Hana Hawaiian Barbeque — Restaurant in San Bruno

When we decided to go to Hana Hawaiian Barbeque, we didn't have high expectations. We've eaten at a number of Hawaiian restaurants in the area and those started by people who aren't from Hawaii haven't been very good (Hana's website does say the kitchen staff has experience in Hawaii restaurants).

We were pleasantly surprised that Hana significantly exceeded our expectations. We had the kalua pig and lau lau combo, the spam saimin, and the musubi trio. The plate lunch was quite good, with generous portions (the lau lau was really stuffed) and good flavors. The saimin noodles weren't quite the right ones but the flavor was good. The katsu chicken musubi was the best of the three, nice and crunchy - the nori wrapper didn't quite go all the way around which would have helped to keep it together. We thought that everything was a little less salty than it is in Hawaii, perhaps an intentional catering to California tastes (I'm fine with it).

My first inclination is to give Hana four stars as a good solid choice worthy of our repeat business, but not quite great. However, while it isn't the best Hawaii food I've ever had, it quite possibly is the best Hawaii plate lunch type place I know of in California. In addition, I thought their prices made this an excellent value, which should count for something. So I'm pushing them up to five stars as long as both of those...

My boyfriend got the chicken plate and had no issues with his food. He ordered fried shrimp plate for me and instead of shrimp it was fish when I opened up my container, first disappointment, I wasn’t craving fish but I was willing to eat it and not let perfectly good food and money go to waste. I would have eaten the fish except it wasn’t cooked all the way, which was the same issue I had with my fried shrimp the other time we ordered from here. The only thing I was able to eat was my spam masubi which was delicious. My boyfriend had to go to a different location to order me new shrimp so I could eat it with my rice and macaroni salad. I obviously know that this mistake was unintentional but just wanted to point it out so that they are more careful. They have great reviews and my boyfriend loved his food both times we tried this location, my masubi and rice and macaroni salad were great, I just wish I could’ve ate the actual...

Absolutely mediocre experience here. Waited 5 minutes while the girl at the register took an order on the phone. She never acknowledged my presence or even seemed to care that 3 others had lined up behind me. I tried joking with her once she was finally ready to take my order, and I got absolutely no response from her. She obviously wanted to be anywhere else but there. I got my food after a short wait and went back to my hotel, where I was totally underwhelmed with the quality and flavor. There were hidden bones in the chicken, and the seaweed on the spam musubi was so gummy I couldn't bite through it. The macaroni salad was flavorless, and the cabbage was cabbage. Maybe I came at a bad time, but my experience was night and day compared to the positive reviews that brought me...