Big City Diner – Waipio Gentry

A nice place to sit and relax to have a great dinner. Their father’s day special was awesome. Steak, shrimp and ribs was awesome. The soybean was the bomb. Small kind spicy for me but i could stop eating it. Paid the price after tho. My mouth burned for a while. Can’t wait to go back.

I’m not a total fan of their food, but My husband and I tend to come here on Wednesday nights because they have half off wine, and because it’s relatively close to where we live. We normally get their $ 10.99 weekly specials, depending on the week. I tend to always order their ahi poke special w/​greens instead of rice (0.99 more) along with my red wine (cab). My husband recently tried their $ 10.99 chicken pasta and was just «meh.» Of course, what can expect with a non-​Italian restaurant… Chicken was dry, noodles were overcooked, and pasta sauce was bland.
Thumbs up: After a couple dine ins here, I noticed that this restaurant have their managers constantly walking around asking their customers how their food is and will also help out their waiters/​waitresses serve (fill your water cup, bring your drinks, and etc.) – very rare you will see that.
*Sometimes they have live music out in the patio during the weekend at nights!

What to eat when you’re in Waipio?!? Lucky for me there were a few options in the little strip mall in Waipio. Having been to other locations of Big City Diner I thought that I would find something to satisfy my hunger and I was right. I normally get a salad but I checked out the extensive menu to see if something else caught my eye. They have breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner and happy hour! Honestly I was hungry and everything looked delicious!
My server was really nice and had a very friendly smile. The service was quick and my iced tea was refilled regularly, bonus!
I just ordered a salad with blue cheese dressing. The salad was good but I didn’t like the taste of their blue cheese dressing. I’ll try something different next time.
I sat in a booth by the window, I liked the view but I did not like the sink hole in the seat.
Big City Diner did not disappoint and I’m sure that I’ll go again!

Looking for a good diner? It’s here. The prices are a little on the higher end for a «diner» but the food is good. The portions are o.k. They also have a replica of the famous «macadamia nut pancakes» from Boots & Kimos in Kailua, which taste just about the same.
The one thing I really enjoyed, was their NACHOS. They’re great.
A little loud during the evening since it IS a bar as well.

Lots of free parking, wait to sit 7 people was short. The southwest three pepper chicken tortilla salad was the best salad i have ever eaten. I always enjoy the teri steak with garlic mash. I have never had a bad experience here.

The service was great! This location has outdoor and indoor seating.
I had the Kim Chee fried rice with kalbi. The kalbi was boneless and was SO good, and soft!
My dining partner said this location gives more rice and kalbi than the other locations. This was my first time so I can’t say for sure!
Get the kalbi, you won’t be disappointed! The fried rice wasn’t bad either, it was a lot of kim chee!

Came here for breakfast today. Actually, I’ve been here a few times before on different occasions.
Since I was here for breakfast, I had their 2 egg breakfast, scrambled with corned beef hash and hash browns. The eggs were cold, but the corned beef hash and hash browns were nice and hot. The corned beef hash was good. The portions are pretty good. I usually will eat their fried rice or kim chee fried rice since it’s super good, but wanted to try something else.
Service here is good and pretty fast.
I will say that the other selections in their lunch/​dinner menu are better, but their breakfast entrees are pretty good if you stick to what they’re known for.

I don’t eat here often and this last time they sat me right next to the line. Of course, I’m going to watch and observe what they do and what a big mistake that was! I noticed that the cooks all wore gloves but the servers they finish off the plates with the rice, garnishes etc and they wear no gloves at all. They also «clean» the plates so they have good presentation when they get to the table. Behind a short stainless steel partition they grab a regular blue sponge and wipe all the food that drips on the edges of the plates and/​or bowls. Now, idk what this sponge is in to «clean» itself but it is touched by every server that grabs it and yes, it does touch the food on the plates that people will be eating. I find this disgusting and will probably not eat here again!

