"This is the best Hawaiian food in Fairfield, with generous portions and reasonable prices. The restaurant is clean inside, with a courteous and professional staff, and food that 's made to order. However...The restaurant itself doesn 't have much of an atmosphere, and some of their practices seem wasteful. I 've been going to Hoku Hawaiian BBQ for a little over a year, and it doesn 't seem that any of these practices have changed over this time.Although the restaurant (including the bathroom) appears quite clean, there 's not much of an atmosphere, other than a few posters of the wall, and some ceramic sea turtles, which are quite nice. When I visited, Hawaiian music was playing softly over the speakers, which at first seemed like a plus. However, this turned into the biggest minus of eating there, as I noticed after about 15 minutes that the music was actually a tape loop of a single song, that nearly drove me mad after spending about 45 minutes there waiting for and eating my meal. After a while, I felt like I was waiting in line for a ride at Disneyland, rather than being in a restaurant. I can only imagine how annoying this must be for the staff to have to listen to the same song, hour after hour, on a shift. I 've been to Hawaii many times, and there 's a great diversity of Traditional and Contemporary Hawaiian music, so it makes no sense the restaurant would choose a Traditional Hawaiian song and loop it endlessly.If you 're expecting fast food, this is NOT the place. Every order is made to order, and takes about 15 minutes, on average. The upside of that is the food is always fresh and hot, and very tasty. I recommend pairing your plate with a can of Hawaiian Sun fruit drinks, they are delicious. When ordering, you are never asked if the order is for here, or to go, every order is prepared to go by default, maybe they don 't want you to eat in? If you choose to eat there, you walk your neatly packaged food to a table, throw away the extra plastic bags for napkins and sauces, take the lids off the plastic containers, and dig in. This doesn 't add to the in-house dining experience at all. Additionally, you are never asked if you want any sauces, you automatically receive multiple packets of soy sauce, sriracha sauce, and numerous plastic cups filled with sauces that go along with your order. This may seem fine, but I 'm a light sauce guy, and end up throwing away most of the sauces. For my most recent order, I had a spicy pineapple chicken plate, which was quite good. It came with an enormous sauce container, and most of it went in the trash. I 'd much rather be asked what sauces I want, if any, when ordering.The plastic containers they use are heavy duty, and are so large they don 't fit in the slot of the only garbage container at the restaurant (you are expected to bus your own table). So, you have to open the bottom door of the garbage container to dispose of them, another issue that doesn 't add to the in-house dining experience. Would it be so difficult to ask if the order was for here, or to go, and to ask what sauces I 'd like? It seems like Hoku Hawaiian BBQ could cut down on their waste and expenses quite a bit by asking a few questions when I order.The best way to experience Hoku Hawaiian BBQ is to phone in your order and take it to go. That way, your wait time will be at a minimum, your food will be fresh, and you can enjoy it in your own home."
