Plate lunch places are everywhere, all over the Hawaiian islands. In fact, it’s hard to go through a commercial area on any island without running into at least one or two of these iconic establishments. They are often referred to as “Drive-Inns,” but for most of them, you drive into the parking lot and walk up to the ordering window or counter. Some of Hawaii’s best foods are found on the plate lunch, and tourists often miss them. If they don’t miss them altogether, they might go to one or two heavily advertised places, like Rainbow Drive Inn, L&L Drive Inn or Zippy’s. But, there are many great plate lunch places on the islands, and even though it’s impossible to cover all of the best, we try here to show you some of the less known places that also have some of the best – or most unique – plate lunches on the island. The locals all have their individual favorites, and we could not list them all. These are our favorites. Sorry if we missed yours.
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Music: Hawaii, by Lil’ Loca, Hawaii (Instrumental Version), also by Lil’ Loca, and The Slow Life Is Good, by Ryan Freeman, all licensed to us courtesy of Epidemic Sound
43 Comments
You are ON POINT with all the places you went !🤙
My favorite is Rainbow mixed plate with 2 scoops mac salad, no rice. Da kine ono grindz!
3:23 …Russo, you get pen? Pen, PEN, kodfahnett! PEN!!!
🤣
St. Louis Japanese Combo Deluxe is so good!
Wonderful video. I agree with all of your choices. 🤙👍
Do you and your partner
reside on Oahu?
Great local choices! Sooooo ono! 😋
Love your Rap!!! Oh wat good memories you bring. Much mahalos
hi just found ur channel. nice foods but can u tell us how much each item cost . i just subscribed now. thanks
Room Service!-
The beef all looks amazing! That malt… so rich and delicious! A nice char on the meat is our favorite! There looks to be so many great places to get the plate lunches! -S
Great video. 💯% correct on avoiding the high priced restaurants in the hotels and even some of these places that have gotten popular with tourists like Giovanni's for example. I found this food truck next to Giovanni's in Kahuku called Da Bald Guy. Amazing food and at a great price. Boneless kalbi ribs and pan fried poke. So good we went twice on our last trip to Oahu.
Masa's in Mapunapuna. Best food on the island.
Extremely well done food tour. Love it! To your success!
I was thinking about taking a trip later Down the road to Hawaii. I'll keep this video in mind. Always looking for good food
New to your channel. So far so good with Bob's.
I wanna try Pioneer Saloon Loco Moco. Has mushrooms. But then again, I like cheap eats.
I Don't Know about St. Louis Drive inn. Last time I was there, I saw a lot of roaches and had a piece of Brillo pad in my rice.
Great video, I love Teri cheeseburgers/Teri beef with cheese omgah, remember jolly Rogers in kalihi they had awesome sandwiches and burgers too!! Omgah cocoa puffs! I'm hungry! And I do lots of pepper on top my Mac too!
One of the best list I've seen on youtube for Hawaii……….
Hello RE: Bob’s BBQ: I don’t know if it was because the meat was WellDone, but the meat looked dry to me, Medium rare is most cooked I can eat meat I enjoy my meat juicy, regarding the flavor you did bring up flavors I enjoy on my meats also. The fish also LOOKED dry but then mackerel is not type of fish (I like juicy, flaky, fish) I guess I would have to ask what is the fish they use before ordering. The presentation of the dishes is very simple, but I have seen some plate lunches in other places that look Amazing and come with sauces and little extra garnishes. Regarding pricing to what I heard it was fair for the amount of food. I definitely is a place I would try. The Bakery place looked ready good, I wouldn’t have ordered a cheeseburger there (just my opinion 🙂) and the “Fresh Fish” place the plate lunch looked Very Good, shame did not get a chance to see what price range they have. The Island BBQ the plate lunch looked good the chicken looked just a little bit dry, did not get to see price range there either, later you mentioned $25 dlls per person, it a fair price. RE: Adela’s Country Eatery the lunch plate looked Very Good, RE:Olena looked ok, anyway Thank you for taking us along to check out some “unknown” places to tourists. Take Care Be Safe Aloha.
OOOOooohhhhh, Bob's! I love the Dino Beef ribs! ono
You’re right! Support our local food outlets.
Any places outside Waikiki is hole in the wall in Hawaii
Looks so good!!
There are sooo many plate lunch shops, too many to mention. Did you try Richies in Kalihi on king street, known for great broasted fried chicken and plain teri burger.
I ate there before and the food is really good) my brother and my sister bought our food and we went to sand island
Living in the mainland over ten years they cannot make their food the way Hawaii make their food) they use hawaii's restaurant names but they cannot compare like back home like the locals says its-ono
I believe rainbows is number one
Ewa/Waianae=W, Diamond Head/Kailua=E, Pearl Harbor/HNL/WKK=S, Haleiwa/Waialua/Kahuku=N, Wahiawa/Mililani/Waipio=Central
L&L ??? Zippys, Rainbow drive in, the place across Bobs, Waikaimelo drive inn is great place too, next to original pancake house..
FYI….Chaminade Univ., most well known for their 1982 Men's basketball UPSETTING NCAA #1 Virginia…77-72. At that time, Chaminade was an NAIA (now D2) school that NO ONE, outside of Hawaii/W Coast schools, had ever heard of. The Chaminade Silversword Basketball Classic can trace it's lineage, in part, because of this upset. The Chaminade Classic has morphed into the Maui Jim's Maui Invitational Tournament
I don't like that food 😒 no wonder they are fat 🙄
Ugh. You picked up a philippine souvenir, apparently.
When I worked in the pineapple fields in high school during lunch break the older workers, truck drivers, boom operators, and lunas would huddle together and have "kau kau plenty". We would place our home bentos in the center and we would all share our bentos.
i'm glad you left out the chain places. It's these little gems that need to be highlighted.
Pepper on mac salad, ….me too!
LOL I had to laugh at your first stop. That's definitely one of my favorites places to eat when I go back home.
St Louis Drive Inn … how cool is that? I went to St Louis High School right across the street in the early 60's. It's been there since 1961 BTW.
Your video sure brings back lots of memories.
The Rap Replinger imitation made me crack up!
I've been away from Hawai`i now for 31 years and happen to come across your videos, reminding me how much I miss Hawai`i and everything about it including the food! Thanks for doing this special video. I used to have friends there in Kalihi Housing and stopped at Bobs frequently.
Awesome video uncle!! You hit all the good spots!!
Brah! This is like the best Hawaii food review series I seen, especially with your Rap's "Room Service". Watched your manapua one, and now your plate lunch video. Awesome! Been on Oahu for over 30 years and still haven't gotten to experience the choke number of local establishments featured here . In order to survive, everybody had to raise prices, no can help. But when you hink about it, it's manini for getting the most ono food in the world. Plus you helping ALL survive. Very much appreciate what you do. Mahalo!
Just re-watching your video. Need to add…Jet's Local Fast Food, Tatsuo's, Eagle Cafe, Kehau's Kitchen & Karen's Kitchen…to name a Few!-lol