Hula Girl Bar & Grill

Just had lunch at Hula Girl Bar & Grill and the service was great. We had Edamame, Spam musubi, and kahlua pork gau gee for appetizers. They were all good. Also had the katsu chicken sandwich. It was also good. Everything was just… good. Not great, just good.

This would be 3.5 stars to me, but I’m rounding up because the people were great, and this restaurant evoked numerous smile-​worthy Hawaii memories and plans. Hula Girl serves Hawaiian food with a fancier bent — not ‘fancy Hawaiian food,’ but just Hawaiian food made fancier than the usual, with prices to match. The fried rice and the malasadas were both outstanding. The mai tai and the Auntie Marialani’s Hamburger Deluxe are very good. The edamame was good, but I could’ve used more sea salt. The Spicy Hula cocktail had great spice and the pineapple sparking wine had solid flavor, but both were _​way_​too sweet for me.
The staff was warm, friendly, and patient. The restaurant’s an open, comfortable, bright place. Two TVs above the bar were showing old, cool surfing documentaries (via satellite or some other replayable medium). I’d definitely return!

Writing this review for other Hawaiians out there on a search to get their local kine grinds fix at their home away from home mostly because unless you’re from the islands, you don’t know what is good local food if you never had it. So trust me, this Hawaiian knows good food and I hope to give a little more reliable review of this place so you can decide if it’s worth the trip for you.
Location, atmosphere, cleanliness and customer service is great and that is what they get 2 stars for.
I ordered the Kalua Pig plate lunch. I wanted to love it so much as this place deserves a good rating but it was wrong in every way. My meat was red/​pink (see photo), very little cabbage, had kind of a sour taste and definitely not enough liquid smoke to give that Kalua taste. The plate also included rice and Mac salad. The Mac salad was on point and would’ve tasted great with a loco moco (although I’ve never had the loco moco here). The price was $ 17 which is pretty pricy, serving size was local kine portions (big) but still not worth the price and I would not order this again.
My daughter had a $ 3 spam musubi. She enjoyed it but still claims it is not better than her mama’s (that’s me… lol). The presentation was cute, $ 3 is pricy for a musubi but it didn’t break the bank.
My girlfriend had the Mahi Mahi Sandwich/​burger with her choice of 2 sides, Mac salad and fries. She said it was ok but she wouldn’t order it again. She agreed that the Mac salad was on point but stated the fries wasn’t anything to rave about. I don’t remember the price for this dish.
Lastly, we ordered the $ 7 malassadas. It came with 3 small pieces of a donut like substance… lol. If you from the islands, let’s just say this ain’t no Leonard’s bakery. The malassadas came out nice and hot and was ok. They were small and not worth $ 7. My girlfriend described it as more of a donut that a malassadas. It was very dense and not light and fluffy like a real malassadas. We would not order this again for $ 7.
All in all, I wouldn’t go out of my way to come here but one day I would like to try the poke bowl. One of the workers there who is also a local claims that it is winnahz so if she’s right, that’ll be pretty awesome to know a place to get one here. So if I could give you some advise, if you’re in the area try it! But don’t go out of your way to drive here and don’t order anything that we ordered.

We liked this place, but didn’t LOVE it. To be fair, we only tried apps. The service was decent, although the server didn’t know they were out of something and he didn’t know how to describe what the fish of the day was.
Inside was clean and pretty empty. Outside was packed.
We tried: poke sampler (tuna, salmon, octopus), ribs (supposed to have a root beer glaze), and the Katsu style musubi. I also got a waialua mango soda.
Poke sampler: comes with chips that were tasty. The poke itself was pretty middle of the road. The seasoning was similar on all three types and a little too gingery for my taste.
Katsu style musubi: there were 5 pieces. It was good. My favorite of the bunch.
Waialua Root Beer Ribs: comes with a side of pickled radish and carrot. The ribs by themselves are decent, but taste better when paired with the pickles. It was a little more bitter than I expected, but I liked that they weren’t overly sweet.
Kid friendly?
Sort of. They have high chairs, boosters, and kid’s cups. But, they don’t have a changing table in the bathroom and the menu isn’t super kid friendly. We ended up ordering our tot a fried egg side. The hubby was appalled than one egg cost $ 3.00. The wait staff also kept putting the dishes of food directly in front of our 9 month old, whose favorite activity is suddenly throwing things on the floor. I mean… Every single thing they served they put in front of him.

