Haleiwa Joe's - Haiku Gardens

The girls and I recently met up at Haleiwa Joe's in Haiku to celebrate the upcoming arrival of two baby girls.

We had a party of 8, but was told parties smaller than 15 could not make reservations, but as long as we arrive when it opens for dinner (5pm) we should be able to be seated immediately.

So arrive at 5pm we did, but not all of us - there were only 5 of us right at 5pm.  I proceeded to the counter to put my name down and noticed there already were many people sitting around waiting for a table.  I gave the lady my name and number in party, and she asked what time I expected everyone, and I said 5pm, and she said they couldn't seat us until everyone arrived.

I wasn't too happy about that.  We had two VERY pregnant women in our group that were already there, and it was super humid.

For some reason, even if a party did have all guests present - whether it was a party of 2 or 5, they still had to wait "10 to 15 minutes" for their table to be set up.

I don't understand why guests could not be seated right away regardless of whether or not all members in their party were present.  The restaurant just opened.  Empty tables were in sight everywhere.

Eventually we did get seated - even though 2 people still didn't show up - but it wasn't until 5:30ish.

Fortunately, despite having to wait, we had a great server and the food was pretty good too:

Dinner Roll

Haiku Chicken (This is what I ordered - the photo is a bit deceiving, as the chicken was quite small.  It did taste a bit dry, but the pineapple salsa was really good).

Chipotle-Grilled Pork Chop

Crispy-Grilled Pork Shank (a special that evening)

Sticky Ribs

Fresh Salmon (3 of the girls ordered this)

Another person ordered Alaskan King Crab, but I didn't get a photo of it.

Although one person's drink took forever to to come, our service was prompt and friendly.

As for the ambiance - it was nice, but it's all open air seating, and the night we went it was VERY, VERY humid.  There were a couple of fans blowing around, but they didn't really help at all.

Also, several of my friends got bit by mosquitoes (Haiku Gardens is right below the restaurant - so not surprisingly there were mosquitoes), and a large gecko was hanging out nearby on one of the walls.

A nice thing about Haleiwa Joe's is that they allow outside cakes to be brought in and they even refrigerated the cake that we brought.

Overall, we had a nice time, but I would discourage large parties (smaller than 15) from going unless you know for sure no one in your party will be late, otherwise you'll have to wait a very long time like we did.