Chris’ Ono Grinds Island Grill

I’ve ordered many meals for my company and have eaten many meals myself. This is one of the company favorites. Food is exceptional, huli huli sauce is excellent. Since I did the ordering and cleanup, I always took the left over huli huli sauce home with me and used it on everything.

Food was ono. Made me feel like I was back home. When I asked for a Kona Longboard cuz its on da side board, cashier kept asking me to repeat it plus didn’t have any.

A Big, huge THANK YOU from the North Park Community Association to Chris and the crew at Chris’ Ono Grinds Café for donating a tray of spam musubi to feed the volunteers at the first Bird Park Summer Concert of the season. It was just what we needed to keep fueled up and the show awesome! Go check them out, you’ll love it too!

This review is for Chris’ Ono Grinds Island Grill catering food and service only! Our company caters from Chris’ Ono’s frequently, and the portions are huge, serving Hawaiian food justice! Items that our company orders and worth trying:
Huli Huli Chicken: Grilled chicken meat marinated in their Hawaiian-​style teriyaki sauce. If you like teriyaki sauce, this is all about teriyaki. I love putting it on top of our rice so it soaks up the sweetness of the teriyaki flavor, encouraging me to eat more rice!
Kalua Pork: Hawaiian-​style pulled pork. Although a bit tougher in texture and not as popular as the Huli Huli Chicken at work, still okay with their house-​made Huli Huli sauce. I just feel the pulled pork needs more seasoning.
House Salad: Mixed greens topped with and fresh veggies house sesame-​ginger vinaigrette. I didn’t find this salad to be too flavorful and it does not have too much ingredients. For fiber, I personally like their coleslaw better, although less healthy.
Macaroni Salad: Dee-​leesh! Served a bit chilled, this macaroni salad is a favorite among my colleagues.
Coleslaw: We love their coleslaw so much that we order two portions!!!
Collection of sauces: Huli Huli, Sesame-​Ginger Vinaigrette, Lava, Ginger-​Garlic Aioli. These series of sauces add extra flavoring to the meat items, especially the Kalua Pork.
Some say that Hawaiian food is a bit «heavy» and «filling,» which is true. If you have it for lunch in the office, definitely take a light walk afterwards to help digest. I find Chris’ Ono fresh, tasty with a variety of Hawaiian-​inspired options. Thumbs up for the catering service! And I hear they offer on-​site pig roast for events, how cool! (Sorry non-​meat eaters, hope this doesn’t offend you).

should have learned my lesson the first time.
years before, I placed an order with Chris’ Ono for two meals; I come to the restaurant and they only have one prepared. the cashier was apologetic and rectified the situation, so I was quick to forgive. people make mistakes, c’est la vie.
tonight, i placed an order for Chris’ Ono Grinds tonight via Prime Now around 6:00pm. the app said my delivery window would be around 6:34pm to 6:59pm. perfect. that is perfectly reasonable.
I continually check the app and see if my status has to been changed from «your order has been processed» to «your order is out of delivery» or what have you. however, this status change never came.
7:00pm rolls on through, and still no delivery person. no food. nothing. I check the Prime Now app, and my order has been canceled. Canceled?! what gives?!
so I naturally call Prime Now, and ask what the heck is going on. the nice lady at Amazon says Chris’ Ono has canceled my order because they don’t have a courier to deliver my order to me. um, what?! shouldn’t the restaurant have figured that out before participating in Prime Now delivery service?! aside from that, shouldn’t they have called me or given me some fair warning that my order would not be delivered after waiting an hour for my food?!
needless to say, I am pissed off and hungry.

POKE, STEAK, HULI HULI CHICKEN, SWEET POTATOES, COOKIES. I put these in all caps because every one of these items were AMAZING. I can’t wait to come back and try more soon. Definitely a must try for casual dining if you are in the University Heights, North Park, Normal Heights area.

So there’s not a lot of Hawaiian food in Paris, so suffice to say whenever I’m around said food, I get as much as I can. Chris’ had plenty on offer, i.e.
Poke
spam musubi
loco moco
huli-​huli chicken
kalbi
We ordered pretty much one of everything and enjoyed it all. Great food and pricing — not a ton of space so if you have a big group think about maybe getting takeaway.

