New business serves flavorful authentic Hawaiian food in Idaho Falls

IDAHO FALLS — Authentic Hawaiian flavors are being served up at a green-colored food truck that you can’t miss out on.

Lisa Ka’aihue Werner opened up a food truck in July called Kānaka Maoli Hawaiian Grill. It’s located in the Planet Doom parking lot at 680 1st Street. Werner is originally from Rexburg and her husband, Joe-Kyle Ka’aihue Werner, is from Hawaii.

“His mom is the one who got me interested in selling food. I used to cook Mexican food for them and they loved it and she was like, ‘I really think you should try selling Hawaiian food,'” Lisa Werner said.

The food is bursting with flavor and will make you want to try everything on the menu.

A popular food item is the “garlic butta’ shrimp plate.”

“It’s got rice, mac salad and then the shrimp. It’s a pretty famous thing out in Hawaii. It’s garlic butter shrimp. It is one of our best-selling plates,” Werner said.

The nachos are flavorful too and the cheese is different compared to other places. If you want to order them, it comes with meat and is called kalua nachos.

“It has nacho cheese on it. I like to say that our cheese is a little bit better than most. It’s really cheesy. It’s really good. Then it’s got the kalua pork and then green onion and there’s ahi sauce. It’s like a spicy sriracha sauce. A lot of people like it on…they put it on all their meat,” she explained.

Then, there’s the three-meat choice plate. There is additionally a one meat choice and two meat choice plate, in case a three meat choice plate is too large. Each plate comes with rice and mac salad. Werner gave EastIdahoNews.com a three-meat choice plate to try.

“(It has) our mochiko chicken and the kalua pork and then we’ve got our teriyaki chicken. This plate is pretty hefty. It’s going to definitely fill you up. It comes with three scoops of rice. You get two scoops of mac salad. Like I said, a lot of people just love that ahi sauce and they will just drizzle that all over their meat,” Werner said.

All of the plates come with soy sauce. She says they use Aloha soy rather than Kikkoman.

“We just figure this is Aloha spirit here,” she said.

Kānaka Maoli Hawaiian Grill offers Hawaiian Sun, which is a delicious tropical fruit drink. There are different flavors to choose from, like passion orange, mango orange, pineapple orange, and guava nectar, among many others.

Another popular Hawaiian food is spam musubi. Werner sells out quickly, almost every day when it comes to this particular food item.

“It’s sticky rice and spam. The spam is actually…we caramelize it. It’s got sugar and Aloha soy. You mix it around and then that’s what you put on the spam and then you cook it and then it gives it a little bit of a toasty flavor. Then it’s wrapped in seaweed,” Werner explained.

It’s popular in Hawaii and they are sold at gas stations everywhere. People grab them and a Hawaiian Sun, she says.

Kānaka Maoli Hawaiian Grill is open Tuesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Follow the business on Facebook and Instagram. The food truck will occasionally be moving around for events, and Werner says she will post updates on social media.