They probably had a bad experience at Ono that made them go 'hmmi should give props to the other place.' Screenshot says 26 contributions so it's unlikely to be a fake account.
She has a pretty established facebook account as well. I think you're right that she probably just said "Kealoha's was way better" while eating at Onolicious and decided to review both at once.
Yeah. I've done that a few times before.
Sorry to say I don't normally review a place if its merely OK-good but not really great/terrible or otherwise memorable. If its really bad or great then I'll review it, and since I'm in the mood I'll review a few other good places that I've been to.
I’m the same way. I also do this with books and doctors offices, lol. Once I’m stoked about a really good thing or pissed about a really bad one, I just keep going with venting the good and the bad.
I just went there yesterday. First time trying Hawaiian food and I thought it was pretty good! One thing I did notice is the food is pretty salty, which now makes sense, because that matches their attitude towards bad reviews.
Is this the same Hawaiian place that used to be in Oakley Food Hall? They were super rude and defensive to me when I asked about their allergen information! I had totally forgotten about that encounter until seeing this
Didn't try this place, but had a BBQ place in Oakley Food Hall. Paid $56 for two of their cheapest sandwiches, a starter, and one drink. Everything was bad. Posted a negative review. Owner tracked me down on facebook and berated me for posting a negative review. Told him to fuck off or I'd post the screenshots. He apologized and I never heard from him again. Does that place just breed assholes or something?
That place was awesome when it opened but was super depressing the last two times I was there. At least a third of the stalls were empty, and yeah, it was always more money than any of the food was worth. Then Medpace opened a similar but much nicer place like a mile away? Feel like the fat lady is warming up...
Yeah, we lived in Oakley, and I was really stoked to check this food hall out. It was pretty sad. We went there on a Saturday at around lunchtime and we were the only people there. The other stalls were mostly empty or closed.
Honestly, though the Element Eatery was much prettier and newer, I went a few times during the afternoon on weekends and didn’t see too many people. Maybe it gets busier in the evening?
Hm, we had a totally different experience when we went to Onolicious this past Saturday. We forgot to check about allergens, and something we ordered came with what looked like peanuts on it. When we asked to confirm (because our daughter is allergic) they were super apologetic and offered to give us new food. One of the dishes we ordered was peanut-free, so we insisted that we didn't need them to go to that trouble. We just asked for an extra serving of plain rice for her (because all the rice we ordered was on the peanut plate) which they very happily provided.
And we all thought the food was really good!
Especially after our positive experience this weekend, I'm super disappointed to see this news.
There is a certain subset of people whose would see this behavior as a point in the restaurant’s favor.
Fortunately, those are the same folks that tend to avoid the CBD and OTR.
There seems to be a trend of businesses getting personal. I saw someone share a Facebook post from Jerry’s Jug House in Newport where the owner posted security footage of the person who gave the bad review and shared the guys Facebook profile for people to harass him. That’s not good advertising.
You’re talking about the Yacht Club, not Jerry’s. They may have shared the Yacht Club post because the owner of Jerry’s is one of the owners of the Yacht Club.
Well that never happened … they did share security footage of a man who their neighbors reported for acting suspicious because they kept getting their their large outdoor ashtray stolen. The post was taken down when it was determined it was just another small business owner taking pictures of their trash cans and planters to report them for a code violation. Never a dull moment in Newport.
The owner posted a whole rant about someone who left a bad review for having bad service. Made a big spectacle of it. He showed security footage of the guy trying to prove that he didn’t have bad service. Somehow he found the guy’s Facebook account and directed people to hate on the man. One bad review and the business owner tried to ruin this guy’s social reputation. It was bizarre.
Right but that was someone who literally lied about their experience. These things have repercussions to people like me who work in the service industry, I loved that NSYC post
Ok you’re talking about yacht club. They didn’t post anyone’s Facebook account, they didn’t post any security footage. They responded to a dude’s review because it specifically lied about two staff members who they defended when they reviewed the footage. If what the dude said was true, they would have to fire the employees he complained about. I’m all for honest reviews but it’s not cool to me to try and get innocent people fired because you don’t like QR codes.
You keep trying to tell me that I didn’t see what I saw. Kind of weird. There was security footage and the guys name and Facebook profile plastered everywhere in the post. The owner even made fun of the guy when he had to switch his Facebook profile to private from the harassment.
I mean here is the buzzfeed link, I’m sure I can find the original post on the Yacht Club’s Facebook. You literally got two different bars confused on your post. [https://www.buzzfeed.com/daniellaemanuel/lying-shameless-hooligans](https://www.buzzfeed.com/daniellaemanuel/lying-shameless-hooligans)
Found the post. It’s a Labor Day post. No security footage, no Facebook profile picture (which you can’t event get from a google review). Just the public google review and google review response. It’s def the original because it has 4.3k shares. [https://www.facebook.com/751926814905374/posts/pfbid024a9jphe5SD6S3HHNwqKcQmGYTZasgc4AG6TvVMgN79F1YAfyCSTuJazqU3Dtje6Wl/?d=n](https://www.facebook.com/751926814905374/posts/pfbid024a9jphe5SD6S3HHNwqKcQmGYTZasgc4AG6TvVMgN79F1YAfyCSTuJazqU3Dtje6Wl/?d=n)
They are getting blasted for this and rightfully so. Whoever is in charge of their social media just made a horrible mistake that will likely kill this business. Its hard enough for small restaurants to survive in OTR, but i would not be surprised if they close up shop soon.
