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Fine. I didn't think the macadamia nut pancakes with the macadamia nut cream sauce would be that awesome, but they were. We unfortunately split a short stack between four (4) of us. They barely lasted long enough to take a picture!
The portugese sausage omelet was so-so.
There were only 10 tables, which meant incredibly long wait times.
Also the bathroom was 10 miles away.
Ok this place gets a lot of hype. I walked in with high expectations..... I walked out sedated, fatter, and with creamy mac nut sauce all over my face. OK 'nut' and 'sauce' and 'creamy' and 'face' should not be used in the same sentence. But when we're talking about Boots N Kimo's, it's okay.
The banana pancakes are delicious by themselves. But you pour on the mac nut sauce and it's just amazing. You can get the sauce on the side if you want to control how drenched your pancake pieces are.... but you get less sauce if you do so.
The fried rice omelette was tasty but this is hard to screw up. You can't go wrong with fried rice with egg on top - that's been a Korean staple for years.
Yes, the wait can be horrendous. First time we waited about 30 mins. Second time we ordered to go and it was ready in 5 minutes! Then we went to Lanikai beach, sat on a towel...and ate our bfast while staring at the water. Much better than waiting and sitting inside! That's my tip to you. You'll love me for it.
What can possibly overshadow the natural wonders of Oahu when you are visiting the island for the first time?
Answer: Banana Pancakes with Macadamia Nut Sauce from Boots & Kimo's
It has now been about four months since I returned from my vacation, and all I can think about are these damned pancakes. They need to bottle that macadamia nut sauce and sell it to unsuspecting tourists like me. This place is deserving of all the hype it receives.
Vacationers: Please make it a point to try these pancakes!
Islanders: Do not skip this place when hosting your friends and relatives from the mainland, as you will be doing them a serious disservice.
As for me, I count the days until I can once again eat these pancakes for a week straight.
Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but these waffles are better than sex.
Had to make one last stop before leaving Hawaii. Once again, AWESOME.
I am soooo lucky I live near this place...This has to be the best local breakfast food the family… Read more »
I dream about this place. Get an any omelet and a short stack of mac nut pancakes.
I give this place an UUUUUNGH!
Everybody I know drives to Kailua to eat at this place. Although I personally like Cinnamon's more, this place is definitely up there in homecooking. Right now, it's a little whole in the wall place acrossthe street from bowling alley but it's moving further down the street to the corner in a much bigger place. I can't wait to eat at the new place!
I personally don't care for macadamia nuts so don't ask about that but the pancakes are delish as is their pelehu ribs. delish-ous-ness.
There's only a few tables at the old location but if you go to their new location then there will be much more than their handful of tables. I like the banana pancakes the best though but you can't go wrong.
Oh, and they have lots of memorbilia around the walls. The owner loves to go to pro bowl games and collect autographs so if you see him (or his daughter), ask him about it. The whole wait staff is very quick and you don't wait long for your order to come.
Love this place!
If possible, go to Boots & Kimo's on a weekday morning. Our last visit was on a Tuesday am & we waited less than 5 minutes for a "shared" table in the middle of the dining area. The banana pancakes are delicious, but ask for the mac nut sauce on the side. Pour sauce on your pancakes as you need it. It's so sweet, it's easy to feel sick from sugar overload. We also got a basic cheese omelet. Nothing to really write about. The service seriously lacked aloha.
Of all the eateries on Oahu, I have to say this is the most overrated of them all.
3 star food, with 1 star service, and a 0 star wait time
The pancakes are the only thing of merrit here, if you love things really sweet that is. I have a mega sweet tooth and this actually was too sweet for me. Imagine mediocre texture pancakes smothered in a mixture of melted mac-nut ice cream and sweetened condensed milk and you get the picture.
All the other things I've tried, corned beef hash, omelette, fried rice, and portuguese sausage, were all just average. It's hard to explain but constantly thinking about how long we had to wait to get this mediocre food, somehow made the food seem less than average.
And the service...wow, simply put, rude. I've never eaten at a place where the staff actually made you feel like you were inconveniencing them. "Sighs" for responses, eyes rolled when asked a question, food and water literally thrown down on the table when brought with not so much as a glance. I'm sure service is better and friendlier on other occasions but if you catch them when they're tired and have had a long day, then be prepared for rudeness.
if you've never been, then by all means, try it. But maybe, a good idea would be to order over the phone and take it with you. That would save you the wait and the possible arrogance from the servers.
