Hawaiian Express — Restaurant in Portland

I work all over the Portland Metro area. I also lived on Oahu for many years. I have also studied restaurant management.

All of that being said, this place has always done right by me. Now, will I rave that the food is identical to L&L in downtown Honolulu, no, but this is not downtown Honolulu.

The folks that run this place are hard working independent owners, they have always had a smile on their face when I am in there. Hell, we often trade banter as they are making food. I also need to mention the prices are pretty good for the portions. How could I expect a better customer experience than that.

I am seeing a number of negative reviews from the food delivery folks. While this is surprising, it is not unheard of for a company to be unable to provide bathroom services. From the address, you may notice that they are located in an area of town that is frequented by those individuals who wish to use the lavatories to get high. The folks MUST be aware of that because cleaning up from such an event is incredibly expensive. It is also true that the delivery drivers should expect to show up, grab the food, and leave; while I think the couple might want to find a way to be accommodating I hardly believe that it is a one star offense.

Speaking of the location, I have seen folks complaining of no parking and they are technically correct, the building does not have parking at the front door. However, if you are driving downtown and are having trouble parking, I suggest utilizing a mapping application(Google maps, Bing, tomtom, etc...), because there is public parking in that area.

As for the atmosphere, they have done a very good job with what they have, location-wise. I would suggest some back of the house work that would give it a little flair but they have done well.

I discussed the food above but I think I should be more specific. Look, I have had hundreds of iterations of loco moco and I am not a Mac salad eater, but I love their Mac salad and their loco moco is par with many places I tried on the islands, so they are doing well. I might suggest a different supplier for the meat, but I am not hating.

Overall, this place has done a fantastic job. I have noticed many of the negative reviews went from 100 to 0 for little reason or rational. Give this place a shot, you may...

Can't say that I've ever stepped foot in here but I order from here through Postmates and UberEats fairly regularly. The food always arrives with a large "Thank you Ryan!" written on the bag and it's that little gesture where I can tell they're good people here. Anyway, the teriyaki chicken and mac salad are the best I've had in town! Will definitely have to pop in one day and express it in person.

Update 3/13/19: Ordered my usual yesterday for the first time in 2-3 months and there was a couple of things that made me feel I need to change my 5 star review. First, I noticed that prices have gone up and they modified the way sides work. Small plate now has 0 sides, medium has 1, and large has 2. I used to order a medium plate with 2 sides for $11.99 but now it's $2 more. My first reaction was that if I didn't already love the food I would probably pass up on it due to price/value but I ordered anyway. When it arrived it was still stapled shut like normal so any driver tampering is evident. I set it down, open up the box, and immediately see a long, black hair stuck to the chicken. I get that mistakes happen but that one is easily preventable. I decided to just get rid of the part it was touching because I was so hungry and really missed the food, especially the mac salad. But that's where my final disappointment came. It was very bland and pretty much tasted like wet macaroni. No idea what has happened there but it's a shame. Hopefully it will turn back...

You can always judge a Hawaiian food spot off of their Mac salad and this place uses store bought. I’ve tried every menu item here once in a desperate search to find something good.

Much of the food is bland due to the fact that it is boiled, not grilled. All their sauces are store bought and it appears a lot of their food comes pre-prepared from the store. The Loco moco is made from the same Costco beef patties I reheat at my house when I’m too tired to cook.

I was hoping their poke and sushi burritos would be their saving grace. Unfortunately they used the same white rice they used in everything else when they should be using sushi rice.

It’s clear that they are trying there best to prepare their food as cheap as possible and as quick as possible. As a result, the quality and flavor suffers and their product disappoints.

Lastly, they don’t even offer shoyu chicken....

Owners are very nice which makes it hard to give them one star. My advice is stop boiling the chicken and short ribs. Improve the quality of your ingredients and stop using premade Mac salad from a tub.

I’d recommend going down to bamboo grove for some true Hawaiian food or stopping by roxy’s If you want something quicker...