Aloha Plate

Aloha Plate is located on Brigham Young University campus at the Cougareat, BYU’s food court. The Cougareat is located in the Ernest L Wilkinson Student Center, on the East side of campus. Although Aloha Plate is located on campus, it’s available to anybody, not just students, although students can get a discount if they pay with Cougar Cash, which is BYU’s payment system connected with BYU’s meal plans.

The real issue if you’re not a student is finding somewhere to park within walking distance of the Cougareat. There is a massive parking spot just East of the Wilkinson Student Center, but most of the spots are for students during school hours. There is, however, visitor parking by Heritage and the Creamery on 9th East, which is just a 5-10 minute walk away.

The staff at Aloha Plate are all BYU students, which are generally very friendly and helpful. This does mean, however, you’ll get the occasional cashier more concerned about their phone than the customers, but usually the service is great and quick, especially compared to other places at the Cougareat.

They get you through the cashier quick, and your meal is usually ready within two or three minutes, depending on how many other orders are going through. One of my favorite things about Aloha Plate is you hardly have to ever wait in a line to get your food, because unlike Subway, you don’t have to go through a dozen steps to get your food, and unlike Chick-Fil-A, it’s not insanely packed 24/7.

Aloha Plate offers a small variety of Hawaiian-style plate dishes, consisting of cabbage, white or brown rice, macaroni salad, and a decent amount of meat, such as kalua pork or katsu chicken. A plate lunch comes with all of this and is priced at around seven dollars, making it just about the cheapest way to get a lunch that’s enough food for most people.

After you get your plate, which comes in a tin pan that you can put a lid on if you’re in a hurry, there are a couple choices of sauce, including soy sauce and sriracha sauce, to add to your meal. Aside from this plate meal, which is definitely the most common, they also have some side dishes and desserts, like pineapple Dole whip or musubi (for all you spam lovers out there). The musubi is always ready to eat, so if you’re in a real hurry you can grab some and go and have a good meal ready in under a minute.

Aloha Plate is definitely a great option if you’re looking for a quick meal on BYU campus, especially if you have trouble finding quick lunches that are filling enough. If you compare it to Mo’Bettahs or another Hawaiian-style restaurant, you’ll find that Aloha Plate is generally going to be cheaper, but with that lower price you usually get less food, at a slightly lower quality. All in all though, Aloha Plate still provides a nice tropical taste on BYU campus.