Pagoda Floating Restaurant

*2.5 star rating*
I was really craving a buffet and Japanese food, but did not want to pay a hefty price tag for it. That pretty much limits my options, but after some Unilocal research I decided that I would give Pagoda a try because they accept ID cards (10% off Friday — Sunday, 15% off Monday — Thursday), were affordable, and their online menu intrigued me!
Walked in at around 5pm and they were pretty much empty (whaaat? I hadn’t eaten all day hence my craving for a buffet!), so we were able to get a table by the window. Score! Their buffet comes with your choice of a soft drink, ice tea, coffee, or hot tea, so while our server got our drinks I set out for my first plate of food. If you’ve read my other reviews on buffets you know I like to think of myself as a buffet expert. If this is your first time reading a buffet review from me let me share my insider tips: start with the salad/​raw bar (and a plate of crab legs), only take very minimal amounts of each dish, don’t overload on carbs (that’s what they’re banking on to get you full!), most of the time the main entrees will be mediocre at best so focus on the other options (like tempura!), eat the most expensive items (crab legs, prime rib, sashimi, poke, etc.), if you don’t like something you took a bite of don’t think you have to finish it because you don’t want it to seem like you’re wasting (plus you’re not wasting if you took my advice and only put a small portion on your plate), once you’ve tasted the dishes you like go back again and get another plate of all those things, and finally, finish with dessert and that one main dish you absolutely loved (I’m telling you, it’s the best last bite you’ll ever have). Now that I’ve enlightened you (lol) let me get back to the food…
They have about 7 different «stations.» The salad station had Chinese chicken salad, regular greens, mac salad, and then a few banchan items. The raw station had different types of poke, shrimp cocktail, miso soup, and somen salad. The hot entrees station had bbq chicken, Chinese style fish, miso salmon, white rice, fried rice, and fried noodles. Then there was a table with assorted tempura, hand rolls made-​to-​order (spicy ahi or cali roll), and then prime rib and snow crab legs. And then finally, the dessert station had assorted pies, cakes, fruit, and then a self serve ice cream bar with all the fixings.
Although this could be every persons dream (all of this for under $ 40/​each?!?) the taste of most of the dishes lacked seasoning and the crab legs (one of the most important dishes in a buffet, I think) seemed waterlogged and tasted old. Did I still go back 5x though… heck yah I did. My last bites? Shrimp tempura and my soft serve ice cream. But next time I get my Japanese buffet craving I think I’ll pay the extra money for quality, not quantity.

Came to celebrate a birthday dinner. Was seated right infont of the buffet line which was air conditioned. While grabbing our dinner I overheard someone else say that it was hot sitting outside so I am glad our large party got to sit indoors with the AC. Buffet really improved from my last experience. Hot snow crab legs along with sushi bar and fresh tempura was amazing. Ice cream came out melted which sucked since we were hoping to eat a Sunday instead of slurping it. Parking is $ 2

Giving 1 star is being too generous. My family and I went for dinner on a Tuesday night. The selection of food was minimal. They all looked like they have been sitting out since lunch and were dried up. The restaurant «floating» on a koi pond made the restaurant smell, and not of food. It took two different servers before my son was able to get his juice. The only edible food items were the steam rice, the steam fish, and the pineapple. Not worth your money.

Went there for lunch. Not bad compared to the buffets on Waikiki beach. Actually they have more Asian entrées. Hope they can serve pineapple for fruits section.

Went to the Pagoda to celebrate my 50^th birthday! Loved the crablegs! Everything else was alright but I think I’d rather buy my own crab legs and cook it at home. Very dissappointed that they didn’t have local discount.

This review is for breakfast.
Went all over in search for a breakfast spot with some friends during the holiday season, and settled for Pagoda.
We were seated immediately to a clean and neat dining room. The receptionist informed us the brunch buffet would be another 30 minutes; we declined and ordered off the menu.
I ordered the peanut butter french toast ($ 8.45), and added a side order poached egg with corned beef hash ($ 3.55).
I was disappointed because it was literally french toast with a thin coating of peanut butter and banana sliced very, very thinly between and on the french toast. Disappointed again because they only had maple syrup. I thought every big hotel in Hawaii carried coconut and berry syrup.
My poached egg reeked of vinegar and sitting in water. It lacked salt and was served in a dime-​a-​dozen plastic fruit cup. Shortly after, our server brought over 2 slices of bacon. She mentioned they were out of corned beef hash, so she brought 2 slices of bacon. Can’t blame her for not knowing, but I DON’T EAT BACON. The kitchen was out of kalua pork. I opted for ham; like the french toast, it was nothing special.
My friend ordered an omelette and asked for no mushrooms. As she was eating her omelette, we could see mushrooms galore. Seeing that I flipped out with my bacon incident, she didn’t want to give them the impression we were «difficult», so she scooped the mushrooms out and gave it to us to eat.
My other friend ordered prime rib with Eggs Benedict ($ 14.95?). This was the ultimate winner. This is the reason why I didn’t give this place a One-​Star rating. If I ever decide to come here for breakfast, I’m ordering this.

