808 Grindz Cafe

Had an amazing breakfast this morning, I had the Kalua pork hash bene and my wife had the Mac nut waffle with a side order of adobo fried. The food was AWESOME and the portions were generous.
The big island is definitely lacking in good breakfast spots so I’m glad we decided to try 808 Grindz. Hands down best breakfast with great affordable prices on the Big Island.
Customer service was excellent, the young guy (I think his parents own the place) was very friendly. And the older guy was also very friendly.

This place was awesome. The service was second to none and the breakfast was close to one of the best I’ve ever had. Try the fried rice you will not be disappointed.

It was easy to find, lots of parking and the ambience was great — lotsa local people having a good time to start the day off.
We had the mac syrup pancakes — that was awesome! Yeh, that was our side dish — I was working on my loco moco and my wife had some special I wasn’t looking at her food cause I was too busy strafing a line right down the middle of my plate.
Uncle was helping out that day, the atmosphere is really home style laid back, but the service is ‘on’… uncle was right there with the coffee every time.
I will definitely be back to work down the other side of the menu. Ono… jus one ono place fo grind.

The place seems shady at first, but when you walk in your greeted quickly. The service was great! They had drinks on the table very quick and had our orders in relatively fast. The food was fantastic; not one member of my family was not satisfied. Give it a try, you won’t regret it.

Excellent service! I walked in immediately after they opened. Water and coffee served immediately. Ren provided great service.
The food… Delicious, well flavored food and HUGE portions. For breakfast I ordered a Pork Loco Moco with fried rice. You may be thinking, WTF is that??? Well, it’s an adobe style fried rice, non greasy with pieces of bbq pork, then gravy, then shredded pork – generous amount, juicy and tender, topped with two over easy eggs. Delicious! I’d come back again and again:-)

The boyfriend wanted some epic fried rice for breakfast on our last day in Kona. He certainly got just that! The smoked pork and adobo fried rice with over easy egg was beyond delicious, while I satisfied my sweet tooth with some fluffy macadamia nut pancakes.
With super kind staff, a local atmosphere, and convenient location, 808 Grindz is one of the foodie highlights of our trip to the Big Island!

Loved this place. Really cute little casual café, where the walls are filled with thousands of signatures and notes from customers written in sharpies. They have a fantastic menu, lots of good specials, and reasonable prices. I got the roasted pork omelet which had this tasty crispy pork and delicious homemade gravy. Service was very friendly too. Felt very welcomed like we were family. Such a great experience and so glad we found this place on Unilocal for our trip to Big Island. I will be back next time!

Thank you fellow Unilocalers for sharing this wonderful restaurant with me. We were planning on going to Broke Da Mouth Grindz but wanted to stay close to our hotel (Sheraton Kona Resort & Spa at Keauhou Bay). I did a search on Hawaiian food and 808 Grindz Café came out with stellar reviews. So off to 808 we go. It’s a small hole in the wall restaurant with one waiter. He is probably the nicest, hardest working waiter I have ever met. He was so patience with all my crazy questions on the food. He spent time explaining the items to us while still keeping all his customers happy with his service. We ordered the following:
Mochiko Chicken with rice and mac salad ($ 10) — LOTS of chicken!!! tender juicy battered chicken pieces fried to perfection. I totally recommend this.
Adobo Fried Rice ($ 10) — YUM!!! That is all I can say. You just gotta order this to know what I’m talking about.
Kalua Pork Hash with an over easy egg ($ 9) — My husband loved it!!! lots of pork with tons of flavor.
Red Velvet Waffle ($ 6) — This was good. We probably won’t order it again. To us, it was just a red color waffle.
1 pancake ($ 2.50) — huge piece of pancake, my daughter loved it!!!
We’re going back to the Big Island in January 2017 so we’re looking forward to going again.

