It’s not just a giant mall. Filled with every cuisine from Moorish to Northern Chinese, the neighborhood of Ala Moana has everything you need to live, and more.
Read moreOʻahu: The Healthy Locavore Guide to Eating and Drinking in Wahiawā
A Guide to Eating and Drinking in Wahiawā
Visit Wahiawā for affordable mom-and-pop spots specializing in everything from pastries to huli huli chicken.
Smoked Chicken with Spanish Rice, Coleslaw and Cornbread at Chicken in a Barrel
In the summer of 2018, my partner and I hopped in his pick-up truck and drove to Wahiawā in search of the Sunset Smokehouse truck. Having eaten our way through the best BBQ shacks in Texas, sampling from masters such as Louie Muellers and Franklins, we had high hopes. James Kim from Austin, Texas delivered. His salt and pepper-crusted, oak-smoked brisket transported me back to those smoky dining rooms in Texas tearing into fatty slices of beef that glistened like diamonds. Sunset Smokehouse eventually moved into a brick-and-mortar space behind its truck and more recently moved to Kakaʻako, but in the early days, this is the spot that put Wahiawā on the map for me.
The courtyard behind Surfers Coffee
Wahiawā (Wahi-a-wā), or “place of noise,” is not just a former plantation town, it is the former pineapple capital of the world; a legacy that produced an abundance of hard-working immigrant families who opened affordable places to eat generous portions of locally-influenced foods from their homelands.
Until 1899 when colonists arrived to settle, the place we now know as Wahiawā was the valley of the former ahupuaʻa of Lihuʻe, situated in between the Waiʻanae and Koʻolau mountains. This is where Hawaiian armies were trained and royalty was born. Just off the Kamehameha highway, less than a mile south of Green World Coffee Farm (which is too touristy for my liking) are the Kūkaniloko Birthstones – one of Oʻahus most culturally significant landmarks. This is where women would come to give birth to aliʻi, hugging the rock silently as she meditated on the mountain range.
Wahiawā Botanical Garden
In 1900 James Drummond Dole purchased 61 acres of this land. Three years later, with the arrival of immigrant contract workers and workers transferring from the sugarcane plantations, he began processing pineapple. One year later, Wahiawā had the biggest pineapple industry in the world, with pineapple fields and camps surrounding the town. The Hawaiian Pineapple Growers Association actively recruited Sakadas from the Philippines. They were the largest ethnic group to work the pineapple fields. Despite harsh working conditions and very low pay, many immigrants speak fondly of the pineapple era and living in the camps.
Māluawai, Guieb Cafe, Surfers Coffee
Along with Big Ag, the US military also moved in. The town of Wahiawā now comprises immigrant residents and business owners settled from the plantation era, while its perimeter is a mix of agricultural land and military training grounds. This is where Wheeler Airfield and Schofield Barracks - the headquarters of the US Army Hawaii - are located. Lake Wilson, or Kaukonahua – Hawaii's second-largest reservoir – surrounds Wahiawā on three sides. The 400-acre body of water was created by building a dam in order to provide water for the Dole Pineapple Plantation fields.
Uncles Pizza on the lake
Early in the pandemic, I stood elbow to elbow with two dozen volunteers in a Wahiawā parking lot, slapping stickers onto 500 boxes of rescued food before loading them into the cars waiting in line around the block. Jo Soeung – a private chef from Baguio, Philippines who specialized in educating the world about the indigenous foods of the cordillera (mountain) region of her hometown – was one of the volunteers. We got to talking and she recommended a nearby coffee house called Surfer’s Coffee.
If Sunset Smokehouse was my introduction to Wahiawā, Surfer’s Coffee is what kept me coming back. Sometimes I just want to go somewhere where nobody knows me, sit at a weathered wooden table by a shade-drawn window, and lose myself in my laptop with a warm latte and a giant cinnamon roll spackled with thick cream cheese icing. This non-profit neighborhood hub with its wood-paneled walls, big brown leather armchairs, and library-meets-surf-shack-vibe fits that bill perfectly. I come as often as I can and enjoy spending a few hours hanging out on the tiny block between Olive Ave. and California Ave. on Kamehameha highway where it is located along with a few other fun shops.