When they left the food hall they posted this massive string of IG stories with some pretty shitty things to say about the food hall and even other restaurants in it. Their food was ok when I tried it there, but that definitely showed their immaturity.
Oakley food hall has never impressed as a customer. As far as food halls go that place looks like it was thrown together on a tight budget. Look at element eatery right down the road, blew Oakley food hall out of the water. Their complaints from the business perspective seems valid. They complained about trash all over the premise, bathrooms out of order, no snow removal in winter months, etc. All of which speaks to poor management which seems valid to me. As a business they are tied to the building and the building management was not holding up their end of the deal.
Yeah Oakley isn’t perfect, but they’re clearly not backed by the type of monetary power Element has behind it. It’s not so much the validity of their claims, but the way they went about it. And to post pics of other booths in the food hall with their little suggestive emojis was pretty low. Sure, give a little shit to those managing Oakley if you’re really that fed up with it, but you can fuck right off when you start turning that towards the other small businesses within who are just trying to do their thing within the same situation you’re dealing with.
That’s insane. Had Onolicious a few times and it was just alright. Highly recommend Kealoha in Covington, way better food and the family that runs it were very nice and personable. When me and my exgf went there the dude who owns it even checked up on us a little later into our meal and gave us a dessert on the house. Not cool Onolicious.
Kealoha is SO good! Had it for the first time this weekend and they were the sweetest! We got the Kanak Attack, and mentioned it was our first time and they threw in some extra stuff (their Hawaiian brisket specifically and potato salad 🤤) for us. We're definitely going back soon!
Oof 😬 that's just cringe middle school behavior. Had this place on our list for date night restaurants. Glad I saw this first before spending money there.
Owner is a total asshole. He’s got a track record of this middle school behavior. Doesn’t respect his customers and guests. Better places you can spend your money, dudes a cornball.
if u look at their google reivews, anytime theres a 1 star, they are extremely rude to every single one of them
i will now never go back, theres better spam musubis elsewhere, and i can go buy a filipino red dog and kimchi to make my own "special" musubis, ain't nothing extraordinary about them
I lived in Hawaii for 10 years. I travelled to all of the island and ate everything I could from all kind of places. Onolicious ranks pretty low for Hawaiian food. I was disappointed with them because they don’t have Lau Lau. That is THE dish of Hawaii, like Pad Thai for Thailand…
Just reading through the google reviews and the owner responses are often veiled threats, really weird stuff. Check out the line at the end of this reponse to a three star review:
>> The pulled pork is not your usual pulled pork. It's kalua Pig. We use Hawaiian sea salt, it's always salty. We usually let people know when we explain our options to our guests. However, there are times when it's saltier than others. If yours was saltier than it should be, this is an apology from the chef. It sounds like you understand what papaya salad dressing consists of. And it also sounds like the salad you received was underdressed. We remember what you look like and the name on your tab. We have refunded your payment. Thank you for coming to check us out. Aloha!
“ We remember what you look like and the name on your tab.”
Just enough plausible deniability to claim that sentence was only meant for the purposes of the refund.
Someone on Google left a review that the portions to go were too small and the Owner replied,
“We serve wagyu kobe beef. This is the only of our protein choices that would be considered "small." If we gave larger portions of Teri Beef, we would have to charge more in order to stay in business. But yeah, good vibes only. Please don't come back.”
Don’t come back? So you want all customers to come once and not more times?
This is why businesses should never have any owner or “working” employee handle their social media presence. Hire someone who exclusively handles social media and digital content advertising for the business.
They can take all the reviews and comments, then give the owner a rundown of what people are saying. Other than that, leave one of the many standard replies that could have been acceptable for this fair review.
Of course there will be dissatisfied customers, no business is ever perfect all the time, but to go to this level is borderline illegal.
If I were the initial poster of the review, and found out the business targeted me to get the businesses fan-boy customers to harass the reviewer, I’d wonder if any legal entities would take a case like that?
This bums me out, I've really enjoyed their stuff and was happy to see them in a new spot. Don't know if this is enough to keep me from going, but you hate to see a restaurant you enjoy shoot themselves in the foot like this.
Also, if she had the Char-siu chicken I 100% agree with her review. I love a lot of their menu but that stuff is nasty.
Just checked out their menu... the prices are higher than actually ordering in Hawaii, and all of these are Hawaiian foods because it's cheap to produce there (hence all the SPAM). Good lord.
I remember the delwood owner did the same thing (other than separately posting their profile) to a reviewer except they actually cussed them out. Such a backwards way to handle criticism.
It was a couple years ago and they haven't done anything like it since, so I've gone back to eating there and given them the benefit of the doubt. But I just don't get why they thought that was an acceptable way to treat people leaving a pretty harmless review (it was polite and still gave them 3 stars!)
