Haili’s Backyard Luau

My first meal in hawaii. Succulent kalua pork. Amazing poke fish & sauce. Creamy coconut dessert to top it off. It was so good, we ordered a second kalua pork dish, and drenched the rice in poke sauce. Aloha & Mahalo!

Awesome Big Kahuna Plate!!! Only $ 12 and get Kalua Pig, laulau, chicken long rice (awesome!), limit salmon, shoyu poke, haupia, and rice. More than enough for a lunch for two – unless you’re really hungery. Would have been five stars except the poke was a bit sweeter than I like. Always great and don’t forget the orange passionfruit drink!

Today was my 3^rd time visiting this lunch wagon, and their food is just so addicting. Even though the tables and chairs outside are close to a busy street, it’s still really nice enjoying a delicious meal under some palm trees and listening to some background Hawaiian music. The last time, I ordered their pork adobo stew special. It was different from the pork adobo I’ve had in the past, but it was still really delicious and tasted home made. Only negative is it was pretty greasy. Today, I ordered the laulau and chicken long rice special. It was delicious, and I pretty much devoured it all. The pork in the laulau was a tad bit dry, but I still really enjoyed it. If I were to rate this place on the chicken long rice and squid luau alone. I’d give it 5 stars! I’m looking forward to trying the mango haupia, pasteles, and pipikaula! If those are just as tasty as what I’ve tried, then I’m bumping this rating up.

All the Hawaiian staples are on the menu. I had a kalua pig plate which was good (although better can be had elsewhere). All in all pretty good for a lunch wagon (fair prices). So if you are in the Ward area and want some Hawaiian food, Haili’s lunch wagon will take care of your cravings.

So, clearly, last time I went on a good day. Today was eh. I got the reputably great pipikaula and a bowl of poi. The price was reasonable enough, but…
1. The pipikaula was really greasy and tasted just OK.
2. My poi had «solids» in it – congealed stuff that I had to spit out into a napkin. Consuming it was not a pleasant experience. And I’m not talking about just one piece of congealed stuff that snuck its way in, either. Gross.
I am guessing, based on my first visit a couple of weeks ago, that the level of quality varies from visit to visit. It’s really too bad I had to mark them down so much, but the condition of my poi was pretty offensive.

Food was a-​ok as the three stars reflect. Maybe it’s because I’m not the biggest fan of Hawaiian food as I’m not into lomi or poke. However, I’ve had better kalua pork and chicken long rice elsewhere. Good deal though for the price for the amount of food you get.

OMG. $ 10 for the Hawaiian Combination Plate hit the spot. Laulau, kalua pork, lomi salmon, haupia, chicken long rice. I originally wanted chicken laulau but they were out so I got pork— all was good!
At first I was intimidated by the outdoor seating and food out of the truck concept but I was wrong. The price was nice and so was the staff.

Food’s pretty good. You can’t go wrong with any of the choices. One of the few places that has opihi. Their poke (all versions) delicious.
THE reason for going there: pipikaula. Over ten bucks a pound, but my family goes crazy over it.
Even had it in Las Vegas at a Hakalau reunion last month; someone brought a couple of slabs for pupu. Was strange to see, especially since Hawaii people love to bring back mainland jerky.
Hmm, mo cost effective if you buy Haili pipikaula than to buy da tough mainland jerky. Just buy a whole slab — around two pounds.
Tasty and tender; so ono and soft.

I remember days when this place sold good Hawaiian food. I went there recently and OMG! Have these people forgot how to cook? Did they fire the real cook?

Decent Hawaiian food. Easy to get there considering location, but I think you can get better Hawaiian food elsewhere.
You can order from the counter and get stuff by the pound or get a plate lunch.
The pork laulau was pretty good. Pretty good size and plenty of luau leaf. No butterfish though.
Not sure if this is how they serve poi normally or if it just depends on what they have available, but the one here was slightly sour and bubbly. Personal preference, but I prefer poi when it is sweeter and fresher. Still pretty good and not too watery.
Kalua pig was good. Nice and smoky flavor.
Lomi salmon was pretty good and not too salty.
Haupia — meh. But I’m not a haupia fan.