People rave about Boots & Kimo so I was ready for some mind numbingly good breakfast! All I got served when I went there was a whole lot of disappointment with a side of corned beef hash!
I ordered the Pakalolo omelette (filled with peppers, cheese, herbs) which ended up being a runny mess inside. My girlfriend ordered the Eggs Benedict which really should be renamed to Benedict Arnold. Her eggs were hard boiled and in the end we just felt betrayed. Traitor!
Thank GOD for the pancakes with macadamia nut sauce because that was just about the only edible thing on our table! This was the hail mary pass during the meal and scored a touchdown in my books. I would drive out of my way 30 minutes just to have those heavenly pancakes. It's like a creamy marshmallowy dream that words will never be able to explain. More deliciousness please! Me likey.
Boots & Kimo's, I'm sure you make a BOMB breakfast because everyone tells me how you're the best on the island. Maybe you just had an off day? Maybe your boyfriend broke up with you and you need a personal day? Not sure who was working the kitchen but they need to stop smoking the pakalolo and work on making a better omelette.
1.5 stars for a 1.5 hour wait for absolutely nothing special.
I had my hopes up when a haole tourist came out and said "It's worth the wait." But boy was I disappointed.
Corned Beef Hash: nothing special.
Maui Wowie Omelet: nothing special.
Fried Rice: dry, bland, and only edible because I was hungry
Macadamia Pancakes: too sweet and if you don't eat it fast enough, the sauce soaks into the pancakes...and that's not really a good thing.
The service was brisk and nothing special.
In the end I left disappointed and felt as if I wasted my precious vacation time and my precious belly space at a joint that didn't deserve either.
So because the food was uninspiring, my review follows suit. I can't even write a "funny" or find something witty to say because I was that disappointed.
Definitely not worth the ridiculous wait.
MACADAMIA NUT PANCAKES!!! I got banana in mine as well, SO delicious!! I am a pancake snob, i always make them at home from scratch, so it's hard for me to like most restaurants pancakes.
They come with a nut cream sauce instead of syrup.
We had to wait about 20 minutes to be seated, but they take your order outside so everything takes no time at all to be served!!
My boyfriend got an omlette with cheese and sausage, awesome as well. Their hashbrowns were not the best, but after these 2 things, i couldn't have cared less.
I shall return, one day....
I've definitely had better banana macadamia pancakes on the mainland and the mac sauce was too sweet for my sweet tooth. If you do order the pancake, I would suggest getting the sauce on the side.
My dad had the rib eye with eggs. He wasn't too impressed. The steak was low quality meat. My mom had a seafood omelet. It was okay.
Let's just say the food was okay. I could've made better breakfast in my own kitchen. If you're staying in Honolulu, there's no need to drive to Kailua, an approximate 30 minute drive. In my case, there was road construction so the 30 minute drive became an hour drive. What a disappointment!
Sugar overload. The pancakes felt like it was going to develop diabetes from the first spoonful of their famous macademia nut pancakes. Very disappointing because I read so much about the place.
Breakfast is not the same after you've tried their food. The wait is incredibly long but the Banana Pancakes and Macadamia nut syrup is worth it. I hear Jack Johnson singing everytime I eat these bad boys. But wait. What wait? You can order take out and whisk the feast to Kailua beach and have a beach breakfast picnic. That's what we did and it was the best decision we made on our vacation. No wait and just azure blue waters (and lots of rad kite surfers). You must visit Boots & Kimo's. You really have to.
I went there once b/c my friends and my fiancee said this place was good while i went for vacay.
i fell in love with MACADAMIA NUTS PANCAKES! IT'S TO DIE FOR! honestly NEVER in my life i had such good pancakes! i love banana pancakes, but it usually comes on the side or just not right, when i tried it with the macadamia nut syrup ... i couldn't stop ! i finished it in less than 10 minutes! it was so good~ i wanted to go back sOOooOo bad, but had other plans :(
the breakfast stuff was good too, but that's my number 1 choice! i don't even care if i was on a diet, i want more of it!!!!
the bad thing was that it's a small place and rather packed inside (seating) It's so packed there that ppl wait long time. We waited a good 30 min. i think, but SO WORTH THE WAIT !!!!
Went to Boots & Kimo's twice on this last trip. Yes, twice. You wanna make something of it?
Had the mac nut pancakes each time, although had a short stack (2) the second time since I wanted to have something to come back to on my next trip to Oahu. Also had the pulehu ribs (I have to remember not to get this next time, it's like whatever for kalbi), and also had a side of corned beef hash (soooo good), and hash browns (soooo good).