I’m originally from Hawaii and consider myself a relatively seasoned Hawaiian food eater… I was sooo bummed when I moved to the DMV and there was no Hawaiian joint in sight! (Not even an L&L, for real?! Wtf)…So I was excited to hear about this opening and have been meaning to try it for a while. I’ll admit I tried the food truck by the same name (same owner) back when I first moved here in 2013, and I was not impressed (the spam musubi was so dryyy). But I figured a brick-​and-​morter version might be different. I was surprised that the interior wasn’t too kitschy… It’s actually pretty plain inside. And very bright lighting! It feels more like a daytime or very, very casual family dinner spot.
A-​ok is a good description for the food. It’s not the most authentic Hawaiian, but it satisfied my craving. Then again, given the lack of Hawaiian food in the area and total unfamiliarity with it (people think spam is disgusting. what), I can totally understand Hula Girl’s motives for not cooking super authentic Hawaiian food and instead catering it more towards the haole (you East Coasters can google that word), upper-​middle-​class Shirlington crowd. That is def what the food tasted like… Dumbed-​down Hawaiian. The tuna poke was really bomb, though, best thing I tried there — fresh fish and I was impressed with how generous the appetizer size was! The tuna was cut into huge cubes and the sauce wasn’t overpowering at all… So good! But it was served with nasty unseasoned fried wonton wrappers… I guess for scooping the tuna?! Idk, but the fish is fine on it’s own/​with rice or maybe would have been nice paired with some pickled cucumbers or avocado. The kalua pig was superrr salty (which it actually normally is, so i wasn’t thrown off by that as much as maybe people who’ve never tried it might be!) but there was NO cabbage mixed in with it! The katsu musubi was actually pretty good, but I happen to love spam musubi so maybe I’m biased… It’s lightly fried and served with teriyaki and spicy mayo sauces. Not authentic musubi but flavorful! Could have definitely used more spam and less rice though (skimping on spam, the cheapest meat on the planet, is a no-​no). Skip the teriyaki chicken plate lunch (P.S.: plate lunch is just what a slang term for «meal» in Hawaii, you can order the plate lunches for dinner as well!). Chicken teri is dry and needed wayyyy more sauce. Waialua sticky root beer wings were pretty good… the sauce was slightly sweet and delish. Nothing special in the slightest. They also have some hawaiian beers on the drink menu. Try the Lilikoi Kepolo if you like a fruitier beer (it’s a hint of passionfruit!).
Service was pretty good and honestly I will probably be back to try more and to get my musubi/​poke fix. I wasn’t blown away but wasn’t disappointed either.

I was definitely excited to try this Hawaiian fusion restaurant, but unfortunately I left pretty unsatisfied. Just a couple of thoughts…
–Drinks: Pricey. The cocktail that my sister ordered cost just as much as her entrée. I mean it was a good cocktail… but not THAT good. I ordered a glass of wine for $ 12 and the portion was tiny. I finished it in probably 4 sips (which I tried to time evenly throughout the course of my meal).
–Appetizer: I do have to say that the Tuna Poke was delicious. The marinade was spot on and the flavors worked very well together. We enjoyed that dish very much!
–Entrees: I got the roasted char sui bahn mi sandwich and my sister ordered the chicken teriyaki sandwich. Portions were pretty big and I appreciated that we could choose any two sides with no extra charge. For our sides, we ordered the grilled baby bok choy, fried rice, onion rings, and french fries. Bok choy was fantastic! It was grilled and had the perfect amount of charred/​smoky taste to it. Fried rice was okay, and the onion rings and french fries were just drenched in oil. The sandwiches were pretty average, we both only ended up eating half of it. My boyfriend ordered the root beer sticky ribs. He absolutely loved them, but I thought it was too salty and there was an overbearing teriyaki flavor to it. They also didn’t have that much meat on them either.
Overall, the food was meh for the price. I really wanted to like this place… I guess we just didn;t order the right things.