Three words to explain my experience here… O M G! I’ve never started a review with that, but I will repeat… O M G!
I’ve just found a new addition to my all time favorite Hawaiian places. I’d been wanting some good island grinds for a while. Passed by this place previously but they were closed. Very disappointed, but made it a mission to return slightly earlier in the evening.
It was close to closing time, but as I walked in, they were still bringing out food to another table, so I didn’t feel too bad walking in to order some grub. Noticed some of the traditional items like loco moco and kahlua pork and a few not so traditional. I wanted to order a combo of a couple items, but that was restricted to just a couple of items. So I ended up ordering something newish, the volcano bowl. Simply put, O M G! The flavors in this dish were outstanding.
Grilled chicken breast prepared in a spicy teriyaki sauce. There was a little bit of sweet from the teriyaki, a little heat from jalapeños and some salty from the soy. So delish! It was sliced and placed atop two scoops of white rice and then garnished with fresh jalapeños, cheese and some type of Hawaiian type salsa (think it had onion and jicama, but not entirely sure. Added a nice additional flavor and crunch to each bite).
As I was enjoying my meal, additional customers came in to order food to go. The gal at the counter happily took their orders, possibly after their actual closing time. At this point, I was still eating and savoring each bite and noticed there were no other customers around. I felt kinda bad, but the gal was totally cool with me finishing up at my own pace.
This place has it all! Quality customer service, excellent bites and an overall 5 star experience!
Keep on Unilocal’n!

blah… i’ve experienced waaay better. i expected more since this place has four stars. First off, i think the guy that took our order was high LOL — funny conversation with him — as he did not answer any of our questions on their chicken waaaangs.
anyway… as our food arrives (spam musubi, ahi poke, chicken wings) we dig in, and blah the food tasted so bland. The ahi poke was not marinated, it was like they just threw it some leaves, carrots and cucumber, spam musubi tasted raw, the chicken wings didnt have much flavor.

If you happen to be in the area, this place is not too shabby. Although I wouldn’t drive from miles afar to come here and only here. I can’t really claim this place to be the best around, but it’s at least better-​tasting than L&L’s.
This place fills up fast on Friday nights close to 7pm. We went around 6pm, and there was only a large group in the middle with the rest of the place available.
Glad they have beer available. And thanks to the new law that allows tables just outside the unit to be served alcohol, they can now eat more people because I was getting worried it was too small.
Kalua pork is alright. Not as juicy as I’m used to. But then again, I don’t know exactly how it’s supposed to taste. Is the popular form the intended form? Or is it supposed to be the way they serve it here? Not as shredded, not as saucy, just odd. The huli huli chicken was a much better choice, as I noticed from my girlfriend’s dish.
Tip: If you could care less about the rice, ask for the mini plate.
Parking: Street
Don’t forget to close the door upon entering/​exiting. In the summer, there are a ton of flies in the whole area, and no business is safe from them. Unless you like the company of flies or crave them in your food/​drink, keep that door closed. It won’t be anybody’s fault but your own. Not Chris Ono Grinds’ fault. Yours.
Enjoy!

I haven’t been into the actual restaurant, but I had the food recently at an event and it was delicious. The huli huli chicken was so good I’m still thinking about it — same for the cole slaw. I am pretty picky about slaw, and this one was on point. Crispy, crunchy, flavorful, and not drowning in mayo. It was light, and complemented the chicken perfectly. The other dish on offer was mac salad. I’m picky about that, and this one wasn’t my jam. A bit too much mayo for my taste.
Everyone was talking about the food and how good it was. All in all, a win!

Spending a week in Maui ruined me for Hawaiian food and left me dying for a lunch plate when we got back. Good thing Ono Grinds was there to save the day. Their poke is killer and the mac salad — creamy and delicious. Love that you can get a little taste of the islands so close to home. Chill and friendly staff serving up kick-​ass food. Yuuummms.

Delicious grubs. Really good eat in a questionable neighborhood. Did street parking, walked in and they seemed quite busy… not with the few parties in the joint but perhaps with phone orders. The place was cozy, nice social vibe, with tables indoors and outside in the patio.
It was 8:30 on a Tuesday night and they closed at 9 so we ordered everything to run. Got the wings, which smelled sooooo good n tasted as great. The musubis were yummy too… perfectly portioned n their teriyaki sauce was a nice touch. Actually, no, maybe the spam could’ve been thicker… still, very good. I ordered the guava bbq pork bacon bowl… original blend of flavors n colorful. Loved every bite. My bro in law enjoyed his loco moco n his sister got the poke bowl… which I thought they were kinda skimpy with the fish. So much more rice than fish. I didn’t like that they packed the raw fish (separate from the rice) in the same bag with hot potatoes. Really! Anyway, and my sis is a vegetarian so just macaroni salad and sweet potato medallions for her. Those were pretty good.
Service was efficient. That’s all I have to say about that. Great cook they got back there, keeeeeeeep him!

This place is so good!
I ordered last minute take out catering (i.e. within a week) based on reviews and proximity to my house. It payed off! The food was so good. They worked with my budget and were able to feed a huge group, including many vegetarians.
We came back later and got amazing entrees. Everything we tried was so good. Well worth the visit.

