Ono Hawaiian BBQ is expanding into Texas, with its first fast-casual restaurant expected to open in Plano on July 24, 2026.
Ono is a Hawaiian-inspired restaurant that sells plate lunches with grilled meat, two scoops of rice and a side of macaroni salad or vegetables. Two of the most popular picks are marinated and grilled Hawaiian barbecue chicken and breaded and fried chicken (called chicken katsu), said Christine Jan, director of marketing for the company.
The Hawaiian barbecue mix is another bestseller, as it includes a little bit of everything and is a “meat lover’s favorite,” Jan said: short ribs, chicken and barbecue beef, with rice and macaroni salad.
The restaurant is known for its Spam musubi, a Hawaiian snack of grilled Spam topped with teryaki sauce, placed atop rice and wrapped in seaweed.
Ono Hawaiian BBQ enters Texas later than some of its competitors like Hawaiian Bros Island Grill and Mo’Bettahs, which each have a dozen or more restaurants in Dallas-Fort Worth. Ono was started before both of them, in 2002, after brothers Joshua and Joe Liang decided to open a restaurant serving the plate lunches they enjoyed on vacation in Hawaii.
Ono has about 130 restaurants open now.
Ono will also open restaurants in suburbs northeast of Dallas and three near Fort Worth.
After the Plano restaurant opens in late July 2026, Jan said the next D-FW restaurants are expected to follow every month or two for two years, until 10 are open in 2028.
Dallas-Fort Worth is a focus for Ono in the next two years while the company continues to grow in California and Arizona.
“The love for barbecue, the love for food,” Jan said of Texas diners. “We thought it would be very fitting.”