Alohana Hawaiian Grill in Ankeny

This is my local favorite. Where can you get freshly grilled fish, BBQ and shrimp at almost fast food speed! The seafood combo is the first thing to try. Also try the spam musubi... Yes its spam but you'll never have spam like this! It's a quaint place with lots of character. I go for lunch quite often and suggest it as a lunch spot primarily but open all week. The meals are quite filling and priced great. Lots of options.

Fantastic tastes! Highly recommend the BBQ Mix!

OMG This Place Is Awesome Great Food For A Good Price It’s A Must Try ,You Will See For Yourself You Will Be Very Impressed Thanks For The Great Eats The 4 Of Us will Be Back For Sure

Good food, BBQ plate was excellent chicken katsu was good but not great.

fast service get the barbecue mix platter. Used to get a full scoop of Macaroni salad on mix platter now maybe half scoop other than that great meal would prefer full scoop of macaroni omsalad i dont usually like macaroni salad but theirs is great got a full scoop of macaroninlast time glad to see they fixed this issue

Hit on by manager!

DELICIOUS SPEEDY AND DID I MENTION DELICIOUSSSS

Longtime fan, first time reviewer, came for the Spam Musubi, but have never been disappointed with my meal! Had the seafood combo today, they knocked it out of the park with the fish, shrimp and the ribs! I wish I could get fish this good in Iowa! If I could give more stars I would! 100% Delicious taste of the islands!

I simply can't say enough good things about the Hawaiian style BBQ chicken. Every time I've been here the chicken is cooked to perfection, and each bite is delicious. The skin is included in the chicken, but they remove all the fat or anything else you might not enjoy.The sides are simple: Macaroni salad, white rice and a slice of pineapple. You can't really go wrong. Service has always been excellent, and the only negative I could find with this establishment is the cheap interior. It's not exactly an upscale place, but the quality is there where it counts: in each bite of chicken.

This place is great. It's clean and comfortable. The food is delicious and super affordable. I had the beef saimin for $6.99 and that's one of the more expensive menu items. An order of 4 pot stickers is $2.99. There's a pretty wide variety of foods, and there are pictures of the dishes if you're like me and not familiar with Hawaiian cuisine. This is a good place to take kids, but maybe not super picky eaters, since I didn't see a kid's menu. There are burgers and chicken wings though.

This little restaurant is huge on marvelous dishes and friendly staff! What they call barbeque, I would call teriyaki and their portion sizes are perfect. Eat in or take out; I promise you won't be disappointed.

Great flavors & large portions

Was my first time was different but amazing deffiently recommend the spam roll

Really lovely people who were very understanding and accomodating, really tasty and unique food, and a nice dining area. Would love to visit again!

Great food. Spam musubi is the best. Love that they have Aloha Maid, it's one of my favorite things to drink on the islands. If you haven't eaten here you should.

I was served by a courteous and friendly staff, and given a plate of delicious barbecue grilled chicken, fresh crisp cabbage, a grilled pineapple slice, some great pasta salad( not even normally a fan of pasta salad) and lovely sticky rice. I'm very glad a friend of mine referred me. Will be coming back often!

Delicious. Good simple food that's better than all the other fast food options around . Those spam treats mmmm

100% legit Hawaiian bbq, I have been to Ohau numerous times & this bbq is by far one of the best I have ever eaten.

When I’m working in the area this place is my go to. Love it!!! I miss Hawaii and this is a close as it gets to going back!

Good food. Makes me want to go on vacation to Hawaii 😊.

Good but confusing. I've lived in Hawaii and had alot of plate lunches. Usually the short ribs and the chicken thighs are whole peices that you cut up. Alohana has theirs all sliced up and in small peices which makes me feel like I'm getting scraps. Overall the taste was good on everything. The curry sauce was not the usual savory dark brown Japanese style but was more like sweet and sour sauce. Not bad but different. Mac salad and rice was on point. Atmosphere was good and i enjoyed the music.

Love the food & the relaxing/fun atmosphere! This place is always a joy with their decor and color theme! 😎 seafood is cooked well and made the moment you order!

Very well priced. Very good food. Fast service. Get some good, not traditional midwest BBQ.

Fast service and delicious food. I would recommend either the loco moco or the chicken katsu curry. The spam musubi is always good too especially if you don't want a huge amount of food (the portions are pretty big, great for leftovers!)

Great food for a good price... very home like.

Went for the musubi, stayed for the rest. Food is super tasty and authentic, better than any L&L I've been to on the islands. Ono!