Solid 3.5
The tuna poke was pretty fantastic: sashimi grade tuna with the perfect amount of salt, soy, sesame oil and seasoning. I could have eaten an entire bowl of this and been supremely happy. –1 star for the oddly oily wonton chips it was served with.
The lomi wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t spectacular — the salmon wasn’t tasty as the tuna. I usually love salmon, but the stuff in the lomi wasn’t quite right.
The Kahlua pork appetizer was a disappointment: basically fried wontons stuffed with dry, shredded pork. Pass!
Pass on the spam musubi also: spam was thin (come on, don’t be stingy on the spam!) And rice was too mushy. Also, pricey because you basically get one full sized musubi with the thinnest spam cut into 4 pieces.
Friend got a teriyaki burger with onion rings. Burger was not medium rare as ordered, (closer to med well), and onion rings were cold and weirdly doughy.
Another friend had the teriyaki steak, and that was very good.
Coffee was stupendous. I’d go back just for this and the tuna poke.
In all, decent, but not as awesome as I’d hoped. Service was great though.

I’ve eaten from the food truck, I’ve waited for local kine grinds in DC, and they’ve arrived. Friendly staff, great bar selection, amazing happy hour selections, and a local menu. I just wish there was lau lau. Go, eat, drink, repeat. Then do it again.
I tried the tempura fried spam musubi, the kalua pork sliders, and the edamame. Good beer, we’ll mixed drinks behind the bar, and good service. Just go, you won’t regret it.

Hula Girl was a solid 3.5* for me!
Spam Musubi — Who can resist ordering rice and spam wrapped in seaweed. Nothing special but decent price for what you get.
Kalua Pork & Cabbage — I was not a big fan of the consistency of the pork. Salty and mushy but definitely edible. Priced at $ 16, I felt like it should of been at least 4 bucks less.
Huli-​Huli Chicken — My favorite of the bunch! Reminded me of Peruvian chicken but definitely more crave-​worthy with the Huli-​Huli sauce. Again, the price was a bit much for me ($ 21). I absolutely loved it but it’s not affordable.
FINAL THOUGHTS: When you think of Hawaiian cuisine, you think of comfort food that’s born out of necessity. The prices didn’t really fit that vibe for me. I did edge my rating to a 4 just because everyone there had the aloha spirit. Mahalo!

LOVED this place. First of all, our waitress was awesome – she was cool and helpful, was always there when we needed her but not omnipresent. And the vibe just made me feel like I could maybe possibly be in Hawaii with some cutoff shorts even though it was so cold outside!
I had the Never Below 75 cocktail, which tasted like Asia. It was a little bit more syrupy than I would have preferred, but I still really liked it because it was so unique. For food, I got the root beer sticky ribs – the sauce was SO delicious even though there wasn’t a *whole* lot of meat on there. And the kitchen sink fried rice and onion rings, which I devoured. We wrapped up with the coffee pot du crème, which was SO decadent and yet light because the coffee balanced out the richness – really delicious and I would totally get it again.
I would totally come back here and maybe sit at the bar to try some more cocktails and I want the coconut porter!

