Armbar Sports Bar and Grill

After not being to this place for months, I’ve decided to give it one more shot hoping that their service would be improved and the bartender actually learned how to make some decent drinks. NOPE. Same old, these guys will probably never change. Service was bad just like my last visit, and the bartender waters down almost every drink. Had to waive down the server every time just to get a drink. Only giving 2 stars because the food was good.

I had my heart set on getting the loco moco, which I heard was made from three different meats. Sadly, during my first trip to Armbar, I found out this specific loco moco doesn’t exist anymore. The current loco moco does feature a homemade patty, but it no longer has that signature kalua pork or wasabi aioli. Darn, but good to know, so my expectations aren’t as high next time.
A friend and I went to Armbar for dinner recently on a Saturday evening. The place is rather dark, but since we went around 6:30 p.m., it was pretty empty, save for a few loud groups who were sitting in close proximity to us.
We were able to pick our seats and the server came over quickly to take our drink and food orders. The one thing that caught me off guard was that the tables are plastered with larger-​than-​life faces of buxom women … I didn’t like the feeling of being «stared» at while I ate, but what can you expect; I suppose it is a sports bar, after all.
My friend and I enjoyed our food and there’s a lot to choose from on the menu. I would love to try some of the other menu items, but this place isn’t exactly the cheapest. Entrees range from $ 13 – 16, so things can add up fast. Also, even though our food came out fast, it took forever for our server to bring back the check and close us out … and they weren’t even busy! But, other than that – and the disappointing fact that the loco moco I wanted was no longer available – my first experience at Armbar was decent, thanks to the food.
Here’s what my friend and I got:
«Getting Loco for a Moco»: Even though this is not the version I wanted, my friend still wanted to order the loco moco, and I had a bite. I have to admit, it was still tasty, even though it didn’t have that kalua pork and wasabi aioi I so wanted. This version featured two local 100 percent grass-​fed, hand-​crafted beef patties that came topped with a sweet, mushroom port demi-​glaze, two eggs over easy and white rice. The demi-​glaze gravy had to be the best part of this entrée. The patty was juicy and tender, but I really enjoyed the slightly sweeter taste of the gravy, which was perfectly thick in consistency. I normally don’t love mushrooms – and the ones included in this dish were bigger and succulent – but they really added to this entrée and gave it a welcomed chewy texture. The entrée also included a good amount of gravy; I don’t like it when there’s rice leftover and nothing to cover it with. Even though this entrée wasn’t what I expected, it was still enjoyable.
«Carnivore Galore Fried Rice»: This has to be one of my favorite fried rice entrees … ever. Normally, I like my fried rice to be plain and simple — with just bacon or spam and eggs. But, this savory concoction worked well. It featured lup cheong, char siu, Portuguese sausage, a few veggies and an egg of your choice. I got mine over easy so that wonderful, glorious egg yolk could drench everything. This is definitely a fried rice dish fit for carnivores. I loved the thick-​cut chunks of lup cheong and I could aptly taste and enjoy the Portuguese sausage and char siu. I told myself I would only eat half of the entrée … but ended up finishing the entire thing. In one sitting. It was that good!

Place is great to watch the games and food was good. Ordered the arm bar fries, korean fried chicken, and fried rice which was very delicious. Our waitress was the only server taking orders so glad that the place wasn’t too busy. Will definitely be back to try other items on the menu.

Yaaaaay!!! Went back recently because it’s so close to home. Their happy hour is now every day from 1 — 5 pm! Woohoo! That means on weekends too!
Chicken was real pieces no longer tiny, bitty crumbs pretending to be chicken.
Armbar fries were still good.
Hopefully, they have their groove back and will not change again!

Lemme start by saying it’s not just a bar… But a fusion-​menu full service restaurant. If they are slower than usual it’s cause it’s always packed! Let a manager know before leaving a bad review. It’s not fair to The Arm Bar to have a bad rating without a chance to fix an issue– which they do instantly!
The place is perfect! It’s Forget some of these reviews.
8 beers on tap– recommend Stella or IPA! Food is fusion and is a full restaurant menu, so it’s not just a bat
The bar is beautiful and I ALWAYS will recommend it. Lots of fun, the custom octagon for parties rocks. Some tables have images on them. Show all football and fights. The major feature is the Bruce Lee motif. Very inspiring.

