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| - As it's been said a thousand times over, this place is along the lines of a "Hawaiian Chipotle" with an assembly line of meats, toppings and sauces that go within a burrito or salad bowl using Hawaiian inspired ingredients, and depending on where you would rank Chipotle in the spectrum of similar restaurants in its class (a solid 3 star pushing towards 3.5 for me), this place also falls within a similar status.
High points include the friendly staff since we were offered samples of the proteins prior to ordering and the meats themselves are pretty solid in texture and seasoning. I noticed a one star review where the owner and customer got into a disagreement on whether or not an adult ordering a kids meal was able to receive chips/drink as stated on the menu, and not sure if that was handled properly since if it is not explicitly stated that the kids meal does not include drink/chips if ordered for an adult or that it is reserved for customers less than a certain age, not worth arguing over what is implied or inferred (owner may have won the battle, but lost the war since a potentially loyal customer and future referrals were lost over something trivial, and I doubt this scenario would come up very often since the prices on the regular menu are fairly budget friendly and there is a nice yelp deal available as well).
I was initially leaning towards rounding this to 4 stars due to the fact that I like the concept and I'm always in support of local businesses, but with the ratings already a bit inflated and if I were to rate it honestly in terms of flavor, it's not quite there yet. Everything on the menu seems to read better than they taste including the salsas and the little bottled sauces which were seemingly watered down and my palate was struggling to find them with each bite, even after applying them directly onto an individual bite. Hawaiian food is all about bright and bold flavors with contrasting textures and colors, and I felt like it was Chipotle with a mere Hawaiian twist whereas I'd rather be commenting that this was like Hawaiian food served in the style and accessibility of Chipotle. Perhaps since they are a budding new business, ingredients need to be kept within a certain budget, but I hope to see them expand to have more interesting options such as poke, opakapaka, korean short -ribs, or spam as additional protein options in the form of nachos or their burritos/bowls, and something with a wasabi or taro element since those are all popular flavors from the island. I didn't get a chance to try the well-reviewed coconut bark, but I don't think it would be too difficult to imagine coconut, chocolate, and buttery toffee to be a winning combination.
If the owner is keeping up reading these reviews, you should feel proud that so many locals are supporting your product with 4-5 star reviews and building a local following, but I hope you're continuing to strive to improve and showcase your passion and homage to Hawaiian food and I hope to return at some point to dole out a few more stars. For now, the bark is bigger than its' bite(s).
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