Hawaiian Style BBQ

When you walk in the door of Hawaiian Style BBQ, you are greeted by an employee enthusiastically calling out “Aloha!” So begins a memorable dining experience in a most unlikely location. On a sad stretch of mostly defunct urban highway, this cheerful restaurant is a beacon of warm hospitality and a treasured destination for expertly made dishes from Polynesian America.

You can smell the magic from the parking lot, where aromatic breezes waft from a charcoal grill that defines the cuisine. The air is flavored with a heady perfume of smoke, beef, and chicken and the teriyaki sauce in which they are marinated. In fact, simple teriyaki beef and chicken, basic though they may be, are not to be missed, their marinade infusing the meat with a seductive sweet-salty flavor, the heat of the fire giving the meats’ edges a caramelized chew.

I am a big fan of kalua pig — soft shreds of smoke-cooked meat that are reminiscent of the pulled pork BBQ that is so common in this part of the world, but packing a saltier smack and succulence so intense that it verges on lascivious. On a sesame seed bun, without any sauce whatever, this pork makes a memorably satisfying sandwich.

Scrumptious as the food is, convivial ambience adds a whole other dimension to the pleasure of eating here. In the short time it’s been open, Hawaiian Style BBQ has become a favorite haunt for Augustans of every stripe, who come to eat as well as to socialize with colleagues, friends, or family in large groups at the big tables. Because Fort Gordon is nearby, many of those regular customers arrive in uniform.

Note that the restaurant closes after lunch at 3pm, then opens for dinner at 5pm.