David's Hawaiian Drive Inn
- Price Range: $
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Street
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: Yes
- Good for Kids: Yes
- Takes Reservations: No
- Delivers: No
- Take-out: Yes
- Waiter Service: No
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: No
- Good for: Lunch, Dinner
- Alcohol: None
21 reviews
Redwood City, CA
"5 stars for one hearing a lady explain why she as a Democrat will vote for McCain. And then me leaving a restaurant full with good food in…" read more »
22 Reviews for David's Hawaiian Drive Inn
This place is pretty good for the price, Parking kinda sucks around the area since its on El Camino. Great Hang Over food ! Try the moco loco....yes I know that sonds like some wicked snot coming out of your nose...but its great for you, if you don't mind going over you 2000 calorie limit for the day ! You can change up the order with any dish if you want. For instance if you want 2 scoops of rice instead of one rice and one mac salad you can do that. The place is a little run down on the inside but some what clean, don't go in there expecting a biohazzard clean room tho. They also have a big screen tv from the late 80's that usually has sports on. All in all this place is pretty close to authentic hawaiian food....Well thats what my friend from Hawaii said. So give it a try.
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For a while, this was the only Hawaiian plate lunch place between Daly City and Palo Alto. Trying to find parking in front is a pain, but there is a lot in the back, and you can enter through the back of the restaurant (past the overstock of drinks and water). Inside, the place is dark and, like what Lolia S. noted, tables (and seats) are a little sticky. Large projection TV playing in the back. Depending who has control of the remote, ESPN may on, or Cartoon Network.
Cheap and lots! Portions are big and cheap. Brown, black, and white, typical primary colors of a plate lunch (no green). Mac salad is OK, but too much mayo for my taste. Chicken Katsu is good, but you have to eat it fresh, otherwise it could be a bit too chewy. Short ribs are good, as well chicken teriyaki. Loco Moco is huge, and filled me up for the rest of the day. Consider this another plate lunch place in the growing number of Hawaiian plate lunch joints opening up along the Peninsula.
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It's a dive and it's on the block of El Camino with sketchy bars and adult stores (watch out for vomit on the sidewalk), but David's is actually a decent Chinese/Hawaiian place run by a cute Chinese couple (man and wife?). They have some Chinese dishes, including won ton soup, chow mein, chow fun, some Asian sandwiches, in addition to burgers and Hawaiian rice plates.
The place is much larger than I thought. The tables are sticky and they have way too many fake plants. The open kitchen looks clean enough. Meals are cheap and filling. There are plenty of Hawaiian plates for $5.35 and the most expensive is the $7.25 seafood plate. The plates come with two scoops of rice and macaroni salad. I had the Hawaiian BBQ chicken plate ($5.35) which is CHEAP.
* BBQ chicken: You get two large strips that are tender and boneless, but too salty
* Rice: Big portion of warm, short grain rice
* Macaroni salad: Better than average for a Hawaiian joint because it's not as creamy and doesn't have as much mayo. It looked like it had barely visible carrot slivers in it. I'd like some larger carrot slivers. I wouldn't mind the crunch of fresh veggies in my mac salad, e.g., carrots, celery, onions.
* Shredded, boiled cabbage: Nice touch as it added a bit of crunch. I wouldn't mind having more of it but I like vegetables.
They don't seem to have sriracha but they do have Chinese hot sauce. You have to ask for it. The food is more like a 2.5 but it's a good value and mom & pop business.
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I admit I didn't have high expectations for this place going in but holy crap this is bad food. I'd just got back from 2 weeks in Maui and wanted some authentic Hawiian food, you know some Spam fried rice, tender pork spare ribs something like that. True these items are on the menu but they are so poorly prepared I wonder if these people have ever even been to Hawaii.
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I was back in Redwood City to take care of some business. Being a little busy and hectic, my lunch break must be cut short. One of my co-workers told me to check out this Hawaiian take-out place on El Camino between Broadway and Brewster St. He called and gave me a dub to pick up our meals. It sounds fair to me. I'm not complaining.
I know coming to Redwood City or any city, there are the nice and jagged areas. This Hawaiian takeout spot is definitely in a busy and rough part of town. I still would walk my kids here in RWC than my beloved Bayview/Hunter Points area back home.