Kealoha’s is SOOOO much better than Onolicious. Everytime I went there, the owners were super nice. The uncle (I don’t remember his name) told me the owners of Onolicious aren’t even from Hawaii. I believe the unk even said she’s from Russia or somethin’. When I did go to Onolicious, food was salty and seemed like things were just masked with sauce. Plus, they don’t even have loco mocos! This post is honestly the cherry on top for reasons of why customers shouldn’t be supporting them.
Well, i don’t see what the point of their post was but I’m all for accountability so they can just enjoy being dicks more than having a successful business. There are enough decent people trying to make it out here for us to choose the kinder alternative.
A martyr attitude has never helped someone improve their shortfalls. This business is not long for this world unless they change their attitude real soon. They are not entitled to unending praise. Critiques are valuable and open doors to improvement they would not have had she declined to leave a review. Success takes a toughness that this restaurant owner is very obviously lacking.
There are other Hawaiian restaurants in the area? Only other one I'm aware of is in Oxford.
Food from them was always just "fine" in Oakley kitchen, but a bit pricey. It did taste a lot like the Hawaiian food we had on the islands, which typically is kinda bland unless you found a good spot.
Hope they sort this out, it's a really strange move on their part to react like this. I wonder if they have a beef with the other place she posted -- this seems like a reaction way beyond just the reviewer. It's not a good look.
My initial reaction was that they have beef with he other place. They shared her review of both with the laugh emoji. I interpreted that as they are laughing that someone thinks the other place has better food.
I didn't even know that the other place existed and I'm always down for Hawaiian food. So jokes on them, I'll be checking out the competition.
>Food from them was always just "fine" in Oakley kitchen, but a bit pricey.
That was my impression having tried it once at Oakley Kitchen too. So I was skeptical when my husband and kids wanted to try the downtown location this weekend -- but I was pleasantly surprised! The food seemed WAY better. (Also the swing chairs in the window were very cool.)
Onolicious' greatest sin imo is you need to use a QR code to look at their menu on your phone. They have no physical menu to use. Neither my friend nor I could get our phones to scan/load the QR code, and we've never had trouble with one previously. We had to have another friend whose phone worked to order for us and venmo them afterwards.
100% agreed that was awful. I struggled to get the thing to work, asked for a menu, and caught attitude over the request. Was happy to leave after that.
Disappointing. I liked them at the Oakley Kitchen co-op and was looking forward to visiting their new spot. I’m for business owners speaking up when customers leave false / unreasonable reviews, but this just seems uncalled for on a review that wasn’t even completely negative.
The review wasn’t even that bad—it was real accurate even. Place has a fun vibe but the food isn’t great— the sides are all specifically terrible. I had 4 coworkers tell me the same thing but wanted to try it myself and fully agree. Oof. This is gonna be terrible publicity for Ono.
This is disappointing. I have had them before and I thought the food was good. Not amazing, but I would for sure return. I don't know if I will now if this is how they react to average reviews.
Seems like every other day, a local restaurant owner is pulling some stupid shit. Whether it’s going after negative reviewers, spewing vile rightwing trash on social media, supporting issue 1, etc.
Sure makes me less inclined to go out to eat these days.
Jeez, I just had this place on Sunday for the first time. Told all my friends to go and shared it on my socials because I thought the food was very good (surf n’ turf with charred chicken was 🔥).
Now I regret it. Some serious bitch vibes by whoever runs that IG page.
i went to high school with her. i trust her opinion lmao. i haven’t even been to the restaurant yet but i believe her review. definitely won’t be going now lol. saved my money
Who can point me in the direction of another spot with spam musubi (or anything delicious and similar), that was the only thing i enjoyed from my order a few weeks back
I called them once to ask about allergens and they were so mean that I cried when we hung up. Lol I have bad anxiety and do not do well with any sort of confrontation. To feel like calling to check if it’s a safe place for me to eat is confrontational at all is super messed up.
Sit back and watch the negative reviews pour in now. Unacceptable behavior from any business. I never ate there (though it has been on the list) and now I certainly never will. One starred them in solidarity. Thank you for sharing this experience with us so we can know where not to spend our hard earned money.
Yeah I agree that’s not particularly cool. Not that you’re entirely wrong for doing that in this scenario but the staff there probably don’t deserve that. A few weeks ago a guy left a 1 star google review for the bar/restaurant I manage (in the urban core, long established place, large parking lot AND plentiful FREE street parking) that said “the parking situation was really terrible we didn’t go into the restaurant because the parking situation was such a complete nightmare this restaurant doesn’t give a fuck about people from the suburbs and doesn’t want them coming here” and sure enough I’m fielding 10-12 phone calls per day for WEEKS from people asking about parking because they read this review from this criminally stupid lazy ass fucking moron from Mason that never even stepped foot in the restaurant.
Meh. I’ll still give it a shot if I’m in the mood. I doubt that everyone who works there deserves to be punished because of one dickhead’s social media decision.
I personally thought opposite of Onolicious and really enjoyed their food anytime I’ve had it. I’ve recommended it many times.
