Hale Aloha Cafe

Since I work on campus here at the University of Hawaii, once in a while I will go down to the Hale Aloha Cafe and eat either breakfast or lunch. It's not too often, but sometimes I go just because it's convenient and it's all you can eat. The prices have gone up since I've last eaten here. Breakfast is $8.75, lunch is $10.50, and dinner is $12.00. Prices will be going up too when the new school year starts up. So be aware. I guess for all you can eat, it's worth it if you are a student or a heavy eater. They have different items on menu daily for breakfast and for lunch. There is a weekly menu located online https://uhm.sodexomyway.com/dining. You can decide whether or not you want to eat a meal there that day. There is an assortment of drinks, cereals, breads for toast, some pastries, and hot items as well for breakfast. For lunch has the same assortment of drinks, breads, a station where they will make to order your sandwich, a pizza station, a burger station, hot items, salad bar, ice cream (when it lasts), soups, and other desserts. The flavor of the food is just okay. Not anything gourmet with tons of flavor. The convenience is worth going once in a while and the price is reasonable for buffet compared to eating out. Since food and drink are expensive now days.

I chaperoned a 4-day retreat on campus and stayed in the nearby dorms at Frear Hall. Everyone was provided a meal card to dine at the Hale Aloha Cafe. Overall, the food was better than expected. There was a good amount of food options with two dishes guaranteed to be vegan/vegetarian. There's even multiple dessert options available. It's all-you-can-eat, though you aren't allowed to carry food out without first paying an additional 50 cents for take out. Next, the staff was friendly and accomodating when I asked for no cheese on my burger or if I didn't want everything on my plate. The people swiping my card at the door was also very nice.Then, the dining area itself seemed spacious enough and clean. The line for food also moved forward quickly. So, I'd say it was a good experience dining on campus.

Best value on the island as long as you don't eat there every day. If you eat someplace everyday of course you are going to get bored and want something better.I go here once a week based on what is on the menu posted on their website. I like how they introduce more vegetarian/vegan dishes. Sometimes the fruit is really really good and they try to source locally when they can. Mostly the tomatoes and broccoli. They are known to gave good hot pizza, burgers, and grilled cheese. The ice cream flavors vary but you may get good ones like spumoni, banana, green tea, rocky road in addition to the usual chocolate, strawberry, cookies and cream, and some sort of sorbet. They have cones or bowls and toppings.It's $10.50 for lunch now but that should go up by 25 cents or 50 cents as it does every year. You can get the frequent dining card which gives you a free meal after you get 5 meals. It's a different card for breakfast, lunch, dinner. They do accept all major credit cards so I can get my 5% cash back for the restaurant category.https://uhm.sodexomyway.com/dining-choices/resident/index.html

For a school dormitory cafeteria food, the Hale aloha cafe can actually compete and even surpassed the regular restaurant buffet. Most buffet suck but for the Hale aloha cafe, they surpassed all the buffet restaurant and I have to say best buffet I ever ate in any buffet.

Buffet. More variety / selections than Gateway. Workers are friendly and elderly. Aunties and unkos everywhere. Options for vegetarians are available and a lot of seating. Best nights are Thursday nights called Premium Night. They treat out everyone to nicer meals but you are limited to only one per person. Still very filling. Young sociable atmosphere and fairly priced at around 10$ per person depending on which meal you go for. Dinner is a few bucks more.

I've eaten here a lot over the time that I've been a student at UH. I'm a hugh fan of premium night (on Thursdays) and their holiday themed nights. The food is good quality for an allYou can eat buffet-style caf for only 1 meal/11$. I like their burgers and their pizza. The right side of the caf gets really hot at the end of the day. They just installed huge ACs, so that helps with the heat. I gave this place a 3 because it's really noisy and sometimes I just don't like what they are serving. If the main dishes aren't good, there are always other, smaller dishes to eat, though.

I honestly don't know why people don't like eating at the caf. It's all you can eat ($5 for students & $10 dinner for guests). Granted, they repeat some food, but I'm not complaining. They have a variety of food & options for vegetarians. The staff are generally friendly when you talk to them. I think it's the best college caf. food. Ask any other college if they like their food; it's probably worse. Also, they try to take into consideration suggestions so that's nice of them. Really, nothing to complain about.

I haven't ever dormed at the UH Manoa before but I think the food here is not so bad actually. I have a lot of friends from UH who dorm and have dormed and talk about the food somewhat postively and somewhat negatively. Hale Aloha Cafe is just one of the few dining areas that is offered to students for breakfast, lunch/brunch, and dinner. During the weekends, they only offer brunch and dinner. I came here a couple times with dorm friends. The food is all-you-care-to-eat aka buffet style. They have a lot of different food options on a given period of time. For example, during brunch they offer both breakfast and lunch entree options. The cafeteria is pretty big and can be usually busy during the weekdays filled with students. There are take out options as well. Students use their meal plan swipe card to eat over here. If you are not a student, you can be a guest of one. The meals usually range from 9-12 dollars depending on what time of the meal day that you are going. It's conveniently located right in the middle of the whole UH dorming areas around the freshman towers. You can easily get your freshman-15 over here if you love to eat and eat often. The dining staff is ok, I haven't heard anything good about it though.

Not only is the ambiance reminiscent of a Covid fever dream, but the general ventilation is bad, the service is subpar, the dishes are not fully washed, and the food is incredibly bland and inconsistent

This Cafeteria might be the worst eating establishment I have eaten at. I have been a student at UH for the past 3 and a half years. Every night I am disappointed with the food they offer. They try to masquerade themselves as a quality eatery, but instead they serve food that gives me diarrhea nightly. I have included a picture of their cup to supplement the evidence of disgusting utensils they try to make us use. If you are looking for a quality meal, this is not the place to experience this. If I could have given them 0 stars, I still feel that is an under exaggeration of how atrocious their food and utensils are.