Ala Hawaii Kitchen

Ed Oshiro _{on Google}

Sep 13th, 2020

Reasonably priced and fresh out of the kitchen.

Shohei U _{on Google}

Oct 29th, 2013

This place is actually just mostly a kitchen, and not really a place to buy food, and definitely not a restaurant. They make great tasting bentos that get distributed to Times Super Market, and various other super markets. So, they don't have any price stickers, organized servicing, and most of the time, if you don't get there early in the morning, they run out of certain bentos or they simply just do not have anything.
Having said that though, if you go early in the morning, this place has awesome bentos. I've been to this place several times; I've come back empty handed twice when I went during the afternoon, or late afternoon; I've come back with a feast three times when I went in the morning.
My wife's favorite is the nishime bento. She says that every single item in the bento is very well prepared, and I agree, not because I am whipped, but because I really think the food is very well prepared. The nishime and marinated fried tofu has a very nice flavorful taste. The hijiki rice is also very nice touch in that it is not just plain rice like most bentos. She also likes the tsukemono and takuan (pickles) that comes with the bento. Like I said, she loves this bento from corner to corner. (see picture.)
I like the garlic chicken bento. The garlic chicken is very nice, but I really like the fact that they put furikake on the rice that comes with it. It may not seem like much, but it's these little things that make a difference. (see picture.)
They also have other bentos, tempura, fried chicken, musubis, fried noodles, pumpkin, okara, etc. I tried the fried noodles and the pumpkin, and they were OK. The okara was very good. (see picture for pumpkin and okara.)
So, today, I got the nishime bento, garlic chicken bento, pumpkin, and okara, and it came out to $17 and change. That's enough food for 2 with leftovers. I would rather eat the bentos here than eat at some overpriced, over-hyped restaurant in Waikiki and pay over double the price for food that's not as good. My recommendation would be to buy the bentos here, drive down to Ala Moana or Waikiki, and enjoy your meal with an ocean view.
I plan on coming back and trying most of their bentos and menu items. The trick is to catch them when they actually have it.