and check out on iconic
restaurant that's open
every day to get you
super-sized.
That's right, I
survived the sumo at
Ken's house of pancakes.
I'm joined by Debra and
Ric Maiava.
Everybody was saying get
the sumo.
First of all, what is
the sumo.
What's the story behind
that?
Sumo is the extra
large dish.
As you can see, they
are pretty big.
How did the idea of the
sumo menu item come
about.
Watching the brothers
eat.
Instead of having to
clean up six plates, we
do two.
When I first started
I went to Oahu to buy
some of these, I bought
a dozen.
A week later I had to
buy three dozen.
That popular.
someone orders the sumo
item.
Then it's a lot of
fun when the waitress is
bringing out the dish.
They shops and rings the
ship bell three times,
ding ding ding and
everybody in the house
goes sumo.
You hit the gong.
When the place is
packed, everybody yells
sumo, right?
Everybody does.
We have five or six
people at the sumos,
this goes on five or six
times in a row.
Because you have to
ring the gong for every
single one.
I love it.
What do we have?
What sumo dishes do we
have?
This is the grinder.
Two Patties, a lot of
fries, a little bit of
kimchi.
When you put bacon
and cheese on a
hamburger -- when this
came out of the kitchen,
I freaked out.
That can't be the size
of the bowl.
What do we have here?
It's almost a pound
of noodles.
Wow.
I was telling you
earlier, the first
person to ever finish
this was about a four
foot nine Oriental girl.
She just drank it all
right now.
We watched her, made
sure nobody else was
helping her.
We watched her.
She drank it down.
When it's a rainy
day in Hilo, this is
great.
Last but not least, this
is one menu item here.
That's the aunty Lana
special.
Aunty Lana was our
kitchen manager for many
many years.
We named it after her.
That takes care of
breakfast for just about
anybody.
When we came in, I
was chatting with some
of the waitresses you
have here and talk about
your employees.
They've been here
forever.
They almost seem like
part of your family
almost.
reason why we're
successful, why people
keep coming back because
of the quality of the
service, make them feel
welcome and like family.
And they grow up and
people come back and
they see the same
waitress and introduce
their kids.
And I saw a picture
ladies.
A little group of our
old timers, yeah.
They come in and chat
about their time.
What's the story with
the slipper ladies?
Those are our
waitresses.
They have fun together.
It's great that you
guys as business owners
and bosses support your
employees because they
give back.
It makes coming to work
Restaurant business,
we know it's hard,
something that's a labor
of love but did you guys
think that this and what
you guys would become
would become an icon of
Hilo, Hawai'i island.
When everybody comes
Hilo, this is the first
place they come.
We had dreams of this
happening and it's grown
tremendously.
The word is out and
we've got -- we're known
in Japan and Germany.
We're known all over the
place.
We were inducted into
the Hawai'i restaurant
association Hall of
Fame.
We arrived and tweaked
the menu and now we have
over 200 items.
No problem, they can all
find something they
like, so it's easy to
satisfy all kinds of
multitudes of people.
That's why people
come here.
It's the great food, the
great service but also
the great people.
You guys are awesome.
Do you mind if I
start eating?
Thank you so much.
I don't know where to
begin.
I'm going to work my way
down.
Thank you.
We'll ring the bell.
We'll ring the bell
in a couple minutes.
They were letting me
ring the sumo bell a
couple times.
Look how big that sumo
ramen dish is.
Yes.
I wish we had a
normal-sized bowl next
to it.
But you can tell that's
really big.
So how did you do?
Did you finish it?
I got through the
ramen and my cameman got
the burger and they were
like we have to make a
flight.
I love fried chicken,
been around the world
eating fried chicken.