Great Hawaiian food caterers — buffet style. Delivery was on time and the food was good and affordable.

Sort of a plate lunch kind of place, but also with lots of Hawaiian style deli offerings sold by weight.
Sanitary conditions seemed a bit questionable, but that didn’t stop us from buying up a storm. For the crappy United flight back to the mainland, we stocked up on spam musubi, boxed rice plates with egg and sausages/​spam, and lots of poke. The sheer number of types of poke sold was amazing! The spicy tuna poke was easily the best I’ve had.
There is a minimum $ 10 purchase if using a credit card, and while there are a couple of tables out front, this is mostly a to-​go type of place.

Oh yeah, dis place is da BOMB! It usually is a tough decision between going to Ala Moana or Haili’s for my Hawaiian food mix – Haili’s does a great job, offers good sized portions, and you can get some opihi, aku poke or dried aku all in one place!
Don’t forget to get some shave ice too (unless you ate some some haupia – you’ll be full already).

Bf and I stopped by Haili’s yesterday for a quick snack before the swap meet. I needed a Hawaiian food fix.
You can get Hawaiian plate lunch here, poke, opihi, dried aku and some other fish, butterfish laulau, haupia (there was no mango haupia when I went, but I think there was kulolo).
My favorite think about Haili’s is the kukui limu ahi poke with extra kukui. You can’t get that anywhere. The ahi wasn’t particularly fresh today. But it was tender and hit the spot.
We also got squid luau. I love coconut milk, but there was a bit much in this dish. But the squid was soft.
Farmer’s Market is totally infested with flies. But its a fish market. In Hawai’i. Srsly, what do you expect?
Bf and I ate at the small table area outside. More flies and tack on some dirty pigeons. Ah, paradise.
Back in the day I used to get poke here and drive to the sea wall on the other side of Ala Moana Blvd and chow on the beach.

I got my ahi poke! I got my tako poke! I got my lau lau!
There’s no way to write that out without it looking strange, is there. Oh well, I don’t care — I got my poke! I got my lau lau!
½ pound of ahi poke with limu. ½ pound ahi poke with green onions, sesame seeds, and sea salt. ¼ pound of tako poke. 1 lau lau.
Total = 1 happy local/​not so local anymore girl enjoying some of the best things about home.

I nearly ate a FLY that was in my kalua pig.
Boy, I bet that got your attention, huh?
In fact, I probably did ingest some fly jus, as it was sitting at the bottom of a mound of pork that had been sitting in a warmer all day. What was especially appalling about the situation was that I didn’t find the fly until I was almost done with my Hawaiian plate.
Equally appalling was that the staff, when I called to inform them of the fly, did not seem too bothered by it. Granted, I should have expected that with the copious amount of flies buzzing about the Ward Farmer’s Market, at least one of them would drop dead in the hot pan, but I tend to look on the positive side.
One star for their lack of empathy over my traumatic finding.

Every time I visit Hawaii I have to stop by Haili’s. It’s in the Ward Farmers Market next to Marukai. They’ve got 10 different kinds of poke, I prefer the regular poke with onions, the limu poke is not for me but there are a lot of people who like it.
The lau lau is always fresh and the pork inside is tender with bits of glistening pork fat surrounding it. I wish they would have bigger pieces of butterfish but mmmm… good stuff! They also have fresh pastele (like Mexican tamale) wrapped in banana leaves with pork, garlic, onions, tomato sauce, black olives, cilantro and grated green bananas.
I love haupia and the first time I went to Haili’s a few years ago they were the only place that had mango haupia! When I went back they said that they stopped making it. Booo…
I usually stop by and grab a tub of poke before getting on a plane back to the Bay Area.
*just read B. Kaye W.‘s review*
What?! They have mango haupia again? Thanks for letting me know… I’m soooo there! I need to get my mango haupia fix next time I’m in Hawaii…