Loco Moco Koko Marina

These days it is all about being healthy. Or is it? Anyway in all reality it is impossible to be 100% healthy so when it is time to splurge you might as well get a good ol’ plate lunch. Working in Hawaii Kai doesn’t exactly give you the best of options and being right across the street from Koko Marina limits your plate lunch possibilities to Loco Moco located next to Foodland. Their renovations have made the interior of the restaurant appealing to the casual tourist on their way to or from Hanauma Bay with the tropical paint job and surf boards on the wall.
You might be wondering why a newly renovated place like this would find itself OnJordan’sList. Here is your answer. A few months ago I had that fall off the bandwagon urge for a plate lunch resulting in a quick drive to Loco Moco. I looked at the menu and all the specials listed on the wall while I waited two deep in a rather short line for lunch. I decide to get the mochiko chicken plate. After I ordered I turned around to see about six tourists looking like they just got back from a shopping spree from Waikiki’s Royal Hawaiian Shopping center. Every cliché you can think of form the straw hats to the matching Aloha shirts and shorts combo. After taking in the sight of the tourists and the smell of coconut sunscreen I though to myself how lucky I was to have ordered before them. (Or so I thought)
I sat down to hear the man working behind the counter call out order after order until I notice that the tourists behind me were getting their food before me. Not thinking much of it I waited only to see all six tourists that were behind be getting their food and pigging out. I walked up to the lineless counter without saying a word and the man looked at me and said, “Oh mochiko chicken right? It is coming up.” I looked at my watch and almost 25 minutes had passed since I put my order in. I walked to the left of the counter to look in to the kitchen and saw the cook putting the chicken into the deep fryer. In an absolute rage I was about to say WTF is that my food you just started cooking? Actually quite uncharacteristically of my normal reactions, I sat back down and told myself that my lunch break is almost over and I wouldn’t have time to get anything else.
Anyway to make a long story short the guy at Loco Moco forgot to put my order in and only remembered after a glaring mad dog face reminded me of Mochiko chicken. About two min later he called my order and I grabbed it out if his hand. No, “Sorry for the wait” or not even at “thank you.”
With that I have come to the conclusion that if I want a plate lunch I am going to dive a few more miles or bring a crossword puzzle, like Stanley from The Office, to work on while I wait for the man behind the counter to remember my order. Oh yah, half of my mochiko chicken was either just skin or burnt. Give your business to someone else.