There aren’t too many options in Waipio, especially when you’re cranky and hungry on a weekday during rush hour traffic. Then we remembered about Big City Diner! The wait for a Thursday around 6:30 was 20 minutes, which wasn’t bad since there was a already a crowd outside waiting for their tables.
The hostess was nice, she sat us outside at a booth (as we requested) and informed us of the specials while we waited for the server. Our server, Taylor brought out water as she greeted us. Since we had already studied the menu, she took our order right away.
–The Big Burger ($ 14.99): no kidding, it’s big! The patty came dressed with bacon, lettuce, tomato, raw onions, melted cheddar and avocado on the side. You definitely need two hands and extra napkins.
–Garlic Fries: skin on, potato wedge fries normally come with the burger, but you can substitute garlic for an additional $ 0.99 (so worth it!) I’m pretty much obsessed with everything garlic and these are delicious!
–Guava Baby Back Ribs ($ 24.99): «BIG SLAB» of course, for the hungry human who always starts eating as soon as the plate hits the table (.his food never gets photographed.) Great guava flavored BBQ sauce, tender, fall off the bone pork with your choice or white or brown rice.
FYI:
–Wine Wednesday’s 50% off
A little on the pricier side for a diner, but great service from Taylor and food was delish! Each time I’ve eaten at any of the Big City Diner locations, I am never disappointed. They’re almost always busy, but you can never go wrong with the amount of options the menu provides.

Coming to Big City on a Friday night as a tourist is a lot of waiting, but worth it. Their kimchee fried rice is the best of all the dishes I tried here. The service is slow but I understand it’s hard working for the public.
I highly recommend their Uncle Danny’s Kimchee fried rice. It’s a big portion but it’s good for any day.

Late night dining option
We were looking for a place to eat after Easter service on Saturday night. We really didn’t want to eat in town as we wanted to be somewhere closer to home. I naturally turned to Unilocal for places on our way home.
We ended up at Big City Diner in Waipio. When we got to the parking lot I thought the wait was going to be a long one because we saw a big group of people standing outside of the entrance. After we parked, we noticed they were walking to their cars as they just finished dining. Thank goodness! My stomach was craving food so badly. The inside dining room was really busy for after 8pm but we were quickly seated. It doesn’t help that they have tv monitors around the dining room. I think it’s a bad idea because it distracts from having great conversation with your dinner party. BUT this night was a little different as they were showing the UH men’s volleyball against UC Irvine and the game was really close.
Getting back to the food… we both haven’t been to a Big City Diner in a while and the menu was pretty extensive. Not as extensive as Cheesecake Factory but it could give them a run for their money. I was still easing myself back on foods so I had a Pan Seared Salmon Salad and my husband had the big chili bowl. The server was extremely friendly but I’m not sure if she told us her name. She probably did but my thought went straight to food.
Our food came out rather quickly for it being busy. The Salmon didn’t have that much taste but I guess it was good for my stomach. I drenched it with lemon juice from the provided lemon wedge on my plate. The chili bowl was bigger than I expected. Surprisingly my husband couldn’t finish it. Another good thing… self-​portion control. The salad was good but I wanted more food. Going against my stomach I held my ground and stuck to only eating my salmon salad. Although, the table across from us had delicious french toast with coconut syrup. I had no idea they served breakfast all-​day. I do plan to go back and order breakfast for dinner one night in the future.
The manager on duty stopped by each table and asked how their food was and the service experience. Really glad when they do this. This really shows they care about their customers and we are not just a number to them. Great job!
This was an easy dinner, quick and simple. We had our conversations and was held up with the game but left after the result of set 3 (UH won that set).

Staff always so friendly came here on a whim to enjoy my boyfriends company on a cold Sunday night, we always enjoy the friendliness of the staff. Love thank can see where they prepare the food although there is a lot of noise coming from that part of the restaurant. Ordered the meatloaf which was paired perfectly with a bed of spinach and our server was upbeat and very quick in service which was perfect because we came here at like eight on so I was really tired from the day. One of my favorite places to come when it’s a casual outing with my boyfriend!

I live near this establishment so I came here quite a few times, much to my dismay. I refuse to eat here already! Each time I dine here I try to get something different in hopes that it will taste good, but it doesn’t. Also their strawberry milkshake? Vanilla ice cream with a mysterious red liquid add-​in that tasted like cough syrup. I’m also pretty sure my mother-​in-​law got food poisoning here…

If you want good local food and you are tired of Zippy’s I usually go here. They have a good assortment of food to fill any belly. I decided to get the poke, mushroom pork chop, and for desert the oreo sundae. Poke was ok… I needed to add shoyu… I tasted better from Foodland. However the pork chop was awesome. I loved the gravy as I wished they served it with their loco moco or meatloaf. The oreo sundae was also very good as it was made with Bubbie’s vanilla ice cream… I wished they used more chocolate syrup.

