While visiting from Oahu, my husband and I stumbled upon Kuhio Grille and decided to grab lunch there. The restaurant was busy, but there was still room so we were seated right away. Our server was quick to greet us and seemed friendly. I ordered the cheeseburger and fries, and my husband ordered the katsu chicken with fried rice - both were delicious, I cleared my whole plate (their "secret sauce" was yummy!). The portions are big, so arrive with an appetite! As we left the restaurant, another woman (I'm guessing the manager or owner?) wished us well and asked how our service was. Overall, it was great :) read more

After eating at Kuhio Grill quite a few times, today's experience was disappointing. My wife ordered the Kalua Cabbage with fried rice instead of the usual white rice and it was very good. I ordered the tofu+Pork+watercress stir fry and it was almost inedible. The pork was full of gristle and bone and some of it could not be eaten. It came with white rice in place of the fried rice I wanted. After one refill of hot tea the waitress (Erlinda) was not to be seen again or when seen we were ignored. My wife had to flag down one of the table cleaners to get a to-go box for the rest of her fried rice (which is excellent). I mentioned the poor meal and service to the check out lady and she in passing said the stir fry is made from pork butt and if not cooked right can be tough. She said she would "let them know" but no mention of cancelling out the charge for the terrible stir fry. Looks like quite a few poor reviews the last couple months. After today"s experience we will be eating at our other dependable restaurants in Hilo like Hawaii Style Cafe, Cafe Pesto, and the recently opened and very excellent Stinger Ray's. read more

Always satisfied! Good local food... when in Hilo we go to Kuhio Grill for breakfast, lunch, dinner or just a snack at least 2x each trip.

This is one my fav places to eat saimin. Altho sad to say the more I go, I find the food a bit salty. One dish was so salty I swear if I had high blood pressure I'd be a gonner today! :-( read more

Really good Hawaiian greasy spoon. Located next to the chains Jamba Juice and Starbucks, this is convenient and comfortable.

Wait staff is very polite and the food was ONO! The food took a little while to come to us but I guess you cant rush a good thing! If you're looking for local favorites, this is the place to stop at! read more

Convenient location, inside a mall with old navy, Starbucks and others. Food is okay and services are fast. Udon with tempura is good. Laulau is ok only though. A little disappointment with the "famous" fried rice. Overall, easy access, quick and good price local restaurant. read more

BIG PORTIONS. Hawaiian Style BIG!!! Fried Rice was super ono. Loved the taro hash. Service was real nice.

Make sure to check your chicken Katsu, I ordered it &'it tasted weird & it didn't even look cooked & one of the ladies seen I didn't eat it since I put it on a piece of napkin & asked me if I wanted her to microwave it but I told her it's fine & she even said the chicken is "almost" OLD !!! never going back ever again read more

Both the boyfriend and I ordered the Lau Lau plate with all the sides. It was delicious! We had lau lau before that did have the fish at another place and loved it and wanted some late night and this hit the spot! Pork was tender and great and didn't need the fish. Kalua pork was yummy too. Super friendly staff too. The little haupia serving (think coconut jello) was super good too to end the meal. Would come back for lau lau! read more

Came here on a Saturday night thinking it was gonna be busy and expected to wait. But it wasn't, probably because of the fights. But even with them being slow, they couldn't keep up. Couldn't get refills on any of our drinks and we were never checked up on. Tried calling a waitress who even looked me in the eyes, and had the audacity to turn the other way. Just because we aren't "your" table, doesn't mean you don't help a customer in need. What kind of waitressing is that?!?! Very disappointed and I would not recommend coming to this restaurant. read more

Their famous 1lb laulau was extremely dry and blend. Could not finish it. I did like the leaves the meat was wrapped in.

I hate to do this but the food is kinda expensive and it ain't that good. I ordered a loco moco one day and my hamburger patty was as hard and dry like a hockey puck. My eggs were sunny side up when I asked for over medium. My meal never got comped when I got the bill. That experience was my last experience there! read more

Their fried rice is one of the best I've tasted so far in my opinion and staff are always attentive and friendly.