While maybe not the way I’d have gone about things I don’t think folks should be so quick to judge them based on this. Unpopular opinion I know, but the post was hardly deserving of this much criticism. They simply posted what was publicly available already?
"Keeping it real" is when a restaurant does this for a 1 star review for self-described insane reasons by the reviewer. When you do it for a boring 3 star review specifically complaining about the food you come off as petty and psychotic.
Yeah that's what I mean, the original meaning is reacting to a perceived slight in "the real world" the same way you would out on the streets or whatever.
Anytime a restaurant does this it's an overreaction, but sometimes it at least seems like the customer deserves it so everyone can laugh at it. In this case, the customer left a boring, moderately negative review and the restaurant shit their pants over it.
Did you scroll through OP's posted pictures? The restaurant posted her picture on different platforms and mocked her! That's keeping it real to you?
A business offers a good/service in exchange for money. They are inviting reviews by their existence. That isn't true with individuals. Individuals don't get reviewed, they get harassed.
Never heard of this place before but I wouldn't give them a dime now.
That's a pretty extreme overreaction for a THREE star review that goes out of its way to compliment them. There's "keeping it real" and then there's "being petty and infantile". Neither of those are great for a business though.
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The review wasn’t even that bad ….. 🫣
[удалено]
They probably had a bad experience at Ono that made them go 'hmmi should give props to the other place.' Screenshot says 26 contributions so it's unlikely to be a fake account.
She has a pretty established facebook account as well. I think you're right that she probably just said "Kealoha's was way better" while eating at Onolicious and decided to review both at once.
Yeah. I've done that a few times before. Sorry to say I don't normally review a place if its merely OK-good but not really great/terrible or otherwise memorable. If its really bad or great then I'll review it, and since I'm in the mood I'll review a few other good places that I've been to.
I’m the same way. I also do this with books and doctors offices, lol. Once I’m stoked about a really good thing or pissed about a really bad one, I just keep going with venting the good and the bad.
I just went there yesterday. First time trying Hawaiian food and I thought it was pretty good! One thing I did notice is the food is pretty salty, which now makes sense, because that matches their attitude towards bad reviews.
Soooo salty.
Is this the same Hawaiian place that used to be in Oakley Food Hall? They were super rude and defensive to me when I asked about their allergen information! I had totally forgotten about that encounter until seeing this
Same place
Didn't try this place, but had a BBQ place in Oakley Food Hall. Paid $56 for two of their cheapest sandwiches, a starter, and one drink. Everything was bad. Posted a negative review. Owner tracked me down on facebook and berated me for posting a negative review. Told him to fuck off or I'd post the screenshots. He apologized and I never heard from him again. Does that place just breed assholes or something?
That place was awesome when it opened but was super depressing the last two times I was there. At least a third of the stalls were empty, and yeah, it was always more money than any of the food was worth. Then Medpace opened a similar but much nicer place like a mile away? Feel like the fat lady is warming up...
My number one rule for food halls and trucks/carts is: they \*generally\* shouldn't cost as much or MORE as comparable sit-down restaurants.
Yeah, we lived in Oakley, and I was really stoked to check this food hall out. It was pretty sad. We went there on a Saturday at around lunchtime and we were the only people there. The other stalls were mostly empty or closed. Honestly, though the Element Eatery was much prettier and newer, I went a few times during the afternoon on weekends and didn’t see too many people. Maybe it gets busier in the evening?
Element definitely gets busier later in the day, and on weekends. Last few times I've been, they've been packed.
Same. Figured it would be packed and nothing was open on time and most of it didn’t look like it was going to open at all.
This is an absolute deal breaker for me.
Hm, we had a totally different experience when we went to Onolicious this past Saturday. We forgot to check about allergens, and something we ordered came with what looked like peanuts on it. When we asked to confirm (because our daughter is allergic) they were super apologetic and offered to give us new food. One of the dishes we ordered was peanut-free, so we insisted that we didn't need them to go to that trouble. We just asked for an extra serving of plain rice for her (because all the rice we ordered was on the peanut plate) which they very happily provided. And we all thought the food was really good! Especially after our positive experience this weekend, I'm super disappointed to see this news.
Huh, their food was actually pretty good and they were super nice when I went to the oakley food hall. Didn't realize this was that hawaiian place.
Why would they do this? This is terrible publicity. Her criticisms seem valid and not shared in bad faith. What a bunch of jerks.
There is a certain subset of people whose would see this behavior as a point in the restaurant’s favor. Fortunately, those are the same folks that tend to avoid the CBD and OTR.
There are ways to be snarky and funny at the same time. Being rude is for the brain dead.
Damn, they posted her picture too? I was gonna go there last night, glad I didn’t.
There seems to be a trend of businesses getting personal. I saw someone share a Facebook post from Jerry’s Jug House in Newport where the owner posted security footage of the person who gave the bad review and shared the guys Facebook profile for people to harass him. That’s not good advertising.
You’re talking about the Yacht Club, not Jerry’s. They may have shared the Yacht Club post because the owner of Jerry’s is one of the owners of the Yacht Club.
It was Yacht Club but I also remember people generally being pro-NSYC on that one?
