Kapahulu Poi Shop

We, my best friend & I, had considered this place to be our place. A place we found comfort in, & a place that had always found a way to comfort us. She had introduced me to Kapahulu Poi Shop over a decade ago, as she had frequented the eatery with her own family since she was a child. When I was first taken there, my eyes scanned the older, hole in the wall establishment & trepidation immediately crept in.
Had she dropped the ball on this one? Were our tastes in food not as similar as I thought? Was the food safe to eat? Am I ready for the potential of another bout of food poisoning?
Question after question rapidly fired in my brain, each more ridiculous then the last. But we were there — and my best friend knew good food. If I could go back in time & confront that nervous girl sitting with so much uncertainty in that car, I would give her a much deserved knock to the noggin for being as neurotic as she was. But we went in, was greeted by friendly faces, ate the amazingly delicious dishes, and created our first memory at Kapahulu Poi Shop.
In the past few years, personal tragedies caused eating there to be much more painful than before. We frequented our place less and less, and our tradition of weekly visits soon turned into monthly. Eventually, it became less than that. But in our hearts we knew it would always be there to welcome us back when were ready — and be there to be passed on to our children when the time came.
But sometimes, as they say, life can throw you an unexpected curve ball and shatter all of your expectations. Ours was a handwritten, heartfelt sign on the door of Kapahulu Poi Shop announcing its closure. Our return was too late. We were both shocked and devastated. As strange as it was to say, we never thought they would close their doors. They were a part of our life, and for my friend, an important part of her childhood. It was hard to comprehend when we first heard the news, and still difficult to take in today.
Days later, as the words on that sign had finally found a way to sink in, I’m no longer saddened or angry by their closure. Instead, I am grateful that they were a part of our lives to begin with. It wasn’t just the amazing food that made Kapahulu Poi Shop our goto Hawaiian eatery, it was also the kind hearts that welcomed us into their family every time we were there. The memories my friend and I had made there can never be taken away, and I am truly blessed & grateful for them. So to everyone at Kapahulu Poi Shop, we want to thank you so much for the years you’ve graciously invited us into your lives. We will miss you all and never forget you… even if you Did put in that fish tank that scared the bejesus out of my best friend :)

Sad to say that I just found out from the owner that yesterday was their last day. I never wrote a review for this place because it was my go to spot for Hawaiian food and it only had small kine parking. This was my go to spot for raw squid since not many places still prepared it in the style that did. I am going to miss coming here.

Tried Kapahulu Poi Shop as an alternative to Ono. Called in the order for pick up. Simple & easy. Since it was lunch on a weekday, all the parking spots in front were open. Service was fine.
Ordered kalua pig, lau lau, sweet potato, lomi salmon & haupia. I liked the lau lau, not huge but lots of lau lau leaves which is what I want. The Kalua Pig was a little dry & needed more salt (that’s saying a lot bc I rarely add salt to my food & use it sparingly while cooking). Loved the sweet potato — wish there was more than 3 slices. Didn’t eat the lomi salmon & haupia bc gave it to my Mom.

This is the best place for Hawaiian Food in Honolulu. You basically can choose between a 2 or 3 choice combo. Choices include Kalua Pig, Lau Lau, Squid Luau, Chicken Long Rice, Pipikaula, Chicken Luau and more. Combos come with Lomi Salmon, Haupia and choice of Rice, Sweet Potato or Poi. The 3 choice combo also comes with Poke. Located in Kapahulu, less than a 5 – 10 minute drive from Waikiki.

