Hapa J's

Hapa J's serves traditional Hawaiian food as well as other Asian cuisines in a laid back sports bar atmosphere.  Located in San Clemente, CA we stopped here for lunch with Lucinda and James before heading to Dana Point for a music festival.

Lucinda and I shared the Ahi Poke Trio - with spicy tobiko, sesame, and classic soy sauce.  We ate it with a side of wakame (seaweed salad).  Our favorite bite was the spicy poke served on a won ton chip.  The large cut pieces of high quality ahi tuna were a nice light way to ease into lunch.

We also shared the Kalua Pig Sliders served on King's Hawaiian sweet rolls, topped with barbeque sauce and grilled onions, served with a side of macaroni salad.  The pork was smoky and salty.  The macaroni salad was not quite traditional Hawaiian mac salad style, as it had potatoes in it and was missing carrots and green onions (I even add crab meat in my version), but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Keith ordered the Mixed Plate that had shoyu chicken, chicken katsu (flattened chicken thigh breaded in panko and fried), and two kalbi (beef short ribs), served with two scoops of rice and macaroni salad.  It was a generous portion that was totally satisfying and hit the Hawaiian craving 'nail-on-the-head'.

James ordered the Local Boy Platter - spam musubi with sliced Portuguese sausage and the Chicken Katsu with fried rice.  I tried a piece of the musubi and thought it was alright.  It had a bit too much teriyaki sauce for my liking, but I also tried a piece of the katsu and it was very crunchy and also reminiscent to the local food I had growing up.

The ambience is very low key, with TVs on playing various sports games, warm hospitality of the staff, with the clientele being mostly younger surfer kids and families.

Total Rating: 4.1
Food: 4, Price: 4, Service: 5, Ambience: 4, Accessibility: 4