Ray’s Kiawe Chicken and Maui Mike’s Fire-Roasted Chicken
There are so many places to grab a good meal in Wahiawā and the close proximity of everything makes it easy to food hop. Below is a list of my favorites and how I would spend a full day here.
Taqueria El Ranchero
Navigating Wahiawā is easy. Everything seems to be “down the street” or “around the corner.”
Take the 52 bus from town
Weather in Wahiawā is usually warm, sometimes muggy, but mostly dry with temperatures ranging from the low 60s-70s in the winter and 80s in the summer.
Pupusas Hawaiʻi
My perfect day in Wahiawā:
9:00-10:00 am - Brazilian Pilāo Coffee and acai bowl on the lake at Māluawai
10:15 am-12 pm - Hang out at Surfer’s Coffee
12 pm-12:45 pm - Shop at Santo Loco, The Vintage and Niu
1 pm-1:45 pm - Lunch at JRs Jamaican Jerk
2 pm-4 pm - Stroll around Wahiawa Botanical Garden
4:15-4:45 pm - Stop by the Papusas Hawaiʻi truck
5:00 pm - Mead tasting at Manoa Meadery
6:15 pm - Taquería el Ranchero for dinner in the Cantina
7:30 pm - Black Sheep ice cream for dessert
Roast pork and Char Siu at Po Sing (Mililani)
Food and beverage recommendations in Wahiawā:
Pupusas Hawaii - Pull off Kam Hwy just north of Wahiawa Tues-Sat 11am-5pm to get fresh made pupusas hot off the grill and agua fresca.
Surfers Coffee for a Latte or Tiger Shark dirty chai and a cinnamon roll or vegan donut
Black Sheep Ice Cream - Grab a scoop of Once You Go Black (black sesame) or Mochi Mama (brown sugar milk tea cream w/ mochi) or one of the other amazing flavors. They also make house-made waffle cones to order!
Kilani bakery for walnut brownies
Taqueria el ranchero for tacos de tripas, lengua and al pastor with an ice cold Pacifico
Jrs Jamaican Jerk for jerk chicken with coconut rice and peas (black beans), mac salad, a pine and ginger drink (pineapple agua fresca) and/or a sorrel drink (Jamaican hibiscus). Don’t arrive until at least 12pm. They open at 11am, but it takes them a while to get set up.
Charmaine’s moa betta cookies - Currently only doing wholesale orders. Slated to reopen in 2024!
Maui Mikes for juicy, rotisserie chicken. I like their smoked BBQ sauce and baked beans as a side.
Ray’s kiawe broiled chicken truck pulls up to 1011 California Ave on Tuesdays 10am-4pm. They serve huli huli chicken cooked over hot coals with a dipping sauce of shoyu, vinegar and Hawaiian chiles.
Barrio Cafe - (Close Sundays)
Shige’s saimin for Wonton Mein. (Closed Sunday and Monday)
Chicken in a barrel for smoked whole chickens, Spanish rice, coleslaw and grilled cakey cornbread smothered in honey butter.
Māluawai for acai bowls and Brazilian coffee. Go downstairs for front-row seating on the lake.
Uncles pizza - NY Style pizza on the lake. Try the Hot Jimmy with garlic, spinach, sausage and pepperoni.
Ohana Sub & Deli - A REAL sub/hoagie on O'ahu! The owners are super sweet and the entire staff celebrates when they see you've left a tip, as if they have just won the lottery. I recommend the Shaka Shaka (pepperoni, salami and bologna w/ provolone.)
Guieb Cafe - Bangsilog for breakfast – a Filipino dish made with crisp fried milkfish, diced tomatoes and onions, garlic rice and over easy eggs.