Just ate their short rib stew...taste wasn't bad...wasn't great either...45% fat, 53% large cut carrots and potatoes (still crunchy), 2% meat. This should've been called vegetarian stew! And when reported to waitstaff they apologized but still charged me for $13...McDonald's here I come as I'm still hungry. Buyers beware! read more

Fantastic authentic food. Large and varied menu, excellent service and incredible entrees and desserts. You won't regret a stop at this fine restaurant. Large portions! In fact, it was as good warmed over the next night for dinner as it was the first time around. 2 meals for the price of one. Outstanding! read more

Good food, good price. I had the Loco Moco. Gravy could use a little more flavor. Over all great for my lunch break as fast food is more expensive on average. read more

This place is great. The service is pretty fast and the people who work there are very nice. We've been there during busy times and even then we haven't waited long for a table. Kuhio Grille has saved us many times when we don't have time to make dinner. The food is good, the prices are reasonable and the staff are very helpful. read more

The food was delicious and the service was great. We were a group of 5 and all ordered something different. All the meals were delicious. But the winner is the macadamia cream pie!! read more

Went back to the islands to visit my family and ate here for the first time(maybe I ate there before and just don't remember). I must say I was somewhat pleased with the food. I wasn't expecting much but everything was actually pretty tasty. I ordered some hibachi chicken, which was basically Teri chicken with some mac salad and rice. It sounds plain but it actually had a lot of flavor. My brother had the Kanak Attack which is basically the one pound lau lau with poi, lomi lomi salmon and other stuff. He loved it since we never get to eat fresh hawaiian food here on the mainland. There are Hawaiian restaurants out here in California, but of course it's not fresh. Now compared to other restaurants in Hawaii, I don't know if it is all that good, but I was satisfied for the price. Also, the service was pretty good, food came out quickly(not on Hawaiian time) and our waitress was really funny! read more

Came here late in the evening after visiting the volcano because it was open. Turned out to be a good choice. The waitress was very friendly. I had the laulau plate with mac and rice. It was my first time having laulau and I liked it. I don't have anything to compare it to but it was good and I would get it again. Gf thought the mac was too mayonnaisey. My gf ordered the tempura udon. Pretty standard tempura and udon with good flavor though. Random visit ended up being pretty good. read more

This was the second time eating here. Tristan was fast, friendly and helpful. The atmosphere seemed like the employees were not very happy and robotic. read more

Delicious!!! The staff is all super friendly and the food is awesome! The teriyaki pork was amazing!!! And all their desserts are homemade! Definitely recommend! read more

I am giving this place two stars because I only have had breakfast here and nothing else so far. Their breakfast gets only 1 star from me though. I order corned beef hash, hash browns, and eggs and here's what I got: undercooked, canned corned beef hash (which a lot of places serve but it was very undercooked and lukewarm), a greasy-ass over-medium egg (they might as well have deep fried it), and a rectangular shaped hash brown (like a McDonald's hashbrown) that tasted like it had been dipped in the fryer 3 times. First of all, the meat should been heated properly before being served; second of all, if an egg is fried right, it should never be greasy; and THIRD of all, as a restaurant, they should serve real hash browns. I know most places serve frozen hash browns but if I wanted a McDonald's hash brown, I would gone there for one and paid 2/3 the price! And for what it's worth, the hash brown tasted like pure grease that was 3 days old. My fiance warned me about breakfast there but i had to try it for myself. Oh yea, I ordered orange juice and the waitress came back and tossed a personal sized Tropicana on the table and a cup. I said, "Thanks, but you can keep the cup, I'll just drink out of the oh-so-convenient bottle!" I really wanted to ask if refills would be free if I used the cup, but I have this feeling she wouldn't have found it very funny..... For breakfast, go to Ken's or even IHOP for crying out loud! I haven't written this place off for lunch yet though. They are, after all, home of the one pound lau lau! read more

Loretta was our waitress and she was THE BEST! She has a great personality and made our visit incredible! The food was delicious and priced so reasonably. Fed our family of 6 (with 3 teenage boys) for under 80 bucks! Definitely a stop you should make! read more

Ummm- yummy laulau... And fried rice is good... And the cream biscuits? Those are the best!!! Plenty of choices and big portions!

Been going here for years and they never fail to impress. Favorite is their chicken Katsu and their fried rice. Also like their Kalua, yakitori chicken. Good service and always try their best to accommodate you. read more

The Kuhio Grill doesn't pretend to be anything other than what it should be, a local place that is clean, has good services and tends to serve excellent local style dishes. Can't lose here....portions large, food tasty and prices are good. The only problem is their egg dishes. Either overcooked, undercooked or in the case of omelettes, dry as a bone. Skip the doffee...have some at Starbucks next door first. But everything else is great. Wait staff is also nice and even polite to tourists. read more

We accidentally discovered this local restaurant while vacationing here on the big island. Great food and friendly service.