12/​22/​2015 Dinner Buffet:
Parking is $ 2 for 2 hours, we parked on the lower deck/​ground level however, our friend still had to pay for parking on upper level (Exact cash only).
Buffet Food:
–I really like the baked salmon fillet, it was moist! I took about 3 in. long! and came back for seconds! :)
–Beef roast fillets are great! Its medium well, slight pink, about half in. thick and they’re on a sauce.
–The fried rice was a bit soggy could have been better should have been «fried» more.
–Teri chicken tasted good but, was falling apart when you try to get some onto your plate.
–Fried noodles was okay, wasn’t oily though.

Mediocre buffet, not bad really, but can’t complain with a place that’s been around for 30yrs. There’s far better places and it has the same nice atmosphere and good for a more inexpensive family dinner.

This is hard to give a 1 star. This was our worst meal in 3 days in Honolulu and it was what I consider way over priced for what they had on the buffet. I had two youth adults 22 and 17 with my wife and I who said it was kinda neat but food was bad. PrimeRib was cold noodles were still crunchy and also Luke warm at best. We left still quite hungry look for food too eat even deserts didn’t look appetizing. They also were not a $$ as bill more like $$$+.
There was nothing to eat on the buffet looking like any of the pictures except for ones of the Koi. Things looked dirty and in kept most things didn’t look inviting for consumption.

Very cool concept. Fishes are everywhere and such a variety of them. You can buy fish food for .50 cents. The food was also good.

I was really looking forward to a new experience at the Pagoda, especially for breakfast. I’m a sucker for meat hash, and lately I feel like I’ve been taken for a sucker. So, anyway, the upper deck parking in the structure next to the restaurant is still free for patrons. There is also quite a bit of street parking available. The place is pretty much the way that I last remembered it. The koi are still pretty, and entertaining. They are expanding the walkway around the main restaurant, especially toward the waterfall for wedding parties.
Service is island friendly. I took a look at the breakfast buffet on a week day. Disappointing, actually. It’s about what I expect from a hotel that provides a warm breakfast. On to the menu. I ordered the kalua pig hash with 2 eggs over easy, and paniolo potatoes. My wife ordered the veggie benedict with hash browns. The kalua pig was pretty good, mixed into hash browns. I would have pictured it otherwise, but it worked. For $ 10, I would have expected a bit more generosity. The eggs were done perfectly, the potatoes were well executed, and tasty. My wife’s dish was just okay.
Solid 3 on the food. Several good ideas on the menu. Worth a try? Well, maybe. If you’re a sucker for hash then yeah.

We decided to go to Pagoda as a flash from the past. It had been many years, but we had good memories from many family events there, and so over the objections of our daughter, we decided to give it a try.
Big mistake! The service was fine and most of the staff were pleasant and helpful. The exception was the sushi «chef» who was grumpy and seemed put out just to make a little hand roll of not-​so-​spicy spicy ahi. The food was dreadful. The macaroni salad was room temperature, so we didn’t want to risk it. The roasted potatoes were devoid of taste and had an almost unrecognizable texture. And most of the entrees were tasteless at best.
All in all, it still might have proven to be an entertaining walk down memory lane, until we got the bill. At $ 40 per person the joke was definitely on us. If you’re feeling nostalgic, save your money and take out your old family photos.

The weekday buffet offerings leaves a lot to be desired as compared to their weekend offerings. Lots of seafood choices, but no beef or pork. What was there was tasty, tho.

I haven’t been to the Pagoda in over 15 years but I do remember liking it. Well, things have changed.
I had a work function and it was decided that we would go there for their lunch buffet. We were seated in the area where the food is and there wasn’t any air conditioning. This is hurricane season in Hawaii and temperatures are at record highs so can you imagine how hot it was in there.
Although the AC was working on the other side so at least the other patrons were comfortable.
I’m on a diet and decided that this would be my cheat day there was nothing on the buffet that was worth cheating I tasted a little bit of just about everything and it was mediocre at best although I must say this service was good. Bottom line, not worth the time or money.

I haven’t been here in a while so decided to come and have breakfast. First thing we walk in and see Jon the original owner of Eagle Café. He manage the restaurant and has done a great job. Redid the menu and added a breakfast (12.95)and a lunch (16.95) buffet! The food was good definitely be back again!

