Panini Grill Sandwiches

Wow. Just wow. Not only did we have to wait an inordinate amount of time for a small panini, it was taken out a fridge (not wrapped) and just put on a heater. I was given the wrong sandwich and my new one was ice cold inside! Just… stay away.

If you want a quick and healthy bite to eat, this is the best place to go conveniently located in Ala Moana food court. They have many different kinds of paninis not to mention turkey PESTO! soups and a variety of salads (greens and pasta varieties) PRICE IS VERY GOOD ALSO!!! They have half and half options available. The bread used is PERFECT and the sauces and ingredients in each different style of sandwich are addicting.

The cashier and food service lady are always so courteous and efficient. I eat here every now and then. They offer quite a few things, such as grilled paninis, hot dogs, rotisserie chicken, salads and chili. I’m always satisfied when I eat here.

We spend the day in overdrive at the mall. Exhausted and famished, I headed to the food court with my mom and decided to have lunch at Panini.
Hey, not bad!
My mom and I ordered the hot dog combo (it’s Nathan’s brand) and ¼ chicken plate. Both items came with your choice of two sides. I got my mom two different salads. She really liked the salad. I am a Nathan’s fan, so I thought the hot dog was yummy– even though my mum felt it was on the salty side. The chicken wasn’t dry and came with two sides as well. Cesar salad was my fav!
All in all– if you’re looking for a quick bite and want something not too heavy, opt to come here!

I used to frequent this place on my lunch breaks. Although they have a weird mall discount for «only certain items,» I still continued to go because it was convenient and tasty enough. Recently, I became a vegan and thought that the «vegan delight» sandwich would be a go-​to lunch for me. Just to make sure, I asked the owner if there was milk or eggs in the foccaccia bread used to make the sandwich. She said «I don’t know, I just pick it up from the store.» If you have the work «Vegan» in the name, a lot of people like myself will find comfort in that because let me tell you, it’s hard to find anything vegan especially in a big mall. It should not be called vegan unless you can guarantee that there are no animal products in the item. Besides, shouldn’t you know that information in case one of your customers has a food allergy? Shame on you, Panini grill.

I love this little sandwich kiosk. Tasty, hot sandwiches. Good flavor. I’m a mall worker and I appreciate the discount for employees (with proof of employment). I recommend for sandwich lovers.

Total junk food court eatery. Stopped here on impulse and regretted my poor decision. I imagine I could have done much worse, but should have chosen more wisely. I had the ¼ chicken plate, and it was neither delicious nor appetizing. The caesar salad was blah and the chicken lacked any flavor. They also put brown beef gravy on the imitation mashed potatoes, which did not complement the chicken. Worst of all about this place is that they wouldn’t take my Ala Moana gift card (which is normally accepted by 99.9999% of mall vendors) b/​c it is issued by American Express. F/​U Panini Grill. Added note: their panini’s look abnormally large in the photos but are extremely small in reality. Talk about false advertisement!

I used to love Panini Grill. Good portions and great tasting sandwiches. However, recently the Kahala Mall location has shut down, and the Ala Moana kiosk is under new ownership. A «large» sandwich still costs ~9 bucks, but you only get ½ a sandwich instead of a whole one now. As expected, the «small» sandwich has been downgraded from a ½ to a ¼ sandwich.
Pros:
–Still tastes great
–Salads seem fresh
Cons:
–9 dollars for half a sandwich? You’ve got to be kidding me. That’s ridiculous even for Ala Moana
–I’ve only been here once since management changed hands and the wait was fairly long. 15 minutes for prepared sandwich seems too long to me.
Conclusion:
The cost of ½ a panini is too great for me to return here. 2 stars because it still tastes great and the people are nice