Wait wasn't too bad either time (Thursday and Saturday). I guess they changed a bit since I was last there. You go in to the counter and put your name down, they hand you a menu, then they come out and take your order. When they call you to sit down, your drinks are already on the table and your food follows shortly. Love how they're improving the process!
I wouldn't have been insulted if someone had told me and my mac nut pancakes to get a room, because… Read more »
Awesome pancakes with an even better macadamia nut cream sauce. We had the banana pancake, which was a perfect pairing to the rich sauce. My portuguese sausage omelet was nicely cooked too.
Check out Kailua beach after you're done.
Disappointed to say the least, I didn't mind the wait but the fact that they took our order 15 - 20 minutes before we were seated and there were 4 open tables after seating us we still had to wait for the food, It seemed like they only cooked an order when they had two or more as the table that came in after us would get their exact same order as we received ours, one at a time, I received my order the other table would receive the exact same order, a few minutes later my son would get his order the next table would receive the same order, a few minutes later my wife would receive her order and another table would receive the same order.
The food was incredibly sweet, the Banana pancakes with macadamia nut sauce which is their specialty was like eating pancakes with melted ice cream whipped with sugar, the hollandaise sauce on the eggs benedict was also too sweet for my taste, not to mention that a side order of Portuguese sausage, 3 pieces was $3.
The worst part of this was when we received the bill, the total for the three of us was $60,
I added up our order and the total was $38, I asked the waitress how they came up with
$60 and she said "I don't know, I'll check" she walked away and a few minutes later someone else brought us another bill, slapped it on the table face down and walked away without even looking at us or apologizing for the error. We will NEVER eat here again.
Boots & Kimo's is one of Oahu's quintessential breakfast locals. Tucked in the back streets of quaint Kailua Town, crowds line-up outside early waiting patiently for a seat inside the unbelievably small café. Once inside, the walls are covered with sports memorabilia. It's always busy and get's busier as the day goes on. Get there early and when I say early I mean 7 am. Otherwise have a seat on the benches outside and look over the menu. The two things you musts try are the pancakes drowned in delicious creamy Macadamia Nut Sauce and Portuguese Sausage that is imported from Maui. It's relatively cheap and parking is easy to find along the back street it sits on.
We got to Boots & Kimo's at about 8:30 a.m. It was my first time so I was excited because I'd heard good things about the restaurant. I really like that they take your order while you wait. (The wait was about 15 minutes.) In less than five minutes after we were seated, our food was delivered to the table.
We ordered two omelets; I should've written down the names but in my excitement, I forgot! Anyway, my omelet had ham, cheese, peppers and tomatoes and my friend's had corned beef hash, onions, tomatoes and cheese. Since they're famous for their banana mac nut pancakes, we ordered a short stack of those as well.
My advice: just go straight for the banana mac nut pancakes. Get them and get them in the largest quantity possible! These pancakes were the best I've ever tasted. They were moist with many bananas and sweet, yet light and fluffy.
I normally like to control the amount of syrup on my pancakes. Here, they just pour on the macadamia nut syrup. It was OK though. In fact, they have perfected the pour - something an amateur would not have been able to accomplish.
The restaurant doesn't accept credit cards so bring cash. We didn't realize that so my friend ended up having to walk to a nearby bank machine, which wasn't far but still a hassle.
All I have to say is Banana Macadamia Nut Pankcakes!!!
This place is soooo good! When we checked into our hotel (in Ko Olina) we asked the valet staff where to get good eats in Oahu. Boots & Kimo's was the first thing that came out of their mouth. They told us about how good the Macadamia sauce was and how tons of resultants try to copy it but NO ONE can get it like B&K.
So we made the 45MINUTE DRIVE from our hotel to the restaurant...I thought we would never get there. It was sooo worth the drive. The pancakes were mouth watering. I have no idea how a sauce can be soo good! The hubby got a garlic chicken plate with rice and mac salad - that was also tasty. But nothing can compare to my flapjacks! If we would have found this place at the beginning of our trip we most definitely would have returned for round 2:)
First night on the islands from Dallas and my wife and I were up at 4am (still use to central time zone). we decided to go watch the sunrise on Sandy Beach park, afterwards we looked for any breakfast place in nearby Hawaii Kai and could not find any. Luckily the Yelp iphone app helped us out, and decided to go into Kailua for breakfast and chose Boots and Kimo's (we were planning on going to the beach at Lanikai's anyway).