I was excited to read that the Pagoda had brought back a new $ 12.95 Breakfast Buffet with popular favorites from 6:30 to 9:00am. I remember their old early breakfast buffet, having a few salad items, fresh fruit, eggs, breakfast meats, rice, fish, everything for a loco Moco, Miso soup, juices & coffee for around the same price. Times have changed and the new Breakfast Buffet is very limited in Menu selection. But with coffee included and perhaps the best tasting fried rice with absolutely just rice and a few chopped onions in it and perfectly cooked bacon & Portuguese sausage, it was worth it!

couple sundays ago, was hungry so i look on Unilocal for where is good breakfast. egg’s and things (too busy), prince buffet (denied), aha! pagoda. it is sorta ghetto in the way how theres 70’s retro furniture and only metered parking or parking in the complex @ Ross, but it is a good tasting buffet and the atmosphere is great.
there is an omelette chef, waffles, french toast, portugese sausage, salad bar, poke, lau lau, kalua pig, desert island, and many other island flavors to name a few. there is a koi pond underneath the restaurant and in between your meal, u can either go feed the fish with pellets for sale or take picture next to the waterfall.
on our most recent visit, a white pidgen had gotten stuck inside the room with the guests. and we were all like ‘oh no’ because it was flapping right over everybody who was dining’s head and banging against the windowsill trying to get out. then one of the servers use a chair to keep the door open and funnels the bird out. then everybody start cheering and clapping yaaaay! it was a moment i won’t forget. 5 stars for pagoda and aloooha!

I personally love Pagoda. I’ve been coming here all the time with my family ever since I was a little girl & years of coming here, means I got all the lessons needed to know how to open/​crack crab legs without any of the crackers they give you. (whoop whoop!)
We came here last Saturday for my grandma’s birthday. She loves coming here for the prime rib and crab legs, so we’ve kinda made it a tradition where I would bring her here for her birthday. This year was different though… with things that came up, she hasn’t had much time to see the whole family cause she’s always tending to my brother who got into an accident, so I decided to invite the family to accompany us to celebrate her birthday as a surprise. Making reservations for a party of 41 of us wasn’t so bad. Tried to do it online, but noticed that I could only reserve for up to 20 people so I figured that I’d just call them, which I did on Monday. I figure that I call early so their reservations don’t fill up. I called them on Monday, which I didn’t know they were closed and ended up waiting til the next morning to do so & they took it down.
Finally, Saturday comes and we were seated right next to the buffet line which could be a good and bad thing. Good cause we’re RIGHT there & I like the fact that we were able to see when they brought out a new batch of crab legs, and bad cause of course… everyone else in the restaurant gets a chance to see you with your mouth full. But the buffet line has a variety of poke, sea food, asian food, a sushi bar where its made when you order it, prime rib and CRAB LEGS! *DROOL*
The two guys that were our waiters were very attentive by always refilling our drinks, and taking away our plates. One of the guys has been working there forever and he always takes care! I can never remember his name, but he seems to always be working whenever we go there. If I’m ever craving for tons of crab legs, this will be the first place I’d think of. The only thing that bummed me out was the fact that they didn’t have their ice cream anymore! I always looked forward to eating some ice cream with sprinkles after my dinner… they need to bring that back!

This is a buffet style restaurant. Excellent food choices… Food was outstanding! They have really good fresh fried tempura veggies, shrimp, and many other assorted meats. They have great prime rib, crab legs and salmon along with other good food variety. I went for Sunday brunch with my small family. It was pricey but well worth the experience. The staff was attentive and afterwards feeding the koi fish along with other crazy fish was very fun and entertaining. Take the kids and have fun at this «floating» restaurant. Beautiful walk through the patio/​pond. This was a first time visit, but it will not be the last.
* Sunday Brunch Buffet 10:00 AM– 2:00 PM
* Adults: $ 35.95, Children (5 – 8 years): $ 17.95
* Prices for buffet is pricey, but if you enjoy their ala carte menu — then you’ll enjoy your time here.

We visited Pagoda for lunch on Thanksgiving. I’m all about AYCE places, and when you add crab legs to that, I’m in heaven. Because it was Thanksgiving, it was a bit more expensive than the normal buffet, but they had some Thanksgiving items added to the spread. We were promptly seated, and encouraged to dig in, and our server brought us water for when we returned.
There was prime rib and an omelet station, ono poke and sashimi, but for me, it’s all about the crab. When crab is cooked right, and not overdone, I go into crab-​ninja mode – pulling out all the meat with no problems. That is exactly what happened, so I ninja’d all that crab and had a second round of crab. (so thankful I don’t get gout)
What’s really cool about Pagoda is that it’s a «floating» restaurant. After your meal, take the time to walk around and feed the fish. It’s a very serene setting when 6 year olds aren’t running around screaming about the «huge fish». Luckily for me, there were no screaming kids, so we had a beautiful walk around the koi pond and fed the massive ulua.