it took a long time to get our food and were not complaining at all! We were all so thrown off by this behavior and a few of our kids so much that they wanted out of there and ended up sitting in the cars while we waited for our food. Every dish that came out included another passive agressive comment. At this point we all had our heads down just trying to get our food and get out of there without making him more stressed : mad at us (even though we’d done nothing but order a bunch of food from his restaurant..oops???).

Bottom line- we all enjoyed the taste of the food. Had we been left alone to just enjoy it, this would probably be at least a 4 star review, but instead we were treated like we weren’t welcome (though not until after we paid) and all felt incredibly uncomfortable and caught off guard and ultimately unwelcome. Just a...

It's rather surprising that I would give Uncle Bobo's only two stars, considering this place is always on our list of places to eat when we visit Oahu and would normally get 5 stars without even thinking about it, but something has changed.

First, the good news is they are now OPEN. The day we went (7/8/18), he said it was their first day back. Rumors of being closed for renovations are untrue--the place is still in the same shape it was 2 years ago. He claimed to have been out of town.

Now the bad news...they don't seem to have the normal BBQ fare on the menu any longer. The new menu on the wall lists some BBQ sandwiches (pulled pork and tri-tip) and some salads and some rice bowls, but nowhere is there ribs or brisket or baked beans or any of the normal delicious BBQ. I asked what happened to the ribs and such and Uncle Bobo said "first day back and the smoker doesn't work". I didn't press him on why there wasn't anything about ribs on the menu. If they offered ribs, they should be on the menu!

Also, the hours listed online (11A-2P) may or may not be correct. I asked about that and he acted surprised that those hours were listed. I did try calling (5 times) before driving up there to verify they were open, but the phone was always busy (off the hook, I'm guessing).

So, the tri-tip sandwich was decent, and the potato salad was actually very good. But I had my heart set on ribs. And with them no longer on the menu, I guess time will tell if the smoker really was broken that day, or if Uncle Bobo just isn't doing...