Kogi Aina

Great little hot pot spot that hasn’t been open for too long but the food here is pretty good! I love the people who work here too, everyone is super friendly!
I have been to kogi aina two times and both times I have enjoyed myself here.
They let you pick the soup broth, and you can either divide it with two different broths or one broth in the pot. You get up and choose your own veggies, tofu, and things you want to go in the soup. They have different colors for the plates which indicate different prices. The other great thing I love is that you can make your own sauce at the sauce bar. Did I mention it’s BYOB? The only thing is, it gets a bit pricey after awhile. You just keep getting plates from the fridge and the $$ racks up! The parking isn’t always great either, but other than that, this place is great and the broth is very flavorful!
Can’t go wrong with some hot pot even in 80 degree weather

The service was great which is always a huge plus and can make or break a new restaurant. The food was tasty and we enjoyed everything we ate. We tried the spicy shoyu and the miso broth. Sauce station is so cute with their clw sign above it and the selection was plentiful. Wish the servings were a little bigger and there were more variety of options in the fridge. There’s free shaved ice at the end which is a nice treat.

Townie to the Koolau’s…it’s an adventure for me. On my adventure, I found Kogi Aina thanks to Unilocal!
Kogi is located a few streets before Windward Mall and by some industrial shops. Parking is kind of limited and a little tight. Let the parking gods be with you.
My boyfriend and I visited on a Wednesday night and it wasn’t very busy. Like the other hot pot places, you can grab the different veggies and sauces.
I had the spicy Korean soup and my boyfriend had the shoyu. The soup was pretty good and doesn’t come really salty like the other places. It’s like shoyu at some places.
After eating, we got a rainbow shave ice. I was small kine bummed when there wasn’t ice cream hiding under it. But hello, there’s Waiola’s for that.
In terms of service, service was fast and friendly. The overall place is spacious, new and clean. I wouldn’t travel over the mountain for this place, but I’ll I’d be sure to visit in the area.
Go and visit Kogi Aina!

Kogi Aina. (3.5 stars)
I have to admit I was excited to try this place. But alas after making my own hot pot at home and going to Hot Pot Heaven and others… Kogi Aina fell (just) short of my expectations.
Chili Spicy Broth. (3 stars)
We ordered the Chili Spicy broth. It wasn’t spicy at all but the server did tell me it wasn’t terribly spicy. I would have chosen the Very Spicy but the BF chickened out and got Chili Spicy. The broth didn’t have any depth of flavor in my opinion. It was on the watery side. (LOL this whole compromising with the BF on food choices is ROUGH ON ME!!)… Especially because my journey and fulfillment on finding spicy foods (and my tolerance of them) is much higher than the BF. Ugh such sacrifices I make for this man!
Beef/​Chuck Beef. (4 stars)
The quality of the beef and chuck beef were good and tender. I enjoyed the chuck beef (ribeye) better then the beef. They are both $ 5.75 each.
Vegetables and other ingredients. (3.5 stars)
The choices were comparable to other hot pot establishments. Choy Sum, Chinese Cabbage; mushrooms (variety), dumplings, shrimp, etc. the price was slightly cheaper than the «town» establishments so that was nice to see. The vegetables were fresh.
Sauce Bar. (3.5 stars)
Nice choice of sauces and condiments. I wish they had fresh hot peppers but I’ll get over it haha! Lots of fresh cilantro so I was a happy camper! The spicy house sauce had a nice slightly spicy note to it. I also enjoyed the finger and green onion combination! I do wish they had sesame seed oil and SRIRACHA as well but nonetheless it was a nice variety.
Shave ice bowl. (3.5 stars)
It’s free but we asked the server to make a small portion for us just because we didn’t want to waste any food and were full! It was nice to have something cool and soothing after eating HOT food. The dessert was nice. A little too sweet for my liking but the BF ate it. (LOL no shocker there!!)
The parking lot is pretty cramped (maybe 10 stalls) but all angled. People actually doubled parked behind us but were nice enough to move when we were ready to go.
The servers were attentive and came around to fill up our water a few times.
All in all, if I was in Kaneohe and I was craving hot pot I may consider coming back. It wasn’t bad I just prefer making my own or Hot Pot Heaven more.

