Unkos Kitchen is a small family run business in Silverdale Washington. The owner of the restaurant is Mark Labalan, he runs this store with his family. Labalan works with his two sons Anthony Labalan and Dylan Labalan.

“It was more of an opportunity than it was an inspiration because prior to this we did Unkos Kitchen at food events in a trailer, this was just the next evolution in building the Unkos brand by moving in the building,” said Mark.

Unkos Kitchen is located inside a Shell gas station up towards Ridgetop. Unkos Kitchen has been an official restaurant for nine months. They still participate in local events around the county, they most recently participated in the Fairgrounds Jingle Fest down in Central Valley.

“It’s a pretty great environment because my dad does separate himself from work and home, so there’s a different feel to it, working with family is a lot more friendly and open than it is working with people I’ve never met,”  said Anthony. 

Unkos kitchen has a very positive and friendly work environment.  Everyone in the store even though they are all family and know each other they keep it very professional. Unkos Kitchen doesn’t have many ways of advertising. There are a couple small posters around the gas station.

“We didn’t really advertise too much,” said Mark. “We kind of wanted it to be word of mouth more than advertising to people, there’s a lot of foot traffic obviously here because we’re in a gas station.” 

All the recipes are original and have their own spin on traditional Hawaiian food. There is a wide variety of Hawaiian food on the menu.

“I went to culinary school and I graduated in 2001. But prior to that it was you know being your guys’ age just barbecuing with friends and what not and it kind of evolved from there as far as recipes go,” said Mark.

Before starting the restaurant Mark was an Engineer that was working for the Washington State Fair. He had been cooking for a long time and had a passion for it. His son Anthony started working in the restaurant when he turned 16 and has been working there since.

“For the very first month I’d say it was a little bit of a chore because I’d never worked in a food restaurant before and it was definitely a lot for me,” said Anthony. “I’ve come to love the place and I love working there and my family being there with me.” 

Seeing as Unkos Kitchen is a newly opened restaurant Mark Labalan has plans for the future of the restaurant.

“Hopefully in the next few years I see us in our own building having our own full-fledged restaurant,” said Mark.

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Mateo Hays