For us, the one dish that is synonymous with Hawaii is the kalua pork. On our last trip, we ate the pork at the Paradise Cove luau, but this time, we did a little more digging on restaurants serving it. Since we had to drive to wherever we picked, we decided to go to the Kono’s location in Honolulu. It’s right next to the Leonard’s on Kapahulu so dessert is just a few steps away.
The first thing we noticed when we walked into Kono’s was the amazingly helpful and friendly staff. They greeted us immediately and asked if this was our first time at Kono’s. After we confirmed that it was, they walked us through the menu and told us their personal picks. We settled on the pork plate lunch which came with a nice serving of pork, rice, and salad. For the salad, they include a papaya seed dressing, and for the pork, there’s a guava BBQ sauce.
The pork had a nice flavor and saltiness that was complemented well with the sweetness of the BBQ sauce. Sonia and I shared the plate, but from the moment we had our first bites, we regretted the choice to share. While the pork is served with the BBQ sauce, Kono’s also makes their own hot sauces. Sonia was a fan of the Habanero Hot Sauce and grabbed a bottle to take home. While waiting for our meal, Sonia overheard another customer ask for another sauce and discovered there are more sauces that you can request. You can’t buy them, but Kono’s might want to consider adding these to the sauces for sale, because Sonia was a fan. I wish we could remember what each sauce was, but you can see them in the below picture. They are 3 sauces in the plastic containers in front of the bottled sauces.
Kono’s has multiple locations, but the one we visited was the one at 945 Kapahulu Avenue, Honolulu, HI 96816.