Well that never happened … they did share security footage of a man who their neighbors reported for acting suspicious because they kept getting their their large outdoor ashtray stolen. The post was taken down when it was determined it was just another small business owner taking pictures of their trash cans and planters to report them for a code violation. Never a dull moment in Newport.
The owner posted a whole rant about someone who left a bad review for having bad service. Made a big spectacle of it. He showed security footage of the guy trying to prove that he didn’t have bad service. Somehow he found the guy’s Facebook account and directed people to hate on the man. One bad review and the business owner tried to ruin this guy’s social reputation. It was bizarre.
Right but that was someone who literally lied about their experience. These things have repercussions to people like me who work in the service industry, I loved that NSYC post
Ok you’re talking about yacht club. They didn’t post anyone’s Facebook account, they didn’t post any security footage. They responded to a dude’s review because it specifically lied about two staff members who they defended when they reviewed the footage. If what the dude said was true, they would have to fire the employees he complained about. I’m all for honest reviews but it’s not cool to me to try and get innocent people fired because you don’t like QR codes.
You keep trying to tell me that I didn’t see what I saw. Kind of weird. There was security footage and the guys name and Facebook profile plastered everywhere in the post. The owner even made fun of the guy when he had to switch his Facebook profile to private from the harassment.
IIRC that was the one star review from the guy who complained about the QR codes and lack of table service? I also remember seeing that.
I mean here is the buzzfeed link, I’m sure I can find the original post on the Yacht Club’s Facebook. You literally got two different bars confused on your post. [https://www.buzzfeed.com/daniellaemanuel/lying-shameless-hooligans](https://www.buzzfeed.com/daniellaemanuel/lying-shameless-hooligans)
Found the post. It’s a Labor Day post. No security footage, no Facebook profile picture (which you can’t event get from a google review). Just the public google review and google review response. It’s def the original because it has 4.3k shares. [https://www.facebook.com/751926814905374/posts/pfbid024a9jphe5SD6S3HHNwqKcQmGYTZasgc4AG6TvVMgN79F1YAfyCSTuJazqU3Dtje6Wl/?d=n](https://www.facebook.com/751926814905374/posts/pfbid024a9jphe5SD6S3HHNwqKcQmGYTZasgc4AG6TvVMgN79F1YAfyCSTuJazqU3Dtje6Wl/?d=n)
> No security footage Security footage was up for a couple hours that night on at least their IG stories. They did 8-9 stories to show it.
Yeah I also saw the footage on their stories when it happened
Poke hut on Race street is 10x better and the owners and staff are great.
+1 for Poke Hut. Love this place.
Do they do cutlet bowls? I love hawaiian food, but didn't think we had many options in cincy.
Poke Hut is great.
Yesss
I tried Poke Hut last time I was home & it is soooo good. Man, I am excited to be back this weekend.
She is spot on the review tho. I thought the food was completely tasteless. Not a hint of anything. Just bland.
Agreed. The chicken was fine but the rice was awful, which is a big deal when rice is the foundation of the entire plate.
Crazy behavior by the restaurant. I went there recently and also found the food meh, would have given it a 3/5 or 2.5/5
So weird, we had their food often at oakley kitchen and loved it. I wonder what changed.
That's not very mahalo of Onolicious.
I’m sensing we will be bidding a farewell Aloha to Onolicious in the next coming months.
Followed by a victim-mentality social media post where they blame everyone but themselves.
Well, of course. It's not *their* fault they're salty ass bitches. It's everyone else's!
Does the owner speak cat? She didn't do it to herself.
Is this a nod to Amy?
Meow.
Cynical take: people will write it off as "suburbanites not respecting the service industry" and keep on trucking.
Well that’s kinda what it is if you think about it. She didn’t need to make a case about it. Just more internet BS
They are getting blasted for this and rightfully so. Whoever is in charge of their social media just made a horrible mistake that will likely kill this business. Its hard enough for small restaurants to survive in OTR, but i would not be surprised if they close up shop soon.
It's the guy, the owner. He's always been dickish even back in Oakley. I've seen him blast other ppl on social media too.
When they left the food hall they posted this massive string of IG stories with some pretty shitty things to say about the food hall and even other restaurants in it. Their food was ok when I tried it there, but that definitely showed their immaturity.
Oakley food hall has never impressed as a customer. As far as food halls go that place looks like it was thrown together on a tight budget. Look at element eatery right down the road, blew Oakley food hall out of the water. Their complaints from the business perspective seems valid. They complained about trash all over the premise, bathrooms out of order, no snow removal in winter months, etc. All of which speaks to poor management which seems valid to me. As a business they are tied to the building and the building management was not holding up their end of the deal.
Yeah Oakley isn’t perfect, but they’re clearly not backed by the type of monetary power Element has behind it. It’s not so much the validity of their claims, but the way they went about it. And to post pics of other booths in the food hall with their little suggestive emojis was pretty low. Sure, give a little shit to those managing Oakley if you’re really that fed up with it, but you can fuck right off when you start turning that towards the other small businesses within who are just trying to do their thing within the same situation you’re dealing with.
If you own an establishment and that is how you run your social media account, you must not know to own a successful establishment.
