Foodland

As a grocery store, Foodland has quite a diverse selection. That said they are also quite expensive in comparison to other stores of similar size.
What I am writing about however, is the poke. If you live in Hawaii and you haven’t had poke, you’re missing out. Truly it is one of the best meal choices, cubed sashimi grade seafood with various sauces and seasonings with rice topping and your choice of white or brown rice.
As you can imagine, with a food this good, everyone wants to try their hand at it. This means that there are a ton of mediocre, gummy, stale, pre-​frozen, and overpriced poke across all the island chains. The clear winner in my book for the island of Oahu is surprisingly Foodland!
I’ve only had fresh, crisp fish, and perfectly cooked rice, both white and brown. The poke chefs are always friendly, helpful, and ready with a toothpick of a sample for those of us who are indecisive. Absolutely delicious and well priced!

I like simple things. I love my friends, even those that can be a tad bit sarcastic in public (I LOVE a good smart ass!), while being gentile in private, or not.
Life is just a series of single day lives, 365 lives in one year, you live each day like it’s your last, close your eyes and when (if?) you wake, start a new one. There’s no going back.
I never gave Foodland a second thought, till one day I happen upon a paper friends review. I scoffed (I know I read this but now question my memory as said review is no more? Perhaps dementia at the onset? Can this be?) as I seem to remember her overzealous ranting of the taste of Foodland poke? Poke from Foodland? That was the beginning of friendship… poke.
So I tried some (I am so easily influenced!) and you know what? Foodland dose a damn good job, but not only that, they break it down for you. You can sample and ask questions, which I find brilliant. What better than great poke and knowledge about what you’re consuming?
Here’s what I like…
1. Spicy Ahi Shoyu… it’s all about the sesame oil, red chili pepper flake and the shoyu… if they’re adding extra chili pepper water? Bonus!
2. Kim Chee Tako… no cabbage here, they take the octopus, ogo, cucumber, sweet Maui onion, Kim Chee paste, Ko Choo Jang sauce, and kochukuru… a take on Kim Chee, only with tako. Delicious!
3.Avocado Ahi… tuna, avocado, onion, and shoyu… these were gods weird way of letting me know any ingredients might be made for each other.
I’m not a huge Foodland fan. I like that they give free bags, and that this store has a R. Fields attached (San Pellegrino, any flavor, vodka (Grey Goose) and lime is most refreshing!). It’s a nice store, clean, with a good cheese selection, good produce, and meats. They really stepped up their game when WholeFoods moved in next door.
The poke. It doesn’t seem to be a hit or miss. We crew meal from here once every two months, all poke, and the quality is consistently good. Those are happy times for me. Dementia or no, I never forget… my non paper friend.
Aloha, self face slap!

This foodland is a great location coming out of a morning at Lanikai Beach. Stopped here for poke and a box of kale (I’m from LA…). And also picked up kona coffee beans and a spam musubi reusable bag as souvenirs! Now I’m googling to find out what else to buy at foodland that can only really be had here in Hawaii. I know the lei fridge is unique. See pic. What else?

Standard grocery store that has everything you could want. The Poke bowls are good tasting and perfect quantity for a solid lunch.
Only bummer is traffic in Kailua, which makes getting in and out of the parking lot a pain.

The poke is always ono but going to give it 4 stars. However, I had an employee call before Thanksgiving to let me know when they open so I can avoid a rush but when I came at 6 the cutter Eric said, they open at 7 and that if he serves me then he’s going to have to serve anyone else. WTH!!! Isn’t that the idea? Doesn’t Foodland pride itself of customer service like their commercial? That guy Eric needs to get his head out of his A_​_​. The display had almost every selection ready. Was I going to make his pretty presentation messy? Luckily a friend (Kalae), pointed me to the store manager (Melissa), who helped me get my order. What a jerk… I can go somewhere else and get the word out on this idiot. BTW… Happy Thanksgiving! !

Dont eat here

This is my favorite market in Kailua. I like all the prepared food and poke bowls. They have a little place where I can sit down and eat which is nice. Another thing I like is I get Hawaiian Miles here.

