Hawaiian BBQ & Roll

I don’t know if it’s because of the Korean style beef patties (tastes like bulgogi) or the different take on the gravy, but this is the best loco moco I have ever eaten. I will def be coming back when I’m the area.
Just FYI, I only order loco mocos when I visit Hawaiian joints.

Really good and delicious.
Into spam masubi? Best I’ve ever had. short ribs is also amazing and the fried rice as well
New owners know how to treat their clientele. A++

Man y’all ain’t got no taste! I trusted that this restaurant was legit… But c’mon guys. anyway I had the moco loco my husband has the fried shrimp and «mahi mahi» with rice and Macaroni. There was no flavor, my eggs were overcooked the patties were dry, the macaroni was tasteless. I orders a chicken burger and im not sure it was chicken. BIG FAIL not worth it. if you want disappointment they’ll make it for you.

$ 8 for this tiny tiny tiny tiiiiiiiiiiiiny amount of suuuuuuuuuper salty ribs?!

This place USED to be SOO good, now they suck soo bad, I used to come in and hear the sound of grilling meat and see the smoke not anymore. They microwave all their food. The BBQ chicken I ate is probably cooked in a huge pan, and then place somewhere else, every time somebody orders it’s reheated in the microwave. The sauce is in a separate container and it’s cold Sauce, it suppose to be hot like other places. That’s all I hear the microwave door opening and closing every time a order comes out. The meat has no grill flavor like before (hence they must of bulk cook the thing in a huge pan. I’ve been here many times in the past it was good, but not anymore. I didn’t even finish my food and that’s REALLY RARE, it just taste old, favorless and unfresh. The macaroni was a tasteless pile of old tasting flavorless mush. Yuck

Don’t waste your time and money. Inedible.
They made me wait 25 minutes for one order of loco moco and two spam musubi. They put the order behind m up first because he was a cop.
Then, my food was overcooked.
The hamburgers couldn’t even be cut with a knife they were so hard oh, and cold. And the fried egg was cooked o hard it could bounce off the floor. They put the canned gravy in a separate container and then didn’t put the lid on tight enough so it spilled inside the bag on he way home.
It used to be a really great place and I used to live in Hawai’i so I know from island food, but it’s changed owners many times and the current operation is crap.
If I wasn’t so tired I would have taken it back and thrown it on their floor.

This is our first time at Hawaiian BBQ & Roll, we been have to couple Hawaiian restaurants around town and tasted the Hawaiian cuisine. Each of the restaurant we been to have the same classic like chicken Katsu, Moco Loco and the famous Hawaiian classic Musubi it’s Spam roll very popular to the islander.
This is a very small restaurant with six tables and two tables outdoors but it’s very popular with locals. The restaurant have the Hawaiian classic plus sushi on site that’s really good. We look at the menu and decided what to order I got the chicken Katsu and my wife got the Moco Loco and a order of edamame.
I went to the counter to pick up or meal then we open box and food looks really good. Then I went to counter again to get the Katsu sauce in the bottle. My chicken Katsu look and smell really good and taste very tasty and crispy crunch adding the katsu sauce great flavors in my mouth. They cook the chicken Katsu to extra crispy when pop to your mouth you can hear the crunch. The macaroni salad was good I through it need more flavor but it was light that’s a good way, you can taste the chicken katsu with the sauce feel the flavors in your mouth
My wife enjoy her Moco Loco she loves her Moco Loco and loves eggs each in her meals. She give piece of burger patty wow really good. The gravy was amazing good it taste like Salisbury steak sauce I really like it. The edamame we enjoy it. Everything is cook when they get your order and everything is cook from scratch that’s good because it feel like home cooking.

