Kama’aina

Marion berry pie snow, delicious. love the pomegranate popping balls. Poke and kali wonderful. Sevice great. Environment lovely and inviting.

Kama’aina was a great experience! Everyone was so sincerely friendly. Our waiter, Chase, was so helpful in explaining the terms we’d never heard before and assured us we were in for a great experience. He was 100% right! The Fried Mandu (pork dumplings) was superb, the Citrus Shoyu dipping sauce, meh (just my opinion). Saimin, a traditional Hawaiian chicken soup was so deeply yummy, but the star was Rocky’s Korean Chicken, perfect flavor, perfect crunch, perfect tenderness. We didn’t try the HI Snow because we didn’t understand that it was «shaved ice cream», definitely trying that next time. All in all a great dining experience. We tipped well, the service was worth it!

Went here for the soft opening and the food was amazing. My wife used them a few days later for a large lunch order for a buisness meeting (15 people) and they had everything ready when she showed up to pick up the order. Pork katsu is awesome. Great staff. Great addition to forest grove.

I found a little bit of Hawaii in Forst Grove. Great service, ono food, Kona Longboard on tap, and awesome Hawaiian music in the background. I ordered the «Big one» and wow, that was enough food for 3 meals for me. Kalua pug was juicy and flavorful, the haupia was creamy and delicious. Squid luau was just like back home. I’ll definitely be back!

For $ 51 we had an awesome dinner, that left us with plenty of leftovers.
We arrived at a little after 6 pm on a Saturday nite… every table was full, but the bar was temporarily vacant, so we decided to eat there.
I ordered the $ 16 Aina Pack (I asked our super bar tender if I could sub something for the Spam… which he did in a flash!).The Aina Pack was a generous amount of four tasty selections, on a bed of rice, and a small side of Mac salad.
The Boss ordered the $ 8 special of the nite: «Pele’s Prize»; which was their furikake fries smothered in cheese, covered with a type of salsa, and topped with a scoop of Kalua pork? So filling and so good! (I had to eat some of that too!!)
I had three beers ($ 3 each), and the Boss has a couple of glasses of wine ($ 5, $ 6). After dinner we were shown the desert menu; and we just had to split the $ 7 Coffee Slated Caramel Hi Snow.
I have no idea how we managed to get up from our bar stools; we were so stuffed. Our service was superb, and the meal was the same.

Love! If you don’t know what to order ask for some suggestions from your host! The furikake fries are a must! The Korean chicken is yummmm and you gotta try the strawberry Hawaii snow with cheesecake bites!

Love that this place brings some fun fusion foods to town. You have to start with an order of garlic fries. The smoked meat was delicious as well. Something new and exciting, staff is friendly and warm as well. A must if you are in the Forest Grove area!

Vegetarians we’re out of luck. I’m glad I grabbed a menu when starting our 30 minute wait to be seated. There was nothing I could eat on the menu.

It is a beautiful restaurant! Not what I expected in downtown FG. We got the chicken katsu, kalbi plates, and a shoyu ahi poke bowl. Everything was amazing with the exception of the kalbi meat being burnt black. I loved the mac salad, it was perfect. The hostess was very friendly and the bar tender (who we ordered our to go food from) was extremely helpful. We will be back and I hope the kalbi meat won’t be burnt crisp.

I am from Hawaii, so I wanted to try this new Hawaiian food restaurant in Forest Grove. The restaurant and ambiance is very nice and clean. Unlike other Hawaiian food places, it is full service. The waiters and staff are friendly. However, the wait for your food does take pretty long even if they are not super crowded. Also, if you are familiar with traditional Hawaii food, there is a slight mainland twist to the taste. Meals here are all mostly $ 10 and up, so a little pricey for Hawaiian food.
Warning: the ahi tuna dishes I’ve tried so far (the seared ahi salad and shoyu poke bowl) are a bit salty.
Update: the spicy ahi bowl is delicious! Also, their Korean chicken plate keeps improving!