This review is three times in the making. The first time I tried coming in, they had a power outage, the second time a crippling plumbing issue, and honestly the third time when I was seen didn’t make my two prior trips quite worth it.
I love Hawaiian food, and used to have it often. I was really excited to hear that there was going to be a venue for it in the DC metro area, but frankly, it’s just okay. I tried the Loco Moco and the Chicken Katsu. Both were just okay. The Loco Moco patties were overcooked, but the gravy was very good. The chicken katsu was just okay. The rice and Mac salad were very good.
My main thing is that I really wanted to love this food, and I didn’t. This is coupled with slow service, and even though there are large portions, the prices are exorbitant! To top it off, they only do spam musubi, and don’t have short ribs.
It’s good Hawaiian food, but far from great. Worth going to, but not worth especially making at trip for

I’m really pleased that there’s an authentic Hawaiian food restaurant in Alexandria.
If you’re looking for legit authentic food, this is about as close as you can get. Plate lunch, spam musubi, and ahi poke; Hula Girl runs the entire gamut of comfort food favorites. Everything I tried was delicious, and I particularly enjoyed the wailua sticky ribs and poke.
…that said, one of the largest rewards of a real plate lunch is the price. This is a meal that on the islands runs you between 5 – 10 dollars, and comes with two scoops rice/​mac, some meat, and a little bit of salad. It will stick to your ribs and fill you up, but is no-​frills.
Hula girl is delicious, but the prices are pretty exorbitant. Entrees here are comparably priced with dinner prices anywhere else, but for ALL meals, and are very small portion sizes. Service was spotty when we came in; we had a large crowd, and a problem in the kitchen caused about an hour wait. The staff apologized, but didn’t offer to send us some drinks or dessert.
I’d definitely come back, because the food was delicious, but the price point makes it a special occasion, and the hassle of parking in Shirlington village is a wet blanket on the experience. I truly hope Hula girl sticks around for the long haul, as it’s a unique experience in this area.

I love Hawaiian food so really wanted to like this place but my main thought can be summed up in one word: underwhelming.
Came here with a big group of 12 for a birthday dinner and we pretty much ordered the majority of the menu. The waitress gave great service though, you should not try to force your wait staff to insert awkward Hawaiian phrases. The pronunciation and kitschy-​ness she presented her Hawaiian phrases with was borderline offensive to a group of mostly islanders. Also «plantation tea»? I don’t know what kind of plantation the owner is conjuring up, but this was not a celebrated moment in Native Hawaiian history, so weird they are playing it up as a drink special.
Food thoughts:
–spam musubi — The spam was not pan friend in teriyaki sauce. This is a basic musubi 101 cooking tip. Bland for a musubi which is weird. Rice was also really dry.
–Kalua pork gau chee — Gau chee is one of my favorite take out foods at Hawaiian Chinese places but here all they did was put dry salty «kalua pork» in a wonton wrapper and fry it. The gau chee filling is supposed to be made of juicy seasoned meat. So sad.
–North Shore shrimp — Bland. I don’t think the cook has ever had shrimp truck shrimp before. It needs a lot more garlic, butter and needs more heat on the wok. Also they didn’t use the right kind of shrimp. I’m no shrimp expert but it just wasn’t anything like kahuku shrimp — maybe like kahuku shrimp’s baby cousin?
–chicken katsu — Well breaded, fairly moist, one of the better dishes.
–loco moco — No flavor in the gravy. I don’t know how gravy lacks umami but somehow here it did. Burger patty all dried out too.
–waialua root beer sticky ribs — best dish I tried, generous helping of ribs, tender meat, and great sauce. Not really Hawaiian but not complaining since it was tasty.
–huli huli chicken — So so so dry and bland. Couldn’t finish the small bite I was given to try.
–ponzu cucumber — Where is the ponzu? Where is the acidity? It was just watery cucumbers.
All in all, they attempted plate lunch food for not-​plate lunch prices which I can overlook if the food is good but it was overall dry and bland so we won’t be back.

