You should be hungry when you go to Papa Ole’s Kitchen in Hauula. Really hungry. Regular portions are large.

It is food as an expression of aloha, like when you go visit your uncle’s house and are not allowed to leave without a really full opu. Indeed, “everybody calls me ‘Unko,’” said owner Cedric Kanoa.

About the business: The restaurant opened 10 years ago this month, and an anniversary celebration is planned for noon to 4 p.m. Saturday, with prize giveaways and Hawaiian music headlined by Na Hoku Hanohano Award winner Josh Tatofi. Papa Ole’s also hosts Hawaiian music every fourth Friday from 6 to 9 p.m.

The restaurant is named for Kanoa’s father, who did the cooking for the family and taught his son. “I ran around doing the cutting (prep work), washing dishes,” Kanoa said. He later took some culinary classes at faraway Kapiolani Community College.

Kanoa worked in the Kahuku High School cafeteria for 18 years but dreamed of having his own restaurant. “I started off in my garage,” he said. “I was at school during the week, and then I would cook at home on weekends.”

Some things he serves today at Papa Ole’s are jus’ like back in da caf — the peanut butter rolls, for example, and shortbread cookies.

Kanoa launched the restaurant as a family business. His brother Ole (also named after their father), sister Rhonda, several nieces and other family members work at the restaurant.

About the food: The beef stew “will bring tears to your eyes,” according to one regular diner, Christine Pagano, co-owner of the Full Fathom Five sea glass jewelry shop in Kahuku.

The dish uses ends from the restaurant’s pulehu short ribs, as well as stew meat, Kanoa said.

Regulars also rave about those thick-cut short ribs, kalbi, garlic chicken and Supreme Pancakes with Papa Ole’s made-from-scratch macadamia nut sauce.

The secret to the sauce is vanilla ice cream, Kanoa said. Want some to take home? Four ounces cost $2 and a 16-ounce container costs $6.

The restaurant’s biggest-selling plate is the Big “J’s” Special ($16), named after a customer, Josh from Wahiawa, Kanoa said. “That’s all he ordered; he wanted a combination of pulehu ribs and shrimp.”

Prices range from $2.25 for a grilled cheese sandwich or $3.50 for a hamburger ($4 makes it “deluxe”), up to the “Big Boy” plates, $19.75 or $22, served with three scoops of rice and two scoops of macaroni salad or a double portion of tossed salad. Choices for the top-tier $22 plates are kalbi, pulehu ribs or shrimp, while the restaurant’s other protein options come in the lower-cost plates.

Mini plates, $5.50 to $7, with macaroni salad or tossed green salad, can also be filling.

What else to order: Papa Ole’s takes some local favorites up a notch.

You can get a regular loco moco ($10) or mini ($6.75), but the Loco Aina Special ($11) comes with sauteed mushrooms and onions, a choice of gravy and three eggs.

Specials on the whiteboard recently listed prime rib, tripe stew, pastele stew and more. Every third Friday there’s a Hawaiian plate with laulau, squid luau, chicken long rice, lomi salmon, poke, poi and rice.

Can’t decide? Get a mixed plate for $12.50 or $13.50, or simply place a side order for any of the meats or starches.

How to order: Expect a crowd at peak mealtimes, and lines out the door on weekends, Kanoa said. For large orders call in advance or visit at an off-peak time. The restaurant is cash-only and offers an ATM.

Papa Ole’s also caters, although Kanoa tries to avoid Wednesday catering jobs since the restaurant is closed and it is his team’s only day off.

Grab and go: Papa Ole’s is toward the Kahuku end of Hauula Kai Shopping Center, next to the U.S. post office, and has a large parking lot. The restaurant has about 20 indoor seats for dining in, and several picnic tables outside.

Grab and Go focuses on takeout food, convenience meals and other quick bites. Email ideas to crave@staradvertiser.com.