Koolau Drive Inn

Terrible service. I ordered my food at 10:17, 3 breakfast plates which consisted of Portuguese sausage, eggs, rice & toast. Not a complicated order. I didn’t get my order until 10:52! And when I received my order they gave me French fries instead of rice… How could you screw up an order that simple?! I then told the cashier if you folks plan on taking long on orders you should have some common courtesy and alert your customers on the wait time. The cashier then rolled his eyes at me and didn’t say a single word! My advice next time is walk down to Times Coffee Shop. They’re worth the wait and have great food and service! I would never give this spot any business ever again!

Pretty nice place. There are a lot of different food options at great prices! People who own the place are really nice and made sure our needs were met! I’d recommend this place if you want a quaity meal at a good price.

Food is delicious! The garlic shrimp is a must try! I came out here with my friends and it was really easy to find parking. I Ordered the bbq short ribs and the garlic shrimp and it came out relatively fast! The quality of the food was great especially considering how cheap it was!

I ordered the hamburger steak plate. First time I had that in years. My food smelled like wet dirty dish towel and my hamburgers were raw in the center all the patties not just one. I called them cause I was home and Talked to the young man. He told me if I didn’t wanna come tonight to just let him know and he take care my plate. Well I called and talked to the older man which I’m assuming is his Dad and he basically called me a liar when I told him what happened and I told him I had pictures and he wanted to see it. Well I show him and I still walk away plate less. Oh well. Guess I won’t be going back for a while.

Love this little hole in the wall place. Nothing spectacular about the food. But a great place for quick eats. I do like the ramen plates and that I can order breakfast at night. Basic local plates and the take out is always busy.

This is not a place if you’re looking for nice ambiance. However the food is pretty moderately priced and tastes great.
This is a great place to buy a pan of food if you need to bring something for a party. My favorite is their pan of mochiko chicken. Really a great value for what you’re getting and the chicken is quite yummy.
Even their cheeseburger and fries are a great deal. It’s hard to find a homemade burger for under $ 3.00 and they give so much for their small fries that it’s hard to finish.
I always order take out and have never been disappointed!

Delicious Gyoza Ramen. My friend ordered orange chicken. It was ok. Tasted more like sweet and sour than orange chicken though. She loved the macaroni salad. The guy at the counter was really nice. Bathroom was a little freaky, but pretty clean. Overall nice experience.

We used to always go there, not as much now a days. Seems like they’ve lowered their standards. Just order French fries and I thought it was burnt, I now I think they re fried the old batch. Totally inedible !!! McDonald’s would never do that ! They also keep changing their products. Their fried noodle are never the same, skinny noodles, fat noodles. etc disappointed…

Wait, why does this place have so few stars? We loved this place! We got the kalua pork and lau lau combo and it was so good! We got a spam musubi too which was delicious.
Parking was easy and service was super friendly. We waited 10 – 15 minutes for food.
Great place for a quick lunch or dinner!

If you like mochiko chicken, this place has the best! We always call our order in and it’s ready in less than 15 minutes. The staff is not overly friendly but they get the job done. We’ve never encountered a problem with the food. The restaurant itself is outdated and doesn’t look the cleanest but since we always order take out it’s not that big of a deal. The prices are kind of high but for the amount of food you get, it’s reasonable. The regular size plate can feed 2 people easily. A regular and a mini plate cost $ 15.

Well My boyfriend and i went to a movie at the nearby theater and had about 30 min to grab a bite to eat. We didnt want subway or McDonalds and this looked like a good alternative. But it wasnt. I would have been much happier with one of those than i was here. The restaurant is in a pretty decent shopping center and looks somewhat clean. We looked at the menu posted in the window and they have a pretty wide range of stuff to choose from for a decent price. When we went in, we didnt have to wait in line and the young man who took our order was nice although he didnt say much. after placing our order we didnt have any trouble finding a clean place to sit so thats a plus. BUT after i gave him my card to swipe for our order i was looking around. and noticed the back kitchen area was absolutely disgusting .up towards the counter wasnt so bad but in the back where they store and prep your food was nasty. something that looked like the horror scenes from Gordon Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares show. I was really hungry but after seeing THAT my stomach was in knots and i was a little hesitant to even eat my food. I really wanted to be like hey after seeing your kitchen id just like a refund but Im not that kind of person so instead i just waited for my food; hoping for the best. As i sat there I looked around to see if i could find there heath inspection grade. iv seen them posted in the windows or front of many other restaurants. this one didnt have one.anywhere.And i can see why. Its probably not a good one if they even have one at all. But ok ok .your not here to read a novel so i’ll get to the food itself. It was ok. My boyfriend was satisfied with his meal (i think it was just beef, rice and mac salad) I ordered the chicken vegetable stir fry and it was a very good portion for the price but it wasn’t that good. the chicken had a slimy funky texture and i was scared to eat it. I only ate a few pieces of it and it was just «off».The sauce on the noodles was flavorful but it wasnt anything spectacular. Honestly though after seeing the kitchen both my boyfriend and i were pretty grossed out and i didnt eat much of my plate at all. i ended up throwing it away after just a few bites. Id rather be Hungary than eat that. So even though my food was priced right and the customer service was ok. i will not be coming back again. I just cant get over the funky chicken and nasty kitchen.

