Makana Hawaiian & Japanese BBQ

New York, United States

2.9

23 reviews

Accepts Credit Cards

Contacts

QR code, vCard

Telephone:
+1 212-996-3534
Website:
makananyc.com
Address:
2245 1st Ave, New York, NY, 10029
b/t 116th St & 115th St
East Harlem
Nearby public transportation stops & stations:
0.4 mi116th Street (6)
0.4 mi110th Street (6)
0.6 mi125th Street (4,5,6)
Categories:
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Bussiness info

Takes Reservations
No
Delivery
Yes
Take-out
Yes
Accepts Credit Cards
Yes
Good For
Lunch
Parking
Street
Bike Parking
Yes
Wheelchair Accessible
No
Good for Kids
Yes
Good for Groups
Yes
Attire
Casual
Ambience
Casual
Noise Level
Average
Alcohol
No
Outdoor Seating
No
Wi-Fi
Paid
Has TV
Yes
Waiter Service
No
Caters
Yes

Today

Today 11:00 am – 10:00 pm
Local time (New York) –

Business hours

Monday 11:00 am – 10:00 pm
Tuesday 11:00 am – 10:00 pm
Wednesday 11:00 am – 10:00 pm
Thursday 11:00 am – 10:00 pm
Friday 11:00 am – 10:30 pm
Saturday 11:00 am – 10:30 pm
Sunday 12:00 pm – 10:00 pm

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23 reviews of Makana Hawaiian & Japanese BBQ

