What happened since we ate here last year???
What happened to the food, and what happened to the service?
To be fair, my husband absolutely loved the Blue Crab-crusted Shrimp salad. Â I was granted a bite and it was good enough for dessert.
BUT
my Ono grilled sandwich special was sad, sad, sad.  The Ono itself was very good and a good sized portion too.  The  roll was toasted on the inner sides, but looked and felt underbaked on the outside - it was a pasty color and was gummy to the touch.  I think it had those holes in the underdone side that may indicate it was steamed hot.  Having only one side of each half toasted or grilled does not make up for that awful texture on the other side. Â
The wasabi aoli was very good. The french fries were cooked just right. Â Iced tea has a great flavor.
The place was practically deserted, so why did we NEVER see the server except to receive our orders after waiting a ridiculous length of time, and then once more only to bring the check? Â My husband walked all around the rooms looking for someone to ask for the sweetener for his iced tea, which server Daisy had failed to bring. If she or any other employee had bothered to ask us about our lunch, I could have shown them the pasty, gummy sandwich roll. Â Guess they knew better than to ask?
There are enough other restaurants in the north coast area with good reviews, that we won't return to Luke's, unless we happen to hear that service and quality have both improved.
Good food but expensive. I got a Reuben sandwich (one of my fav sandwiches of all time) to have a lite lunch, and it cost $11. That's without drink. The Reuben was great! And the fries were some of the best I've ever had but def not worth $11. I would def check it out once or so cause the food is really good, but just watch your wallet. I would add another star if the price was fairer.
Review Source:Ok, I am still a fan. Â Where else can I walk in the door on a rainy night when my husband said to meet him there in 5 minutes but I arrived in 30 min and he still was not there...and it didn't matter. Karen greeted me from behind the bar and everyone moved over to make room for me. Â The one table across the room had the guys from BIEA who just wanted to know where my dog was (that's another long story). Â
Every small town needs a restaurant/bar that's like Cheers. A place with great music on the weekends. That's what Lukes' delivers. But Brooke hit the nail on the head. Â What the heck happened to the fries? And the great disappearing wine list? Â Lukes can't survive on the local support alone, and tourists need a bit more quality, in both food and drink. Â So take Karen's advice, stop first a block away at Lighthouse Liquors if wine is your beverage of choice (if you prefer beer on tap or a mojito, you're fine at Lukes).
Locals, let's fight for what we love. Â Tourists, please stop in and experience our friendly local style. Â I'll be the one with the t-shirt reading "We *heart* hot and crispy fries"
I wasn't expecting this place to be as great as it was, mainly because it's in a very small town and has very little to no competition in the area. Last week we ate there for dinner and again the next day for lunch, and I was so impressed with the quality of the food, the atmosphere, and the service. They had excellent presentation of the food as well, and reasonable sized portions. I had fish & chips made with Mahi Mahi for lunch, and it was incredibly fresh. They have local musical entertainment there at night. Â I highly recommend it, plus the area around it is amazing as well.
Review Source:Well, I have been to Luke's many, many times and I have to say the food keeps getting worse and worse. The French Fries for instance have gone from some of the best fries around to the absolute worst. Soggy and limp! They took the all time favorites of the menu and replaced with some not so good choices. For example the Korean Chicken was so good and so popular they replaced it with some sort of Nori Chicken that is now no longer on the menu.(no one ordered it)
On a positive note they sometimes have good music and it is the only bar in town!
Have dined here multiple times (business clients as well as casual) and has been generally disappointing. Â I once had a client freak out (literally) when a small cockroach kept persistently trying to crawl on his plate. Â When he got upset and loudly pointed it out to the waitress, her response was, "Oh well, you ARE dining outside." Â There are better places to eat in Hawi.
The music at night can be pretty good, though.
Good food in Hawi on the way to Pololu Valley.
Waitress Leslie was particularly helpful and even drew us a map of Pololu Valley to give us tips on how to hike to the 2nd and 3rd valley
Poke $12.95: fresh Ahi and good sauce, good portion too
House salad $4.95: local veggies, especially like the arugula in it.
