Pono Hawaiian Grill - Santa Cruz (CA)

4 /5 Rong Mao: A causal Hawaiian restaurant in downtown Santa Cruz. You order the food at the front, pick a table to sit at, and they serve the food to your table. Price is average. Food was quite good. The salmon in the poke was fresh but lacks flavor or side dishes that we have seen in other places. The kuala pork was good but a bit too salty. Staff were friendly. Overall a decent place to eat at.

4 /5 Luis Felipe Morales Knight: A good menu, quite good food, very friendly service. The pupu platter worked perfectly to feed three of us a light lunch. Furikake fries were spicy and perfectly fried. I cant recall the last time I saw such a cheesy mac and cheese. A good selection of soft drinks, including some Hawaiian Sun flavors I hadnt seen before. I do think this place is worth checking out! Probably gets loud when its busy, but when its not, its very chill.

4 /5 Hanna Lin: It was a bit quiet on a Tuesday afternoon. We sit at the tall table, which is kinda cool! The entire place is clean and spacious with TV screens on all the walls. Food was good, but not great. I like the ahi salad and the Korean short ribs, and my son loves the crispy chicken sandwich. The girls however were not impressed with their poke bowls. Staff is friendly, but not much of the service as you order the food at the entrance, pick your own table, food is quickly delivered to you. You get your own water, clean up your own table, and even grab your own togo containers for leftovers.

5 /5 Perry Zou: This place was awesome. The ambiance is very relaxed, with an indoor area that is spacious and has TVs and a bar. The outdoor area has turf, picnic tables, umbrellas, small lawn games, and is very dog friendly. You order yourself and the front and bring the number to your seat. The food came out extremely fast and hot, and was SO good. The Korean Kalbi was 10/10, and the poke was phenomenal as well. We also got the wings which we highly recommend. They also have hawaiian canned juice beverages that you can buy as well!

5 /5 Susan Vaziri: Great staff. Friendly, polite, professional. They were slammed but handled all things very well. Katsu chicken sandwich was good! Fries were hot and salted perfectly. Plenty of seating. Great drink selection. It was crowded, but thats what happens when a place is good!