Ken's House of Pancakes

Best for: Late-nite
Location: Hilo (where the 19 turns into the 11)

After a day of exploring the Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park (and getting lost in the dark for the last half hour of our hike), Anthony and I anxiously returned to Hilo on our way back home around the island to have a late-night dinner at Ken's House of Pancakes, the final stop on our new friend Ian's list of restaurant recommendations. I'm always up for 24-hour diners because they are guaranteed to offer breakfast all day long, and who doesn't love breakfast when you're not supposed to be eating it?

We pulled into the parking lot around 8 pm, which is pretty late for this town, so I'm guessing that those who were out and about at this time were probably right here at Ken's. The restaurant was crowded, and looked a lot like Shari's, a 24-hour diner that I had once tried in Portland during one of my all-nighters in the library, during which one person always brazenly calls for a much-needed break, resulting in a group trip to the first place we can think of that could possibly replenish our empty stomachs and exhausted brains.

Anthony's steak

Despite the crowd, Anthony and I were immediately seated at one of the few remaining tables and handed two plastic-covered 8-page menus. I didn't even bother looking at the last six pages; my eyes went straight to the breakfast section and found what I had been craving since Anthony started driving to the restaurant. There are two things I always crave at diners: corned beef hash from the can and hot chocolate topped with whipped cream, both of which would disgust me at any other type of restaurant.

Ken's offered a few options for my corned beef hash craving; I could get it with the typical eggs and rice, on a benedict, or - and this is what eventually won - in a loco moco. I figured I was on the Big Island; I might as well go all out "Hawaiian," whatever Hawaiian means (do any of us actually know what Hawaiians really ate before the Asians and colonists came over with their cuisines?). By the way, Ken's has an entire section of its menu dedicated to loco mocos. That's right - an entire section. Besides corned beef hash, you can get your loco moco with spam, teriyaki beef, chili cheese, Portuguese sausage, or kalua pig. It's a good thing I had my mind set on corned beef hash; otherwise, I could have easily spent an extra twenty minutes trying to decide between the Portuguese sausage and kalua pig.

my corned beef hash loco moco

My corned beef hash loco moco was served in a large, plastic bowl, with rice, gravy, and two over-easy eggs, and was to be eaten with the large spoon provided. No pretenses here, just straightfoward practicality. I love it. I also made sure to order a hot chocolate, which was, as expected, filled to the brim, had that unmistakable diner flavor, and was topped with a generous dollop of whipped cream.

Why is diner hot chocolate so good?

In Honolulu, we have a Zippy's in every neighborhood, but it's nice to know that if I was, for some reason, living in Hilo, my 24-hour diner fix would be satiated.