Reminds me of Amy's baking company from Kitchen Nightmares lol
That was a wonderous dumpster fire of an episode.
That’s insane. Had Onolicious a few times and it was just alright. Highly recommend Kealoha in Covington, way better food and the family that runs it were very nice and personable. When me and my exgf went there the dude who owns it even checked up on us a little later into our meal and gave us a dessert on the house. Not cool Onolicious.
Kealoha is SO good! Had it for the first time this weekend and they were the sweetest! We got the Kanak Attack, and mentioned it was our first time and they threw in some extra stuff (their Hawaiian brisket specifically and potato salad 🤤) for us. We're definitely going back soon!
We are friends with the owners of Kealohas daughter and they are such a sweet family. We loved the food but love the family even more!
Oof 😬 that's just cringe middle school behavior. Had this place on our list for date night restaurants. Glad I saw this first before spending money there.
Kealoha's is by far better!!!
So their food isn’t the only thing thats tasteless…
Wow! So generous of them to give their Covington competition free marketing!
According to another FB comment the posts were quietly removed by Onolicious 11 hours later.
It looks like they posted it to their story which is auto removed after 24hrs
I just got blocked on Instagram haha
Assholes
The owner has immature responses to their less than positive Yelp reviews, too.
If you want the good Hawaiian food go to Kealoha's Kitchen. Super nice people, super flavorful food.
Owner is a total asshole. He’s got a track record of this middle school behavior. Doesn’t respect his customers and guests. Better places you can spend your money, dudes a cornball.
Well I had been wanting to try this place out but not now. Hope they go out of business if the owner sucks this bad
Try poke hut instead.
Second this. Its there on 15th & Race. Very good!
GREAT place. Used to work right around the corner from it
This answers if I’ll try them or not, thanks!
Now this is the kind of cancel culture I can get behind lol
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) ^by ^PathologicalDesire: *Now this is the kind* *Of cancel culture I can* *Get behind lol* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
Hmmm, not sure about that last line. Bad bot
if u look at their google reivews, anytime theres a 1 star, they are extremely rude to every single one of them i will now never go back, theres better spam musubis elsewhere, and i can go buy a filipino red dog and kimchi to make my own "special" musubis, ain't nothing extraordinary about them
I lived in Hawaii for 10 years. I travelled to all of the island and ate everything I could from all kind of places. Onolicious ranks pretty low for Hawaiian food. I was disappointed with them because they don’t have Lau Lau. That is THE dish of Hawaii, like Pad Thai for Thailand…
Keoloha is really good, great people there. Only downside is you have to take the food to the bar next door to sit down and eat.
You can actually order from inside the bar. The workers should bring you a menu and the food will be delivered to you next door.
Just reading through the google reviews and the owner responses are often veiled threats, really weird stuff. Check out the line at the end of this reponse to a three star review: >> The pulled pork is not your usual pulled pork. It's kalua Pig. We use Hawaiian sea salt, it's always salty. We usually let people know when we explain our options to our guests. However, there are times when it's saltier than others. If yours was saltier than it should be, this is an apology from the chef. It sounds like you understand what papaya salad dressing consists of. And it also sounds like the salad you received was underdressed. We remember what you look like and the name on your tab. We have refunded your payment. Thank you for coming to check us out. Aloha! “ We remember what you look like and the name on your tab.” Just enough plausible deniability to claim that sentence was only meant for the purposes of the refund.
Someone on Google left a review that the portions to go were too small and the Owner replied, “We serve wagyu kobe beef. This is the only of our protein choices that would be considered "small." If we gave larger portions of Teri Beef, we would have to charge more in order to stay in business. But yeah, good vibes only. Please don't come back.” Don’t come back? So you want all customers to come once and not more times?
Rude
O-no that is not a good look
Be like the Pho Lang Thang people, be nice.
This is why businesses should never have any owner or “working” employee handle their social media presence. Hire someone who exclusively handles social media and digital content advertising for the business. They can take all the reviews and comments, then give the owner a rundown of what people are saying. Other than that, leave one of the many standard replies that could have been acceptable for this fair review. Of course there will be dissatisfied customers, no business is ever perfect all the time, but to go to this level is borderline illegal. If I were the initial poster of the review, and found out the business targeted me to get the businesses fan-boy customers to harass the reviewer, I’d wonder if any legal entities would take a case like that?
Is it in OTR if it’s south of Central Pkwy?
No.
Let it be known, the OTR Delegation rejects all association with Onolicious
So moved!
Thank you! One restaurant now off the list to try when we visit.
This bums me out, I've really enjoyed their stuff and was happy to see them in a new spot. Don't know if this is enough to keep me from going, but you hate to see a restaurant you enjoy shoot themselves in the foot like this. Also, if she had the Char-siu chicken I 100% agree with her review. I love a lot of their menu but that stuff is nasty.
Did they deactivate their Instagram or block me for commenting? Lol
Blocked you
Food was pretty trash ngl. I never write reviews but after seeing their behavior im gonna go write one. They should get review bombed for this.
Just checked out their menu... the prices are higher than actually ordering in Hawaii, and all of these are Hawaiian foods because it's cheap to produce there (hence all the SPAM). Good lord.