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Place rating: 3
Manhattan, NY
Food: A decent plate lunch in a city with a huge lack of Hawaiian food. The short ribs and pulled pork are acceptable renditions of classic plate lunch meats. The mac salad isn’t bad too.
Service: Quick service. I was in and out in less than 10 minutes — although I was one of only two customers in the restaurant on a mid afternoon week day.
Ambience: A little dirty and old. Could use a serious update in décor.
Best item: Short ribs.
Needs improvement: random bagged lettuce salad on the plate lunch plate. Why call it a salad? It was really just a tasteless garnish.
Bottomline: 3⁄5 stars. Not your Rainbow Drive-​In in Honolulu, but I would get take out from here next time.
Place rating: 1
Manhattan, NY
We’ve lived in this neighborhood for 5+ years. This was one of our favorite places. Now, they’ve changed their menu, all items with meat have gone up full $ 1. Our favorite items no long exist and the party trays have gone up by $ 20! for the SAME items! What is going on Mankana? Happy to order something else to support the neighborhood.
Place rating: 2
New York, NY
Decent food. Just ordered, again, from GrubHub and prepaid a 30%+ tip… yet the delivery person could not AND would not use the intercom (he told me so when I called)
Having to go outside in the cold to get the food is not what I paid for… and hiring someone who cannot do such a simple task makes me worry about other things about the company.
Place rating: 5
Manhattan, NY
I really enjoy the food here. Good costumer service and friendly environment! Delivery on time and they communicate if running long or late. Good job!
Place rating: 2
Midland Park, NJ
Got the pulled pork sandwich and was pretty disappointed. Both buns and meat were very dry. Not worth the $ 8 I paid for it. The macaroni salad and dumplings that came were good though.
Place rating: 1
Manhattan, NY
They delivered rotten food to me (the avocado was literally black — see the two pictures I uploaded of it). They should have been ashamed to let something like that go out the door. When I called to request a replacement, I was told that they could not give me any time estimate whatsoever for when the replacement would arrive, nor would they prioritize the delivery. So not only were they not embarrassed by the rotten food they had sent me, they were not even apologetic.
Place rating: 1
Manhattan, NY
If you are a foodie or even moderately care about the quality of the food you’ll be very disappointed with this restaurant. I’ve never been inside but I ordered delivery twice. Both times the food looked good, the amount of food for the money in NYC was a lot but the food was so low quality and tasteless, I could not eat it. The first time, I thought it might have been that day that the food was not good, maybe a new chef or sub or something so couple of weeks later, I ordered again. Same thing, lots of food, it looks good too but they use the cheapest, lowest quality ingredient. never again
Place rating: 4
Brooklyn, NY
I order take out from this place at least once a week.
Their combo plate are great! Get the BBQ chicken and the BBQ Beef Ribs. Yum
Place rating: 1
New York, NY
Awful fake ‘Hawaiian’ and ‘Japanese’ grill. This is a Chinese restaurant doing a lousy job of pretending to be Hawaiian and Japanese. Terrible food. Anyone who thinks otherwise is horribly misled. I’m from Hawaii and I can tell you this place sucks. I have pity on those diners who think they’re eating anything similar to authentic Hawaiian plate lunch. And if my review hasn’t scared you off go check their Dept of Health grade. Would you like a mouse or some rat poop with your Loco Moco?
Place rating: 3
Manhattan, NY
Let me just start off with saying that I have been eating here for years. Well, years ago their food tasted AMAZING to me. I love their BBQ chicken bento box, shumai, shrimp tempura, and waikiki roll. But I cannot say the same for my recent visits. I am not sure if they hired a new sushi chef or cook but their food is NOT the same as how it used to be. I WON’T EVER order their shrimp tempura again; it should be called tiny shrimp tempura because is barely has any shrimp, their crab meat taste like imitation crab meat. And even when I complained to the cashier about my sushi barely having any shrimp, he said that’s just how it comes. Their BBQ chicken is still good and I still love their shumai. Their edamame is ok. Another good thing I will say is that I love how they play with fruit and sushi; very creative. But overall, this is OK.
Place rating: 5
Manhattan, NY
Friendly and fast. I picked up spam musubi. They fried up the spam and assembled it in front of me. In Hawaii most places make it and leave it sitting around. It was nice to see it freshly made. They only deliver down to 95th so I’ll have to pick it up but it’s totally worth it.
Place rating: 2
Beverly Hills, CA
My first bad review
Miso soup had no taste, they added extra dressing on spicy tuna roll, the only good thing was the Shumai. but that’s pretty basic. you can’t mess that up at least they had a good sauce for the Shumai. just counting days for the return of Vino
Place rating: 1
New York, NY
Horrible customer service. I live close by and decided to give this place a try. I walked in an hour and a half after their «opening time» and the man refused to serve me food. Other people in the restaurant were sitting and eating but he said they were ‘closed’. The man said his ‘system was down’ so he couldn’t charge me. I offered to pay cash for whatever I ordered… But no.