Love this kamaaina grocery store for its Maika’i rewards card, Local Tuesdays, and weekend specials. It’s open 24 hours and has a seafood counter (good selection of poke) and prime beef counter. Store aisles are wide and spacious.
There’s lots of parking at this location and there’s even an R. Fields for gourmet food shoppers and Coffee, Bean, and Tea Leaf for caffeine-​seekers (such as moi).
The staff has always been so very helpful and friendly — great customer service. Makes it a pleasure to shop here.
Customers are encouraged to bring their own shopping bags; shoppers can get bag credit or Hawaiian Air miles. In case you forget to bring yours, you can purchase the Foodland shopping bags, which make great gifts especially for former Hawaii residents. The local designs tickle the heart of kamaaina, present and former, as well as visitors.
The Foodland website provides a wealth of info — love the recipes from Foodland chef Keoni Chang. You can also sign up for email alerts.

POKE REVIEW:
Boo said it was the best here, I now believe her. We each ordered the Ahi California with avocado and brown rice of course. Man o’ man… So delicious!!! Is it the sauce? Is it the fish? It’s everything! So far it’s at the top of my list as #1.

Cool place shop. Everything is the same. (Safeway, Long), etc. Just a regular shopping food store if needed. Staff are nice and friendly. Store is nice and clean.

5 stars for the poke! So good! My favorites are the California and Avocado. If I ever get that poke bowl craving I always come here. A few times I went to Hibachi, but I always prefer Foodland lol. Good sushi selection too. Employees have always been nice and helpful to me.

Always loved coming to this foodland. The quality of food is always good, lines always moving fast and especially the poke is always delicious. But today really pissed me off. Everytime I go to this cashier «which I try to avoid» her name is Lori, her attitude always sucks and she always put a fake attitude on and talks to you like you’re NOTHING!!! Ive came to her 3 times «which I always try to avoid» and she’s always been the same. It baffles me that this lady still works here. Her attitude and customer service sucks. Thanks to the manager MATT? and the other 2 men that checked me out today, I applaud how you guys handle the situation that accrued today. Excellent customer service to them. For that lady I would give her NO STARS at all.

Locally owned is Superb! Signed up for email specials and Maka’i card where you can’t beat their prices especially with Tuesday orange tag pricing and weekend specials! They now have more health conscious items competing with Wholefoods next door. Smart! Service was so unmatched. it’s now my weekly food market for sure

Love this food land EXCEPT everytime I’ve gone to the custom sandwich counter the older lady is rude and does not listen to your order. She asked me 3 times what kind of bread I wanted, meat, cheese. And everytime I answered she would rudely interrupt me and ask another question. I said everything but tomato and no sprouts. What did I get? Just tomato and sprouts. She clearly doesn’t like her job. Me and my gf didn’t eat our sandwiches because they were so sloppy looking and didn’t taste right. Also! We CLEARLY said no mayo, and we got mayo. Yuck!
Great poke counter with friendly local servers however.

Foodland is usually my first choice of supermarkets, even if the profits just funded a 23 million dollar science building at Iolani (
). Bleh. This location has particularly friendly workers; while shopping I was asked not once, but several times if I needed assistance. Unfortunately, I probably looked particularly dazed because I was on a strict search for guacamole and Foodland did not provide me with good quality guac. You might ask why I didn’t just make my own. It’s not hard. Well, avocados are $ 2 each and lemons/​limes are like $ 1 each. So I was wandering around, looking for an alternative that I’d never actually be able to find. I ended up going to another store to get my guac.
Foodland does have the best poke though and I like that there is an olive bar as well as an adjoining coffee bean and tea leaf and R.R. Fields (the specialty wine store). The produce is usually fresh and they have a variety of organic options, but it’s usually more expensive than a couple other supermarkets on the island.
There is plenty of parking in the little shopping center shared with Prima and Big City Diner, but I find the parking stalls and entrance/​exit layout to be awkward.
Other than this foodland, there are a couple safeways in the area, a whole foods and a target that will be opening soon. Given all these options, I come to this foodland for specific things (not guacamole though).

