Makiki Inn

Do NOT go here around closing time… Tonight all they’d prepare was hamburger steak bbq chicken. Little did I know they would just drop the cooked chicken in the fry oil to «heat it up» before dumping it in the plate. Absolutely horrible… Thanks Makiki Inn for treating me like an animal and serving absolute slop! I should’ve known better, all they wanted to do was leave.

Huge portions of good food for a great price. If you’re picky, make sure to look at your items before you leave, sometimes the language barrier presents some issues that may annoy some. It’s nothing fancy, but if you’re looking for good, cheap food it’s perfect.

This place is not anything special, they offer nothing new or amazing but they do have a wide selection of fast food and they’re very cheap. This place is a solid place to go and eat if you live close by and don’t wanna spend that much money.

Ordered burger and fries. I was extremely disappointed. The oil is dirty. It just had that dirty feel.

So yes… this place is not very nice, but man is the food delicious! I might be a little bias because I grew up in Makiki, but it’s one of the few places that I always visit at least once when I visit. I’ve had their loco moco, chicken katsu, big breakfast, their burgers and there fries. Not to mention the fruit punch. To me… the fruit punch is key because we dont have good fruit punch here in Seattle. Not only is the food delicious, I think the price is great. Overall love this place =)

Was quite hungry so since this place is near where I live I rolled on down on my bike, the menu looks to have quite a good selection, but I opted on the safe side and got a BBQ Chicken plate as I rarely come this way. You know if you mess up a BBQ Chicken plate that would be pretty bad, well I got it and a coke it was your average BBQ Chicken plate like anywhere else, so nothing to rave about and nothing to get excited about.
Although walking in there they could be a bit more friendly stern looks came my way as soon as I walked in, but to be fair it wasn’t only the only person who walked in to get the same look, pretty much standard food but it would be a much. Better experience if they could be a bit more cordial.
I would say that parking in the lot (although I always ride my bike this way) looks decent.
The angry Chinese lady look could go, she even sounds mad when she talks haha.
The place is okay for your family plate lunch place although the tables could be wiped down a bit better as they were sticky.
Would I come back? Only when hungry and lazy, Pretty much sums it up…

Love the place. It’s right around the corner. Food is always good when I go. Only thing that bothers me is that the medium steak always comes out well done, but it’s nothing to cry about. Beef stew is great! Katsu is amazing! House steak is big! Good prices. And they have daily specials. You can call in, take out, or sit and eat. It’s perfect.

I agree with a lot of the reviewers here that this is just an average take out place. The only reason I stop here is we’re driving by and need some lunch. Tastes like another L&L alum opened his own little take out restaurant.

Gross and not as cheap as they should be. Yes it’s convenient but the food is… awful… Like really awful, the cheeseburger is borderline average but the garlic chicken and eggplant chicken is laughable. Goopy tasteless sauce, over cooked, dry, stringy, chewy, dare I say… powdery chicken, which no doubt was from a frozen value sized bag… And way under cooked, yet dry and spongy eggplant. A texture I can only equate to a caulk board eraser. Did I mention it was over priced? The $ 9-​$ 12 dollar range for those kind of plates… Il never make the mistake of trading them the value of my dollars in exchange for what they consider food. They’re lucky they are located in such a convenient area. Desperate hungry people to patronize them. Given the choice of their food I would rather wait or not eat at all.

Nothing really special. Just a nice place to get a fast and easy meal. Breakfast is surprisingly cheap and just the right size.

This is such a hit or miss place. sometimes there food is the best plate lunch place other times I can’t believe they serve this crap. It’s located near my house and there’s road parking as well as a parking lot. I like there chesse burgers so simple but last time I ordered it seemed like it was sitting there for a while. I dined in let the cashier know and made me a fresh one they are all pretty friendly for the most part.

Best word to describe this place is convenient. It’s close to where I live, so I can walk there even though I end up driving most of the time. Standard plate lunch place.
Likes: Really close to where I live. They have the standard local plate lunch choices like chicken katsu, loco moco, and bbq meats (like L&L). They also accept card. They also have a daily special where the regular plate is $ 0.50 off. They also give a good portion for the price.
Dislikes: Some of the food is rather bland, so you might need to add some sauce. Eating there is kind of hot sometimes when they leave their front doors open.
Best thing is to do call in your order, and you can pay and be on your way.