I tried this location for the first time tonight after a long, long day at Pro Bowl. We were so over everything and just wanted something quick and tasty.
This place definitely hit the spot. For starters, the customer service here (and at their location near Ward Theater for that matter) was awesome. We were greeted promptly and seated after about five minutes. Staff didn’t mind accommodating our stroller — always a big plus for me.
I had a chicken sandwich and hubs had the Big burger. Both were cooked well and were tasty. My chicken was a really good, lean cut.
I’ll also note that Big City Diner has a pretty extensive salad menu.
Overall… I’d go back!

This not exactly NYC diner but a very delicious local Hawaiian diner. The menu is pretty expansive like any diner from burgers, wings, Korean bbq, poke and more. I’ve been here twice and have enjoyed it each time. It’s not a fancy place nor is it a whole in a wall… just a nice casual not overly expensive good food.

I came here for breakfast and had a mushroom, cheese and Portuguese sausage omelette with hash browns. It was really yummy, but the omelette looked kinda weird. They just cooked the toppings together and then put the egg on top. Usually the toppings are inside the egg. Its okay because it tasted good!
They have 6 different weekly specials and this week was #4 — grilled pork chop with eggs, rice and a portobello mushroom gravy. This is what my dad ordered. His pork chop was really small and it was a bit disappointing since its their weekly special.
They seemed to be a bit short staffed, so the wait was longer than usual. Overall, it was great! :)

Big City Diner satisfied our hunger!
We happened to stop here on a whim since we were hungry. They greeted and seated us immediately. Our service was good! She was very attentive and friendly. The dining area is large with patio seating as well.
I decided to try their Boneless Korean Kalbi Steak. It’s marinated in a Korean style sauce served with rice. Loved every bite! Tender with the flavor bursting! I’d absolutely order this again.
It was a good lunch for this visitor. Thanks BCD!

The service we experienced was great and the food was a quality you would expect and those are the only two reasons why they got a second star.
So what is so wrong with this location that great service and normal food netted them a measly two star review?
Cleanliness. .. this location is outright DISGUSTING, the floors aren’t even white anymore and initially I thought this might just be because of the recent storms but my mother says that it has been like that for a while.
The air intake vents in the ceiling are BLACK and just COVERED in dirt and grime, and these are over the areas that people eat in.
They have an open kitchen that you can see into and the ceiling in the kitchen is pure brown in places, the Coke decal above the grills is BLACK with god knows what, this is where they PREPARE your FOOD.
The carpet is gross, stained, dirty and I will not be returning to this location anytime soon despite the amazing service we received.
Very disappointed to be closing the doors on a restaurant I was once happy to eat at, if I wanted those levels of clean I would have eaten in some back alley restaurant down town instead of someplace with a known name like Big City Diner.

Kim Chee Fried Rice! Enough said.
I ordered their Kim Chee Fried Rice the first time I went to Big City Dinner. It was SO amazing that it has prevented me from ordering anything else off the menu. It’s a perfect blend of flavors and the kim chee adds the right amount of heat.
Always clean with a friendly staff, Big City Diner is a great place to go for lunch or dinner for good food. Like I said, I am the Kim Chee fried rice girl, but my family really loves their Guava BBQ Ribs.

We made our way to Waipio to meet friends of my friend who lived in this area. Big City Diner at Waipio is one of five locations on the Island. The diner resembles many diner-​type restaurant on the mainland. But what’s different at Big City is that the menu consists of not only traditional American fare, but American dishes with an Asian twist as well as some Asian and Hawaiian dishes. (
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Checking out the menu, several of us gravitated to the Weekly Specials which were 1) Thai Shrimp Cold Noodle Salad w/​Fresh Mint & Cilantro, 2) Oven-​baked Lasagna w/​Roasted Garlic Toast and 3) Crispy ½ Chicken w/​Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce.
I opted for the Crispy ½ Chicken w/​Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce and choice of potatoes. Thinking it was more of a couple pieces of fried chicken, I was surprised that when my order arrived, it was actually half a good-​sized chicken with a large scoop of garlic mashed potatoes. The chicken appears to be baked, then lightly floured and quickly fried to finish. The skin had a nice crisp to it, yet not oily and the chicken was very moist. The mashed potatoes were just ok and wished they were more smooth and creamy. (
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Our waitress was friendly and service was efficient. As with most diners, there are dishes that outshines others. I would say my crispy chicken was pretty good, but would like to try more items to have a better overall opinion of the food.