Ok I found this place pretty close to where I live. So I decided to do a pick up order. I ordered 2 chicken katsu double rice and 1 macaroni, 2 orders of musubi and their spicy baked salmon roll. I sent my husband to pick up the order so I can get the table ready for us to eat. He came back and we only got 1 order of the chicken katsu. I CLEARLY ordered 2 and the person on the phone even confirmed with me. I think he was the manager/​owner. Really poor English. Anyway, we called to let them know that we didn’t get our second order and we were willing to go back and get it as long as he was able to accommodate us for his mistake. When I say accommodate at least some discount for making us drive back. This guy had the audacity to argue with the customer and say I never said 2 (when I did!) and he wouldn’t give us any discount for the trouble. Way to represent your business buddy! Sorry for people like me who tried this place for the first time hoping to be a regular since we live close, he lost our business from just poor customer service. And probably poor hearing.

Their online ordering system had an option for delivery with a $ 3.00 charge so we put in an order. Then 5 mins later we get a call from them saying that they don’t deliver. I’m not sure how their food tastes but their service sucks. Their website is also horribly designed and it took us 20 mins to place an order. Won’t try this place again.

I wish I could give 3.5, but they are worthy of rounding up based on this experience. This is a big step up from a couple years back, I am pretty sure they changed owners, change in management at least is apparent.
I got there late, maybe 15 minutes before closing, and they had shut down the fryer. :(I don’t know if this place is ever super busy, plus, South Pas is a pretty sleepy little area, so I won’t fault them too hard for that. The woman behind the counter was super nice about it too.
I was already thinking about katsu chicken w/​curry sauce or kahlua pork, with the fryer down, it made the choice easy and their Kahlua pork was EXCELLENT.
That late in the day, I will admit I was worried about the cabbage being over done, but it was perfect. Also, some places put waaay too much juice, no, they did just the right amount and their juice is tasty. Also an excellent pork/​cabbage ratio and it was well blended (i.e. not just a couple chunks of pork on shredded cabbage). In a word — LEGIT.
Obligatory macaroni salad — better than most. I always but sriracha on the macaroni salad at Hawaiian places like this. I liked their chili sauce on it better…
I asked for sriracha, so the lady behind the counter gave me a little cup, plus their chili sauce, and their teriyaki. Their teriyaki sauce and chili sauce were really all I needed, but maybe just a little more of the teriyaki sauce.
This place seems pretty affordable, with most dishes around $ 10. Not the best ambience. Also, not necessarily the first place I might look for sushi.
I will definitely be back to try the katsu w/​curry, as well as test the consistency of the kahlua pork… heck, I might even try a roll here sometime.

I’ve been going here for over 10 years. They have new management just recently but the food is just as good. Sometimes it can be slow during peak lunch or dinner times, but it helps to call ahead. I would recommend the chicken katsu with short rib combo and spam musubi. Their mac salad is off the charts! I think the food is slightly better now with the new management. Also if you like spicy, the spicy pork is excellent. Very close to Highland Park, Pasadena, Alhambra, right off the 110 freeway Fair Oaks exit. They have sushi now too, but I will try that next time!

Close to home, reasonable priced, clean, pleasant servers and the food is great. Can’t ask for much more than that.
Happy that they are now making sushi. Used to come in for the spicy pork (and still love it) but happy to try the new menu, too.

Hello my Unilocalies,
Craving for some sushi and pork so decided to come here since it’s very close to my house. Parking is very easy since they are located right inside a plaza with many other restaurants and shops. So you don’t need to worry about paying or finding a spot.
The place is very small, probably will only fit like 10 people max. I gave this place an A-​OK is because it is definitely better than a lot of Hawaiian BBQ, this place actually have sushi and sushi rolls. What Hawaiian BBQ have sushi? I couldn’t resist and order the Spicy Tuna Roll (If I’m not wrong it was $ 6 something) with an order of Salmon and my boyfriend order the spicy pork with salad only. For the spicy pork you can either order the mini size or the regular size. They also have many other choices such as spicy beef, don katsu and even burger and fries.
I personally thought my Spicy Tuna Roll was pretty decent, I like how the rice was still warm so it blends in with the cold spicy tuna extremely well. The spicy beef was alright, I didn’t like how it has too much fat but you know it is kind of like a fast food restaurant so you do get what you pay for. One little down side is that when we order the spicy pork we ask them to keep the potato salad and just change the rice to salad but unfortunately they didn’t give us the potato salad, and right when we were about to go ask the workers actually left to go have lunch. It’s really not a big deal but I do hope that they can notice more about the little things that the customers asks for.
Overall, 3 stars for service, 3 stars for food, 3 stars for environment and decoration and 4 stars for cleanliness. Will come back in the near future because I actually really enjoyed my spicy tuna roll.