Visiting my friends at Pacific U and heard about their new Hawaiian place and had to check it out.
The restaurant itself is very clean and inviting atmosphere. Bathrooms were spacious and clean. Theres an ample amount of seating with a private room in the back.
The service was slow, maybe because they’re new and still getting everything together. Be prepared for a wait for your food.
The food was pricey and a bit salty but tasted authentic and worth it if your badly craving food from home.
I got «the big one» hawaiian plate which had kalua pig, lau lau, squid luau, chicken long rice, and lomi salmon. This was a $ 16 which was a little overpriced to me because im in college myself.
My friend got the li hing pineapple snow ice and loved it and would come just for it. It was average price around $ 8.
Overall if they could speed up their service a bit and lower everything on the menu by a $ 1 or $ 2 this would be a favorite for college kids and their families.

Wow what a nice change from the usual American cuisine! I thoroughly enjoyed the island-​style offerings and the hapa dishes on the menu ;) it’s not everyday that a restaurant will shake some furikake on your sticky rice!
I had the kalua pork and laulau combo. Huge portion! Sorry, no picture because I was too hungry to remember to take a picture :(oh well! Maybe next time :) but anyway the kalua pork was well made but the laulau was a little salty. But props to them for keeping it on their everyday menu! I will definitely be back for more: D
Ahaha shout out to our bartender though for keeping me and my girl Kimmy happy and well served! The drink with the lihing rim was on point ;) def coming back again when exams and things are over.
One thing, this place was crowwded! I suggest they have smaller tables to accommodate couples and consider outdoor seating in the summer. We were lucky to snag a quiet corner at the bar, but it sure was crazy for 6pm on Saturday!

Went for the soft opening with a limited menu. They give fat pieces with the poke and it tastes fresh. The Korean chicken was bomb. All food we tried was grinds. It is a little bit more expensive but you get your money’s worth with quantity and quality. They are open to suggestions and I’m excited to see when it’s fully open.

Solid Hawaiian food! Went to the soft opening and came back today for the full menu. This is not a plate lunch kind of place so be prepared for things to cost a bit more. But portions are very large and the restaurant is beautiful. Staff is attentive and friendly, though still learning the menu.
We learned today they’re going to open a take out window with shaved ice and other more local Hawaiian things. That’s so great!
The ahi salad is delicious. Dressing is light and so fresh. I usually get dressing on the side because it overpowers the salad and makes it wilt but this did not. Spam musubi was killer! And poke is simply delicious. I prefer the bowl over the appetizer.
I was not a huge fan of the Korean chicken but I had it at the soft opening so I might try it again now that they have mini portions. The regular portions really are huge.
I plan to come back and try their dessert snows. Very happy to have this place in first grove, was a bonus!

Where do I start first!!! They have done such a great job with this restaurant! Wish it was closer to us, but hey another reason to leave our little town. We had the pleasure of help celebrating the grand opening and it was beyond fantastic. There were so many choices and we got to experience them ALL! Pokē, squid luau, ox tail soup, smoked meat, kalua pig, lau lau, Korean style ribs, fish, Mac salad, fried rice, haupia and mango sorbet with Li hing mui powder. THEY HAD IT ALL! They have a full bar, drinks are nice and strong, plenty of seating and the environment is wonderful! Can’t wait to return and hope the live music continues! What a great little peace of home. Thanks Kamaaina for doing the damn thing! Aloha

We’re pretty big Hawaiian food fans, so were excited to try out this place. The husband ordered the Korean Chicken — pretty tasty, but much smaller portions and much larger price tag than we’re used to at other Hawaiian places. The mac salad tasted overly like mayo, or maybe mustard? Rice was good. I was torn between three items, the Portuguese bean soup, chicken katsu curry, and teri burger. At my server’s suggestion I tried the burger. It’s pretty standard, not enough teriyaki to get it’s name. The furikake fries were an interesting twist though. We started with spam masubi which was pretty good, fair on price in comparison to other joints. Overall with dinner, we’ll give them another shot after their grand opening to see if they can work out a better price per serving size. The chicken katsu curry at the table next to us looked pretty amazing.
Dessert we ordered the Honeydew Snow and it was really tasty. Here, portion size definitely great — it would easily feed a table of four. The flavors were bright and fresh, textures pleasing, and presentation was nice. While just based on dinner I’d probably lean towards two/​five, the dessert bumped it up to a 3. I can definitely see us coming just for dessert, especially in the summer.

