I'm from Hawaii.
I might say the plate lunch I had at Island Flavor might be better than most places in Honolulu? wha? sacrilege?
Ok, they don't have fountain fanta fruit punch (which has a strawberry accent) like in Hawaii... but everything else--delicious.
The service is of a local flavor--the friendly kind. I wanted to try two things not typically ordered together, and the waitress was super flexible about it. Yes!
The teri beef was delicious--and if it was salty--i only noticed it after the meal. But what I most appreciated was that it had a good char from the grill they have in the kitchen. Also, the cut of meat was not tender in itself (skirt or ny?) but it was handled perfectly. It had both a solid beefy taste and with the slices of meat going across the grain, each piece was mouth tender. It was a beautiful, expert touch. The teri sauce was solid--not like mainland style teriyaki--but local flavor.
The sweet sour spareribs--also quite good--a tiny bit oily. big piece of ginger, and turnips, carrots--it was good and hearty--like what you'd make at home. not as good as the teri beef though. I ended up finishing all the teri beef and taking the SSS home. And PS--it tasted great as leftovers later that night.
mac salad was solid
Haupia cake--also world class. Reminiscent of Napoleans (Zippy's) in terms of the lightness of the cake. I would not be surprised if the owner's used to run that bakery or someplace like that. All that cake for only $5!
I'm so full again. Two meals in from one plate lunch (and a piece of cake)
Clearly these people know what they're doing. I have to really search to give any suggestions at all:
* Is it possible to make slightly better rice? Pressure cooker might make the rice stand out too? The steamed rice scoops were pretty dense and was the weakest part of the meal.
* I found myself waiting to pay for quite a while at the register. It'd be nice if the wait staff took the payment--but hey, I won't complain.