Always excellent, this is a favorite place for my family to eat whenever we are in town. Love the short ribs, egg rolls are excellent and my personal favorite is the seafood platter so I get a little of everything.

The food was so so so good! Tasted exactly like what I ate during my trip to Hawaii. Staff was helpful with timing our take out order, food traveled super well home, and the price was very reasonable. Will definitely be going back and would recommend trying!

Service was excellent very fast and polite. Food was amazing. If you come here get the ribs they are delicious. Price is very reasonable. Highly recommend.

I got the bbq mix it was both a mixture of tenderness with the ribs and all of it had great flavor the pineapple gave it a mixture of sweet and the rice and the mac and cheese were both great

A must try if you are in Ankeny!!! Best crab ragoons and eggrolls. Servive was good. Reasonable prices.

Outstanding. My partner and I were traveling out of SLC and Jackson, MS. Found this place and decided to try it on a whim and was pleasantly surprised! I had the Hawaiian BBQ Chicken with rice macaroni salad. Chicken was sliced and served on a bed of sliced cabbage. It was delicious!!!! Mahalo!

We always get the Hawaiian Grill at their stand during the Knoxville Nationals, and we have started frequenting their Ankeny restaurant as well. The BBQ chicken is our fave!

Friendly staff and super good food! We always hit this place up when we are in Ankeny from DSM. And also can't wait for food festival to have even more. Highly reccomend!

My wife and I both got the kalua pork. It was really good in my opinion, although we were used to it being a bit more salty. Not enough to remove a star, still 5/5. Musbis were really good too. Wish they had meat jun!

Alohana is the best Hawaiian BBQ I've had outside of the islands and as good as most local places in HI. It is hard to believe this restaurant is in IA - authentic, incredible Hawaiian bbq at ridiculously reasonable prices. The only negative is that it is addicting. Suggestion - try the BBQ Mix plate first time there with an extra scoop of mac salad.

I wasn't blown away by the taste of my Hawain style BBQ beef but it wasn't bad either. It came with unseasoned rice and cabbage and a mayo based macorini salad. Their food was just good or okay. The atmosphere is very casual. The prices are decent and I noticed they have a family (of 4) option for like $30. Staff is nice.

The food is great! I love the bowls.

If I knew that this was my last day on earth and I only had one more meal, I would eat here. 30 bucks feeds a family of four, with leftovers! When you put this food into your mouth you suddenly realize that everything else you have tasted is garbage. Food is always hot and fresh. Staff is polite and friendly.

Their food never disappoints and definitely reminds me of HI!

Let me start with my family and I have ordered from this place multiple times. We have only had 1 other poor experience other than tonight. Tonight I called ahead to place an order at 4:30 1hr before we would be there to pick it up. Plenty of time considering I normally only call about 20 minutes ahead of time. The boyfriend went to go pick up our order at 5:10. When he got there not only was our food not ready to be picked up they hadn't even started cooking it. So he had to wait 45mins for the food to get done. The restaurant had our order for 1hr and 45mins in total, and when I called all I got was an "I'm sorry we have been busy." I own a restaurant and would never put off a call ahead order for over an hour. Absolutely, not ok.

We frequent this place on a semi-regular basis. Food is good and while not exactly what I would call a true “Hawaiian plate lunch” it is close enough for Iowa. Good mac salad and sticky rice. The only downside is that it can be less than clean at times, floor has been sticky more than once. Generally just a bit like they haven’t given it a good once over in a while. Service is usually decent, though I was once referred to a “Haole” as if I didn’t know what it meant. 😉Still provides a bit of Hawaii in Iowa which is enough for me.

Touch of Hawaii in the midwest. Good plate lunch style Hawaiian food for a good price. Friendly staff and clean establishment.

Have never had a problem with this place. Food is amazing. Prices are great.Only complaint is sometimes the floors can be sticky. The food quality and price makes up for the only star it would lose though.

Excellent food, very friendly and courteous and very reasonable prices. I highly recommend it👍

Excellent food; the Moco loco, chicken katsu and Kahlua pork are particularly good.

Cute strip mall Aloha grill with good food for a great price. The chicken bowls are very good! Grilled chicken with white rice. Aloha chicken plate was good as well!

Great food made fresh! The best crab rangoons and fantastic bbq chicken!

Enjoyed it very well it reminded us of when we went to Hawaii if we lived there it would be one of our locals

Took a while but totally worth it. So good.