Look… there’s nothing fancy about this place. This is a no b.s., hole in the wall, grab your food and go kind of place. There are no bells and whistles. Having said that, the food was not terrible. I ordered two fish burgers with fries. Total was about $ 13, which isn’t too shabby. The place, as far as I could tell, was relatively clean. I wouldn’t eat off the floors by any means, but it wasn’t nearly as filthy as I was expecting.
The food was all made fresh. (By fresh I mean, it was frozen and cooked to order, nothing was pre-​made and reheated).
I’m not really sure what more there is to say about this place. It’s a block from our house, the food was decent enough to eat again, and the price wasn’t outrageous. I’ll go back, sure.
Fun tip — whoever put the mirrors up on the wall, good job!!! Every time we’d drive by or walk by, I thought the place was pretty big inside. It wasn’t until I went in to get our food that I realized it was mirrors. Just passing by you don’t really notice.
Until next time Makiki Inn!

New lady so even better customer service! Loco moco came out in a minute and the burger beef patties are even bigger then it was before!

One weekday morning, I just had a craving for a «weekend» breakfast (fried rice, Portuguese sausage, over easy eggs) and came here since it was on the way to work. I originally ordered that combo but wanted the white rice substituted for fried rice. She said it would be $ 2 more and suggested the «Big Breakfast Special» that included fried rice but also spam and sausage links. I said sure but wanted it with just p. sausage… that’s when it got frustrating.
For a good minute, she just didn’t understand that I wanted that, and kept saying random words like. «spam» «fried rice» forming some kind of sentence that just wasn’t coming together. (heavy Chinese accent)
Got my plate brought it to work and it was just a box of FAIL:
Fried rice was «Chinese restaurant» style (peas, carrots, OILY)
Wasn’t all Portuguese sausage like requested
Eggs yolks were hard; not runny
$ 8 rip off.
Better off at Zippys… and I hate going to Zippys (last resort).

For the price– convenience and the ‘what did you expect’ Makiki Inn is what it is.
Beef
pretty good. It is odd to me that it would come with a side of mac salad if you ask but hey — we’re in HI.
BBQ burgers (hamburger with just BBQ sauce on it)+ Cheeseburgers are too normal– it is like the meat is hand made with fillers but tastes like a better burger than just a McD. Fast food at it’s normal mom and pop shop. Little oily tasty but still good to soak up the grease with the last piece of the bun (that was a joke– No I leave the grease found on the wrapper still on the wrapper).
Shrimp plates fried shrimp is better than the garlic shrimp. still good choices. Warning– you may be unlucky and get either over cooked or under cooked shrimp– — hence fried is my suggestion always from now on– nothing worse than garlic shrimp on the poke side of cold.
There is a wide menu– almost too many choices. There is daily specials which is really nice too (usually).
Don’t look too hard for healthy food or vegetarian options (from the taste of everything the same oil is used to cook almost everything).
I live down the way from here– and sometimes have to do balk laundry right behind it when I have to do huge blankets and stuff. It is an easy walk to going to makiki park to play or after play. There are tons of kids from Roosevelt and Punahou that hang out since they live in the area too and are ‘hanging out.‘
Take my advice with a grain of salt– it is a normal plate lunch place– it has plenty of food in a meal or you can get just a side of fries. Soda is more expensive compared to McD $ 1 size but it isn’t McD. If you like plate lunches — it is a great bet you will find something to your liking. I always find what I am in the mood for — and it usually is decent and better than I could make a home on short notice when I’m running late. It’s good if you like it Price is good for what you get, almost never a line– it is so small that you can order from the door is you needed to– usually there is a spot open to sit down at — most people grab and go. There isn’t a bathroom nearby that I know of that is open to the public really so most people don’t drink 2 large sodas and stay very long.

