Local Food Review

My wife and I with our two boys went to Pinky’s Pupu Bar and Grill Restaurant Kailua Hawaii located at 970 North Kalaheo Avenue, Kailua Hawaii, 96734  for lunch yesterday. I have eaten at the establishment once before earlier in the year, and had a good lunch their. While my lunch in the past was good something has happened to this local eatery that the owner should be ashamed of.

Usually at 11:44am the establishment has a fair number of customers being it is only a stone’s throw from the MCBH Kaneohe base and also minutes from the winter home of the President.

When we arrived we observed 5 guest tables of about 30 taken, we seated ourselves as their was no one to seat us. Within 5 minutes the waitress arrived took our drink and lunch orders. 15 minutes later the drinks arrived and 45 minutes after that our lunch was finally served.

Service was slow at all tables, the table across from us had 4 people, 3 meals were delivered and the 4th person waited another 10 minutes.

I had the Kailua Pig Plate lunch $9.95 with a side Ceasar Salad for $1.00 more. Somehow the waitress substituted the rice for the salad and I ended up eating Kailua Pig without rice even after asking for rice to be brought to the table. The ceasar salad dressing they used made the lettuce to appear to be spoiled even though it was ok. I joked that if I got food poisoning we would know what to tell the health inspector. The Kailua Pig we could tell was not made in house it had the same texture of what we purchase at Safeway. It had that dried out microwave look to it.

My wife had Garlic Shrimp $9.95, the “5″ average shrimp she received with 2 scoops of rice looked horrible. We could tell the shrimp had been re-heated and was tough as nails. My wife said well we should have went to Mcdonalds.

My Youngest Son 6 had Mac and Cheese with French Fries $5.95. You could tell the Mac and Cheese had been sitting a while before delivered to table as the Cheese had solidified on top.

My Oldest Son had a burger and fries $9.95 that was actually good in his standards. The fries were the best part of all of our meals.

Overall price of the tab for drinks and meal was just over $40.00. This is one of the worst lunch dining experiences I have ever had in Hawaii. Usually lunch can run you about $7-8.00 a head and you get your meal, fresh, hot and with Aloha.

Pinky’s Pupu Bar and Grill Restraunt needs to fire their chef and get there act together. Based on the service I would predict that this landmark may be in for tough times ahead.

I was lucky enough to have lunch at Hurricane Grill and Wings earlier this week in Jacksonville Florida. Not knowing before hand that they were a chain I did not know what to suspect. For a chain restaurant they sure did a great job looking like they were local. We arrived at the peak of lunch hour. With four of us sitting together. The wait staff got our drinks quickly and took our orders.

As I was watching the staff I noticed everyone was helping one another out. While our waitress had the biggest tables other wait staff made sure that food was making it to the tables and drinks were being re-filled.  I had the Mahi Sandwich which came spicy priced at $9.99 with choice of fries. The sandwich was excellent. The iced tea was $2.29 and included refills.

One of the guys had their wings and said they were great as well. For me it was a perfect lunch with a portion that left you satisfied. I will be going back again. Hurricane Grill & Wings 5907 Roosevelt Blvd. Suite 700 Jacksonville Florida