SUPER AWESOME PLACE!!! Hot pots been blowing up lately and this place does it very well! There sauce station is top notch probably one of the best or THE best ginger onion oil sauce (ginger chicken sauce) for you to use as much as you wish! I haven’t found a broth I truly love yet but the spicy house is in the lead. Selection of things to put in your hot pot is amazing to me. You choose and pay by the plate of food you want (something like genki sushi without the rotating belt.) I’ve been to several hot pot restaraunts on the island and this place so far is my favorite go to place for hot pot food. Also service has been the greatest by far more than most restaraunts!

That was such a treat! Everything was delicious and I liked the fact that I could choose my own veggies. We will definitely go there again!

This hot pot shop in Kaneohe, Hawaii, opened in December of 2015…
This venue used to house a Mexican restaurant on Kahuhipa Street, across from the Windward Car Spa. The restaurant is on the same side of the street as the Kaneohe Pancake House… (park here after 5pm).
YAY for me! I don’t have to drive to Honolulu!
I couldn’t go right away because — like AYCE Korean BBQ — it’s more fun to eat in a group and share many dishes. So, besides having the challenge of finding a good group of foodies, I had to find people willing to drive to «my side» of the island!
The advantages of Kaneohe are:
* Less crowded (as compared with Honolulu)
* Less traffic
* Free parking — there is a small lot; street parking; and Pancake House’s parking lot after 5pm
So, with all of this information, Jules, Lora, Daven, Gary, and I ventured out and here’s the report:
We were cheerfully greeted right away and were promptly seated in the casual, spacious restaurant! It has a high ceiling, giving it a warehouse feel, especially since it’s located in an industrial area.
We got food from the fridge, except the meat, which is ordered from the server.
The plates are color coded:
Yellow = $ 2.75
Orange = $ 3.75
Blue = $ 4.75
White = $ 5.75
We chose our broth and cooked at our table. Daven and I shared the Oxtail Broth — it was okay. I was too lazy to get some dipping sauce to change it up and I didn’t want to try the House Spicy Broth that Lora, Jules, and Gary shared (you know me and spicy/​scary — haha! Pain is no good!)… We ordered one serving of each of the 5 meats: Beef, Chuck Beef, Tongue, Chicken, and Pork Belly. The veggies and everything seemed fresh and clean! We needed more space for all of our plates — we were able to use the table next to us and even a portable table!
If you need something, a button is available to call a server to the table. We didn’t need it because the helpful and friendly servers always filled our water glasses and even brought us a large bowl of complimentary Rainbow Shave ice! YUMMY!
Our total bill for five people was less than $ 100. Too bad I forgot my coupon for a free broth at home. It’s from the back of a receipt from Kaneohe Safeway. They also gave us a Loyalty Card and stamped it three times!
So — if you like go, just lemme know and I can go with you or you can use the Loyalty Card! Okay?!

Tell me again why I came all the way to Kaneohe for Hot Pot? The wonderful Nadine C. lives on this side and she said this place is new. LETS TRY! I’m always down to try new places. FOOD IS LIFE! This place is a hot pot and bbq. They have a small parking lot but after 5pm you can park at koa pancake. There’s a bathroom out the door but you need to use a key that’s attached to a spoon/​ladel.
I do not like driving so my saster Daven H. drove us there. He knew where it was, if it was me. oh god we be lost and late. No food left for me. Then I’ll go and cry. We met up with Nadine C., Gary N., and Jules Y. Coming from someone who is a germaphobic, hot pot means sharing the trust of each other to dip our used chopstick in the same pots. That being said, I’m selective on who I’m willing to share my germs with, these are the lucky people. haha kidding, not really…
We got 2 pots, one was oxtail which Nadine and Daven shared. Gary, Jules and I shared the Koga Aina Shoyu House Spicy. I liked the broth a lot! Very flavorful and had enough spice level for that kick! My love for spicy is strong. The oxtail broth was a little bland for oxtail…
One of the owner’s wife stopped by and talked to us. She asked us how we liked our food and what we thought. She said she noticed us taking a lot of pictures HAHA, Unilocalers habit! She was very nice, so were the other staff. They told us we get free shave ice! RAINBOW shave ice… Daven nicely divided the shave ice so everyone could have a taste of every color. But when we get to the middle, it had no syrup. I think it just wasn’t seeped deep enough. The outer part was very sweet!
I wouldn’t drive all the way out here for hot pot even though they are good. Just not OVER the top I NEED TO GO THERE good.