My co-worker called and ordered the Beef Teriyaki meal and I ordered the Chicken Katsu meal. Both of our cheap meals at $5.25 had the meats, two scoops of rice and macaroni-salad. Those two lunches were the cheapest out all the "BIG MAN" Hawaiian meals for lunch
When I got back to my office; I saw the usual huge portion-size of Chicken Katsu in a Styrofoam container. I took a bite at the very first piece. The chicken pieces were paper thin, despite having a powerful crunch with the heavy batter. This place is kind of stingy with the meat. My co-worker's meat in his beef teriyaki plate was kind of tough and wasn't even that good after experiencing a bite from his.
This so-called Hawaiian place is operated by friendly Cantonese-speaking peeps. This restaurant also serves Chinese food as well. With the prices being reasonable, I came back later in the evening and picked up dinner for wife and kids and a quick snack for Matt. I ordered a plate of Beef and Chinese Broccoli over white rice for $5.25. (Yes, Chinese broccoli in a Hawaiian restaurant.) I also ordered a half dozen of Spam Musubi and Barbecue Chicken Musubi (3 & 3) at $1.75 each. I had one of the Spam Musubi and that sucker is equivalent of a cartridge of an AK-47. Nevertheless, it was fresh and tasty with a quenching $1.00 can of Hawaiian Sun: Orange and Mango Hawaiian soda.
My lunch was a disappointment, but my dinner wasn't too bad and faired better according to my family. With the "price is right", I might come here for just the Chinese food.
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The meal started off with me burning the inside of my throat when eating a bite of my kalua pork and cabbage, great. Having been to Hawaii and eating my share of plate lunch, this place isn't very good. I haven't come back here for over 5 years, still surprised the place was still open and hoping, hoping it had gotten better. It was still a greasy dive. The pork and cabbage had a lot of gravy/corn starch to it, more chinese style I guess. The pork had no smoked flavor. It was no kalua pork. And being it's still Earth Day week, it was rough to see them using styrofoam containers and seeing the garbage. :-(
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So i recently came here with friends after some volunteer work. So this was my first Hawaiian food experience at a restaurant. Basically the dishes looked like the Nick Tahoe's Garbage plates back home. However instead of home fries there is rice. I was quite excited as there is a dish called Loco Moco, which is common breakfast food I was told. Basically 2 burgers a fried egg, rice and mac salad. Sounded sooo good. But what I got was a cold fried egg, a 2 tough tasteless burgers. Man so disappointing. I think thought that I am going to make the same thing at home though the right way sometime. Sorry David's Drive inn, not so good.
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Parking was nearly impossible, though we went on a Friday night so it could have explained why we had to walk three blocks to get here.
The restaurant was small, uncrowded, nothing fancy. We ordered a BBQ mixed plate, which they cooked to order on the spot. Portions were okay, not quite as large as J&J's but not small either. Enough to feed both the bf&I with one plate.
The most notable item was the spare ribs, they tasted as if they'd been marinating for a long time, they were so flavorful! Also very tender, which is good because no one likes to sit and chew on the same piece of meat for three hours.
Where this place loses stars is with thier teri beef. For some reason, mine had huge chunks of ginger attached to it, which led to a very nasty surprise when I bit into it. I have a feeling that I just got unlucky on this one...
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This place is awesome!!! It has the hole in the wall feel which gives you the island barefoot feel............ while still........... delivering huge plates of meat with rice and mac. You can't go wrong with the food and the $$$$.
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For all the hot food goodness this place creates, its like eating in a giant freezer. Despite that, my co-workers and I enjoyed everything. I ordered the BBQ chicken and it was awesome. Their teriyaki sauce was just right, not too sweet or watered down. The rice was awesome, and their mac salad was better than Onos in terms of less mayo overwhelming the salad. Totally affordable lunch meal. Next time, we'll do a picnic lunch and enjoy their food under the warm sun..
Great place to pick up a fast order of inexpensive take-out.
Tofu/BBQ chicken combos are good. Shrimps too.
Good alternative to ordinary Chinese take-out. Probably more healthy. Funky ambience. "Unpretentious" would be the word.