Po Sing - Amazing roast pork and char siu by the pound. (Mililani)
Sweetland Farms for goat cheese panna cotta. Tours are led every Saturday. (Fridays and Saturdays)
Manoa Honey and Mead for a tasting of four different meads or a bee-to-mead tour
Jrs Jamaican Jerk
Other places of interest:
Santo Loco - A hip, community-focused skate and surf shop founded in Germany. Small but cute selection of women’s clothes. Lots of rad clothes for guys. Surf and skate books, magazines and art in addition to everything you need surf related.
Get lost for an hour inside the 27-acre Wahiawa Botanical Garden
The Vintage - A non-profit boutique, run by the Surfing The Nations Organization, full of antique kitchenware, typewriters (I want one!), retro island clothes and accessories. Proceeds all go to charity.
NUI - A sweet little boutique full of cute (and AFFORDABLE) women's clothing and accessories. Similar to Mahina and Eden in Love.
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Oʻahu: The Healthy Locavore Guide to Eating and Drinking in Kaimukī
A Kaimukī Guide to Eating and Drinking Your Way Down Waialae Avenue
On the periphery of town lies one of Honoluluʻs best low-key neighborhoods for eating and drinking.
Cơm Tấm with lemongrass chicken and pork at Broken Rice
In this series, I share the places I eat, drink, and shop for ingredients throughout the entire island of Oʻahu. The businesses listed in these guides are here because they are places I would return to and I believe are worth recommending. I do not rate or review them, but I do include what I go there for. For example, “Flatbread and box of pastries at Breadshop in Kaimukī.” There are definitely places in each neighborhood that I have not been to (it would probably take a lifetime to eat at every restaurant on Oʻahu), but I did get pretty damn close. I do not include fast food restaurants, corporate chains and nationwide supermarkets.
Moving to Hawaiʻi was a big life change for me, a fresh start. When we arrived, my partner and I stayed with a friend in Hawaiʻi Kai waiting for our furniture and car to arrive so we could move into our new apartment. We were terribly bored, but luckily there was a bus stop across the street. Kaimukī was the first stop into town. I found a yoga studio there and would explore the area before and after class, grabbing a smoothie at Jewel or Juice or dinner with my partner.
There are a multitude of diverse mom and pop businesses and restaurants in Kaimukī, on and around Waialae Avenue, from 21st to Kapahulu, with cuisines ranging from Mexican to Middle Eastern. A built-in clientele lives in rows of modest-sized homes, some built as early as the 1900s, that surround the avenue reaching high atop a hilly landscape. Queen Theater, on Waialae and 12th, was the main focal point from 1936 to 1977, before it turned into an adult porn cinema. It was demolished in 1982 and has essentially remained empty ever since. Rumor has it the new owner is looking to restore it.
The old Queen Theatre
Kaimukī was not always so inhabited. Precontact, it was nearly desolate due to a lack of flowing water. Kanaka Maoli had several ovens here where they would bake kī, which are the roots of the tī plant. The name Kaimukī comes from Ka imu kī, meaning "The tī root oven" in ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi. According to historian Jill Byus Radke, developers created a reservoir here in 1898, turning Kaimukī into a suburb with all residential roads linked to Waialae Avenue.
Ed Kenney’s restaurants have helped define Waialae’s dining scene since 2005. His first restaurant Town, now a barber shop (I have yet to step inside The Cutlery), sadly shuttered during the pandemic, but his restaurant Mud Hen Water is still going strong. Here you can find dishes like beet poke and buttered ʻulu. The baked iholena banana, split open and topped with curry butter, chopped peanuts, hard-cooked egg, bacon and shredded coconut still stands out in my mind as one of his best dishes. The food is progressive, yet still rooted in Hawaiian culture, much like the neighborhood.