Kogi Aina is the Windward region’s shiny new hot pot toy!
Right now there are two recently opened Kaneohe restaurants that fit the shiny new toys bill, this hot pot one and the AYCE Sikdorak II just down the street (to the right)! These neat new yummy restaurants offer the self-​cooking dining experience that only adds more variety to the Windward restaurant mix.
Welcome to the Windward side, Kogi Aina!
On this night, I joined Nadine C., Gary N., Lora C., and Daven H. on Nadine’s yummy quest :) to try out this new Windward restaurant.
Parking is in the lot right in front, street parking, or at the pancake house nearby. The parking lot was filled by the time I arrived at 7 so I found parking on the street on my way to looking for parking at the pancake house.
Respectively, the dining room was fairly filled with diners. Its nice that the place is spacious. We had a lot of room to comfortably and safely walk around. The ambiance reminds me of Kyung’s on King Street with the flair of Kunio’s in Waipio rolled into one.
Best way to eat at these places is in a group of 3 – 5 to offset the cost and allow for more ingredient variety. It’s always a nice touch to have more variety added into your meal.
The dining room is a spacious medium/​large-​sized area with hot pot stations shared in twos which gives the tables of four, immediate access to two broths. You could add a fifth chair and maybe a sixth to some of the tables; two tables would make it 8 – 9 or 10 in one row.
Wear something that will keep you cool. Hot pot cooking does get a bit hot. If you’re cooking, you’re sure to let off some sweat! It got really hot while cooking and I wasn’t even doing the cooking just sitting near the vicinity of the pot!
On to the food: D –
I love it that this place does not use MSG.
If you’ve been to hot pot restaurants whether Japanese, Chinese, or Korean, your cooking process will be the same.
If not, here’s a brief run down to a successful hot pot experience:
1) Find a seat
2) Peruse menu; select hot pot broth, rice or none, food plates (they serve other dishes), drinks
— We chose two broths: spicy house & oxtail
— Get rice if you like it with your meal. Our group of 5 got the medium bowl just for a bit of rice for each of us and it was just enough with some to spare.
3) Choose hot pot ingredients from refrigerator; it’s like cooking, get a few veggies to flavor your broth :)
4) Take ingredients back your table
5) Find the dipping sauces station any try a couple or mix to your liking, whatever catches or is pleasing to your eye
— I tried the peanut sauce and fell in love with its rich, peanut-​ty taste
— also mixed grated daikon with soy sauce mix. It was very good but I just enjoyed the peanut sauce more.
6) Take photos; post them on Unilocal!Hehe
7) Inspect ingredients for freshness, unwrap, then carefully insert ingredients into rolling-​boiling-​hot-​pot-​broth pot (try say that 10 times fast!).
— First cook ingredients that take longer to cook through (hardier veggies; chicken & pork — do not eat raw or partially cooked)
— With the first batch almost cooked through, add beef slices, delicate leafier veggies
8) Dig in when beef is red, just turned brown!
— Turn down the heat when it starts to over boil
9) After you consume half of the first two, add in noodles, already cooked items (maybe mandoo, gyoza), mochi
— I learned this great tip from Lora who says we shouldn’t crowd everything in all at once
My other Unilocal buddy, Nat N., asked if we were able to take the broth home but none of us wondered about it. (Note to self to ask next time or by phone when I remember! Lol)
The workers are really pleasant. They came by to refill our water cups regularly.
One of the owner’s wife came by to welcome us there. Instead of opening a place in town, the owners chose Kaneohe. How lucky for Windward residents, right?! :D
So what it practically boils down to is (a) freshness of ingredients, & (b) hot pot broths taste:
Do you like it or do you not?
The ingredients were fresh. The taste of our two broths were, in my opinion, pretty exciting & delicious, especially the spicy house broth in combination with my now fav peanut sauce. For me it was worth a trip to the Windward side to spend a little taste-​testing foodie time with our group.
If you’re a townie trying Ewa side restaurants, why not come to the Windward side for a change of pace. At least you will have opportunity to wander through beautiful majestic lush greenery on the way to/​from the Windward side! :D
At the end after the hot pot portion of our meal, we received a bowl of free shave ice with one cheerful spoon for each of us. The server brought bowls & a serving scoop for us to divvy up the yummy ice treat: D
What an enjoyable meal! :)
Come visit Kaneohe’s new shiny new hot pot place!