I work in the restaurant business and sometimes when systems are down or something goes wrong you have to roll with the punches. Whenever the restaurants I’ve worked at had a system crash everyone just had to apologize for only being able to take cash and ran to the kitchen to verbally tell what your customers ordered. If you want business and people to go to your restaurant DON’T refuse service during your opening hours especially if other people are already eating and your doors are open.
Place rating: 1
Manhattan, NY
One star is harsh but fitting because this meal sucked.
First, delivery time — one hour, 45 minutes. When we called to confirm there hadn’t been a problem with our order the staff could not have been less helpful. The delivery guy then went to the wrong building in our complex and called us with an even worse attitude about how this was our fault.
The only thing that tasted good was the ginger dressing on the salad.
Sushi– fish was more like mashed up tuna salad than whole pieces of fresh fish
BBQ chicken– tasted like crappy food court chicken. None was white meat. Dry, bad flavor and showed up cold.
Place rating: 4
Woodlawn, Bronx, NY
One point off for the fact that menu they have laying around for you to look at is outdated with old prices and they don’t tell you until you get to the counter.
The wait for the food is pretty long but bareable
The sushi is also pretty mediocre but the ENTREES make up for all of what goes wrong here. For my date and I, we ordered a dinner bento box and some regular rolls (shrimp tempura and eel) lobster fried rice and teriyaki chicken. With two sodas it came out to $ 56. It was absolutely delicious and the boy who took our order was very hospitable and sweet.
I would definitely go back now that I know what to order and how long I have to wait! I would say if you live close its worth trying out. The inside isn’t too fancy, it seats about 4 – 5 groups maximum but very clean and pretty décor.
Check it out!
Place rating: 4
Jersey City, NJ
This is quite possibly the only place in the five boroughs where you can get spam musubi.
I’ve been looking for a Hawaiian place since L&L went out of business downtown.
By chance I walked past this place and I knew I had to try this place. To my surprise, it was actually good. Spam musubi was good, though I wish the spam was pan-​fried instead of grilled, and the barbecue mix had a good grill char. Not a lot of Hawaiian options around here, but this place is good enough for four stars on its merits, not because I’m jonesing for spam musubi.
Wish I lived or worked a little closer, would live to return and try more of the menu.
Place rating: 5
East Bronx, NY
the best Crunchy Spicy Salmon Rolls and Bento Boxes. My boyfriend is obsessed! this place is one of my faves
Place rating: 3
Long Island City, NY
Um this place is OK. I felt a bit deflated after getting food from here, especially since Japanese food is hard to come by in East Harlem.
I came here during my lunch break for take out, my 30 minute lunch break, might I add. The entire order took my entire lunch break (not fun). I ordered the bento box lunch special with teriyaki chicken. The special contains miso soup, a side salad with ginger dressing, a california roll and rice with teriyaki chicken. The soup was bit bland, but the salad was on point — loved the ginger dressing. The california roll was good too. Now, the teriyaki chicken was flavorful but too chewy with threw me off.
Recap:
— 1 star off for the slow service
— 1.5 star off for the the chewy chicken.
I’m rounding up to 3 stars to give this place a chance. It is a rare find in East Harlem.
Place rating: 1
Manhattan, NY
90 minutes after placing my seamless order (30 – 45) minute estimate and I called the restaurant and they said «if you have a problem, call seamless.»
What a joke. Never again
Place rating: 3
Manhattan, NY
I ordered delivery from this place several times and picked up lunch from this location. The female who answers the phone, is always polite.
Their food isn’t fantastic but it does the job when you have a craving for sushi.
The food is good… just nothing that makes you wanna say: OMG, this is good!
I usually get their sushi rolls and fried rice.
This place is great for El Barrio… variety of different foods is definitely a great thing. :)
Place rating: 3
New York, NY
Super mediocere food but pretty decent considering it’s location in the middle of Spanish Harlem. I like their lunch specials. I’ve gotten the sushi lunch which comes with four pieces of sushi and a roll, a soup and a salad. I’ve also had their stirfry noodels which are pretty good as well. I’ve had it with both the udon and the thin noodles but I definitely preferred the thin noodles since udon noodles don’t absorb flavor as well. I am also a huge fan of the seaweed salad. I know you can literally get that anywhere but in Spanish Harlem that stuff is literally nonexistent so I’m so thankful for Makana because I love seaweed salad!
Place rating: 5
Astoria, Queens, NY
Came to this place because my sister loves it and she insisted on me trying it, is a mixed of Hawaiian and Japanese BBQ, wanted to try good sushi with out raw fish, stepping aside form California roll or shrimp tempura, for my surprise the customer service is excellent friendly and courteous, I order the Da spider roll and the baked garlic mussels, it was delicious, will be back for sure, my new sushi get away !!!
Place rating: 4
Manhattan, NY
Today I realized that I need to give some props to Makana, something I should’ve done a while ago. I have been a customer ever since they opened and I LOVE it here.
I’m no expert on Hawaiian BBQ, but this is some good eats. The Japanese fusion is a plus. The owners and staff are very friendly people. A few months ago I discovered that they are spreading the Hawaiian BBQ love with their second location down on 106th street, good for them!
I’m so glad that I can walk down the block and grab some sushi. My neighborhood is changing before my eyes, how exciting.