Baked iholena banana at Mud Hen Water
It has been bittersweet to watch businesses go over the past few years. I remember going to Top of the Hill to drink Bud Light and snack on the kimchi made by Auntie behind the bar. We watched the Uncles on the pool tables play money games, and took our turn during their breaks. One of the bar’s regulars was a Jamaican man who loved to cook. He ran a lively open-air restaurant on the other side of Waialae, called Jawaiian Irie Jerk, which blasted live music on weekends and hosted a weekly open mic comedy night. The kitchen turned out remarkable goat curry and jerk chicken. I loved his stewed vegetables – a mixture of cabbage, onions, carrots, and whatever else he had on hand mixed with fragrant Jamaican spices. It was apparently Bob Marley’s favorite. He closed the restaurant in 2018 and returned to Jamaica to pursue his agro-tourism dream of managing land with a farm, a restaurant, and zip lines that lace through the jungle. Fond memories are all that remain now of that magnificent curry, and our cozy watering hole is now locked away in chains.
Kaimukī Crack Seed Store has been in business for over 70 years
With every closing, however, comes an exciting new opening, and many old Kaimukī restaurants, such as Sekiya’s Restaurant & Delicatessen which opened in 1935, are still going strong. Bean About Town now roasts its own coffee and sells it to other coffee shops in town. The Curb moved into a larger space next door and expanded its offerings to include impressive selections of artisan chocolate and natural wine. Kaimukī Superette is now The Local General Store and the commissary kitchen behind it flutters with passionate entrepreneurs offering everything from local, troll-caught seafood to vegan donuts. And, speaking of vegan, where else on this island will you find a completely chef-run (no FOH staff) restaurant plating a 12-course modernist, vegan tasting menu directly in front of you as you eat? That would be AV on 11th and Waialae.
Sous chef Gordon Li and cook Aiden Raboteau plating the Flower Pot Pie at AV
Local Iʻa and Little Vessels behind The Local General Store
In the evenings when the sun slides down Waialae and the pickle ballers play in the park against a violet-peach sky, families spill out onto the sidewalk licking ice cream cones at Via Gelato and college kids sip beer under sparkling string lights outside Brew’d. I marvel at what a beautiful community resides here and what a food lover’s paradise it is.
Navigating Kaimukī is easy. Everything is centered around Waialae Avenue.
Take the number 1 and 9 bus to travel up and down Waialae. It is also very walkable.
Park in the lot on 12th ave (a block makai from Waialae) or, if you get lucky, on the street.
Weather in Kaimukī is primarily dry and hot. It drizzles on some mornings, but usually stops by 9:00am.
Sustainability is a theme that runs throughout Kaimukī. Boutiques such as Keep it Simple and Sugarcane make or sell wellness and beauty products, jewelry, home goods, and more created with reusable, chemical-free materials and ingredients. Organizations such as #KeepItKaimuki, which promotes small businesses, and Kaimuki Compost Collective, which collects food and cardboard waste to turn into compost for farmers, work to keep the neighborhood sustainable.
Kaimukī Storeroom (at The Curb) specializes in natural/low-intervention wines made with sustainable farming practices
My perfect day in Kaimukī:
8:00am - Enjoy a Tropical Fruit Smoothie with a Matcha Energy Ball on the lānai at Bean About Town
9:00am - Take a vinyasa class at Yoga Under the Palms and order lunch to-go from their vegan cafe: Plant-Based Paradise
10:30am - Relax at The Curb for a coffee and leave with a bar of artisan chocolate and a bottle of natural wine
11:30am - Pick up my bread and pastry order next door at Breadshop. (Breadshop allows online orders once a week every Tuesday at 9am. I know, I know…Trust me it’s worth it.)
12:00pm - Eat my vegan lunch and (not vegan) pastry in the park under a shady tree.
1:00 pm - Cool off with an iced hapa matcha latte on the lānai at Daily Whisk and then peruse Summer’s latest styles inside her boutique: Ten Tomorrow
2:00pm - Buy a book at Da Shop and a locally-made gift for a friend at Sugarcane
4:00pm - Stock up on Zero Waste goods at Keep it Simple
5:00pm - Sip on a Cocktail at Miro
6:00pm - Enjoy Dinner with my bottle of natural wine on the lānai at Red Elephant Thai Cuisine (it’s BYOB).