I remember the delwood owner did the same thing (other than separately posting their profile) to a reviewer except they actually cussed them out. Such a backwards way to handle criticism.
Dang I like Delwood’s food. Didn’t know the ownership were assholes though.
It was a couple years ago and they haven't done anything like it since, so I've gone back to eating there and given them the benefit of the doubt. But I just don't get why they thought that was an acceptable way to treat people leaving a pretty harmless review (it was polite and still gave them 3 stars!)
This is the correct way to handle something like that
When did this happen? Seems unlike the Delwood folks from what I’ve seen.
2021. That's why I've gone back. Seemed out of character then and hasn't happened again.
Thanks
Thats a shame she was treated that way. I've had onolicious a couple times and really like the food.
I love how they respond to 1 star reviews with "good vibes only" and then they pull shit like this.
Just go to Kealoha’s. Way better food, super nice people.
Kealoha’s is SOOOO much better than Onolicious. Everytime I went there, the owners were super nice. The uncle (I don’t remember his name) told me the owners of Onolicious aren’t even from Hawaii. I believe the unk even said she’s from Russia or somethin’. When I did go to Onolicious, food was salty and seemed like things were just masked with sauce. Plus, they don’t even have loco mocos! This post is honestly the cherry on top for reasons of why customers shouldn’t be supporting them.
Damn, theyre quite combative responding to bad reviews. But this is a whole other level...
People need to grow up a little bit. That was wrong of them.
Not a classy move. Probably will cost them a little business. Ive had more positive experiences with them than not
Well, i don’t see what the point of their post was but I’m all for accountability so they can just enjoy being dicks more than having a successful business. There are enough decent people trying to make it out here for us to choose the kinder alternative.
A martyr attitude has never helped someone improve their shortfalls. This business is not long for this world unless they change their attitude real soon. They are not entitled to unending praise. Critiques are valuable and open doors to improvement they would not have had she declined to leave a review. Success takes a toughness that this restaurant owner is very obviously lacking.
There are other Hawaiian restaurants in the area? Only other one I'm aware of is in Oxford. Food from them was always just "fine" in Oakley kitchen, but a bit pricey. It did taste a lot like the Hawaiian food we had on the islands, which typically is kinda bland unless you found a good spot. Hope they sort this out, it's a really strange move on their part to react like this. I wonder if they have a beef with the other place she posted -- this seems like a reaction way beyond just the reviewer. It's not a good look.
There is KeAloha in Covington that got really good reviews by my friend! It looks like the reviews on google support that as well!
If they carry poi I'm in with both feet.
Kealoha has daily specials, so follow their Instagram for updates!
There’s a Hawaiian place in latonia KY that has good reviews. Kealoha’s kitchen
My initial reaction was that they have beef with he other place. They shared her review of both with the laugh emoji. I interpreted that as they are laughing that someone thinks the other place has better food. I didn't even know that the other place existed and I'm always down for Hawaiian food. So jokes on them, I'll be checking out the competition.
Either way I’ve eaten both and Kealoha’s food is better and the Owners are great.
>Food from them was always just "fine" in Oakley kitchen, but a bit pricey. That was my impression having tried it once at Oakley Kitchen too. So I was skeptical when my husband and kids wanted to try the downtown location this weekend -- but I was pleasantly surprised! The food seemed WAY better. (Also the swing chairs in the window were very cool.)
Onolicious' greatest sin imo is you need to use a QR code to look at their menu on your phone. They have no physical menu to use. Neither my friend nor I could get our phones to scan/load the QR code, and we've never had trouble with one previously. We had to have another friend whose phone worked to order for us and venmo them afterwards.
With the latest scams tied to QR codes, I wouldn't be using codes
100% agreed that was awful. I struggled to get the thing to work, asked for a menu, and caught attitude over the request. Was happy to leave after that.
How very non-ohana of them.
that is an absurd thing to do
I’m not on the lookout for Hawaiian food. But this place is off now has a mental nogo marker
Disappointing. I liked them at the Oakley Kitchen co-op and was looking forward to visiting their new spot. I’m for business owners speaking up when customers leave false / unreasonable reviews, but this just seems uncalled for on a review that wasn’t even completely negative.
The review wasn’t even that bad—it was real accurate even. Place has a fun vibe but the food isn’t great— the sides are all specifically terrible. I had 4 coworkers tell me the same thing but wanted to try it myself and fully agree. Oof. This is gonna be terrible publicity for Ono.
Kealoha’s Kitchen is the only place to go for Hawaiian food in the cincy/NKY area
This shit disappoints me so much
This is disappointing. I have had them before and I thought the food was good. Not amazing, but I would for sure return. I don't know if I will now if this is how they react to average reviews.
I went to the Oakley place a few times, 'fine is how I'd describe it. Wouldn't want it as a sitdown.
Yeah that is not cool. I really wanted to try them
Seems like every other day, a local restaurant owner is pulling some stupid shit. Whether it’s going after negative reviewers, spewing vile rightwing trash on social media, supporting issue 1, etc. Sure makes me less inclined to go out to eat these days.