I thought about rating this place 4 stars but I’ve changed my mind. I’m NOT a fan of L&L because the quality is just so bad. The burgers are terrible… I figured this place would be similar and had decided to give it a try due to the many mini plate options and seemingly reasonably priced food items.
My Son had a double cheese burger which, I must admit I wasn’t thinking would be great. It actually turned out to be a great value. The burgers are homemade instead of May’s and generously portioned. The flavor was alright but what would one expect for under three bucks? I took a bite and being one who prefers fresh-​hot food, I wasn’t impressed with the fact that the cheese wasn’t fully melted. Indicating that the meat was probably not «just cooked». The portion of small fries was also quite generous and the flavor was pretty good. They were inexpensive so again; what would one expect.
I had the garlic sea bass which was very flavorful. The mini portion was quite large for me but don’t take my word for it. Half a mini is usually enough to fill me up.
I didn’t like the fact that the trash can was nowhere to be seen so I had to circle the place before asking the worker where it was. It’s outside the front door. I also didn’t care for the fact that there was a small child who belonged to one of the workers (owner?) sitting at the table watching a video on a phone… hey no prob. Except for the occasional screams and screeches he let out. The workers (owners?) were telling him to «shhh.» but it still did not ease the strain on the ears while we were attempting to enjoy our meals.
Overall I was pleased with our visit. I appreciate the fact that they allowed me to sub rice for all toss salad. I realllly hate it when I try to do that and places want to up charge me.

Love being so close to the best Teri beef spot in town. Also the wait isn’t too long & food freshly made and prepped!

I haven’t been to Makiki Inn in a couple of years but decided to check it out last week as I remembered the food being just meh. I guess the owner changed since the last time I was here. Like majority of other restaurants, they used to serve local style chicken katsu with katsu sauce and chicken cutlet, lightly breaded chicken with gravy. The special that day was chicken katsu or chicken cutlet. I tell the counter person I want the chicken cutlet plate with no gravy. She replies, «Chicken cutlet with no gravy is chicken katsu.» I was thinking, no, isn’t but stupidly replied, «Umm… okay.»
What I got was neither chicken katsu or chicken cutlet but chicken JERKY. The breading was hard enough to break teeth and the meat was dried out. I should have figured it would be bad when I placed my order and it came out in less than two minutes. So much for freshness. Also the rice was mushy. I always have issues with restaurants that serve bad rice. We’re not doing brain surgery here; you’re using a freakin’ rice cooker to cook it… there’s a line to show you how much water to add. There’s no excuse for serving bad rice. EVER.
Pay a little more and go to Peppa’s instead.

After reading all the NAAAASTY reviews about this place, I’m wondering… hummmmmmm is this place that bad???
For lunch today, my co-​worker suggested we try the Makiki Inn, as I had mentioned to him in the past that I was curious about trying this place.
My co-​worker also happened to have a coupon from the Entertainment Book (yes, he is Chinese… but so am I, and us Chinese dudes love deals! Lol!), where you buy one plate lunch, and you get the other for free. WOT A DEAL!!!
We go to the place, and the lady at the counter acknowledges us quickly and takes our order… Upon placing our order, I was surprised at how fast we got our order!
I ordered a special combo that consisted of Chicken Katsu and Beef Stew with brown rice and mac salad. My co-​worker takes the BBQ Hamburger Steak with brown rice & mac salad.
What can I say about the food… my special combo wasn’t bad, but on the other hand, it didn’t knock my socks off!
The Chicken Katsu was hot & crispy. The Katsu sauce wasn’t too good… the sauce kinda tasted like a home made sweet & sour sauce. Something that I wasn’t too crazy about.
The Beef Stew tasted okay… but I’ve had better. The carrot in my stew was hard when I bit into it…2 ½ pieces of beef, & 1 piece of potato… it was more stew gravy than meat & vegetables.
My co-​worker said the BBQ Hamburger Steak was okay… in the picture it may look like an ordinary Hamburger Steak with brown gravy, but in actuality, the gravy was a Teri BBQ based gravy.
The place was clean, food was on the average side, but not bad at all… I could easily give it a «3».
Service wasn’t bad at all… lady at the counter acknowledged us quickly, and took our order. Food came out fast & hot, even got a «Thank you» from them as we were leaving… because of this, I have to bump it up a point to a «4».
The prices was very reasonable… on the cheap side I would say. But with the Entertainment coupon… I’d say we had an awesome deal!