Howzit everyone. So I was really excited to hear a local (see Hawaiian) food place open up near our new home. Now. Their OFFICIAL opening won’t be for another couple of weeks, but they have been on a soft open to shake out the staff and menu. So after a rough day we gave them a shot because I had no energy to cook. I am by no means an «expert», but growing up on Oahu for 11 years, and my grandfather being Hawaiian, I think I know a couple things ya? Here we go.
We tried
Manapua– not bad, but the char siu filling seemed to lack a little flavor. Not sure if this is made in house, but it didn’t seem like it. And a little spendy @ $ 5.50 for 2
Coconut shrimp– AWESOME! Great flavors, awesome presentation. Reasonably priced. I’d grind this one again.
Kalbi plate– Flavor, awesome! Quality is defiantly there. Some of the best kabli I’ve had recently. However, I guess I was a bit too hungry to notice (wife did tho) that the portion was roughly 3 strips, and more bone bits on the plate than anything. And at $ 16, I would expect a LITTLE more than 3. This was a dinner plate, and came with rice (sadly cold and a little stale) and Mac salad. Now. Nearly every Mac salad I’ve ever had from locals on or off island, varies a little in flavors. But I believe I tasted mustard in this. What?!? That’s haole style brah. And honestly, it was the only thing I wouldn’t finish. Sorry guys.
Teriyaki burger– my son WOLFED this down, and he isn’t a big fan of local food. I had a bite, and it was really good. Price was fair. Came with furikaki garlic fries which were FANTASTIC.
Final thoughts. I liked it. And they are still working on things. But I did not love it. Will we return after the grand opening. YES. I look forward to it. The atmosphere is awesome. The food has potential and I want to try more. I would love to make this a regular spot for us as the wife and I LOVE local food.

Local food I can buy local!?! Yes please. Kama’aina brings many favorite Hawaiian dishes to Forest Grove. My family and I have tried the katsu chicken curry, teriyaki chicken/​kalbi combo, katsu chicken, and our favorite the Korean chicken. We also love their poke and furikake garlic fries, mmmmm. (We have obviously already been a few times.) They are currently training so have patience. Their grand opening is January 30^th and hopefully they will have found their rhythm. Once last thing, I have only managed to get two pictures of their amazing food because I am so anxious to eat it I forget about the pictures. Maybe next time…

I know it is a soft opening for now, so I will be back to try again. I would immediately jump it to a 4* if the prices came down $ 1.50-$ 2 a dish.
I had the teriyaki chicken and short ribs plate with two scoops of rice and one scoop Mac salad. The food was great and flavorful. The Mac salad wasn’t as good as Roxy’s but still good. There are sesame seeds on the rice, just in case you don’t like them.
Next time I go I am going to try the curry and will adjust my review. For now it seemed to be a cool place for a date or extended lunch break but a little too expensive for lunch. Maybe release a smaller portion/​cheaper lunch menu. There are small plates currently on the menu, maybe expand on that menu for a lunch menu.

Check it out!!! The menu for now is limited due to training. But well worth everything. It’s real deal hawaii comfort food. Instead of buying a plane ticket home to Hawaii, we can just drive here for our cravings! The owner & cooks are all from Hawaii, so you know you’re getting the real deal! The staff are awesome! So please go in and don’t be afraid to ask what’s Ono! Well worth the drive and the menu will get better, I can promise you that!