Amazing Bulgogi! Comes out steaming hot on a stone plate. The staff is awesome, offers to mix it for you and help you through the experience of you are new to Korean food. Each meal comes with free Shave Ice too! Meal came with Kim Chi as well. Huge sauce bar, house sauce is amazing with a nice spicy bite.

Went there on a Wednesday night and I think we (6 of us) may have taken the last table but seems like there was really nobody waiting since diners seemed to be finishing their meals as quickly as customers came. Parking is a bit limited but plenty of parking on the street, especially for dinner since most of the other business would be closed by then.
The food was GREAT. Our group had 4 different broths and we all didn’t have anything bad to say about any of them. The selections (color coded plates for pricing) from the Self-​Serve freezer were really good (various veggies, noodles, dim sum, etc.), fresh, and kept getting re-​stocked. The sauces were AWESOME! I really didn’t have a favorite because all were SOOOOOO good! The meats that you order were really thinly sliced so that it cooks quickly in the broth and were extremely tender. My personal favorite was the pork belly… SUPER GOOD!
This is a BYOB place and I didn’t know this before we got there but get this… one of the servers gave me a beer that they had back in the fridge! How much more cooler is that!
With dessert, our bill came out to about $ 23 each. Pretty good for the quality food and service.
Bottomline, GREAT FOOD, GREAT STAFF, GREAT PRICE… coming back here for sure.

New restaurant located in Kaneohe.
Great experience, friendly staff, clean, great tasting food.
Limited parking.
Call button located on each table to call server over.
Sauce station with a great selection of flavorful dipping sauces such as ponzu, miso, ginger etc.
Wide selection of vegetables and sea food located in the fridge.
Prices vary by the color of the plate.
Free broth refills.
Definitely coming back!

Uh oh… I think we are in big trouble now! This place is a hidden treasure, right next to my Sunday workout spot and it is super delicious.
I mean, who doesn’t love Hot Pot? Throw in some epic Korean food options and everyone is happy. Awesome friendly crew who greeted us as soon as we walked in. There are an array of options, great prices and the food was delicious. I have a feeling my brand new stamp card is going to get full, soon.

Met the family for some hot pot lunch! Super delish without the wait or crowds of the places in town. Good variety of broth selections and sauces. The refrigerator case was full for the picking. Will be driving out from town for sure to enjoy in the future.
Went back again for Valentine Din we. Glad to see this place still going strong. Loved the food as usual and service was top notch.