I love this place. Been here a couple times and the food is delicious! Service is good and food comes out fast! They added sushi to the menu so it’s more of a Hawaiian and Japanese food restaurant.
The only downside is that they have very little rice with the order.

I ordered the Hawaiian bbq pork Benton box and they gave me the wrong order, their food was not satisfying at all, I will not be going back

Chicken Katsu is super crispy.
Mac Salad is just okay.
Musubi is missing some flavor.
Call ahead and pick up your order.

This place use to be good but something changed. Not sure if it was the owner or the cook but something. I went for lunch and ordered their #18 BBQ mix. It comes with short ribs, teriyaki chicken and either beef or pork not sure exactly what it is. I use to like it and especially with their teriyaki sauce and some Sriracha but something was off. The Mac was a little watery and taste was different. Rice is always good, short ribs and chicken were good but the other meet was just ok. I was a little disappointed and not sure if I’d go back. Seating is limited but they have seats outside that I enjoy.

It’s like getting a sweater for your birthday. Nothing special.
Short Ribs Combo ($ 8.99)
This combo comes with your choice of another meat. I opted with the BBQ chicken. So like my birthday, I was pretty excited to open my box. Guess what I got for Christmas. a wool sweater… Well what’s what it felt like. Nothing special. A few pieces of meat with a TON of rice. They don’t even have cooked cabbage. It was more like cabbage that’s in salads. It wasn’t HORRIBLE, but nothing too great. It’s also a little expensive for what you get.
Not a fan, the 3 star rating is pretty generous, just because the food was average.

Had a sudden craving for some musubi so we Unilocaled «musubi» near my zip code. Hawaiian Garden BBQ was on the list and looked promising in terms of both distance and rating. I called the restaurant to place our order when I was leaving from work on the westside. The gentleman on the phone asked me when I would arrive to pick up because he wanted to make sure my food would be fresh and hot. I gave an estimated time but realized that I needed to revise the arrival time due to traffic. Called back and push the ETA by 20 minutes. When I arrived 5 minutes after my revised ETA, my food was ready for me to pick and was still hot when we got home. The musubis were tasty and the spam/​chicken to rice ratios were good. The Hawaiian fried rice was not too bad, with plenty of cubed spam and veggies.
The establishment is small and oily smelling (understandably so with all deep frying it has to do). More of a takeout/​delivery place. The parking was surprisingly easy for a place right on Fair Oaks.
Spam, katsu or HBBQ are not my top choices for the healthy eats but this would be a convenient place for us to satisfy the guilty pleasure from time to time.

I decided to come to this place during work lunch hour over L&L, which is closer, because I saw that this place had shrimp skewers. Something different to try. Parking is not that great, it shares with El Pollo Loco and its crowded during lunch hour. I was lucky to find one on the street.
Shrimp skewers — it was good, lightly seasoned with terriyaki, good flavor, but not really worth it for $ 2.99 a skewer.
Mini Chicken Katsu — I actually like it here better than L&L. It’s not overly fried flavor and there was not as much fatty chicken meat.
Overall, its good but not much different from other Hawaiian bbq places around the area.
It’s a bit of a drive from work just to get Hawaiian BBQ but it is something to consider to stop in to pick up dinner on the drive home.

Earlier this Year (2013) Hawaiian Garden BBQ had a change of Ownership as the previous Owner went back to Korea, he was a VERY nice person and I’m sure ALL his regular customers miss him.
NEW OWNER… Seriously needs some Customer Service skills, several times I’ve found him to be a bit rude with customers, it also seems they have new cooks in the kitchen, and tastes like they changed or are using a lesser quality Beef & Chicken, portions have gotten smaller while prices have risen!
Unless this New Owner get’s an attitude adjustment, and brings back the QUALITY of the food… I see his demise in 2014
2.5-Stars