Lucky Hawaiian BBQ is, first and foremost, about the food. It’s not trying to create an immersive experience reminiscent of a day in the islands. It’s a counter-service, fast-casual operation with a menu posted on the wall. Now from a Hawaiian joint, you might expect offerings that include spam, loco moco and pineapple dishes; Lucky Hawaiian BBQ serves from a menu that lists more than 50 additional choices. What doesn’t fit on the menu is posted on plastic-coated print-outs as addendums.
While the expansive menu is a lot to process, it’s also divided into easier-to-digest categories. There’s an appetizer category, for example, which is where you can find Sugar Donuts ($5.99). Should you eat sugar donuts as an appetizer?
Can’t think of reason not too. An order offers ten light, fresh-fried, puffy rounded discs of bready goodness that are dipped and coated in sugar. If there’s anything better than warm bread, it’s warm bread with sugar.
The appetizer section is also where you will find Crab Rangoon ($7.99). You may not typically associate crab rangoon with Hawaii. It’d be more normal to think of crab rangoon as something Chinese…but that would be wrong too. As it turns out, crab rangoon traces its origins back to Trader Vic’s, a Tiki place that first featured the dish on its menu in the 1950s. That would qualify crab rangoon more on the lines of something faux Hawaiian, which seems close enough. Besides, Lucky Hawaiian BBQ folds its rangoon in its own particularly cool way. Not pointy squares, not triangles, it’s a a crispy peddler’s purse, which optimizes the first-bite satisfaction from the transcendent squish of the rich and creamy filling.
The menu additionally features a category dedicated entirely to musubi. Although the category includes variations, in classic form, musubi is a spam dish resembling sushi that evolved in the WW2 era. Most origin stories credit U.S. troops stationed in the Pacific for the introduction to spam. Integrated into local Hawaiian cuisine, spam provides options that are a little more shelf-stable than your traditional raw-fish sushi. So, musubi is classically spam and rice, rolled up in seaweed with soy sauce: The aggressive flavors in the Spam Musubi ($6) are mitigated by the rice in a way that turns out surprisingly likable.
And if spam is just not in the eating forecast, Lucky Hawaiian BBQ offers a couple of chicken musubi versions too.
As predicted, Loco Moco ($12.99) is on the menu: It provides a pleasant, homey combo of white rice, a serviceable burger, two fried eggs, and gravy to tie it all together.
But we’ve made it this far without actually hitting any barbecue at a place that headlines the food genre. The BBQ Bento ($15.99) will likely address that absence. It is not, in the tradition of bento boxes, cutely arranged in tiny compartments. It is bento-like, though, in terms of there being a variety of things. Served with the house macaroni salad, an order boasts chicken, beef, fish and spam. Basically, all the major carnivore food groups perched atop a rice landscape. There’s a defined teriyaki accent added to the meats, with the exception of the fish, which is deep fried with a crunchy coating. If you’re looking for typical Western smoke-infused barbecue fare, this is not the right choice. If you’re looking for a fun pile of meat…well, pile in!
There’s a great deal more to explore on Lucky Hawaiian BBQ’s menu, and it’s at price point where there’s very little to risk on disappointment. You’ll find it behind a modest storefront at 4330 N. High St. in Clintonville. It’s open daily for lunch and dinner.
For more information, visit ohiohawaiianbbq.com.
All photos by Susan Post