I’ll be honest I’m not going to write a long one. I’ll just get straight to the point.
Came here to escape the craziness of Aiea Bowl. Love the theme, atmosphere and service!
I wish there were more bars that were clean, friendly and affordable like this in town.
Guess I found a new reason to come to Aiea!

We had a loco moco, a yakisoba, an arm bar’s fries, and a mixed of orchard and something beer (hahah I forgot the name). Everything was pretty good and was given decent portion for the price. Super friendly customer service. Pretty chill and casual atmosphere. I would come here again when I come back to visit Aiea.

We stopped in for lunch and to watch the seahawks game on a Sunday afternoon. The place was pretty empty.
The concept is awesome, and this looks like it would be a fun place to watch a game. Service was friendly, and decently quick.
Prices and serving size on the pupus was pretty silly. The presentation was nice, but it was not worth the price.

I’ve been to this bar many times and I’d give it one star. The service is thier downfall.
I came to watch football and drink. The service is ALWAYS slow and rude. This place could really make a big improvement starting with thier employees attitude!
The food was just decent. We ordered the garlic fries, chicken wings and calamari.
The drinks were decent. The wait was longer than it should have been for how busy it was. Or I should say, wasn’t.
I came to this bar when it very first opened and there was a guy bartender and he was awesome. I can’t remember his name, but he was fast, efficient and friendly.
This bar is always a disappointment, I’ll save my money and find a new place to watch football.

My friends and I love coming here to chill. We can have a few drinks without having to drive to town and get dressed up.
I love the theme of the bar, UFC! How awesome is that??? Right now, its only downfall is that it gets hot in there. The place does get crowded and with crowds comes the heat. Don’t let that scare you off though.
My friends and I will usually get a few pitchers of beer to start with. For food, they have great sushi and pretty much any food dish i’ve tried has been good!
The staff is really friendly and always handing out free food samples.
I’ve seen people complain about parking here, but if you’re like me and mostly go to bars at night then you won’t have a problem with that.

The only reason I’d go here is to meet up with friends because of convenience and I was in the area. Service was okay; the bartender was very nice and pleasant.
BUT!
1) parking is a definite issue at this shopping center
2) if the air conditioner was on, I could not feel it. It had to be 80 degrees or higher in at concrete box of theirs.
3) Front door doesn’t close unless you help it close when you enter or exit.
4) Food= didn’t try any but it smelled good going past my seat to another patron
5) Drink beer or wine= their normal pour is ½ the regular size
6) Cleanliness= second to par (sorry! the counter top was sticky didn’t check the restroom facilities as that would have been a tell all on the housekeeping)
CONCLUSION– I will go here only because I’m in the area and it is convenient to meet up with my friends and constituents in the west area. I will drink a glass of wine (or 2) and I will definitely try some food. MAYBE, just maybe, I may have to kudos them for the eats… stay tuned

I was on the way back from North Shore and decided I didn’t want to cook so I looked at my Unilocal bucket list aka bookmarks and this was on it. It’s a cool little set up with an octagon inside it. They were having game night and had out chess and a few other games. I ordered the Korean chicken and a beer as it was recommended by the bartender. I wasn’t super impressed with the kalbi sauce however it was tasty otherwise. The service was a little slow, but I know the bartender was cleaning and doing her list for the night. I would come back and try something else if I had friends with me. Food is large «family» style and meant to share. It was a little much for me alone.
This is located to the right of Times Supermarket in the corner below Aiea Bowl.