Another hot pot business here in the islands, located in Kaneohe right across from the Honda Windward Car Spa. The business before used to be a Mexican restaurant that closed down.
The restaurant has been opened since 4 weeks ago and is co owned by two brothers Tomas and Dae Ho Park. There is a small segment of their restaurant in the Dining Now section of the Star Advertiser.
When you enter, you are greeted by two waiters, you can sit anywhere. There are six booths with one being raised at the back of restaurant with a few steps. Four wooden benches that can sit 4 people together. Each table has two hot pot stoves. The menu is simple to follow. You order a broth and meat and pick your vegetables from the refrigerators.
Meats: Beef, Chuck beef, pork belly, tongue, and chicken $ 4.75 to 5.75
Broths: Kogi Aina shoyu house, spicy shoyu house, oxtail, chicken $ 4.95 per broth
Rice: ranging from small to large $ 1.75 to $ 5.75
Color plates: Yellow $ 2.75, Orange $ 3.75, Blue $ 4.75, and White $ 5.75
We got shrimp, bok choy, fish cake, scallops, lettuce, udon, and meat balls.
No rice but ordered the two orders of beef and pork belly. Also got their shoyu house broth.
The sauce stand had a variety of sauces to choose from: ponzu, spicy miso, sesame seed sauce, gochujang, and others.
The house broth was very tasty and not too salty. The vegetables were delicious with the sauces.
The restaurant was clean and well kept.
We got 20% off our final tab so the bill came out to $ 41.05, $ 10 off with the 20% coupon in the newspaper.
Parking was a struggle since there were five stalls next to the restaurant, all were filled so we had to park next to the car wash on the side of the road. It took us at least five to seven minutes to cross over to the business before and after we left. The cars drive pretty fast on this street so be careful and watch out!!!
I would come again and try their lunch menu.
Also, you get a stamp card so buy 10, get the 11^th free :)

Finaalllyyyyy – my hopes have been answered, a spot has opened up for hot pot on the windward side!
Hot Pot is easily one of my favorite meals; hot soupy goodness is good for almost any occasion. Feeling under the weather? Hungover? Want something healthy for a change? Seriously, hot pot is the answer!
The location is fairly easy to find on busy Kahuhipa street. There is a small lot in front of the restaurant but on my recent visit I noticed that they have only a couple of stalls. Your options are to either get lucky or look for street parking.
The restaurant seems newly renovated and looks really clean and bright. The setup is similar to other hot pot places, with burners on the table for the hot pot, a sauce station and refrigerators for the assorted goodies you can choose to cook in your broth. They also have very handy buttons for the booths on along the windows so that you can call your waiter over if you need any help. I always feel guilty pressing these things but it’s definitely a «nice to have» sort of thing!
They have a pretty good selection of broths to choose from, and they’re all very reasonably priced for around ~$ 5, compared to $ 10 at similar restaurants in town. Everyone raves about the Oxtail broth here, and I hate to be the oddball, but I kinda found it to be just ‘meh’. The flavor is overly peppery while also being bland at the same time. It’s good if you’re trying to stay away from anything overly flavorful or too rich, but next time I’d try to go for the shoyu broth. The refrigerator has a nice selection of meats, veggies and noodles. They do have varied selections but I do hope that they get some more in the future! I missed my favorite veggie: chrysanthemum!
I love the sauce bar! They keep it super clean and tidy with a ton of choices to mix and match from. Personally my favorites are the ginger lemon and the ginger scallion! The ginger lemon has a really bright, citrusy flavor and the ginger scallion reminds me of the sauce that accompanies ginger chicken. Mix the two together, and boom, deliciousness!
In addition to the hot pot they have a good selection of Korean type dishes including standard KBBQ fare like Kalbi, BBQ Chicken and Mandoo. I think I saw some pictures of bomb looking bibimbap too! I’ve mentally added it to my ‘must try’ list.
Awesome new restaurant worth checking out. I will definitely be back for more hot pot!