Hula Girl Bar and Grill is a fun addition to the Shirlington neighborhood. Inside– it has the feel of a Hawaiian beach bar– it’s bright, colorful, and makes a good use of the space. It was so inviting, my friends and I had to stop in.
The menu is fairly straightforward but filled with Hawaiian treats. My friends I decided to split the ahi poke and I ordered the chicken katsu. The poke was so delicious. The marinade was flavorful. the fish was fresh, and embraced the bright flavors. The entrée portion was much larger than I anticipated. The chicken katsu was good; the breading was crunchy and the dipping sauce definitely had a kick.
Service was decent throughout the night. Our server was friendly and made good recommendations for food. Definitely recommend a visit!

First, I want to say that I love what the owner did with the space. For design alone, this business would be considered a winner. It’s cheery, beachy, tropical, yet sleek. Themed without being over-​the-​top, or cutesy.
However, food is foremost when you’re going to a restaurant so Hula Girl only makes the cut if they succeed in this department. From what we sampled last weekend, it seems like they’ve managed to to recreate some Hawaiian dishes on non-​Hawaiian soil, making a much talked about but less available cuisine more accessible to Washingtonians.
The salmon poke was zesty, fresh, and very flavorful. My only request is that they tone down the salt a little. Then it would be perfect. The blistered shishito peppers were also a nice small bite. Really wanted hubby to try the loco moco, but he didn’t want to have such a big meal that day. We’ll try next time and see if this famous lunch plate hits the spot.
Obviously, I’m a fan of the ambiance. And I thought the food was good. I’m a little surprised by the super critical reviews. Hula Girl isn’t perfect, but it’s better than its average rating on Unilocal

I’ve been to Hawaii at least a half dozen times and I know my Spam Musubi, Loco Moco, curry Katsu, and North Shore Shrimp.
I was incredibly disappointed with hula girl. The restaurant ambiance did not feel Hawaiian. The waiter we had might have been the rudest waiter I have ever had, he rolled his eyes and snorted when we asked to split the check. He was totally not on top of our meal, other ppl were basically checking on us the whole time.
The spam musubi was salty and lacked the sweetness that you expect. Truly, I can say that even 7 – 11 in Hawaii does a better job.
The POG just came out of a can– you can get more lazy than that.
The loco moco was tasteless– I needed to add salt and pepper. And why it was not served over the rice to get the runny eggs onto the rice is beyond me. The rice itself tastes like it had been scooped out a long time in advance. It was not fresh and steamy, but rather dry and luke warm.
The north shore shrimp was not buttery or garlicky, it actually was dry and not worth the effort of peeling the shell.
The root beer ribs I make at home taste better, there was so little meat. The flavor didn’t seem marinated in.
The malasada was literally just like the sugar donuts you get at cheap Chinese buffets. They were definitely a rip off.
Overall, I would never come back, it doesn’t reflect Hawaii in taste, in price, or ambiance. Save your money. Or make your own. I know I will.

Meh, disappointing. My fiancé and I recently visited Hula Girl (located in the middle of Shirlington Village) to get take-​out. The place was quite packed! It’s very casual and they have cool Hawaiian touristy décor.
I ordered the ahi tuna poke appetizer, as well as the Hula Girl Truck Salad (mixed lettuce, edamame, green onions, macadamia nuts, cucumbers, pickled daikon carrots, soy-​ginger vinaigrette), plus chicken (extra $ 3). I liked the ahi tuna poke, though it didn’t taste as fresh as it could. But I really didn’t like the salad. It wasn’t very tasty and the chicken was too charred. It really wasn’t worth what I spent for it. My fiancé ordered the Mahi Mahi sandwich (brioche bun, wood grilled, shishito tartar sauce, mixed lettuce). It came with two sides (he opted for white rice and bok choy). His sandwich was $ 15 but barely came with any meat and he said it was overall bland.
Overall, I was not impressed. Even the service while getting our to-​go order was not the nicest.
It’s nice to have a Hawaiian restaurant around, but this place was disappointing. We’ll be on the lookout for other Hawaiian restaurants in the DC area in the future.