This place may be one of the few bars that I would definitely go back to. I mean what other bar in Hawaii has an octagon cage in the middle of the room that you can reserve for your party to sit inside? Came here for our friend’s going away get-​together and had no idea about this place beforehand. I asked my co-​worker if she’d ever been and where it exactly was, and she said it was tucked away in the corner right next to the Times Super Market in the Aiea Shopping Center lower parking lot; can’t see it from the road.
Happy hour ends at 6pm and on the Thurs we came the Armbar Fries and Korean Chicken were on special. The food here is SO GOOD. In addition to the fries and chicken, we ordered the cung le buns, and carnivore galore fried rice. None of these dissapointed. When I come back I’d like to try their noodles and other cocktail concoctions reasonably priced at $ 9.
This place has one of the more pleasant bar type atmosphere’s without the heavy smoke smell that I’m used to getting when I first walk into bars. They offer large screen TV’s if you want to catch a game, 4 dart boards, and near the bar there’s a modern jukebox music player that you can select music to play in the bar as well. The waitresses are pretty busy but really do their best at making sure your well taken care of.

Ok so I’ve been to this establishment a handful of times with our friends that live in Aiea. I only wanted to write a review in hopes of the management or someone in charge will take notice. First off it’s a bar I know it can be dirty, sticky, smelly. I wish they would either put something anything like plastic/​tablecloth/​paper on the yucky tables. Bathroom is a joke… omg. Beer on draft $ 3 – 5 not bad. Not much selection for those who like variety. The mixed drinks are overpriced and not good. Stick with normal drinks please!
Food: oh why do you folks keep changing? Couple months ago it was better… now the portion is smaller, dish is smaller, too salty! Pretty much if your on a low sodium diet your shit out of luck. Armbar fries sweet salty was ok but too much bonito flakes! Would be great for people who want that but I think would be better on the side so people that don’t want it have a chance to eat it. We got both the Korean chicken and Armbar chicken, tasted almost identical and so so tiny pieces… is it in a food chopper? So weird and unappealing. Please make it bigger pieces as mostly guys eat in there… seriously counted not even 10 ladies inside. My last gripe is the Poutine fries… ok has the cook been to Canada? No? The least they could do is read a book, look online anything. Gravy too salty, where is the egg and cheese? Totally not a poutine… not sure what it really was ugh. Please improve as this is such a sweet spot for central and westsiders. I do want to thank the tall blonde that helped us tonight she got us all waters (never happens) order was correct (thank goodness because the other two times I went it was wrong and not only that they forgot my beer for an hour! And top it off with dropping a beer bottle but the guy gave us a complementary lite Hine yuck no one drank it) epic fail, did not see him tonight guess he got fired. Oops sorry side story.
When I return I expect improvements!!!

Lots of parking which was a plus to me. You must go for Pau hana fridays because it’s not as busy as you would think. The service was awesome. The waitress came back to fill water ever time and the food was prepared too fast. Portions could’ve been better though. Nice presentation but I went there to eat. Prior pictures on Unilocal looked way different. We had the beef yakisoba, armbar fries — very good with lots of Bonito shavings, calamari — too much décor and only 4 small squid cut up into tiny pieces, tiny zombie chicken pieces — what was the zombie about it, I didn’t feel super about the superman punch though — it was okay.
The octagon cage in the middle of the bar had tables and chairs. Lol next time we go in there. It was fun and will definitely go back. 4 STARS for the service, food came out too fast, atmosphere was very comfortable, highly recommend Pau hana fridays there.
MOOD: Had the confused face but yet satisfied!

La-​la-​la-​flippin’ brillll-​iant! So tell me your honest thoughts on Thai iced tea with vodka? …genius right!?! Well — you can find thus at this fine establishment. I moved to the Aiea area in January 2014, and was searching for ‘a’ local bar that I can call my local bar.
Well, flash forward to present, the food when this place was on the newer side was better. The presentation has slacked and the quality. The food is still yummy — but a lil sloppy compared to a year ago.
I gave this fine place four stars… not five because I know they can bump up their game!