Pulling up I was a little discouraged with all the people waiting outside and I thought to myself man we are going to wait forever. Well I dropped my wife off in front as I looked for a nearby parking spot. To my surprise she told me that they only have about a dozen small tables inside but they actually take your orders while you are waiting, being in the restaurant biz I knew it would be a shorter "table turn" and it wouldnt be as long as expected. When it was near our time to be seated one of the waiters called our name and asked what our order was, and about 5 minutes later we were seated at our table and the pre-ordered Kona coffee and Passion fruit/Orange/Guava juice were brought to us. Not long after that our food arrived and I was HAPPY!..... ONOLICIOUS!!
Having been raised on the islands I always crave for local food when I come back, I had the Spam Omelette with steam Rice and shoyu, and the wife had a veggie Omelette with a side of Portuguese sausage (the sausage was my idea for her to order, I can never find good portuguese sausage on the mainland). We also shared B&K's signature dish the Macadamia nut pancakes which were very impressive, a little on the sweet side but I thought it was an excellent dessert to my already good breakfast entree.
The dining area itself is very small but overall I really enjoyed it. It is giving Cafe Haleiwa some competition for my fave breakfast spot on Oahu!
Macadamia Nut Pancakes....I love you.
This place was PACKED when we went. I think the wait time was 30-40 minutes. Did we wait....no way jose!
Listen to the fellow yelpers and do this:
CALL AND ORDER TO-GO! That's exactly what I did and I'm glad we didn't have to wait in the hot sun for our brunch.
I ordered their famous mac pancakes. The sauce is DIVINE! We also ordered the Portuguese sausage omelet. This was also very very good. I wanted to try their fried rice with the omelet but it was already gone by 11 am!!!! So I had to settle for their so-so hash browns.
This is a must-try place in Hawaii....that pancake sauce is sinful.
I admit, the service is less than commendable, the wait is painfully long on the weekends, and the faux brick wallpaper and Denver Broncos memorabilia makes me cringe and want to attack the walls with a fresh coat of paint all at the same time. Everyone knows if the daughter who works at the cash register is in a good mood or not depending on if she's singing along to 98.5 or if she's barking orders to the guys in the kitchen. Mama-san is always sitting in the back right booth counting money and the uber-collectible O.J. Simpson football memorabilia poster still hangs on the wall- can't imagine why it hasn't been bought yet. These are all things you can count on when you go to Boots and Kimo's and there's something oddly comforting about that. I honestly think it adds to its charm.
Bottom line, the banana pancakes with the mac nut sauce are the bomb-dot-com and the portuguese sausage omelette is TDF. When you stop being irritated with all the imperfections and just embrace the good 'ol hole-in-the-wall charm you'll enjoy yourself. You'll be so engrossed in making sure you didn't leave a drop of that sauce left on your plate that you won't even hear the off-key singing coming from behind the cash register.
I've eaten at truck stops in Utah with better food. How this place has 4-5 stars is a mystery; has anyone in the islands eaten at a breakfast joint other than at a Las Vegas Casino? I've made better pancakes accidentally while driving asleep in my truck. I admit confusion. The Mac. Sauce tasted like a bowl of sugar with crouton chunks--and the wait staff? Man, they are just awful. They have anti-aloha magnets stuck in their foam domes. Go spend your money somewhere else.
One word - disappointment! Sat in line (with hungry preggo wife mind you) for 40 minutes for this place based on all these reviews from so-called "pancake experts". And all we got were chewy and rubbery pankcakes in a sauce that's way too sweet -- and I have a major sweet tooth! The omelettes were bad as well. We live in Kailua and won't ever be back. We'd rather take the drive over the Pali to Liliha Bakery for some nice fluffy pancakes with regular syrup than wait for bad ones in our own backyard.
All the hype about this place and no go. Yes i admit the banana pancakes with the famous macadamia nut sauce is awesome (that is what gave it two stars). The bacon was bluh as well as the potatoes we ordered. It was okay but nothing spectacular. Maybe because it was busy and the ambiance was not the greatest. I think because I was looking forward to it sooo much because of all of the hype around this place that I was disappointed it was mediocre. Anyways the service was okay, seemed like we were small kine rushed but its okay. Overall two star experience!
This place does NOT live up to the hype it has somehow received. The only good thing here is the mac sauce that comes on top of the pancakes. The pancakes themselves aren't anything special. The egg dishes are overly greasy tasting, the bacon tastes like pig flesh and the water tastes contaminated.
