I visited the Plantation Grill on the Dole Pineapple Plantation in Oahu, Hawaii, and decided to review it while there. I was in Hawaii on a family vacation over the Christmas-New Year school break. The Dole Plantation actually is a working pineapple farm, where the Dole pineapple company was founded. In addition to eating at the Plantation Grill, you can take a tour of the farm areas and learn a lot about growing pineapples. However, this is my review of the restaurant, which is most famous for their “Dole Whip” soft ice cream desserts.
Of course it is very touristy, and there were a lot of people there. When you walk into the restaurant, you can pick up a menu, and then wait on the ordering line. The line surprisingly moved very quickly, despite how popular the place is.
As you might expect, the menu of the Plantation Grill was full of pineapple – containing dishes, and other Hawaiian themed entrees, like “local style” Teriyaki Chicken and Teriyaki Burgers. It was in Japanese as well as English, to accommodate the large number of Japanese tourists who visit.
This is what we ordered:
Dole Whip Float
The Dole Whip Float has the famous Dole Whip soft ice cream, layered over pineapple juice. Exactly how the Dole Whip managed to float, and not immediately mix in with the pineapple juice while I carried it to our table is a mystery of physics, which someday will be revealed. The Dole Whip was creamier than normal ice cream, and very refreshing. However, it also melted very quickly, and then mixed in with the pineapple juice, despite miraculously making it to our table unmixed.
Pineapple Chili
I had pineapple chili as my entree. It consisted of a bowl of chili topped with a scoop of white rice and pineapple chunks. The chili was very flavorful, but really since this was a pineapple plantation, I would have expected more pineapple with it. Personally, I prefer my chili mild rather than spicy hot, and I was glad this bowl was on the mild side.
Teriyaki Chicken
Both my dad and stepmom ordered teriyaki chicken as their entrees, and we shared the Dole Whip float as dessert. Their plates each had two pieces of pineapple teriyaki glazed boneless chicken of a bed of cabbage, with salad, two scoops of rice and small pineapple slices on the side.
The Plantation Grill is about 26 miles northeast of Honolulu off Highway HW. Its address is::
Dole Plantation
64-1550 Kamehameha Hwy
Wahiawa, HI 96786
