Islander Drive Inn

Islanders is amazing, it’s so close to home, and everything I ate there is so delicious. Their double bbq cheeseburger and honey garlic chicken and garlic shrimp are our family favorites. Even their turkey with mushroom gravy is so tasty. The staff are nice. Definitely a regular spot to go to. :))

I heard about this restaurant yesterday and really wanted to try it. Made the commute from Waianae today and was pumped to try their miso garlic chicken. We are currently waiting for our order that’s sitting on the counter not to mention that the girl taking our order is new I think. She needs more training or someone standing beside her for guidance. Our food is finally ready. Here goes nothing… first off, thanks for the praise for their miso garlic chicken it sucked. However the Teri pork was AMAZING! I would come back for that again but not for their chicken. Bleh

Usually we have no problems with the food here. It’s always pretty good. The problem my husband and I had this last visit there which was a few months ago was the service. First of all when we walked in we were the only customers yep. Well the person behind the counter was on the phone we walked up and smiled she looked at us and waved her finger telling us to wait. Well ok them proceded to talk in front of us on the phone. So we can hear everything and it was a personal call to a family member about random stuff. Very rude we stood there a few more minutes and walked out. She didn’t even bother to speak or try to see if she can help us. Horrible service

Local neighborhood plate lunch place.

Do not get the roast pork plate!!! They literally got sweet sour roast pork and put gravy on it! The sweet and sour sauce over powers the whole dish, then when I asked to change my order the dirty cashier said no and told me that she said it was like that, which she didn’t. Then I hear a guy Order after me and he asked about the roast pork and she goes «Ya its roast pork teriyaki style» if you told me that I would have said NO you dirty dumb broad! Go brush your hair you whack TROLL

I, along with my friends and family used to go here all the time (nearly every day of the week, sometimes multiple times a day) until the other day I was there with several friends, enjoying our lunch and speaking with the employees. While we were there, the owner storms around the corner with a clear attitude begins scolding the guy who was working the front counter for talking with us. We finished our lunch, went on about our day and met back up at Islanders a few hours later for a snack, this time with even more customers and this time there was a different female employee at the counter. After everyone placed their order and sat down to eat, the owner continuously came out and looked at us as if she was agitated by our presence in her business and she was ready for us to hurry up and leave. Needless to say, the nearly $ 300 a week that my family and I was dropping at Islanders for their mediocre food will be no longer, my family and I will not be returning and I’m sure my friends and their families will not be returning as well.

Nice little hole in the wall Hawaii stop. The garlic honey chicken was bomb and the katsu was just as good. Would of gotten 5 stars but the place is old and ugly. Sometimes that’s where the best food is served. Fast fresh and made to order. If your passing by stop and grab some food

Been craving chicken katsu curry. I was never a fan of any types of curry except for thai curry but my tastebuds has changed over the years and I instantly fell in love with chicken katsu curry when I had a taste of it. I use to hate Japanese curry or other types of curry (other than thai) only because I hated smelling that curry smell that made me nauseated. Anyway, I drove to the L&L drive inn in Waipio but I discovered that they closed down! Which broke my heart because I remember eating there every Sunday’s with my ex husband after church! And they use to give a lot and big portions at a good price. Also, the times we been there it’s been clean, and less people there when we are there. They also accepted cards which was really good since we didn’t carry cash. When I drove here today, they were shut down. So immediately I Unilocaled the closest L &L that I was going next which was either wahiawa or mililani since my job interview was in waihiwa. After briefly looking at Unilocal reviews, wahiawa seemed like the more place I would go since I was already in Waipio and I didn’t want to back track to Pearl city where I came from (shoulda checked the reviews before because seems like pearl city had more popular reviews). When I got to L&L wahiawa, thought it was closed since it looked like no one was in there. I had to drive around again to see if it was opened. When I got inside, there was only one lady inside eating. Place looked pretty clean. Also what made me less skeptical was that pass food safety sign on it. It made me more likely that I glad I choose this place because at mililani place I read such bad reviews with a fly inside that flew out from a plate and finding hair inside not one but two plate dishes! Yuck. I ordered the chicken katsu curry mini. I’m so glad I ordered the mini because it was huge like a regular plate that they gave. Plus if I ordered the regular I feel like you are only paying for an extra scoop of rice. It took about maybe ten minutes for them to have my food ready. Wait was perfect not to fast and not to slow which means I know that they are making mines fresh! When I got mines, chicken was hot and fresh. I really liked it, however I really like waianae’s L&L even tho that place seems more ghetto. I would always order the chicken katsu curry there and there’s are on point. I would of gave this place 5 stars but their curry sauce had other things in it like carrots and I think it was roast pork which I don’t eat pork anymore so I had to pick it out. The carrots I’ll do since it was thinly sliced and small. Also the curry needed more mixing as there was some blobs of the sauce not being mixed well enough. The curry sauce reminded me of Zippys curry where zippys curry has carrots and other veggies in it which for the first time I don’t like veggies in my sauces like that. I like mines plain and simple. Usually I like veggies but it just doesn’t mesh well with the chicken katsu sauce. Also, another con was how much curry sauce was on it. It was decent but it was also kinda dry. If they added maybe one more scoop of curry sauce on it, it would of been better. But overall taste wise it was pretty good. Not as good as waianae but pretty good. I would order here again since I came in a time when it wasn’t busy. Was there around 10am so I’m guessing I came before lunch hour. But I would come here again if I was craving L&L and if I’m in the area again.

