Ipo BBQ

Good food! Good serving! Affordable price!My favorite is the beef bbq! I just wish that beef will be a bit nore tender pls. I love the place!!

This place continues to disappoint. Our first choice in this plaza closed early so we settled on this Hawaiian BBQ joint in the same plaza. It's been a few years since my last visit and i decided it was time to see how things have improved. The lady working the counter was friendly enough (+1 star here) but that alone can't make up for such poorly cooked food that was barely edible. We ordered the following:1 x Special BBQ plate combo: barely any meat on the kalbi. The marinade tasted decent but should have been allowed to sit longer to soak up the flavors better. I often marinade my own Korean BBQ so I could tell this was not marinaded long enough. Same taste with the chicken. The bulgogi was probably the best meat of the three presented in this plate but it was a meager portion.1 x Seafood Combo: this was just a sad and overcooked meal. The mahi mahi was dry like cardboard and void of any moisture. One of my three crispy shrimp was so tough that I couldn't even bite through it and eventually gave up.2 x musubi: the flavors were there but where's the spam?! The slices of spam were so thin that they were overpowered by the taste of the rice and sauce.Desperate times will not call for me to return here. I want to support small business but I have to admit that even the greasy food and long wait times at my local L&L, with comparable pricing, would make for a more satisfying meal than this.

Out of a whim, me and my boyfriend went here and ordered special bbq plate and seafood plate. When you see the floor sticky like the real deal one person wide alley chinese restaurant old school style you see on hollywood, dont trust it. That didnt stop us as we just decided to take out something and eat. Special Bbq combo looks good on menu but nowhere near the picture. It is short called short ribs because it is short of a meat and all bones. beef was the most decent of all and the chicken is just there to exist and pretend to fill you up but the taste is blah.As for the seafood plate, that was the nastiest mahi mahi cardboard meat id ever tasted. I thought that the crispy shrimp would save it, i was so wrong that even the shell is in it. imagine a half of a whole shrimp pounded hair thin!! And they serve you asian size rice. That was right because you would loose your appetite. So we were saving the "best for last", the one we thought could save jt all ; the spam musubi. That spam is as thick as a hardbound cover! or maybe realistically 3piece cardstock. they wrap the spam good so you wont see how thin they are until you bite your disappointment. Never going back. Id rather L&L than this!

I had high hopes for this place. I ordered a beef teriyaki bowl and two chicken lumpia. The bowl was just ok with very little vegetables. I took it home and added more broccoli. The lumpia was over cooked and extremely oily. I ate one and threw the other away. Sorry. I won't be going back.

This hands down is my favorite spot in Poway, I visit at least once a week, my kids ask for it almost every night. Definitely give the food a try...

Lots of places to eat in Poway.  Looks like Ipo Bbq is the only independent Hawaiian restaurant.  I tried the beef short ribs.  Regular size order came with 3 ribs and 3 scoops of rice.  Rice was moist and had a mild flavor.  Ribs were tender and nicely marinated.  The quality of meat is higher than L & L which I found chewy but I prefer the flavor of Island Style Cafe's version. https://www.hungryones.com/2021/05/island-style-cafe-3/I also tried the lychee slush.  Ice had bigger chunks than I prefer.  Sweet lychee flavor was kinda like lychee but different from eating fresh lychee.So far Ipo Bbq has my favorite Hawaiian food in Poway.

I called for a pick up order and was shocked to get in to find out two entrees and an extra side was over 50 bucks guess that's my fault for not checking but usually a restaurant tells you your total after ordering, they didn't, plus the food quality is not worthy of that cost regardless, so I won't be returning. Plus I only got two pieces of short rib in my order which is super skimpy and it has an almost rotten taste to it. Edit: oh and there is a sharp shard of bone in the chicken katsu. Nice.

I had lunch at the restaurant, and although the food was good, the service was not up to par. Despite paying around $3.00 for a can of Coke, the lady at the counter gave me a small styrofoam cup and walked away, leaving me without the chance to request a larger cup. To make matters worse, the ice machine was not working, which was frustrating as I had requested ice with my drink. It seemed that the restaurant was more geared towards takeout, and I was the only sit-down customer. However, this is no excuse for the poor service I received. In all fairness, the lady at the counter appeared to be the only person working there and was responsible for cooking as well, but this is no excuse for the inadequate service. I won't be returning to this restaurant, and I suggest they improve their service if they want to keep their customers for dine-in.

Meat was serve burned to us, that said alot about the servive here, I will not come back here.

I hadn't been there in years. I remember it being good food and good service. Not anymore! The guy working there was incredibly rude.