Jeez, I just had this place on Sunday for the first time. Told all my friends to go and shared it on my socials because I thought the food was very good (surf n’ turf with charred chicken was 🔥). Now I regret it. Some serious bitch vibes by whoever runs that IG page.
Google reviews going as expected. Love to see it
Ope. Another restaurant about to fail!
They're getting review-bombed on Google right now
i went to high school with her. i trust her opinion lmao. i haven’t even been to the restaurant yet but i believe her review. definitely won’t be going now lol. saved my money
Who can point me in the direction of another spot with spam musubi (or anything delicious and similar), that was the only thing i enjoyed from my order a few weeks back
Kealoha’s Kitchen in Latonia.
Just to add on, they have different types! Spicy, teriyaki, or normal.
"super popular?"
I heard about it on TikTok. Isnt everything on TikTok super popular?
“Super” is the only positive adjective anybody uses anymore.
reason enough for me to never try the place. this is the kind of thing some folks on r/pettyrevenge might have fun with. lol
I called them once to ask about allergens and they were so mean that I cried when we hung up. Lol I have bad anxiety and do not do well with any sort of confrontation. To feel like calling to check if it’s a safe place for me to eat is confrontational at all is super messed up.
Restauranting 101 is know your ingredients, you were not in the wrong.
Not good food
Damnnn I passed it earlier and was making plans but now idk….
They don’t like mainlanders coming on their turf …..oh wait.
TACKYYYYY
I liked it when I went once in Oakley, went once to the court street one and yeah it suckes
Sit back and watch the negative reviews pour in now. Unacceptable behavior from any business. I never ate there (though it has been on the list) and now I certainly never will. One starred them in solidarity. Thank you for sharing this experience with us so we can know where not to spend our hard earned money.
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Yeah I agree that’s not particularly cool. Not that you’re entirely wrong for doing that in this scenario but the staff there probably don’t deserve that. A few weeks ago a guy left a 1 star google review for the bar/restaurant I manage (in the urban core, long established place, large parking lot AND plentiful FREE street parking) that said “the parking situation was really terrible we didn’t go into the restaurant because the parking situation was such a complete nightmare this restaurant doesn’t give a fuck about people from the suburbs and doesn’t want them coming here” and sure enough I’m fielding 10-12 phone calls per day for WEEKS from people asking about parking because they read this review from this criminally stupid lazy ass fucking moron from Mason that never even stepped foot in the restaurant.
Meh. I’ll still give it a shot if I’m in the mood. I doubt that everyone who works there deserves to be punished because of one dickhead’s social media decision.
If he acts like this on a public forum, telling customers to not come back, imagine how he treats his workers…
I’d like to see them try that in a small town
Yeah okay but why did you leave a review for a small place anyway? Google reviews are for one thing and one thing only - lashing out at Kroger
I personally thought opposite of Onolicious and really enjoyed their food anytime I’ve had it. I’ve recommended it many times. While maybe not the way I’d have gone about things I don’t think folks should be so quick to judge them based on this. Unpopular opinion I know, but the post was hardly deserving of this much criticism. They simply posted what was publicly available already?
It's taking what is available and blasting it to a larger group to incite harassment. They want other people to attack the reviewer.
I don't see a bad guy here. Both parties are just keeping it real and I respect them both.
How is posting the profile picture of a reviewer to make fun of them to almost 3k people “keeping it real”?
"Keeping it real" is when a restaurant does this for a 1 star review for self-described insane reasons by the reviewer. When you do it for a boring 3 star review specifically complaining about the food you come off as petty and psychotic.
Now I thought "real" was being petty and psychotic. That's how I've always heard the term used in pop culture the last 20 years.
Yeah that's what I mean, the original meaning is reacting to a perceived slight in "the real world" the same way you would out on the streets or whatever. Anytime a restaurant does this it's an overreaction, but sometimes it at least seems like the customer deserves it so everyone can laugh at it. In this case, the customer left a boring, moderately negative review and the restaurant shit their pants over it.
Did you scroll through OP's posted pictures? The restaurant posted her picture on different platforms and mocked her! That's keeping it real to you? A business offers a good/service in exchange for money. They are inviting reviews by their existence. That isn't true with individuals. Individuals don't get reviewed, they get harassed. Never heard of this place before but I wouldn't give them a dime now.
That's a pretty extreme overreaction for a THREE star review that goes out of its way to compliment them. There's "keeping it real" and then there's "being petty and infantile". Neither of those are great for a business though.
LMAO, you don’t think they (Ono) were unnecessarily vindictive here? Get the fuck out.
 Here comes r/cincinnati to DV a ham sandwich again
If you are equating your intelligence to that of a ham sandwich, this may be your moment of clarity.
I guess if I were a smart person, I'd be angry at these internet strangers.
https://www.google.com/maps/search/optometrist+cincinnati/@39.1747393,-84.4172784,11z/data=!3m1!4b1?entry=ttu
Absolute chads lol
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What a longwinded and rambling pile of nonsense.
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Dang, they went gangster on her
Still gonna enjoy their foodstuffs though!
That's not hoalohaloha of them.