Puka Puka Kitchen in Hilo

I got the braised lamb and the chicken rice plates. The saffron rice was heavenly and the lamb was some of the juiciest most delicious lamb Ive ever had. Cant recommend this place enough.

The Covid cleaning was superb. Our meals were delicious. It is a tiny area with only a few tables, but worth the wait.

Delicious food with quick and kind service. The chicken katsu curry was outstanding.

Tasted good. Daily special was $7

Service was unfriendly and majah stink eye. Food was overcooked.

Good food...no shirt no service bathing suits a nono

Puka Puka Kitchen has tastey affordable bentos, a friendly atmosphere, and great selection. A local gem.

Food was good. Didnt really feel the welcome mat.

Some of the best katsu curry rice I’ve ever had!

Bentos have gotten a little smaller over the past two years, but the taste remains of high quality.

Robbery - $26 for their “Ahi Plate” = overly breaded and soggy few pieces of fish. Some lettuce leaves and a scoop of rice. Literally worse than a standard food court at your local mall.

Very bad service. 1: confirm a few times if we can drink before serving water 2: refuse to provide extra plate 3: my kids drop a little rice and the lady asked us to pick up and said it is messy. This is terrible!!!

One of those holes in the wall places that secretly has some of the best food in town. We got an ahi plate and shrmip curry special. Was cheap considering how much you got and the flavour. Owner (assuming she was the ownerwas nice and recommended good choices. 👍

A (hole in the walltype of place, walked in and they had a bunch of various bento to go. Picked up one that looked good, and went down by the bay to eat. Enjoyed the experience thoroughly. If you dont like waiting waiting, this place is a quick pick.

So I know it’s a small place and I know it doesn’t have fancy decor, but don’t worry about that - the food is astonishingly good. Arrived a little after lunch time and got a table. The lady (who btw is super, super nicetold us that on school days, their bento boxes sell out early because the nearby high schoolers buy them for lunch, so I had the ahi don plate. The salad was fresh and refreshing, the garlic rice was delicious, and the ahi was perfect in every way. I can’t wait to come back!

Got the Ahi, Vegetable, and lamb pita with garlic rice and salad. This is what Hawaii is all about!!The most amazing lunch, mahalo Auntie!

We came across this place by chance and I am so glad we did! Amazing people and excellent food. There are only a few small tables and the rest is take out but it is worth getting the food to go and eating it outside if you need to! I had the shrimp, which was perfectly cooked. The salad was so fresh and crisp with great flavor, and the rice is different from any other rice I had on the island... and it was delicious too! So glad we found this little gem!!! Thanks Puka Puka Kitchen!

The barbecue chicken and garlic rice are out of this world. Best food I had in Hilo

Everything about our meals, and time here was perfect. Easily the best meal we’ve had on 2 islands.

OMG the best Japanese style chicken I’ve ever had! It’s crispy but also not too dry. The ahi is the lady’s favourite but I feel so so.

Great place to get some bentos for takeouts.

I was not happy with the bowl special it said shrimp curry and it came with one shrimp in it

Got a Katsu bowl and veggie bowl. Nothing impressive here, bites of fried chicken with white rice and a tiny cup of tamarind sauce or something like it. Veggie bowl was forgetful.

It’s a very small shop but great food. Even the mini plate has good portion.

Amazingly flavorful food. Cant wait to come back again.- Garden salad + seared fish- Seared Ahi plateOut of the world!

My family said it was the best chicken katsu theyve ever had and every bite of the Ahi Don was absolutely delicious. The garlic rice is a must and the salad gorgeous.

Awesome and friendly service with good, locally sourced food. At a glance the place does not look like much, but it is totally worth going here. Ill be back.

The lamb and saffron rice are worth the drive from Kona....my favorite is a "special" to ask for as along as you tip like me....it s a fried eggplant pita...

Meh! The food at this place wasnt as great as everyone makes it out to seem. The rice was mixed with some spices that were definitely not to my or my partners taste. We felt the portion size of the seared ahi was extremely small compared to other restaurants we had ahi at and definitely way too small for the price. And the cooked veggies were soaking in oil. It was kind of gross to see that much oil being used. Overall the food was average and the customer service is bad. The lady taking our order rolled her eyes at us when we asked her for recommendations because we didnt know what to get. In addition the food took them 25-30 mins to prepare and we weren’t welcome to sit inside so we had to stand outside the store in the cold and rain for that time. Kinda disappointed after seeing all the raving reviews of this place.