WOW! TALK ABOUT A FOOD COURT!
In the bowels of the Ala Moana Shopping Center is the food court, and it’s impressive. You will find a lot of locals which validates the quantity and quality, IE, choices-​o-​plenty! As any sensible person would do, I whittled down my options by using Unilocal — thanks peeps.
Feeling like a sandwich, I went with the Panini Grill, and a large grilled pastrami sandwich. It was plenty big, I could have done with half the sandwich and been fine, but I went all in. First, the bread was perfectly grilled and taste great. The pastrami was lean, although I wish they put more on, and it had just the right amount of cheese and garnish.
I’m a big pickle fan, and they served it on the side, which was fine, I just opened my sandwich and put it inside. Let me tell you, the pickle was really good, chilled and it snapped when I bit into it, perfection.
They also have a variety of drinks, all said and done, the sandwich and drink set me back around $ 12.50, not bad because I felt stuffed, and the sandwich was good.
This location also brings with it some good people watching. Be warned, there is no shortage of unruly kids running around while their parents gain back their sanity over lunch. I highly recommend you get a meal at the food court while shopping at the Ala Moana Center, why not make it a panini?

A good sandwich is hard to come by in this town. But at Ala Moana, it’s an even rarer find. I always thought the variety and quality of sandwiches at Panini were pretty good. However it’s the service or more specifically the lack of a system that will likely keep me from returning. In a 5×5 cubicle you would think they could get their act together. The sandwiches aren’t prepared as the order comes in, so you’re often left waiting as customers who ordered after you, get their orders. I even mentioned it to the nice Korean owner, who just smiled and said «sorry so busy.» But the same thing happens the next time. If there’s absolutely no one in line, then probably little chance of these annoying missteps.

An A-​ok spot with one awesome Reuben. I am a BIG Reuben Sandwich fan and get it often at any restaurant/​place that serves it. I’ve had several at different places here in Hawaii. This little Panini spot has by far the best Reuben I’ve had on island thus far! Some places overpower the Sandwich with meat or pickles or sour kraut and one of the ingredients is all you taste. This Reuben is such a well balanced sandwich and I get it anytime I can! My only complaint is they only offer it in a small. My husband had the BBQ chicken sandwich and said it was pretty ordinary. I would give this place 4 stars if it wasn’t for the fact that every time I go there they don’t have a side I want. (I.e. today they were out of soup and only offering 2 salad choices) And the Reuben is the only thing that keeps me coming back.

Walked past this place on 11÷29÷12 at 10:30am and the two employees preparing food were not wearing any headgear (no hats or hairnets).
Also, witnessed one of the employees wipe her runny nose with her forearm in plain view and continue to prepare food.
Lovely.
Not so healthy Panini after all.

I came down here just looking for a place to eat other than my ²⁴⁄₇ default option of Jollibee. The place has a wide selection of panini sandwiches from pesto, bbq chicken, grilled chicken, vegan, tofu, ham and cheese, turkey, and many more. They also have some rotisserie chicken spinning which is pretty interesting. I guess they sell that too for people to eat unless they use it for their sandwiches. I guess this is one of the more healthier options for food at the makai market food court because of the freshness and natural type of ingredients and food that they have for the health conscious. The price for the food is decent. The staff and customer service is good. I got a grilled chicken sandwich for my first meal here. I got a small sized one to go for about 5 bucks. It was pretty good. They also gave me a complimentary water with sandwich. The wait for my order was quite a while. By the time they were ready, I have already written a draft for this Unilocal review plus I was able to take my time liking and viewing photos on instagram. It didn’t help that I came at a peak hour and time right on lunch time.

Ate here 6pm Wed May 25, 2012. I was in the mood for a Nathan’s Hot Dog. I paid for a $ 5.38 combo (with Lays Potato chips and a small root beer). Service, fast, efficient, employees polite. Now we get to the food. The hot dog bun was stale, stale stale. That kind of crumbly dried out bread that’s sits out too long. How hard is it to use fresh buns. The soda didn’t have enough ice in it, and the serve yourself condiments, I had to scrape the bottom of the dish to get a few measly diced onions.