8:00pm - Cap off the night at Via Gelato with an ice cream sandwich or a scoop of the “Chef’s Choice” flavor of the day
Dinner and BYOB at Red Elephant Thai Cuisine
Food and beverage recommendations in Kaimukī:
Shakarato, latte, Kahuna Smoothie, banana bread, and energy balls at Bean About Town
Iced hapa matcha latte with macadamia nut milk at Daily Whisk
An evening scoop at Via Gelato
Pour over or latte with a kinako ameretti cookie at The Curb (While you are there grab a bottle of natural wine from Kaimuki Storeroom)
Flatbread and pastry box from Breadshop
Brunch at Mud Hen Water
Cocktails at Miro
Nitro Coffee at Coffee Talk
XO Restaurant for an avant-garde twist on local food
AV Restaurant for a modernist 15-course vegan tasting menu with sake pairing.
Combo Beef Pho or Hot Spicy Beef Soup in Hueʻs Style at Super Pho
Kaimukī Superette for breakfast or lunch [Now Closed]
Local Iʻa to purchase fresh, troll-caught seafood from Oʻahu
Pick out a new succulent and read a book of poetry with a cup of tea at Planteom.
Black Garlic Ramen at Noods
The Big Kahuna at Sprout Sandwich Shop
Ricotta Pancakes, Luʻau and Eggs and Irish Coffee at Koko Head Cafe
Malamodes at Pipeline Bakeshop
Italian wine, Neopolitan pizza, and pasta (salads and meatballs with focaccia are great too!) at Brick Fire Tavern
Dinner on the lānai at Red Elephant Thai *BYOB a bottle of white or rose wine. They will put it on ice for you. There is no corkage.
Beers and fish tacos on the lānai at Brew’d
Pastries, quiche, sausages, and local meat at The Local General Store
Dim Sum at Happy Days
Vegetable dishes and garlic naan at Himalayan Kitchen
Vegan breakfast burritos and cookies at Juicy Brew
Kale tacos at Leahi Health
Cozy dinner for two at Maguro-ya
Poke + extensive wine and spirits selection at Tamura’s Fine Wine & Liquors
Mini Laulau Plate with a side of poi at Oʻahu Grill
Order a beautiful cheese and charcuterie box from Bubbly and Bleu (takeout only)
Late-night beers and karaoke at 9th Avenue Rock House
Hog wild (Piggyback rye, Averna, black tea Simple, citrus) + Applewood smoked fried chicken sando (kimchee mayo, kimchi salad, brioche, fries) at Surfing Pig
Mango Rice Tea with Boba at CowCows Tea
Poi Cheesecake and Carrot Cake at Otto Cake (86 cheesecake flavors rotate daily)
Broken Rice with Lemongrass Chicken at Broken Rice
Yakitori and warabi mochi at Japanese Restaurant Aki
Banana pancakes with a side of bacon or sausage at Mokʻe’s (try to score a table on the shady lanai!)
Grilled shishamo, yakitori, green tea ice cream and warabimochi
Takeout on the cheap:
Toona Salad or Cheezeburger at Plant-Based Paradise (inside Yoga Under the Palms)
Lengua and Carnitas tacos at Tight Tacos
BBQ Pork Bahn Mi at No Name BBQ
Vegan donuts at Little Vessels (Sat-Mon only)
Li Hing Mui Candies at Kaimukī Crack Seed Store
The Big Kahuna at Sprout Sandwich Shop
Made-to-order Mini Mix Bento at Okata Bento (Arrive at noon and be prepared to wait 20-30 minutes)
Laulau plate at Oʻahu Grill
Mini Bento with teriyaki chicken and tonkatsu with side of mac salad at Okata Bento
For animal lovers:
Popoki + Tea Cat Cafe - Release your inner cat lady
The Public Pet - Carries organic, holistic and locally-made products including raw food, healthy treats and supplements.
Other places of interest:
Puu O Kaimuki Park in the evening (especially during the holidays to see the big Christmas tree all lit up).
Bead It! for DIY jewelry making