Big Kahuna's BBQ & Catering — Restaurant in Portland

(Takeout/Doordash review): food was tasty and came as a good sized portion.

This was my first time having Hawaiian BBQ so I didn’t know what to expect, but I had a positive experience.

The meat: I had the ribs and the teriyaki chicken. I got both with the sauce on the side so I was happy with the seasoning and cooking on them. Reminded me a lot of the Caribbean BBQ style mixed with slow smoking. Very good portion as well.

The sides: The rice as a side is plain white rice - which I didn’t expect - but if that is the Hawaiian way I can’t complain. The Mac and Cheese was good, but had a unique taste - i think it had another flavor ingredient in in besides the regular Mac and Cheese ingredients. Still tasty, but not the american M&C style if that’s what you were looking for. Baked beans were a nice addition to the rice and tasted as it should.

Presentation: I don’t think I took a picture which sucks but the food was presented well and arrived well packaged with DoorDash. As I mentioned above, I requested the sauce on the side so not sure if that helped with it not arriving messy. What I did not like was that in the ribs box, the sauce container was placed IN the baked beans. Maybe sauces can be left outside of the boxes of food (my suggestion), but overall...

Big Kahuna = Big Disappointment. We chose this company to cater our wedding recently. Big Mistake. Where do I start… The food arrived cold. We had warmers and full kitchen but the damage was already done. With dinner scheduled to start at a specific time there wasn’t much opportunity to warm the food without overcooking and burning. Now the portion sizes…. We had a small wedding of about 50 people. The food didn’t even stretch to accommodate our guests. We were told “There is going to be plenty of food.” Our guests, my wife and I still went out to eat afterwards. I personally could’ve smoked the meats he provided for half the cost and had fed 50 people with plenty left over for the opportunity for seconds. The next day via email we told him of our issues with portions and food temperature. His argument was he should’ve charged us more because we asked to split (half rice/half Mac salad) the side items we ordered. We spent about 1000 dollars for food that did not live up to what he told us. He offered no concessions and argued with my wife at every turn. Very unprofessional.

Cater at...

The food was good... but nothing spectacular. Ended up spending $17 for the Combo-Bowl ... a SMALL order of rice and 2 different types of meats (Huli Huli Chicken and Brisket). The meat was good, just needed to mask it all with their sauces (which 1st one was free, but 2nd sauce was $0.75). The sweet spicy sauce was just a glorified sweet & sour sauce (or a Mae Ploy Chili sauce) but the spicy BBQ one was actually pretty decent).

Everything tasted ok, just super SMALL portion sizes (definitely at close to $18 should of had some leftovers) - but food was scarce on the plate.

The food also came out unexpectedly quick- which just means the food isn't really made to order. It's just re-warmed up, but seemed re-warmed in a microwave (and not a grill)- as the meat was a but chewy and no grill marks or nice "char" on the meats.

Also believe $2.25 for a can of soda was a bit over-priced. But know with raised overhead costs... the expense usually goes back to the customer. Just felt that I was paying a great deal- for not a lot back.

Love Hawaiian food- but this place is...