Willow Tree Korean Restaurant - Kailua

Kalbi was very stringy and tough. Usually, the meat is very tender and easy to digest. It still had a good flavor. Probably used a bad batch of meat.

Willow tree is always yummy! Our favorites: kal bi and katsu with spicy sauce on the side, and don't forget to get a side of Mac salad (the best)! There pricey but it's consistently always yummy and worth it!

My boyfriend and I honestly love going to this restaurant. The food has consistently been really good and flavorful. Our favorite would be the Bulgogi for sure I forgot to take a picture before we started eating but I attached a few pictures anyways! Also, I'm not usually a huge kimchi fan but this kimchi was delicious :

I was looking forward to eating here based on their reviews. Went after the lunch time rush but they had a couple of tables filled with patrons. Decided to try their lunch special choosing shoyu chicken, kalbi, and spicy pork. The young server took my order without writing anything down. A few minutes later, she came by to confirm my order (she got it wrong . I chalked that up to maybe she was new. My food came out and was disappointed, more like made me depressed. The visual of the food was nothing like what I read and saw online. The shoyu chicken was dry (how??? , the kalbi pieces had grill marks but felt and tasted like it was reheated from a microwave, and the pork was lukewarm and seemed like it was dipped in some sort of BBQ sauce and not even spicy. Maybe this was an anomaly and caught the cook/restaurant on a bad day. But next time I will temper my expectations even if there are decent Yelp ratings. Honestly, I feel like I am being very generous with 2 stars.

Best ever Korean restaurant. Specials delicious. Run by sisters and brother. Hard working first generation as I see it. Could be wrong but pretty sure correct since other generations would never be up to this task. Old school type perfection. They have found great young people help. I always consider people working it as to whether it is worthy of praise.