Start with the honest answer: Ono Hawaiian BBQ does not sell a Thanksgiving turkey, does not run a holiday pre-order program, and most locations are closed on Thanksgiving Day itself. What it does have is the $46.99 Family Meal, which solves the two days around the holiday better than the day itself.
Is it open on Thanksgiving?
Usually not. The chain standard is 10:30am to 9:00pm, seven days a week, but Thanksgiving is one of the two days most locations close outright, alongside Christmas Day. A minority of stores — particularly those inside malls, transit hubs or busy urban corridors — open on a reduced schedule, often late morning to mid-afternoon.
Holiday hours are set restaurant by restaurant across roughly 90 locations, so there is no national answer. Call the store or check the app the morning of. The pattern for the surrounding days is more predictable.
| Day | Typical status |
|---|---|
| Tuesday before | Normal, 10:30am–9:00pm |
| Wednesday before | Normal, and the busiest pickup day of the week |
| Thanksgiving Day | Most locations closed; some reduced hours |
| Black Friday | Open, often busy at mall locations |
| Saturday and Sunday | Normal hours |
Why there is no turkey
This is a plate lunch chain, not a smokehouse. The kitchen is built around a flat-top grill and a fryer — Hawaiian BBQ Chicken ($12.49) takes about eight minutes from marinade to glaze, Chicken Katsu ($12.49) is fried to order — and there is no smoker on the premises to cook a whole bird in. Mainland barbecue chains sell holiday turkeys because they already own the equipment and the overnight cook. Ono does not, and selling a turkey would mean building an entirely different operation for one week a year.
If a smoked holiday bird is what you are after, that belongs to the smokehouse side of the category rather than here.
The two days this chain actually solves
The genuinely useful role for Ono Hawaiian BBQ over Thanksgiving is on either side of the meal, and it is a real one.
- Wednesday night. The kitchen at home is full of brining, prepping and pie. Nobody wants to cook a second dinner. A Family Meal ($46.99) feeds four to five people with multiple proteins, large rice and large macaroni salad, for less than four regular plates at $12.49 each.
- The Saturday after. By day three of turkey sandwiches, something char-grilled and glazed is exactly the correction people want. A Hawaiian BBQ Mix ($14.99) is about as far from leftover turkey as the same price gets you.
Both of those work because the food does not need the restaurant to be part of the occasion. Plate lunch travels — it was invented to.
Ordering around the holiday
- Order Wednesday food ahead. The Wednesday before Thanksgiving is one of the heaviest takeout days of the year everywhere. Use the app, and add fifteen to twenty minutes to the quoted time for a Family Meal.
- Do not count on delivery on the day. If your location is one of the few open Thanksgiving Day, courier coverage is thin and wait times are long. Pickup is more reliable, as our delivery guide explains for busy periods generally.
- Buy musubi for the drive. Spam Musubi ($6.49) holds for hours and is the best food you can hand to somebody in a car on a holiday road trip.
- Confirm before you drive. Check the app the morning of. Holiday schedules are local, and a two-minute check beats a closed door.
Reheating, if you have leftovers
The rules do not change for the holiday. Take the lid off and eat the macaroni salad cold — microwaving it is the single most common mistake people make with this food. Reheat rice and protein only, thirty to forty seconds for two scoops of rice with a damp paper towel over the top. Chicken Katsu is the exception worth planning for: it is the best cold leftover on the entire Ono Hawaiian BBQ menu, because the panko keeps its structure and the sauce comes on the side.
Christmas follows the same pattern — closed on the day, reduced hours around it. Our Ono Hawaiian BBQ hours guide has the full picture.