Foodland seems to be standard grocery store here in Hawaii. Along with the usual things you see in a grocery store, I was impressed by the other vendors they have within the store (like coffee bean, and some other specialty store), as well as a great variety of poke. Also its kind of cool that this store is open 24 hours.
I read about the discounted poke after 7:30 PM or so, so my boyfriend and I arrived that time a little before that… and decided we were impatient and decided to buy the poke full price. There was a limited variety that time; we only had oyster and spicy poke to choose from. While the tuna was indeed fresh, the amount of oyster sauce and the spicy sauce overpowered the poke. It was just too much! We ended up having to scrape off some of the sauce to enjoy, lol. Not sure if it was a regular thing or just an «end of the day» thing… but I was kind of put off! I was really excited to try the poke too! Maybe next time I try a different flavor.
Other than that, we frequented this grocery store for all our food necessities. Coming from LA, prices seemed a little bit higher than what we are used to… but definitely cheaper than the Whole Foods nearby. Staff here is pretty friendly.

I really enjoy talking with the cashiers, very friendly caring. I’m tired of talking with the store manager about the shopping carts and the lack of safe working toddler seat straps. Its been a year since I’ve complained the first time and every two weeks since. Please fix. I shouldn’t have to pull out 15 carts to find one that works properly. Honestly I think there is only one.

One word: poke!!!
I’m always amazed that Foodland has such a large poke selection that is actually delicious. My parents and I had a less than ideal experience with our poke at The Hibachi just down the street (way too salty) so we wanted something a bit more tame.
We ended up getting the ½ lb. of the fresh ahi shoyu poke and ½ lb. of the hawaiian style ahi poke. The Hawaiian style was pretty meh and nothing special, but the fresh ahi shoyu poke (note it was FRESH, not previously frozen ahi) was incredible, and was not overwhelmingly salty by any means. It was perfect!
Oh, the guy working the seafood counter was definitely not the friendliest, but it’s a grocery store so whatever. You can’t win them all. Oh, and don’t eat the guava rolls, they’re nasty. You might be tempted by their pretty pink color and promise of guava, but no. Don’t do it.

Four words: MOCHI. ICE. CREAM. BAR.
I’ve been to a bunch of Foodlands around the state, and so far this is the only one I’ve seen that has a Bubbies mochi ice cream bar. Amazing.
Rachel and I visit this Foodland whenever we’re heading to the beach. I love Foodland for the most part, and am obligated to since my mother has been an employee of Foodland for over 20 years.
The deli here is huge, but sometimes you have to make the workers behind the food showcase notice you, when it should be the other way around. I’ve never had complaints about the poke bowls here, and I’ve had a few. Service in seafood is usually quick and friendly. One teensy complaint I have about this store is that the beer is on the COMPLETE opposite side of the store from the seafood. But I’m just being nitpicky: P
Otherwise, the cashiers are friendly, and there never seems to be long lines when we go to the checkout.

