Koreana Restaurant & Lounge

We walked around the back of Sombats as this was a bar I spotted on the way in to dinner. We were just beat after the Yelp birthday pARTy the previous evening and traveling all day. Seeing our friends Mary and Bob outside of our dinner spot was a shocker and demanded drinks.So I suggested we just head around back of this deserted strip mall since I had spied the neon sign and the doors were open heading to dinner.

I had gone to put the doggy bag in the car. Mary and Marian were already inside, Bob was having a smoke while I ditched the bag. The moment I walked in the tension was palpable. Not I wish I had my heater or knife thick but damn you are cramping our business viscous.

Yes, it was ladies night. Not free entry discount drinks, but love you long time ladies night. You get the picture, and damn I did not have my camera. So there we were chatting up old times, catching up as it had been a couple of years since we had seen each other face to face. On one trip to the restroom, a well dressed woman sitting at the bar swiveled my way, put her leg up to block my path. "You have to pay to use it" she chuckled. She was the only one with a sense of humor though, the rest were just willing us to leave, or at the very least for our wives to leave.

The beer was pricey and a bit warm, the tender was icy cold. The other "customers" looked nervous. Bob and I had talked about it when he went outside to grab another smoke. Marian and Mary were blissfully ignorant until we left, and then it hit them like a barrage of Trojan water balloons. We laughed hard in the parking lot and made plans for dinner Saturday. What a night

I recommend Koreana if you're looking for a drink and a cheap date with a 50 year old balding whore, otherwise steer clear.

My friends and I were in Hilo for a week or so;  in the beginning we were looking for a bar or a lounge to hang out and have a drink.  Some place where we could absorb the local vibes.
One day on the way to the beach, which are almost non existent, we saw Koreana.  One of my friends who was Korean spotted it and wondered if it was owned or had any affiliation with Koreans.
So that night after diner we stopped by this lounge.  At the door we were greeted by a Korean lady maybe in her late 40's.  She asked to see our IDs before we entered.  That's when my friend started to speak to her in Korean.  After they exchanged a few words she no longer cared to see our IDs.

As we walked in we tried to sit in a booth by the front door but the lady insisted we sit at a booth in the back of the lounge.  Walking through the lounge I saw more elderly Korean women sitting around either playing solitaire with a deck of cards or talking to random guys.
When I saw what the women were wearing I quickly realized something was up.  The 45-55 year old women sitting around were all dressed like hookers with their boobs spilling out of their tops.
We sat down, ordered a round of beers, and asked if they could put espn on the TV.

After my friend exchanged a few more words to the lady in Korean he told us this was a Hostess Bar.  That you could ask one of the hooker like ladies to join you for a drink for $20.

Three women came over to us and started small talk with each of us.  All had fucked up teeth, whoreish makeup, scandalous clothes and one lady was BALDING.  I could barely understand the girl talking to me with her thick accent.  What i did understand was that she told me that I need to have lots of cash to be in this bar; she then asked if I had any cash.  I told her I didn't and that my friend was the one paying for the drinks.  She got up and started to walk away when the other Korean lady started yelling at her in Korean, I guess she was trying to make her work harder to get money out of me.It was very awkward.

When they realized we weren't going to fork out any dough they left us alone.  As we finished our beers we saw a man walk into the back room followed a minute later by one of the old Korean ladys.  10 minutes later they both walked out, the man with a fat smile on his face.  We quickly left the joint.

As we walked out we saw a group of 4 trucker looking men walking into the lounge.  They were all on something because they were acting more than drunk and causing a ruckus.  one of them needed help stepping up the curb from the parking lot to the sidewalk.

We left driving off disgusted and laughing.