Good to know

FOOD + DRINK

​*FYI many of these restaurants have seasonal and changing menus so don’t get mad at us if something we recommend isn’t on the menu.

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• Arvo Cafe (at SALT at Our Kaka’ako) is an Aussie cafe serving up handcrafted coffee drinks and avocado toast that’s insanely pretty to look at (and tastes as good as it looks). Try the Loaded Avocado Toast, Matcha Chia Pudding, Nutella Toast, Flat White, and Cold Brew. 

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• Highway Inn is a local fave for old school breakfast and traditional Hawaiian food. Local fave. Try the Smokin Moco.

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• Bevy is a friendly bar with craft cocktails, tapas, and a happy hour. (Tip: check their Instagram for the cocktail of the day.)

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• Moku Kitchen for pizza, pie, cocktails and more from Chef Peter Merriman.

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• Hank’s Haute Dogs for tons and tons of fancy hot dogs and a lobster roll. 

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• Piggy Smalls is the sister restaurant to the oh so popular The Pig & The Lady. International flavors, creative menus, kickass brunch and great cocktails too.

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• Sun Tea Mix for brown sugar boba and milk and cheese foam. (Try the: Brown Sugar Boba with cheese foam and Creme Brulee Souffle Pancake.)

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• MW Restaurant is an upscale spot where you can try fancy spam musubi topped with a quail egg. Also try the mochi crusted Kona Kanpachi, Fried Jidori Chicken, Tropical Fruit Creamsicle. [FYI: Michelle, who runs the pastry side of things, was a James Beard finalist and her husband and co owner was an Alan Wong protege.]

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• Waikiki Brewing Co Kaka’ako for Games, brews, and bar food. They have an all day happy hour on Mondays.

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• Honolulu Beerworks is located in an open air warehouse with a small beer garden. A craft microbrewery with board games.

CHECK OUT THE...

• Street art. It’s everywhere. SALT at Our Kaka’ako is a good place to start. You can walk in any direction and discover amazing murals or check out Pow! Wow!’s map to find specific artwork.

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• Pow! Wow! Festival is a week long event in February (usually around Valentine’s Day) where you can watch international muralists paint new artworks throughout the neighborhood. There’s also music and other events, most of which are free. [FYI: They skipped 2020 and 2021, so we’ll see if it makes a comeback in 2022.]

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• Guided Street Art Tours. There are a few different ones, like an Instagram Photo Tour where they’ll take pictures for you throughout or one where you get to see all the artwork from a hoverboard. 

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• MORI by Art + Flea. A local boutique with lots of made in Hawaii stuff. Funky prints and postcards. Also check out the monthly Art + Flea urban market that pops up monthly. 

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• SALT at Our Kaka’ako is a cool outdoor mall with local and curated shops, restaurants, cafes, and bars. It takes up an entire city block. Pre Covid they also hosted regular events. It’s got an artsy, but industrial vibe with corrugated aluminum siding and repurposed iron mixed with huge breathtaking murals.

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• Kaka’ako Farmers Market for local produce, local art and artisan foods like fried mochi balls, sugarcane juice, Hawaiian honey slushies, and hand-pulled noodles. [Tip: find free parking across the street at 1050 Ala Moana and at Fisherman’s Wharf.]

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• Paiko is a really cool looking botanical boutique. Check out tropical flours and cute succulents, just keep in mind that you can’t take soil from Hawaii, so anything that’s potted in dirt won’t make it pass the agricultural inspection at the airport.  [Fun fact: Arvo Cafe got its start with a small coffee counter inside Paiko.]

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• Lonohana Chocolate Tasting Bar (inside SALT at Our Kaka’ako). Taste or purchase handcrafted chocolates, grown and made in Hawaii. 

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• Treehouse. A camera shop and film store. A really cool shop for anyone who’s into photography. 

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• Ward Village is a large residential and commercial community filled with restaurants, shops and boutiques, big grassy areas, public art, and ongoing events (like yoga in the park and the Kaka’ako Farmers Market). 

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• Kaka’ako Waterfront Park is about 35 acres of grassy knolls along the water. It’s a great spot for a picnic or BBQ. There’s a wide sidewalk that runs across the ocean if you want to go for a walk or a bike ride. It’s also called Point Panic Park because it’s a popular bodysurfing spot (but FYI that it’s not great for swimming). You can sometimes catch outdoor concerts here too. 

TIPS + TRICKS

• Pet friendly. Most restaurants have outdoor seating and allow pets. There are also some pet friendly parks nearby.​

DID YOU KNOW?

• Kaka’ako used to be marsh land with salt ponds near the shoreline and fishing villages. In the 1800s Honolulu Iron Works, a metal foundry and machine shop, helped transform it into an industrial center. Today, the open air center, SALT at Our Kaka’ako, is named after the ponds that salt ponds that use to fill the area.

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• “Our Kaka’ako” is responsible for a lot of Kaka’ako’s transformation from an industrial area to Oahu’s most up and coming, art centric neighborhood. It’s a $60M residential and commercial project to add 200 homes and rental units. It’s headed by the Kamehameha Schools and Castle & Cooke Homes Hawaii Inc. 

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• Ward Village was another major community revitalization project. It features tons of residences, businesses, restaurants, shops, events and green spaces — all planned with walkability in mind.

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• Beer has had a long history in Kaka’ako. Hawaii’s first legit brewery, the Honolulu Brewing & Malting Company, was opened in 1901 in Kaka’ako. The brewery is long gone, but you can still walk past the red brick building where it used to be housed. Prohibition put Hawaii’s beer production on pause, but today micro breweries are popping up all over Kaka’ako. 

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