I have been to almost all of the Foodland stores on Oahu except a few locations out on the West side. Foodland is pretty much the to go place for my weekly groceries since Star Markets closed. As a local grocery chain store, Foodland may not as big as Safeway but they get the job done for your basic needs. The layout of the majority of the stores are very similar to each other; aisles are fairly clean and organized. I typically buy my milk, bread and eggs there but I when it comes to buying fruits and vegetables, I watched for the weekly ads for the bargains whether it’s on sale at Foodland or Safeway. The service is on par with all the other grocery stores and parking is not much of an issue. However, I find I need to frequent Safeway when there is a need for a gourmet ingredient or variety. Foodland’s inventory is not as diverse nor do they have an interior as modern as Safeway. It’s awesome to get free Wi-​Fi at some of newer Safeway locations; not to mention the restrooms they’ve at Safeway too.
Foodland is really more known for their poke but this is not something I can consume from here since I’m allergic to raw fish/​meat. However, I do love going to Foodland for the best bagels! Yes, Einstein Bros bagels baked fresh daily… and I can just walk right in and get some anytime I want. Absolutely loved these Einstein Bros bagels because they’re not dense like the typical New York bagels. The dough is lighter, fluffier and there carry roughly 6 varieties. Yeah, a fresh bagel plus some Philadelphia cream cheese, thin slices of Maui onions and a few caper berries between 2 slices of my favorite bagel is an awesome way to start the day.
Another item I absolutely love from Foodland is the famous chocolate haupia pies from Ted’s Bakery. Oh how I love thee chocolate haupia pie and to the last pie slice! Prior to trying Ted’s chocolate haupia pies, I was not really a fan of pie nor do I eat much of any kind of pies for that matter. However, that all changed the moment I tasted these chocolate haupia pies. It was love at first bite and I knew I was going to be hopelessly hooked to these incredible pies. Yes, I’d have to limit my gluttony ways with these pies.
Overall, Foodland serves my needs as a basic grocery store and while they’re not large, I still like to shop there. The staff are nice, helpful and really down to earth people. They also encouraged shoppers to bring re-​usable bags which is a good habit I need to start developing since the new law of «no plastic» will be in effect soon.

Poke heaven! I’ve decided my heaven is going to include an endless poke buffet and lots of cute puppies & kittens running around on a field of bug-​less grass. The buffet is going to include Foodland’s Spicy Ahi, California Roll Spicy Ahi, Tako, and the other 789 542 026 different types of poke they have to offer. Umm, just to be clear, poke buffet is for my consumption and the puppies & kittens are there, because they’re adorable and they make me smile. :) But no, they can’t eat my poke. They get puppy/​kitten food.
No, but really– $ 6.99 for a bowl (rice & choice of poke). They pack it in there so you’ll be super stuffed. I think my favorite has to be the Cali Roll Poke— it’s reaaally delicious. Ask for some furikake seasoning on your rice– it’s free. Most of the pokes are about $ 10−12/lb (without rice).
Lots and lots of food/​grocery items are available, of course. The staff is very friendly here. No matter what time of day/​night I visit, someone always greets me with a smile. Speaking of which– it’s 24 hours! Woooooot. Perfect for any of you night shift/​graveyard shift workers!
Coffee Bean is located right at the entrance, so stop by to grab some coffee! Or, grab a seat on the opposite end of the entrance for some study time.

Foodland — Kailua. I went there and did my usual shopping. Great store — always well stocked– what’s not to like.
I was in the middle of checking out at the cashier station — when I was asked if I found everything I needed? I mentioned I could not locate one of my items — because it was not stocked. The young lady bagging at that check out –named Tianni? I think– quickly sprang into action and said she would check the «Back» to see if there were any left. Within a minute or two she returned with my item. Wow! And she seemed so pleased that she provided the service. Whoa! Can you say excellent customer service alert!!! Future Manager material. Take note Foodland — that kind of service sets the bar high when comparing your store to the other supermarkets. She is a rare asset!

Foodland Kailua is my favorite grocery store! The service is always quick and friendly, and the store is always stocked with fresh produce, quality meats and seafood/​poke, and all of your grocery needs. Parking is shared with Big City Diner, Quizno’s, Prima, and Baskin Robbins, so parking can be tough during dinner time.
PS. Sign up for their Maika‘i card and email newsletter to get discounted prices, member rewards (e.g. additional 5% discount, product of the week, 200 HawaiianMiles), and special offers/​deals on products. Also, don’t forget to bring your reusable bags to save 5 cents or earn 3 HawaiianMiles.

Love this place!
Large selection of mochi (see photo) — guava being my favorite and one that you can’t get on the mainland.
Nice selection of Poke — one fresh, not frozen and a quite a selection of previously frozen/​thawed.
Store is super clean — always a plus. I would compare it to a Nob Hill or a Zanotto’s on the mainland.
Prices are high — but they are everywhere in Hawaii, so that’s just a given.
Parking lot is small and can at times be challenging to find a spot.