Song’s Korean BBQ

Reviews

• June M.

  star star star star star 19 July 2026

  This restaurant needs your help!
  The street it's on, Hikimoe Street, it's behind Times: is closed for a year! Business is seriously lagging and I don't know how much they can take.
  
  From the main road turn right on Mokuola St (If approaching from Waipahu Street, turn left on Mokuola St.) and then turn left on Kahuailani St, go until the road closed sign. Turn left and go through the parking lot to the next parking lot and Songs will be the first door on your left. Please let others know how to get to them!

• Cuyler O.

  star star star star star_border 5 July 2026

  Song's Korean BBQ is run by  (Korean folks).  I appreciate the breadth of their menu.  Although our family usually does takeout, my experience eating in was awesome.  The food was incredibly fresh, and they offered all of their banchan (side dishes) rather than the four choices that come standard with takeout plates.
  
  One banchan I would like to see in the future is dried radish kimchi ().  My standard order here is the meat jun plate with kimchi, japchae, and bean sprouts (double serving of japchae, usually).  Most plates come with a couple of pieces of buchimgae (Korean pancake).
  
  One thing I like about Song's is that they offer a slightly wider variety of Korean dishes than most "Korean barbecue" restaurants in Hawaii.  It's important that Hawaii be able to experience Korean food that isn't only barbecued meat and fermented vegetables, and Song's offers a glimpse of that (jjigae, tteokbokk'i).

• Kim S.

  star star star star star_border 2 July 2026

  I had to be in the area for another event & wanted to avoid the heinous westbound traffic so met a friend for a very late lunch.
  
  Found Song's on yelp.  Decided to try it because of the kalbi reviews & it is family owned.
  
  My favorites were the chapchae, seaweed, bean sprouts & pancake banchan.  So sad they didn't offer the shoyu potato because it is my favorite & shown in the yelp menu pics.  My friend liked those + the cucumber & kimchee.  Impressive because they usually don't like either.  We were offered 1 free refill for the  banchan.  
  
  Both of us liked the kalbi.  It could have been grilled a little longer to get a nice char but the flavor was great & meat tender.  3 kalbi ribs (1 was a bit fatty) with rice for $14.99.
  
  Service was friendly, nice & efficient.  Our water cups were refilled without asking.  I was surprised to find that they accept credit cards for payment.
  
  I used google maps for directions & it was easy despite the road closure.
  
  Directions:
  H-1 West
  EXIT #7 toward Waikele/Waipahu
  LEFT 2 lanes to turn onto Paiwa St (signs for Waipahu)
  RIGHT onto Puko
  LEFT onto Mokuola
  RIGHT onto Kahuailani
  At the street closure at Hikimoe, LEFT into the parking lot for a closed pharmacy
  Continue straight through the parking lot, cross a narrow drive/street to the next parking lot
  Song's will be the first door on the left
  
  Recommend a visit if you're in the area & craving Korean food.

• Dennis Y.

  star star star star star_border 27 June 2026

  Here it is....Saturday mid morning and thinking of lunch since I didn't have breakfast  due to a previous appointment that was just cancelled.
  
  Thought, hey let's try Korean my brother says, so we looked at Yelp...knew about Song's but thought how can we get there in our cars as the front road is blocked?
  
  However June M's Yelp review on May 15th provided the correct way to enter into the private parking lot, so thank you June M !  
  
  My brother and I arrived there about 11:20am for lunch and saw there were 3 booths along the left side wall and 5 tables for the rest of the area were mainly open tables. We were the 3rd customers at the time and was welcomed by the hostess/waitress (young woman in her early 30s?) and seated. Our glasses of water was then delivered. We looked at the menu and my brother ordered the Lunch Special (good between 10am-3pm)  which had the bbq beef and bbq chicken and mandoo while I wanted Kal-bi so I ordered the Kalbi Mixed plate..Kal-bi and chose the bbq chicken option. Both would come with two small scoops of white rice.
  
  In a few minutes came our banshan of veggies (7 bowls), one of them being the warm to the touch Korean pancakes (4 pieces of just grilled on the flattop) !
  
  Within a few minutes of bringing our banchan came our plate specials...I looked my two pieces of Kalbi and told myself...I am NOT getting robbed, there is a LOT of meat on those two pieces ! The meat was soft and easy to chew, just had to suck off as much off the bone - oh so tasty!
  
  She came around to fill water and nicely asked us if there were anymore side dishes we wanted as our bowls of chap jae, kim chee and pancakes were empty. I told her that we could use more chap jae and kim chee, and brought us more !
  
  I was getting full because of eating the side dishes, but decided to persevere and finish up my bb chicken/kalbi plate.
  
  Yes, I can tell the business is being affected by the front road construction and the women at the first booth just before we received our bill mentioned about driving through hoops to get here to the restaurant.
  
  It's NOT that hard to get here...support your local business !
  
  Great value for the meal ! The décor just needs some refreshing, like all the movable fold up seats should be of the same type...and some minor touch up painting (something vivid/eye-catching) such as painting at least one wall a contrasting color and the other walls a lighter beige or tan instead of drab white...
  
  I'd come back and tell people about this Korean Restaurant.

• Aaron A.

  star star star star star 23 June 2026

  This place is tucked in old Waipahu behind Times Supermarket.   We go here weekly.   Prices are reasonable.  The place reminds me of the old Korean restaurants from the 80's.   It's family owned and ran.  We always get the mix plate which my wife and I share.   My daughter loves the tempura.  And we always get the Korean Pancake which I order extra crispy.