Decent plate lunch fare. Loved the Honey Garlic Chicken. Thought the Pork Chops with Mushroom Gravy and the Garlic Shrimp were okay. I would have wished the fresh mushrooms that they added to the pork chops were cooked down instead of raw then I’m sure I would have liked it more. I would definitely go back for the Honey Garlic Chicken if I’m in the area.
Also maybe we were lucky but we had pretty good service even though she looked really tired. So no attitude when we called to ask where the place was, no attitude when ordering our food, no attitude when asking for the restroom key, & no attitude when purchasing a refill of our soda.

Love their Miso Garlic Chicken, Honey Garlic Chicken, and Pork Chop with Mushroom Gravy!!! Love their burgers too, but haven’t been eating much burgers. Normally, I order the burgers for my children. Oh… Their Sesame Chicken is also an awesome choice!

We like going here for lunch plates. Really like their pork chops with mushroom gravy and their chicken broccoli stir fry… not like Chinese type but a good option when on a diet.

been to this place a handful of times, if nothing on the daily special appeals to me I get the hamburger steak. had their roast turkey today, plus jumbo soda = $ 11. pretty good, the gravy had slices of fresh mushrooms, kinda wish they had stuffing and some cranberry sauce. I get there early, so only one lady working, sometimes it takes a while to order and get your food, the phone rang today and it seemed like the caller wanted the recipe for every special! please don’t be like that caller, thanks from «I ain’t getting any younger from standing in this line»
quality — 4 stars
quantity — 2.5 stars
price — $

I am a huge fan of Fried Chicken and very picky at that. I decided to try their three piece chicken plate, which came with two scoops of rice, mac salad and three nice sized portions of the chicken thighs. Took a bite of it and fell in love. The flavors were perfect and it wasn’t dry like some places have theirs.
I have yet to try other dishes but portion wise on most of their plates, are pretty decent. Customer service could be a little more friendlier, but all in all, so far so good.

The BBQ chicken and fried rice, mochiko chicken, and garlic miso chicken are winnahs!!!

I would really love to give this place more stars, but the customer service was very lackluster. I understand that I was dining in a shopping center, and I wasn’t expecting anything fancy but the attitude I got from the cashier almost made me walk out before paying. Apparently your order has to be at least $ 10.00 to use your card (my total was $ 9 and change), so I asked to upgrade my drink one size to get to $ 10.00. I guess that was a HUGE inconvience for a woman who didn’t have anyone behind me in line. After loudly telling the cooks she had to process the same order again because I couldn’t read the sign she completely ignored me the rest of the time I was there while being obviously friendly to the other few people in the restaurant.
I am glad I stayed — the honey chicken was really tasty. I’m just not sure I would want to talk to the sassy cashier again.

Local Food is awesome. Not always the healthy choice but you only live once. I’ve had just about everything here. The Mac-​salad is the best. Recommend asking for extra Mac-​salad. Bring cash because they don’t take credit cards. They have an ATM just outside at the bank. If you like pork eat the Lau-​Lau. The helping fills a 200+ pound man. Ask for extra rice if you’re of Asian persuasion :)

Plate lunches. Good laulau, honey garlic chicken, pork chop, etc. Small eatery in Wahiawa Town Ctr.

I normally go here for their mini Beef Stew. For some reason, it’s the taste that I really like but have to be in the mood for it.
Tonight I saw Fresh Corned Beef & Cabbage on the menu and decided to try it. Mistake… I swear that ¼−1/3 of the meat was fat. Granted fat makes it taste good but this much fat??? This may be strange but Zippy’s gives me a better bang for my buck with this dish. I would also have liked to see more solid parts of the cabbage but it was pretty much loose leaf.
I think I’ll stick with the Beef Stew…

Like my star rating, it was okay.
I was really hungry and I saw this place sitting there calling me in.
I popped my head in and saw no one. That can 2 ways. Either it’s really crappy or I just beat the rush.
I ordered a beef teriyaki plate. It came out really quick but for one reason. It was tasteless. It was dripping with sauce but I think they put the sauce on when I ordered it. What a bummers.
The garlic shrimp was pretty good and that’s why they get 3 stars. They give a good amount of shrimp but for the price, drive to North Shore. You’re half way there if you go to Wahiawa.
The prices are little steep for a drive inn.

Ehh. this place was ok, if you are starving & not in the mood for the other restaurants around it. I had already passed every other place to eat in Wahiawa so I decided to get some take-​out from here.
Islander has the regular plate lunch fare like bbq chicken, chicken katsu, hamburgers, mixed plates. you know the deal. I got the special of the day: grilled ahi with garlic & onions. My mom got the bbq short ribs & hubs got a bbq cheeseburger & fries.
The grilled ahi was pretty good – two ahi steaks covered in tons of sauteed onions & garlic, served with tartar sauce (weird?), 2 scoops of rice & mac salad. For $ 7.50, it wasn’t bad, but could have used a little more salt.
The short ribs fell short here. they were gummy, pretty fatty & also bland. They were stingy with the portion, too!
The bbq cheeseburger tasted well seasoned, and came with cheese, mayo, mustard & bbq sauce. The fries were soggy & also lacked salt.
All in all, I wouldn’t recommend the plate lunches here unless it’s purely for convenience. You can get way better bbq at L&L down the road, or even the famous Dong Yang.