While driving around Kaneohe, I randomly saw Kogi Aina’s sign and immediately looked it up on Unilocal.I was excited to find out that it was a new hot pot place and informed my other half that we needed to go there, pronto!
Parking in the area is limited but we were able snag a stall right in front. As soon as we entered, we were warmly greeted by the staff and seated promptly. The restaurant itself is clean and well lit. One page of the menu is dedicated to hot pot options. They have 8 different broths including oxtail, chicken, miso, chili spicy, and gochujang for $ 4.95 each. Meats (beef, chicken, pork) are $ 4.75-$ 5.75 per plate and rice is available in different serving sizes for $ 1.75-$ 5.75. There is a good assortment of fresh and hearty servings of vegetables, noodles, seafood, and other add ons (tofu, gyoza) in their refrigerators. These plates are color coded and range from $ 2.75 to $ 5.75. The other side of the menu consists of bibimbap and other lunch plates ($ 9.95-$ 14.99), such as kalbi, bbq chicken, chicken katsu, garlic shrimp, and kimchi fried rice.
We ended up ordering miso broth and a kalbi bibimbap. As we waited for our food, we walked over to the refrigerators and picked out some veggies and of course, some enoki mushrooms! We also got some dipping sauces from a table next to the refrigerators. They have a variety of sauces but my favorites were the ginger lemon and ginger scallion sauces. Our food came out soon after and it was delicious! Our waiter mixed our bibimbap tableside and during our meal, he checked on us frequently to make sure we were doing okay, clear our empty dishes, and refill our water. He also reminded us to save room for ice cream but we were already in a food coma. We were pleasantly surprised that our bill included a 20% discount and free broth (December special). As we left the restaurant, they also gave us a stamp card (10 stamps = 50% off lunch plates or free broth) and thanked us for coming in.
Overall, we had a great dining experience at Kogi Aina! The food was tasty and the staff was friendly and provided awesome service. It’s BYOB and good for groups. We’ll definitely be back for more and we’ll save some room for ice cream!

Went for the second time tonight and they’ve only been open a short time! My husband is not a huge hot pot fan but he loves the food here and made up his own special mix of gochujang broth, noodles, and ponzu sauce (calls it the best ramen he’s ever had). They were busy tonight so word must be spreading about how good this place is.
Pros: food, prices, ambiance (comfortable but nice), and service.
Cons: parking is a little tough but we’ve found parking both times we’ve gone so far so not a big deal.

I was sad to see one of our favorite restaurants (Maria Bonita) leave Kaneohe but decided to give its replacement a shot.
20% off through the end of the year. No MSG!
Got here on Thursday, 12.18.15, with a couple of booths already seated. We were greeted with warm and told to pick any seat we wanted. We sat in a both next to the window. It is warm in there so don’t come dressed in Uggs even though it’s «winter». Lol.
I had the miso broth which was nicely flavored. It was actually not as salty as other hot pot places I’ve been to which was refreshing. You pick your veggies, meat and sauces from the refrigerator.
We also had bibimbop, which is normally only available for lunch. Talk about a party in my mouth! The homemade teriyaki sauce and gochujang sauces were excellent!
I docked one star as it’d be really great if the plates were available throughout the day.
Parking kinda sucks, one way in, one way out so you have to reverse out of the lot.
The staff was really friendly. Almost everyone came to check on us and thanked us for coming in.
We’ll definitely be back! Kamsahamnida!

Awesome new restaurant in Kaneohe! I always enjoyed hot pots and am happy to say that Kogi aina has not let me down. They had a number of Korean-​based broths to choose from (about 8) starting with a simple chicken broth to a very spicy chili broth. I ordered the oxtail just to be safe and it was clean, yet flavorful! Along with the broth, I also got a plate of the beef and pork belly. The meats were fresh and weren’t too thin. After ordering the broth and meat, I went to self serve refrigerators to pick some vegetables and found a good number of selections to choose from. As with the meat, the vegetables were fresh and neatly packaged on color coded plates to indicate the different prices and had reasonable portions. In addition to the vegetables, they had a side table with a variety of sauces to choose from. While I got to sample a few, my favorite was the spicy ponzu and goma sauce.
Service:
The service was great. The servers were very nice and patient when it came to explaining the different broths and were very attentive throughout my meal (as they offered to refill my hotspot on multiple occasions).
Also, their BYOB policy is awesome so you can enjoy your meal with a nice cold beer.
All in all, the food, service, and ambience at Kogi aina were great and I will definitely be coming back again!