Two-Minute Takeout: Waipahu’s Leeward Drive Inn
When all plates come with fried saimin and mac salad, they must be from this plate lunch icon.
It’s a delicious landscape out there! Frolic’s Two-Minute Takeout video series has all-new episodes about dishes from new-to-us places and longtime faves.
The corner of Pūpūkāhi and Pūpūpani Streets in Waipahu is home to Leeward Drive Inn, a long-standing west side favorite since 1964. One of the oldest restaurants in leeward O‘ahu, the eatery has been run since 2007 by its current generation of owners who have added their own Korean influence to the menu.
SEE ALSO: Reader Top 5: Best Mac Salad on O‘ahu
Leeward Drive Inn is best known for fried saimin, barbecue chicken, kalbi and mac salad. Dessert options include baked turnovers and nine flavors of soft-serve ice cream. I got the Mix Any Two plate lunch ($19.47) with kalbi and barbecue chicken which comes with white rice, fried noodles, mac salad and tossed salad. It can easily feed two people. And I got an ube turnover ($3.48) and an Orange Bang ($2.49) to complete the experience. Watch this episode of Two-Minute Takeout for my thoughts on this popular Waipahu plate lunch spot.
Open Sunday to Thursday from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 5 to 12 a.m., 94-209 Pupukahi St., (808) 671-7323, leewarddriveinn.com, @leewarddriveinn
More from our Two-Minute Takeout series:
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- Golden Duck’s Jai for Chinese New Year 2022
- Tio’s Tamales
- Teasket Toasket at Kaka‘ako’s H Mart
- Koko I-naba Hawai‘i Kai
- Kikuya Restaurant
- Willow Tree Korean Restaurant
- The Spread at Shaloha Pita
- Okata Bento
- Hide-Chan Restaurant
- Café Maharani
