Hukilau — Restaurant in San Jose

This place is a hidden gem. We don't often eat in San Jose, but this one you can NOT miss!! They have authentic Hawaiian food. It reminded me of being back in Hawaii. It looks small on the outside, but it's pretty big on the inside. When you enter the first room, it has a typical bar and seating area. They have a bigger room in the back for parties or just additional seating area. When we went, they had a party going on in the front and the back. I think it was a bday party, they were definitely having fun. We decided to place our order to go.

We ordered: Hukilau pupu platter - spam musubi, garlic wings, and fried shrimp. The spam musubi was your standard that we all know. Nothing special. Garlic wings were ok, I kinda felt like it had the adobo kind of taste to it. The fried shrimp was tasty and huge.

Hukilau ribeye steak (medium)- Cooked perfectly and is well seasoned. It was a thick slice and so juicy. Rice was perfectly cooked, and the mac salad was smacking.

Da Hawaiian Luau plate - You can never go wrong with the classic pork lau lau, kalua pork, and an added bonus lomi lomi salmon. The portion was massive but delicious. I had ordered all rice, and we still managed to run out of rice.

Loco moco - huge burger patties but were well seasoned. It was moist and flavorful. Next time, I'm going to ask for extra gravy. For that extra smothering comfort food goodness. Iykyk.

Hukilau fried rice - very rare, do you go to a Hawaiian restaurant, and they serve fried rice. We had to try, and it was amazing. They had huge chunks of Portuguese sausage and lots of aloha. This could definitely be a meal on its own.

Fried Saimin - The noodles were good, but the dish was salty, IMO. I'm not sure if it's from the Portuguese sausage and spam or what. This was one dish I would skip next time.

Mac salad - I ordered extra, and it was definitely worth it.

" Big Island Candies" Macadamia Nut Brownie Sundae - I was looking forward to this, but I guess with my huge order, it was missed.

Hukilau Tea - This is tasty and refreshing, definitely a creeper. You gotta take it easy with this one.

Hukilau punch - This was a little sweet for me but good. I like that it was blue.

This was a lot of food for two people, but I had to create my little sampler so I know what to get next time and what to avoid. Surprisingly, the food was still amazing the next day. Even the rice is rare. It was still soft and wasn't hard the next day like other places. The drinks were amazing.

The people who helped me showed a lot of aloha and made me feel so welcome. Even if they were busy with the party, they took the time to answer my questions. My order was cooked fresh and was ready in no time. I can't wait to come back soon. Hopefully, try the dessert as well... It was hard to double-check my order with the massive heavy-duty bag I was handed and with the crowd... I figured...

A+ for excellent service!

We were totally pleased with our first experience here and plan to come back a few more times to try more menu items.

We went on a Saturday night around 8:30PM We were greeted immediately by this nice Victorian mustachioed gentleman We were seated immediately and got lucky enough to sit in front of the window The waitress was awesome and super attentive from start to end

Food:

Garlic Popcorn Chicken: Loved the flavors, but it was extremely salty to me and if you have read my reviews before, you know I love me some salt! They were moist on the inside and crunchy on the outside and we both enjoyed the cabbage underneath that captured some of the sauce.

Hukilau Fried Pork Chops: There are two lightly breaded pork chops (bone in) and they come with some gravy, rice and macaroni salad. I opted for fried rice instead of white for a little more cash. The chops were crunchy, thin and moist still. The brown gravy was excellent as my dipping sauce, which i only did every few bites, enjoying the taste of the chops on their own. The fried rice has some portuguese sausage in it and was very tasty once I added a little soy sauce. The macaroni salad was drier than I am used to but still tasty. I added a little salt and pepper to it to help it out.

Loco Moco: This came with two non frozen hamburger patties, their brown gravy, white rice and macaroni salad. This was another great dish! The hamburger meat was lightly flavored and the combo of the egg yolk, meat, gravy and rice was great! my partner did not even have to use soy sauce like he usually does at other restaurants that shant be named. He got the eggs over medium so he had solid whites and runny yolks and they were made just right. Definitely well worth the drive from Gilroy.

We will definitely be back to try some of the other dishes.

Cons: So far, my only gripe is that the tables are shoved very closely together. This means a couple of issues:

If you are of a slightly larger persuasion it will be a little difficult to slip in between tables that have people seated at them You are so close to the other tables it is like you are sitting together and you can hear, quite distinctly, everyone's conversations at the closest table(s). This meant that we had to sit through about 30 minutes of listening to some girl talking incessantly about her work gossip and how she tells people not to talk about her etc. to the rest...

This is a great food spot with plenty of seating. They also have a bar with delicious cocktail options. I recommend the garlic chicken as it was very tasty and something I would get again. It was fried well so that it has a crunch but it wasn’t hard, and the sauce was sweet and savory and wasn’t overpowering. Portions are a good size too. I was able to have the lunch and have some leftovers for later. I had the lava flow as my drink and it was quite good and def had some alcohol in it. Size was great as well. They have seating in the front and a larger eating area in the back. They close after lunch (2pm) then reopen for dinner service (5pm). I went here with a group of 8 and there was a 30 min wait only because it seemed like there was a soccer team that came here for lunch. Otherwise I think we would’ve gotten seated rather quickly. Parking is only street parking and could be hard to find depending what day and time you go. I went here Saturday 1pm and got parking a block over. The service here was excellent and the waiters were attentive and made sure we were taken care of. We were also able to split the bill 7 ways which was awesome. Vibes are very relaxed and chill. Music wasn’t so loud when we’re eating and bathrooms were clean. I would definitely come back here for the garlic chicken and to...