Aloha Island Grill — Restaurant in Washington

My girlfriend decided to surprise me with a restaurant we had never tried before for our anniversary (as that's one thing that we love to do), and to be honest, the curbside appeal had me skeptical. I was willing to give it an honest go, however.

We walked in the side door and the lobby had newspapers scattered. It was kind of small but there were no other customers so it was fine. The menus plastered on the wall were ripped but you could still read them.

I approached the counter and a lady peeling carrots asked me if I knew what I was going to get. Being impressionable, I told her that we had never been in, but thought we'd try it out. She told me to get the teriyaki chicken with something else because it was popular, so I did.

My girlfriend ordered the garlic chicken and the lady said it would take ten minutes, so we agreed and stood there patiently for a couple minutes. That was the last thing they told us. No one spoke to us after that but another customer came in to order so we moved over because we weren't sure if we should stand or sit.

We ended up sitting down for a while and the two ladies working kept giving us weird glances as if we were bothering then by being there. There was raw meat sitting out behind the counter and everything from sauce bottles to the Coke Freestyle machines were messy.

Along with a few annoying flies, the ladies treated the other customer like garbage, telling him she wouldn't get him more sauce because there was enough in there after he had asked nicely for some more. He was too intimidated to speak and left as soon as possible.

We weren't rung up for the food yet and didn't see them start preparing any dish for us and the lack of communication make us feel uneasy. The lack of cleanliness, customer service, or outright friendliness made us eventually leave as not a word was spoken to us, nor did we know if they were going to serve us anything.

We had high hopes and left disappointed. I am contemplating calling the city health...

Worst food I've ever had and to top it all off it was expensive for what we got. My pork was extremely dry and had zero flavor. It was the same with my wife's chicken which was almost inedible because of how overcooked it was. The rice was also completely unseasoned and was what made up most of our "food" that we were given. The macaroni salad was far worse than anything I've ever bought in store, let alone home or restaurant made. The employees lacked all sense of professionalism and couldn't even keep track of if we had paid or not while waiting for our food to be made. Not to mention neither the employees nor the entire building itself looked to maintain any sense of cleanliness. This is by far the worst experience I've ever had paying for food at an establishment in the Spokane area and will not be ordering here ever again. I typically never write reviews but the awful quality of this place and it's service for nearly $25 per plate without factoring in anything to drink is highway robbery. Not to mention they have a horrendously high percentage of tip they ask for on the card reader when you pay which is completely ridiculous to even ask for being in the realm of fast food. If I could give this place 0 stars I would. The lowest I can leave though is a 1 out of 5...

We enjoy Aloha, the macaroni salad and pea salads are a great side to any entree. Lava bites are delicious and pack a little heat. Teriyaki chicken is tasty and basically all the meats are delicious. All the sauces they have are tasty and unique. The food has never been an issue for us.

However, Aloha has never been the place where I consider hygiene/upkeep as their priority. The bathroom didn't have soap or towels, and the surfaces of everything were sticky or uncleaned. On top of that, the patio door needs adjusted. It sounds like a bomb goes off everytime you came in from the patio, because it slammed against the door frame. The tile in the bathroom was broken and the bathroom door handle was missing a screw. As well as the patio decorative grass being ripped off and falling apart. In short, there were a lot of broken items.

Workers were friendly but they seemed under-supported for running the kitchen. I wonder how their cooking equipment is maintained if the rest of the building is in disarray.

Seems like a little TLC is in order and would make the experience more inviting and potentially help draw more clientele, especially considering the high price of entry. We will definitely come again but would like to see things improve, to continue to frequent this...