The first time I went to this place was with my long time friend from high school, Trinity. We came here with her son who is also my God child to catch up. I didn’t really pay attention to the food since I didn’t have a food blog back then. All I know is that it didn’t leave a lasting impression on me. Big City Diner is a local chain that gets pretty good reviews. I was a little shocked so I decided to give them another try.

Shane got a short stack of pancakes, $3.79. Everyone is different when it comes to pancakes and I’m starting with this line because I know a lot of people are not going to agree with me on this, but I don’t think there’s anything special about these pancakes. But like I said everyone is different when it comes to pancakes. Some like it fluffy, soggy, spongy, doughy, you get my point. These were a little on the doughy side. Shane thought they were a little undercooked. Ray however, liked these pancakes. He thought the doughiness gave them a subtle sweetness.

I got the The Really Loco, Loco Moco, $6.99. I haven’t had a loco moco yet, so I thought what better place to have a popular Hawaiian platter than at a popular Hawaiian diner? For those of you who aren’t aware of what a loco moco is, it’s white rice topped with a hamburger patty, sauteed onions, covered with gravy and then topped with an egg, cooked the way you like. Again, not impressed. When it comes to this dish, I think the flavor of the gravy will make it or brake it, since every bite will be smothered in gravy. In this case it broke it. The gravy tasted cheap, like the poor quality packaged gravy where all you do is add hot water. I say poor quality packaged kind because there are some packages that are pretty darn good. It seemed as if I didn’t eat this fast enough, it would start to solidify and get clumpy.

Here’s what it looked like half way through. Excuse the pepper. Some do salt, I do pepper. Notice the gravy to the side starting to get a little clumpy.

Ray ordered a side egg, scrambled, with his dish, $1.09. Really not much to say, it’s an egg.

This was Ray’s dish, Grilled Oatmeal Cakes, $7.49. Boy, I tell you Ray must of had a wild hair tickling his ass this day because he’s rarely this healthy. It’s suppose to be topped with honey and come with fruit. Now unless they cook the honey in with it because there was no honey to be found. Also the fruit was melons and a pineapple garnish. In all honesty, these cakes surprised me. I think I ended up liking them more than Ray did.

It also came with a side of toast.

The best part of eating here is being able to check it off the list and moving on to bigger and better things. Sorry if it sounds like I’m bashing them, I’m not. It just didn’t do anything for me, but that doesn’t mean it was bad. I think the oak cakes actually being good was the highlight of this meal. I didn’t come in with high expectations because, well, it’s a diner. In my professional opinion, Big City Diner is a Hawaiian version of IHOP.

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Big City Diner
1060 Auahi ST.
Honolulu, HI 96814
(808) 591-8891