The atmosphere is awful (small, tight, cramped, sweaty) and the employees are douchebags. They don't give a shit that you're there, especially if you're white. DO NOT waste your time waiting outside for this place. If you want the mac sauce banana cakes, call in a take out order.
A bite of their banana pancakes with macadamia nut sauce was like having a bite of heaven in my mouth. Flufffy and sweet and oh so delicious. We got here at 12:30pm on a Thursday and only waited 20 minutes. Service was quick and nice, too. Our spam and egg plate was generic but the pancakes were simply divine.
Like you didn't see it in the previous reviews, but seriously, just get the Banana Pancakes with Macadamia nut sauce and a side of Portuguese Sausage. Your taste buds will thank you.
Oh yeah, the Guava crepes aren't too shabby either. Make sure to arrive early and remember everything here is on island time.
I've been to Boots & Kimo's a few more times and the only things palatable in there are the pancakes. The omelettes are terrible (with runny, sweet fillings and a hard, thin, opposite-of-fluffy exterior), the fried rice is junk, the wait is too long, and the service blows.
I finally made it down to Boots & Kimo's for the banana pancakes with macadamia nut sauce, and it… Read more »
Jo G. hit it on the head with their review below. The food is decent... if there was no wait I would probably go there every once in a while... with the lines & the cramped dining room its definitely not worth it.
The macadamia nut pancakes are overrated people... they were a no brainer to recreate at home and superior to the restaurant version... i am NOT a particularly great cook. My enhanced version with chunks of macadamia nut, 70% chocolate chunks & dried pineapple were far superior to the Boots & Kimo original.
As Jo indicated the sauce is based on Condense Milk.. you can make it at home by blending Macadamia Nut Butter (available at Whole Foods) with Condensed Milk, a little bit of Vanilla & some Evaporated Milk and you are good to go. Yes its very tasty but nothing you can't easily replicate at home.
This place has the best macadamia pancakes. Did not have to wait more than ten minutes, must have got lucky. But I did not try anything else. I see there's another Mark Y, don't confuse me with him Lol.
mediocre food terrible service. one star proudly said.
This is one of the things I'm looking forward to the most in going back to oahu, right next to trying kiteboarding sans broken nose, and attempting to surf... although both will have locals in stitches....
The Mac nut french toast. Oh man. OH MAN. If the friends I had been with on my first journey would have let me eat here every morning? i would have.
If they would have told me: hey, its okay, we'll turn the other cheek as you mainline the mac sauce, I'dve been stoked.
But, alas, I are here twice. Both times, Mac nut french toast. Both times: epic.
Sure, Its small.
Sure, you wait.
OMG CASH ONLY! (I'm from San Francisco, I got realll used to this practice, and realized that almost all the places that are like that, are awesome places with good people running them)
Its certainly worth the trip =)
Luckily we didn't have any wait at all when we went to Kimo's on a Saturday September morning at around 8AM. The mac nut pancakes were solid and very tasty, it definitely has a very unique taste that I've never tried on pancakes before. I had the regular pancakes but if I went back again, I'd get the mac nut pancakes with banana pancakes. My friend who is a local said that the "secret" sauce is made with some kind of ice cream base. Regardless of what the sauce is made of, these mac nut pancakes have to be tried out when you visit the Kailua area.
Da best pancakes with macadamia nut sauce I've EVER had! For those of you who are leary of sauce that might be too sweet and syrupy - fear not. It's the lightest, most edible pancakes I've ever had. Usually, I'm done after a few bites but this - I could eat 2 plates worth.
Egg products and spam/portuguese sausage are pretty standard. Go for the pancakes! And go early or expect to wait.
awesome macnut pancakes, the best sauce on the island! they use a ice cream base or something and once you take a bite you wanna keep going back to boots and kimos! i used to go once a week to eat just the pancakes.
only downside is you have to wait sometimes 30 plus minutes to get in, small seating and everyone wants to eat there. service is not always great, food is not cheap but at the end of the day its worth it!
Solid 4 for the Mac Nut Sauce on the pancakes, minus a star for the wait. I normally would say this place should expand but on second thought it might loose its "dive" feel. The only reason to come visit would be to taste the Mac Nut Sauce. I would put it on must try list but you must have time to wait to be seated. Well you're in Hawaii so time moves slow anyways.
or better yet order ahead for take out!
Kailua, HI
Category: Bakeries
Kailua, HI
Category: Breakfast & Brunch
Kailua, HI
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