I believed in the hype and I was let down! (mostly because of the pancakes with macadamia syrup)
Customer Service:
It was cool. The place has a home like feel which was awesome since I was getting home sick. The man that was working was very friendly and had a relaxed vibe. At times, he was a little too comfortable but overall, he was attentive and got the order correct. Friends of mine actually enjoyed him very much and compared our dining experience to a dinner and show. Agree to disagree.
Parking/​Décor:
Parking is plenty! I found a spot right in front!
The décor is tropical with a hut awning on one wall and murals painted on the two others. The place can be small depending on the crowd but there was an open table when I got there. There is also a bar where solo diners can have their meals, instead of taking an entire table.
Food:
I ordered eggs and hush browns, which were all sides. It was pretty delicious! The eggs were cooked perfectly, sunny side up! and the hush browns were freshly made or cooked.
I was stoked to try the macadamia pancakes!
There are Hawaiian restaurants around here in SoCal, however I wanted to experience the real thing.
I did not like the pancakes. There was no macadamia nut in the pancakes, it was all in the syrup and some pieces were sprinkled on top. The syrup is this gravy like consistency and eating it with the dense pancake was not what I was expecting. On their own, they weren’t delicious, so combining them didn’t help.
I didn’t finish my order and they were very large. I have to give it up to the portion size! If I was digging the pancakes, the portion would have been awesome, but it was more daunting!
At least I can say I’ve had macadamia nut pancakes from Hawai’i and I’m cool with that.

Everything we ordered was delicious, the macadamia nut pancakes with the sweet sauce was superb. The salmon Benedict was also very good. My little guy is super picky with food and he ate his French toast and fried rice and said, «I love your rice mom»!! If we lived here we’d be regular customers like the locals. Aloha my friends your food is delicious and the service was outstanding!

Kalua pork benedict was really good. The pork hash is good quality and the hollandaise is good. This is a sit down place but you can order to go if you want.

We had a great breakfast here! Mac Nut Pancakes, and adobo fried rice were killer! Highly recommend it.

It may not look like a fancy spot but 808 Gridz has really nice food. We came here for breakfast after reading good reviews. Ordered cawa banga and fish Benedict. Such a nice family environment, friendly staff and good food. It is definitely worth revisiting!

Talk about Aloha spirit! The waiter/​host was so friendly, he was super talkative and very informative about menu items. The food was delicious. The moco Locos were HUGE for 8 – 10 $. Good food, big portions and the cheapest meal we’ve had
on the island.
The place is a little hard to find, it’s in a strip mall on the right side.

Besides having great food the staff was friendly. Bring your appetite cause the portions are not small. Could eat breakfast here everyday.
Mahalo 808 Grindz Café.

Food was a bit too salty for my taste. The café has a local hawaiian hut beachy feel to it. Several writings on the wall. Waitstaff was overly friendly that he slipped me a note and was inappropriate.
Didn’t really come for that. So thanks but no thanks.

During my honeymoon here in Hawaii, I had the chance to try some of the delicacies. One of the best food here is loco moco for me.
This morning I had breakfast at 808 Grindz Café. The one thing I wanted to order was the loco moco. I came expecting nothing due to the previous loco mocos i had at different places in Hawaii.
The service was great, the waiter actually recommended certain items and advised me to get my 808 Grindz Moco with fried rice instead of white rice. It was the right decision.
When the meal came, my first thought was «the portion is HUGE». I tried the patty and it was super delicious. The gravy on top of it with runny sunny side up egg completed the mix. The fried rice enhanced the already rich flavors.
All in all, it was a wonderful experience for me and I’m definitely coming back for more.

Roast pork with gravy on adobo fried rice broke da mouth!
Husband said the 808 locomoco was the best he’s eaten in this trip. And the servings were very generous.
Small place in a little strip mall you might drive right past it like we did, but don’t give up… behind dominos pizza!

Cute little spot just down the road (up the hill I should say) from the central Kailua kona town. Locally owned and run, the father was so adorable!
The food was great! I wanted to order everything but we settled on the Kalua pig Benedict, Portuguese sausage breakfast and side of Adobo fried rice. Yum! And cheap! Bf ordered a side of chocolate chip pancakes which were good but I would’ve loved to try the kona coffee ones on special or regular with a one of their house made syrups. Loco mocos, a whole page on the menu of them, yes please! My favorite part was the adobo though.
It’s small with not much to the décor, meh I don’t need much especially for breakfast. This place had just what I needed though.

THIS is the best local joint on this island.
My cuzin be makin me adobo and fried rice, urrryday.
The loco moco selection, the breakfast, the coffee, the service, the décor, the vibe…
…hands-​down, No Ka’ Oi
Mahalo