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LUNCH REVIEW
Don't know if this place still belongs to David, or is still called "David's Hawaiian Drive Inn", as there was no mention or sign containing "David" (on the menu or outside). I guess there's a bunch of "Hawaiian Drive Inn" places in the Bay Area that were started (and sold) by the same couple... this is one of them.
THE FOOD
I ordered the Chicken Katsu plate. Decent-sized portion, was nicely coated and crispy. The macaroni salad was okay (better than L&L's which always tastes like its a cup of mayo seasoned with macaroni), but not very flavorful either (I'm not a big fan of mac salad period).
The food wasn't exceptional, but it wasn't bad either.
THE DECOR
Definitely "hole-in-the-wall" status, complete with neon side outside. Very basic set-up... I guess it would be on par with a "drive inn" in Hawaii.
I'd probably come back again when I feel like ingesting some deep-fried chicken again... it probably isn't quite as flavorful as the L&L that's closer to my work, but I'd mainly go here to support it as a local, "mom and pop" shop... less of a fast-food feel than L&L.
Note: the website on their menu doesn't work... but the OG Hawaiian Drive Inn site (complete with history) is available: www.hawaiiandriveinn.com.
Also, menu stated $10 min for Credit Cards... but the people before me charged their plate lunches, so who knows... maybe they regulars.
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The BBQ chicken plate is killer. It's my standard order. If I get anything else, then I always have food jealousy for the person who got the BBQ chicken plate (usually my wife).
Yes, it's a dive. Yes, it's kinda wierd. Get over it. This place has some of the best hawaiian style food around and it's cheap, as it should be. Grilled or deep-fried meat with lots of carbs on the side. And the mac salad is actually quite good - on the oniony side. mmmmm
Let me just say I created a Yelp account just to review HAWAIIAN DRIVE INN.... As the reviews I read just didn't do it justice.
I've been going here for the past 9 years just to get the BBQ chicken plate.... Even when I went away to school, I would travel the distance to get the BBQ chicken...
Yes, the decor is divey... And some of my friends refuse to dine there based on it's location/appearance.... But I love it...
I'm with Greg O on this place being a dive. I went here one time for a mini party... maybe the take-out is more suitable... but this place is weird. It has that very 80's feel, with the flourescent lamps, stackable chairs that have the vinyl torn and the stuffing coming out.... yes... the impressions of the decor overwhelmed anything I can remember of the food. But I don't remember the food being bad either.
With so many other HI places popping up here and there, hopefully this place cleans up a little bit before they go out of business.
This place is a total dive place. Don't expect much. However, you can't go wrong with their food. To me their chicken teriyaki is just right. Their macaroni salad tastes right...and I normally won't touch this at 99% of Hawaiian places. Their other Hawaiian plates are pretty good as well. They offer smaller plates as well for those who aren't very hungry.
To me this is the best Hawaiian food in the peninsula that I've found. There is a place in SF that make great poki, but this is great for basic Hawaiian drive inn food. I've tried 2 of the new Hawaiian places in San Mateo on 3rd ave., and they are terrible in taste compared to this place.
Give it a try, ignore the ambiance as you'll be disappointed. Makes me miss Hawaii. Totally what you'd expect if you went to a Hawaiian drive inn in Honolulu.
...If anyone has a better tasting place, I'm all ears.
Good place for spam musubi and loco moco. Cheap Hawaiian food (should there be any other kind?) and a decent attempt. Can't match the real stuff in paradise but the proximity to work makes it a winner for the once in a while heavy lunch that we crave. Helps me sleep through an afternoon of boring meetings.
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This place is cheap, and you get a lot of food. Not the cleanest place, but who cares with these prices.
I was hoping for chicken long rice or kalua pork or a plate lunch special, but alas....the food here is rather ordinary. It's "just ok". Save your lei for your suitcase, brah.
Chicken Katsu- Make sure you get the Katsu Sauce ask for extra if you have to... otherwise don't bother... The prices are insanly cheap. Get the mini meal it is plenty!
Fried feasts for cheap. The chicken katsu and short ribs are my favorite.
Food is okay, but nothing close to real local Hawaiian grines.
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