Fish and chips: local fish, I wanted to try Ono but they were out so had to settle for mahi mahi, it was still very good. Â The fries were the shoestring kind that I like, similar to McD's but fresher and better
We've eaten here twice and loved it both times. Â For one, they're open later than any other restaurant we were able to find in the Hawi area (food till 9 pm). Â The first time we at here, we walked in right AT 9, and were seated with no problem at all--indeed, the server went out of her way to make us feel comfortable about being the only people in the restaurant. Â
The greasy appetizer-type foods are solid and huge. Â We walked in very hungry, but still couldn't finish the huge, tasty nachos we ordered. Â The guacamole is *great* here, by the way--highly recommended--nice and limey and (joy of joys) sans tomatoes. Â The kahlua pork quesadilla was good as well, and contained at least 2-3 different kinds of cheese. Â
But if you eat here, don't go for the greasy appetizers--it's worth it to spend the extra cash on their entrees or other specialties. Â The half-rack of ribs was exceptional--so tender that it was practically falling off of the bone. Â And the veggies (we had chard and asparagus) were good, too--they tasted fresh and were cooked in some kind of light garlicky sauce that really brought out their flavor. Â The poke was exceptional, too. Â My sweetie is veeeery picky about her ahi and her sauces and was thrilled with both here.
Though Luke's place has a nice selection of mixed drinks, I recommend passing up the ones on the menu and instead, ordering a guava smoothie with two shots of guava rum (which they regularly have in stock--SO wonderful). Â I have no idea what they put in it. Â Possibly crack. Â It's fabulous.
Food was just okay. Â Azure McCall was great live entertainment on Monday nights. Â If you're wanting a place to hang out with everyone from the 60's-70's-great place to hang. Â Seems like everyone has a gift in singing- or playing music. Â Gift..hmmm, is that right word-maybe I should say, they have a desire to perform. Â Yep, that's better. Â Aloha Hawi.
Review Source:I don't know if I'd recommend the food... not because it's bad but because I don't really remember it well.
What I do recommend is coming to see this place, having a drink in the amazing upstairs bar, and hunting down one of their bartenders named Jim.
Jim has been a bartender in Hawaii my whole life (probably longer) and is amazing. People used to come to the drink shack on the Mauna Kea Beach just to shoot the shit with Jim and have a Frederico. This includes my family, especially my father.
Well, after many years with the Mauna Kea, Jim left and is now at Luke's Place (if nothing's changed since I was last there). He's awesome... so go to Luke's. And make him tell you some jokes.
The new vamped Luke's Placerestaurant in the Kohala Village Inn is nicely decorated with the vintage Aloha decor,revolving ceiling fans,art work on the walls,open air cool breeze. The waiter was rushed and somewhat disoriented even tho the place only had three tables. The food was quite mediocre and rather bland but Kudos to the Tiki Lounge's lively bartender,live music and good tropical drinks. The decor there is a classic but I suggest going elsewhere for dinner.
Review Source:6/22/08: Second trip here in two months, our plan was to use up a gift voucher that my wife got for a birthday gift. During our last visit (4/12/08), they told us that they no longer issue the vouchers we had and suggested that we use up the remaining during our next visit (we had $75 worth of vouchers). Anyways, we were quite disappointed that during this trip, the manager (MIke), indicated that they were no longer accepting the voucher - I was really pissed, we drove some 70 miles burning 3.5 gallons of $4.50 gas to hear this. He tried to accommodate us by offering a 20% discount and also going above and beyond by giving us a $25 gift certificate that he PERSONALLY paid for. Ugh, I really didn't want to take anything from his personal paycheck - really unnecessary. I'm really not that cheap. I don't want on my conscience this guilt for accepting it (we turned it down) - we also didn't get a 20% discount. Anyways, if a place is going to participate in some voucher or coupon program, they really need to follow thru the rules (we weren't bending any of the rules on the voucher). While the food was pretty good, I don't think I'll be back or will recommend it to anyone.
Review Source:So cute! Â We stopped here on our drive back from Pololu Valley, not knowing anything about the place but starving after a day of driving and hiking. Â The outdoor seating is fabulous (although the fake grass was a little bizarro), and the tiki bar is super comfortable. Â I had a burger and fries which were so filling - but delicious - I could only eat half of the meal. Â Â The service was fast, and our waitress was really friendly. Â
I would (will?) definitely go here again!
Luke's is definitely a solid place for fueling up with grub before going on a hike. We drove through Hawi on our way to Polulu Valley and stopped in for lunch. The restaurant was practically empty, which meant service was quick and attentive. I had the stir-fry, which was quite good and thankfully not drenched in soy sauce. Someone else had the teriyaki steak (excellent), cobb salad (large portion), and fish tacos (good).
Review Source:
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