This is hands down my favorite spot for Hawaiian food in town. It’s a hole in the wall and everything I’ve had is authentic and delicious.
I absolutely Love their Kalua pork plate with Mac salad side. It reminds me of the Kalua pork I’ve had in Hawaii and is the best I’ve had since I’ve been there. Makes my mouth water just thinking about it! The mini plate is the perfect portion for lunch and the regular plate is enough for lunch and dinner. I’ve also tried the Teri steak plate and Guava BBQ pork plate. While both are very good, I always have to get my go-​to Favorite Kalua pork plate.
Their Haupia (coconut pudding atop a macadamia nut cookie crust drizzled in guava sauce) is also a must try! It’s Delicious!
All the staff are very friendly and it has a nice relaxed vibe. Great spot for lunch. Easy street parking.

I found this place from Unilocal because I was craving poke and didn’t want to drive far to clairmont Mesa to get one… so I decided to try this place out. I ordered the poke salad ($ 11) and the combo plate of chicken and beef ($ 13).To my dismay… The poke was too salty to even eat… It was drenched with the sauce that you couldn’t appreciate the taste of fresh ahi tuna (it was more soy sauce taste. Versus the soy sauce, ginger or rice vinegar combo). Because it was expensive for a little bowl. I save the tuna, rinsed it and made my own salad instead.
The Combo plate and the side of Mac salad… Food was OK… My beef was burnt. and the Mac salad could use some pineapple to give it a little kick… But I did like the jalapeño cilantro sauce.

Located in North Park on a busy street, BUT with lots of meter parking :) Came on a Saturday night for dinner to satisfy our Hawaiian cravings. I ordered the Poke Plate and my boyfriend ordered the meat combo with huli huli chicken and teriyaki steak with a side of short ribs (carnivore, right???).
+ Poke Plate — ahi poke with macadamia nuts, diced veggies (including avo) over rice and drizzled with wasabi aioli. SO BOMB. The rice to fish ratio was decent, but damn I would’ve loved more of the ahi :) really fresh… the vegetables add a good balance and the wasabi aioli wasn’t overpowering.
+ Huli huli chicken — grilled chicken marinated in their special Hawaiian style teriyaki sauce. BOMB.
+ Teri Steak — Same sauce as the huli huli, but on a thinly sliced top sirloin steak! Boyfriend and I didn’t know that they used the same sauce for both otherwise we might have ordered another dish for the combo.
+ Kalbi ribs — Korean style bbq short ribs are really hard to fuck up! They’re always bomb. Ono’s did not disappoint.
+ SIDES — Macaroni salad is less mayo-​ish here… and that’s a good thing. I loved it. & I’ve never had sweet potato medallions — SO GOOD, these are a must.
Long story short– I’ll always come to Ono’s when I’m craving Hawaiian in San Diego!

I normally frequent the Mission Gorge location, but since the unfortunate event that happened I haven’t been able to get my usual ‘Huli huli chicken and kahlua pork’ combo as easily as I used to.
This location is smaller and there is only street parking available (which can be a bit tricky at times). The service is great and the food is just as good! Come check them out and support a really great business!
— — — -
I hope the Mission Gorge location opens up. I really miss that place!

I’ve had better authentic Hawaiian food and service elsewhere. It was my first time and I wasn’t pleased. The plates are overly priced, and food was waay to salty for my tastebuds. Nothing spectacular.
I walked in during lunch time on a very slow day. The lady at the cash register didn’t greet me. I stood at the front counter looking at the menu while she was chatting with her friend. Where was the Aloha spirit? Didn’t feel it here! Shakah Down!
My meal cost $ 20 for this! I left dissatisfied.
Huli Huli Chicken Plate (Very Small Portion!)
Huli Waimea Chicken Wings… Too salty!
Haupia Dessert was Pure Disgusting! The filling tasted like cream cheese and butter. I took a tiny bite and tossed it! Not worth ordering!

Tried this place based on reviews and I love Hawaiian food and mac salad. Lived in Hawaii for 6 years. All scores 1 – 10. 10 highest.
The good:
1. Mac salad was good. I give it an (8). Perhaps just a tad too much vinegar.
2. Sweet potatoes (8)
3. Customer service was nice and cordial. (9)
The ok:
1. Spam musubi (7)
The bad:
1. The chicken. Chicken had ok flavor but was way over cooked and stringy. Stringy chicken is never good. (4)
2. The Kalbi. I was hesitant to order the kalbi because being Korean myself, I know that it’s all in the prep and quality of meat to make sure it comes out soft and edible. This Kalbi was rubbery and very chewy. Not only was the meat not prepped correctly bit it was not cooked correctly. The best part of Kalbi is the bone and tendon near the bone. It has to be seared correctly for you to be able to eat it. This was too rubbery and not cooked enough to be able to eat off the bone. (2)
3. The price. $ 35 for two people. Based on the quality of food, this food is way overpriced. Had I paid $ 16-​$ 18 for this food I could give it 3 stars. Based on what I ate it is 25 percent over priced. (2)
I went when they just opened. Not sure if that makes a difference.
Overall I can not recommend this place for Hawaiian food.