We ordered seafood platter and shrimp curry, both are terrible. The platter is greasy and not tasty at all. Shrimp Curry is only $6 but most of it is white rice. One bad shrimp, little plain curry. When the waitress asked, I told her not too much curry sauce I have and she said it’s only $6 so what would you expect. Speechless.

Very good falafel and chicken pita more than enough quantities for 1 person. The hard kid fried rice was amazing! Tahini was a bit on bitter side. Fries/wedges could be crispier.

Amazing! One of my favorite meals we had on the Big Island! The salad dressing is out of this world. The rice is perfect. And the seafood was fresh and delicious.

We have eaten at some of the most popular lunch spots in Kona, Volcano, and Hilo. We believe this is the best food weve had on the entire island. The food was absolutely bursting with flavor. The service was awesome. I felt like I needed a meal with lots of veggies. I ordered the sauteed ahi and was not disappointed. The fish was served over veggies with a side of salad and rice.

Arrived in Hilo for a quick lunch, and decided to get the daily special Katsu Chicken bowl ($6). The quantity and quality of the food was great. However, with only person in front of me, I did not expect it to take so long before being even acknowledged for a take out order. I think it took at least 40 minutes for what was intended to be a quick stop. Id call ahead next time. (Also - There are 3 small tables indoors).

Amazing food and service but really small. My party of 9 took up all of the tables and we had to grab an extra chair. I’d recommend calling ahead so that you can make sure there is enough room.

The food here is great. The service is great. Theres only 3 tables so youre probably better off getting takeout. The rice here stole the show. The falafel pita was pretty good though difficult to eat. They were out of a few items as well. The rice and service keep this place at 5 🌟

We got the sautéed lamb plate which was DELICIOUS. So tender & flavorful. The rice was amazing as well as the salad. The lady, who I believe owns the place, was so sweet. If we weren’t leaving today, we’d be back!

My husband and I stopped by here by chance while driving the edge of the island. Their food was by far the best food we had on our whole honeymoon! I wish I had asked for their recipe for Garlic Fried Rice, I still dream about it!!! The shop is cute and small with Heavenly food ❤

The hostess is very friendly. We ordered lamb. Its perfect, as described by another reviewer. The salad is delicious. The garlic (tasted like curryrice is very nice, too. After we finished that plate, we added a chicken tatsu plate. Very delicious, too. Crispy outside and tender inside.

Awesome hole in the wall in Hilo. Nice location and great food for the price! Quick service and wonderful staff.

You can either order the bigger plates or grab one of the packaged assortments to go. The assortments range from $2-$5, good food for even better prices.Spam musubi was only $2 and comes with 2 thin slices of tamagoyaki. The spam musubi was great, and the tamagoyaki was better than some of the ones I had in Japan!

Great service and good food at affordable prices

We stopped here for the unagi Bento! Great prices here especially for unagi, it was super tender and came with side dishes that complimented the unagi in flavour as well as texture.

Love their this chicken katsu plate!Katsu is so good even with the curry rice!!Staff is very nice too! Recommend here!

Great hole on the wall restaurant. The place is very small but the food was amazing. I got the lamb pita and it was incredible. I see myself coming here for lunch often.

Eating here was one of my favorite experiences on the island. The staff is so warm and friendly. The food is absolutely worth the price. Portions are geneeous and so flavorful. You cant go weong with the ahi options. I didnt think I would like cooked ahi, its so good raw! But I did not regret my decision and neither will you if you eat here!

Cute little hole in the wall restaurant in downtown Hilo with a few tables. The fried seafood and ahi plates with fried rice and fresh salad were tasty. The bulk of their business seemed to be take out orders & bentos. Due to limited space and staff combined with take out orders called in, the wait time can be a little longer than expected but so worth it.

I got crispy shrimp dish for lunch and BBQ eels bento for my Mountain Kea sunset trip dinner. The BBQ Eels bento is so so good.

The Ahi Don and Lamb here is incredible. Comes with light salad and ginger rice. So flavorful and yummy! Theres very limited seating so go on an off time or be prepared to hang out for a bit.

Best quick bite around. It is not cheap, but it also super yummy and inexpensive compare to other places in town. Chicken katsu is $13, the lamb combo $18, is some of the best lamb I had, I usually dont like them. Rice is super good as well. Highly recommended.