Been here twice on 2 different visits from the mainland. Food is good, lots of choices. Service is friendly, lots of locals so they must be doing it right! read more

When did this place get so crappy?? So horrible and very over priced! Wait help is horrible and fried rice lacks its former luster. Poor thing, Hilo looses yet another once-great eatery. read more

We found this place most serendipitously when a high woman in the parking lot by one of the more touristy dinner spots recommended it as a local's favorite. Rather than wait an hour for that place, we drove over to the strip mall where Kuhio is located and our large party was served in 5 minutes. I had never heard of laulau, but wow, is it good! Great desserts here as well. The fried rice was somewhat bland and disappointing, given that they bill it as a house specialty. But everything was very solid overall and the place proved kid-friendly. This place is a real local gem, and a testament to the value of random encounters on the Big Island! read more

Diner A ordered the cheeseburger. Now, this is NOT your ordinary hamburger. It's like going to a butcher shop and getting your hamburger fresh. Diner B enjoyed the fried rice with over easy eggs and taro hash. Diner B never orders fried rice because she knows its old rice. She now loves fried rice from Kuhio Grille. It like eating 4 scoops of rice. read more

Better than average food (especially their famous laulaus), but an average atmosphere and tables. Our waiter was kind of oblivious to what we were asking for and seemed distracted, but overall it was a fairly good restaurant. read more

I was looking forward to coming here after reading all of the good reviews. This was easily one of the biggest letdowns I've had on the islands. They were known for their lau lau, so rather than do my standard see if the can make Kalua Pork test, I went for the Hawai'ian plate. Huge frowny face. The lau lau itself tasted frozen then thawed. I wonder if they ran out and dipped into their ready to ship supply. There were a *huge* number of taro leaves to filling: the ratio was all off. There were maybe 5 pieces of beef in my beef pork selection. Mine wasn't salty at all, and that's the way it's meant to be for lau lau BUT no salt to be found on the table. Normally you'd solve that by asking a server for help. I ate with a large party though, so she had her hands full. So I fell back on trying my best to mask it by adding the pickled onions and copious amounts of the table vinegar. Neither of those had flavour, and I left wondering how that was possible. The lomi lomi salmon again had no flavour. The poi tasted like it was bought in, and possibly from a bag. The only redeeming thing on the plate was the haupia. I love haupia, this also tasted possibly bought in, but at least I could finish something I was given. It was a tiny, tiny portion in a ketchup side cup, though. The woman next to me had a plate of tempura that smelled and looked right on the mark. So they can do better in other areas. read more

Awesome spot with excellent, friendly service and reasonably priced traditional Hawaiian fare. Kalua pig and Kuhio's famous one pound lau lau are a must. Located across from Walmart and next to Jamba Juice and Starbucks. Shaka bra and Mahalo! read more

Nice food eatery. Very friendly staff. Good selection of food. They give big portions, you can share with someone.

Aloha to all, I have never come across a restaurant that is not very customer service to the people here in Hawaii. I went to this restaurant with my gentleman friend and was very disappointed with their "rule" which we were not aware of: we ordered the Lechon special and not aware of the a sauce "patis" was mixed into the entrée. The order was very "?- can't say or write what it smelled", anyway, we told the waitress that it smelled awful and did not like it and asked why does it smell awful. The waitress went into the restaurant and returned and told us that we can not return the entrée (which was not touched) and we still needed to pay for the meal. But we may order something else and still pay for the Lechon special that we didn't like nor was aware of that sauce that was mixed into the entrée. My friend just sat and waited till I was done with my breakfast. We don't blame the waitress. She was young and very apologetic on the situation and I am sure she was just following orders (I think) I felt this should be discussed with a manager or even the owner privately. When I returned home I call the restaurant and asked to speak to a manager or owner regarding a complaint. A manager answered my call and told about the situation. She was not very professional and not very helpful. I left my name and number to have the owner to please return my call. To this day, 2/18/2019 I have not received a call from the owners. At this point that have lost many of my family and friends as customer. Please be careful. read more

Love their fried rice! A little pricey but the food is always good and the place is very clean!

We were in need of some authentic Hawaiian for take-out, so we stopped here. AMAZING selection, and everything we had was really good for a really good price. I had the short rib special, and the meat was so succulent. read more