This was my first time at Panini Grill in Ala Moana.
PROS: Nice presentation. They cut the sides and would make even the most OCD eater happy. I ordered the full-​size pastrami and it was enough for lunch. Good tasting sandwich and I would come here again.
CONS: A little bit longer than normal to get your sandwich. Maybe I am used to how quickly Subway punches out their sandwiches. Maybe it is because it takes some time to press the sandwich together. Basically, if you are in a rush and only have 30 minutes for your lunch break you may be pushing it.
Solid ³⁄₅.

probably one of the least greasy places in the food court…
PROS:
food courts are always great… lots to choose from and really convenient. Surrounded by a bunch of grease and quick bites, Panini grill sandwiches is a «healthier» choice… less greasy. If you get a full sandwich and you’re an average eater, you’ll be full.
CONS:
Plenty cheese if you ask me… at least on what I ate. If you’re a big eater like my bf, you’re gonna wanna order more food after…
WHAT I ATE:
— Turkey Pesto: turkey, spinach, cheese, pesto spread on the nom nom panini bread. I’d say that it started out as a really yummy sandwich…(note that I ordered the full size) and it’s probably cause I was yakamashi too much and talked more than I ate, but as the cheese was less melty, it tasted less good. In fact it tasted like just straight cheese and bread.
— BBQ CHICKEN (bf choice): he said it was better than mines. I sampled it, I liked mines better. Same price as the turkey pesto, but probably a little more hearty.
— Tofu Poke: tofu, tomatoes, onions, in shoyu poke sauce… ok, but nothing I’d crave…
COME BACK??? MEHHH…
If I stay on this «eat less and healthier» diet thing, I’d probably come back, cause it’s not greasy AT ALL! They grill the sandwiches in this iron looking thing, so no grease. Next time I’d probably order the half sandwich with salad combo rather than the full sandwich, only because the full was a lot for me and I’d rather have a mix in texture. If I wasn’t at ala moana, probably wouldn’t come here JUST for the sandwich… but if I was shoppin and hungry… maybe…

Run-​of-​the-​mill «merrrrr» food-​court food.
I’ve eaten here a lot with family because for some reason they seem to think the panini are fabulous. (See what I put up with??)
The sandwiches are not nearly pressed enough to be considered true panini (which should be no thicker than a nickel’s diameter), and as a result the fillings — more vegetable than meat, meaning not worth your business — never get hot enough … although the cheese does melt, and such a preposterous amount is given that it oozes out the sides in a goopy mess.
Not fun.

Don’t let the ratings fool you, on a Saturday afternoon, Panini Grill had a LONG ass line and it wasn’t all Japanese tourists either! Ordered their turkey pesto panini for $ 8-​ish thinking to split itwith my bf.
I wait on the side and I watch person after person get their food before me! When I got the chance, I give the cook a questioning glance and I think she realized she didn’t make my order. My boyfriend was able to go to Jamba Juice and get our drink during this whole time.
In the end, it was a decent sized sandwich, but I think they could have thrown in a side salad or something to make it a really good value. They definitely stacked on the spinach and not enough of the turkey. I think we were more full from our smoothie so I don’t know if it was necessarily filling enough. If I’m craving a panini again, I would go make my own.

½ order of Smoked turkey panini — $ 4.99
Smoked turkey, foccacia, lettuce, mayo, cheese and sundried tomato (spread)
What I thought: too much cheese. It should have just been a grilled cheese plus two small slices of turkey. The half order is a decent size compared to the regular size. the sandwich comes with some wilted lettuce and the sandwich is really soggy because of the cheese. Even though it’s «grilled» it’s not that crunchy. But, it’s not greasy either so that’s a good thing. The $ 7.99 sandwich, chip & drink combo is pretty small too. I would just recommend getting the sandwich if you can. They also have this chicken plate which looked pretty good but since the chicken is sitting in a heated case it’ll probably be really dry so that’s something else to consider.

Warning! Their half sandwiches with chips and drink will not fill your hunger!
I usually order a nathan hotdog when I am not that hungry. The hotdog is nothing special, I rather eat a Costco hotdog for way less.
I ordered a ½ Pastrami Panini Sandwich with chips and a drink for about $ 7. It doesn’t even fill you up! The taste is not horrible but it isn’t something I would ever crave for.
With this combo you get the smallest drink ever!
I should of ordered it with the salad instead. But I don’t know when I am coming back to eat here