Had quite a pleasant recent first time visit here with the buddies. Given the place being called ‘arm bar’ and it having a miniature octagon in the place, you’d think it was strictly for MMA enthusiasts. I was quite surprised realizing it was rather a sports bar and grill that really caters to everyone.
Location– Former kapiolani coffee shop stall underneath aiea bowl. Parking is free and very accessible which is a major plus.
Atmosphere — Considering this was a sports bar and grill, it was very clean. Even with an octagon in the middle of the place, there was a lot of room for tables and to move around. 4 – 5 huge mounted flat screen TVs making it easy to get a good view to watch from anywhere inside. Tables, chairs and other décor was quite modern with a sporty industrial feel vs a grungy traditional sports bars. Also place is very safe, I don’t recommend bringing kids here but incase it happens you are in good hands.
Service — Our server was very pleasant and very efficient on top of that. Our drinks were always topped off at our request, food came out in reasonable time. Staff had fun working yet carried themselves in a very professional manner.
Food — A great mix of menu items to satisfy both people who are looking for comfort bar food and those with a more refined pallet. Typical price of appetizers were between $ 5-​$ 12 and dinner items under $ 16-​$ 18. I enjoyed the names given for their menu items, really shows the thought and pride put into the food. Portions were just right, although I felt a bit stumped with the size of their Korean fried chicken. Unilocal pictures show it enough to fill a standard dinner plate yet our trip yielded barely an appetizer size. It had to barely be 1 chicken thigh at best, disappointed because the flavors were indeed there. Minus that everything else warrants another visit and regular visits in the future.
Verdict — Place is great for everyone, a night out with friends and even a relaxed night out with that significant other. Great bar and grill addition to the area which honestly is lacking something of this level. Places like this need to be supported and need to remain in business. Arm bar really has a great choke hold on it’s competition, no pun intended.

This bar could easily be overlooked. It is nestled in the right corner next to Times in Aiea Shopping center, which offers a lot of parking. The entrance is actually under the escalator that leads upstairs.
Food: In general, the food we got was good. Not amazing, but good. I ordered the friend rice, which was loaded with Chinese sausage and char sui. Unfortunately, the sausage made the rice a little too greasy for my liking.
Service: Out waitress was extremely nice and friendly, so this next part isn’t her fault. All of our food came out at different times over a span of 10 minutes. It’s in our culture to wait until everyone gets their food before eating. So, some of the food that arrived early was cold by the time we started to chow down.
Environment: The place was pretty empty when we were there. The chairs were a little cheapy, and looked like they could break, but overall a good space for sporting events. They do have an octagon cage in the middle, but it’s only for eating. No fighting allowed.

This is a really nice big bar nestled in the corner of the Aiea Shopping Center on the first floor (below McDonald’s and bowling alley) to the right of Times Supermarket so parking is plentiful.
They take reservations for groups of 15 or more but deposit is required.
Tables are situated to the right and left of the entrance, the bar is at the far right corner and the kitchen is behind the cage at the far wall.
Big Screen TVs hung at the corners of the right side of the room are huge and the place is spacious and clean.
Beer pints seem to be reasonably priced. Food is served with presentation in mind and is for the most part, pretty darned tasty.
They have a variety of fries, plain, garlic, and a fancier Arm Bar ($ 7) with bonito flakes.
Their ramen soup ($ 13) comes served with some pretty awesome toppings except that the noodles are really just Sapporo Ichiban packaged ramen :(
Their fried noodles come topped with choice of crumbled beef or piece of steak.
Yeah, I’d go there again :)

Ample Parking
Easy to find.
Food: TASTY!
Although my husband and I only ordered 2 entrees off their menu, both dishes were delicious! My husband especially LOVED their Armbar Fries in fact the next day he wouldn’t stop talking about it and wants to go there this weekend.
2^nd entrée we ordered was their own twist to a Loco Moco… this dish had like 3 different types of meat, your regular grassfed beef patty, Kalua pork and short ribs. It definitely was quite an experience. That plate feeds about 2 people so kudos to you if you’re able to devour that entire plate yourself!
I am holding back on that extra star because I do plan on coming back and trying other things on their menu and I’m not sure if their AC was broken but it was hella hot inside! Tables need to be wiped thoroughly because it was sticky! other than that the ambience is pretty laid back.