We always eat here and yes you have to know what to get. One of our favorites is the Mochiko chicken my son gets it every time. The crispy noodle with chicken is good or the the stir fried noodles with chicken. Most of the stuff is good I have had some plates I didn’t like but for the most part its good. Its not the fancy restaurant and they are trying to be. It’s one of the hole in the wall restraints that the people who live in the area like or love…

Koolau Drive Inn epitomizes classic Hawaiian drive-​in style with their local cuisine. This little bbq joint fits in well at the Valley of the Temples Strip Mall. I always go for the BBQ chicken sandwich for just $ 2.85!!! What a TASTY deal! Really, it is the sandwich itself that has me hooked, the price is just a perk! Not to mention their staff is always very polite and friendly. I have no complaints. Just be ware, there is sometimes quite a long lunch line!

I love their fried rice and seafood ramen! The service isn’t top of the line but their menu are affordable and yummy! There are lots of parking and you can call in advanced to have your food ready if you’re on the go. I think it would really help if the workers were friendly but with the price and how yummy the food is, I’m not complaining.

Love this place. Yummy garlic shrimp, Lemon chicken, and oyster chicken. Others are really good too. And it’s cheap. Love it. Definitely recommend this place

First time eating here. Wasn’t to busy so I got my good pretty fast. I ordered the chicken long rice with beef stew special. Wasn’t that great. The stew taste like can spaghetti. Chicken long long rice was just plain with no taste. The only thing that was good was the Mac salad. Would eat here again but won’t order the special.

The food here is not too bad for these types of hole in a wall shops. Service is not good as they are Chinese and really do not speak English. But if you order the Chicken fried rice or Goya types of food, it’s not bad. The noodles are not bad either. Chashu ramen is pretty good. Price is decent. It’s like an L&L but with more choices.

You have to know what to order here, because it is hit or miss. But I like the beef crispy noodles and won ton min. Chicken salad isn’t bad either. Pretty reasonable prices. It is a hole in the wall, after all!

Mediocre service
food takes a long time to come out… when it isn’t busy.
lots of parking, and also other places to eat around the area… I’d pass on this place

This place isn’t too bad, but of course, it wouldn’t be my choice to come back.
My friends and I went up to Kailua side for a day out in the sun while we waited for our other friend to finish getting a tattoo. After being out for hours, we were of course real hungry and wanted some food. Our friend mentioned this place and we were down for anything so we came here.
It doesn’t look too bad from the outside, but on the inside, it’s a bit run-​down and quite old. I don’t mind old, but when it comes to a place to eat, I’d prefer if the owner kept up with their restaurant. Customers must beware when choosing a table to eat at! Most, if not all, are sloping awkwardly and at weird angles.
The menu options are great. They have good deals on their combination plates and the portions are reasonable when compared to their portion size. However, the food quality isn’t what I was expecting. It definitely just alright. I had the loco moco which was pretty bland, which is something that I wasn’t expecting. I feel like gravy should always taste like gravy, but there’s tasted like… watery, salty, non-​flavorful sauce. The beef patty was bland but the egg tasted like an egg.
My boyfriend ordered the bbq shortribs which were kind of like kalbi. The bones were large and the meat wasn’t meaty at all, more fatty than anything. He paid almost 8 dollars for 3 strips of fatty, big-​boned shortribs that were a bit under-​marinated. However, they do have some good mac salad!