Tasty food, awesome Island vibe — as soon as you walk into Hula Girl Bar & Grill you can definitely feel the Aloha spirit! I loved all the little touches in the restaurant that gave it the Hawaiian feel — from the flop flop wall and the Spam can chopstick holders to the surfboards hanging from the ceiling and little hula girl figurines — you can definitely tell that a lot of attention was paid to decorating the establishment.
We came on a chilly Saturday evening and started off our meal with the Wailua Root Beer Sticky Ribs (pork ribs grilled and brushed with root beer glaze). The ribs definitely lived up to their name — they were sticky! — but for us, the taste was just ok. For the price of this appetizer ($ 12), I expected to receive more than just 4 pork ribs on a plate.
For our main dishes we had the Kalua Pork & Cabbage served with 2 scoops rice and mac salad along with the Huli-​Huli Chicken with Kitchen Sink Fried Rice. Personally, I found both the Kalua Pork and the Huli-​Huli Chicken to be overly salty. My favorite item was the Kitchen Sink Fried Rice — simply delicious and loaded with flavor, although I wish there was more meat in it. The servings we received were unfortunately filled with big white chunks of char siu fat and no meat!
Overall, the food was good, albeit overpriced. We may come again to Hula Girl Bar & Grill to try some other items if we are in the Shirlington area.

Aloha! What a fantastic taste treat, a Hawaiian flavor explosion that would make Don Ho proud. The Hula Girl Bar &Grill offers authentic island fare that is straight from the North Shore. Surprisingly, some of its reviews are a little low, but I think this might be due to the fact that some reviewers may not be familiar with this type of food, For me, it is as good as anything I sampled in Oahu.
I started off with a delicious order of Spam Musabi, a spam sushi that will make you shout Mahalo all day long, This musabi is loaded with a sweet teriyaki spam that is simply mouthwatering. I followed this up with a traditional plate of Loco Moco which was so filling that I had no chance of finishing it… Bring on the to-​go box, please! My loco moco was very hearty, and the perfect compliment to this loco moco feast was Hula Girl’s sweet teriyaki sauce.
I washed it all down with several glasses of Bikini Blonde beer, a Maui favorite. This smooth larger will conjure images of grass skirts and luaus. My bartender Rhyse was very helpful with my beer selection, I felt the service was excellent. Another thing that I noticed about Hula Girl’s is that the restaurant seems to be family friendly. Normally, I’m not such a fan of the family atmosphere, but the staff seemed to do a nice job of keeping the little ones entertained, so I say let the little ones luau like King Kamehameha.
Hands down, Hula Girl’s is a wonderful little spot with tasty entrees, delivering a unique dinning experience that is not to missed. I’ve already checked out some another items on their menu and plan to return for their delicious poke. yum! Yeah, Hula Girl’s Bar & Grill puts a big Aloha smile on my face and makes want to say, Mahalo!

My boyfriend grew up on Oahu and we recently vacationed there in September. He just moved back to DC and I wanted to surprise him with a trip to Hula Girl. We had to drive from Fairfax on a Friday night and it took an hour and a half to get to Shirlington because of ridiculous traffic on 66. When we got there at 9pm, we had to wait about 15 minutes to be seated. The place was packed. But it was worth it.
I really didn’t know whether I should get the garlic shrimp (which I ate nearly everyday while we were in Hawaii) or the chicken katsu (katsu being a new favorite of mine after living in Korea last year). I ended up going for the shrimp and honestly, they weren’t very garlic-​y and I was a tad disappointed. They weren’t bad, they just weren’t like they were on the islands.
However, my boyfriend ordered the chicken katsu and it was great! He also got some spam musubi (any place that considers themselves Hawaiian MUST sell this). He loved it and asked for a second order, but requested it not to be sliced. He wanted it more authentic and they gave it to him.
We will return again to try some ahi poke and malasadas!