There are two different kinds of Hawaiian food. The fare that can be found on plate lunches and then there is the traditional variety that you would expect to eat at a luau. If you are looking for the latter, it is actually not as easy to find as the first kind.
Fortunately, there are a sprinkling of traditional Hawaiian restaurants on Kapahulu Avenue from which to choose from. There are three spots, Ono Hawaiian Foods, Haili’s and Kapahulu Poi Shop. Ono is the most well known of the three and also the priciest. Haili’s has a fanbase too. Kapahulu Poi Shop is a long established spot, but somehow has avoided the Unilocal effect.
The restaurant is not on Kapahulu Avenue, but a few steps from it. It is located on Winam Avenue across from a big parking lot as well as Haili’s. There is little parking in front of the restaurant which certainly is a deterrent to foot traffic. But street parking is not too terribly difficult in the area.
Traditional Hawaiian food is generally more expensive than plate lunches because it is more labor intensive and often served as a meal set. Of the three Hawaiian places on Kapahulu Avenue, Kapahulu Poi Shop is the most reasonably priced. The location is very much a hole in the wall type place. If you don’t like the ambiance, they do offer takeout.
The menu is simple. You can order items a la carte or as a combo meal in which you pick off the list of choices. Went with the combo A ($ 11.25) which includes lomi lomi salmon, haupia, a choice of poi/​rice/​sweet potato and a selection of two entrée items. Went with the rice, laulau and pipikaula as my choices.
I enjoyed the food that I had here. I was not a huge fan of traditional Hawaiian food when I was young. I think it had something to do with those stories about how it was made in the old days. Pig cooked in an underground oven? But as an adult, I have grown to like it.
The lomi lomi salmon has a nice consistency. The diced tomatoes help to balance the saltiness of the salmon. The laulau was predictably tasty, but I have also grown to like the taro greens it is covered in. Pipikaula was interesting. It is like a cross between beef jerky and corned beef. Try it if you haven’t had it before. And haupia was a nice ending to a heavy, but delicious meal.
If you are looking for ambiance alongside your meal, you are better off at one of the other Hawaiian spots. However, if you can overlook the surroundings or okay with takeout, Kapahulu Poi Shop is a good spot to go for reasonably priced Hawaiian food in Kapahulu.

This is my new favorite Hawaiian food place!
And that means a lot. This place is so good, I tell people that it tastes just like how my grandmother used to make. That’s quite a statement.
The staff is always friendly and helpful. It’s in an older, but clean building. And the food is quite reasonably priced. Even «affordable» by Hawaiian food standards.

Driving down Kapahulu, I hadn’t realized how many different food places there was! I thought we were going to one place but parked in front of another.
Kapahulu Poi Shop has limited parking, luckily the car I was in was small, and could fit, cause we parked between two cars with the pillar at the hood of the car.
Not much tables, a lot of chairs. There’s two fish tanks at the entrance along with boxes. It felt more like walking into someone’s home than it is an actual restaurant.
I was going to order off their ala carte, but I ended up getting one of their combination plates.
Lunch photo:
Kalua Pork, Lomi Salmon, Haupia and Pipikaula
I thought there would be more kalua pork. It’s a bit dry. Their pipikaula had peppers – not a fan of food with peppers or anything spicy on them – so after trying some I ended up giving it to lunch buddy. The amount of rice was more than enough.
I got to try some of their squid luau. Not something I would try again.
As we’re finishing up lunch, I saw a roach… WTF, a ROACH. Anyways, I wouldn’t have freaked out as much but, IT’S HUGE, then, IT STARTED FLYING. It flew over me to the window… I watched it the entire time, making sure it wouldn’t take off again. Well, just my luck… IT DID! Straight towards me. That’s when I bolted from my seat and out the door.
Sign:

I grew up eating poi and laulau from! My dad used to buy them every week and we had yummy Hawaiian nights with lomi lomi salmon sometimes. I made sure to get laulau every time I visit and now that I just moved back, I’m definitely frequented this place as often as taro leaves are kind to my belly. Sometimes, they are not: D

This is/​was my first time trying poi and it was so good! We went with a friend who told us the way that he eats it is to kid in the kahlua pork with the poi and eat it: the pork on its own is pretty salty to me and the poi on its own is tart without anything know it but mixing the 2 together is pure magic. We also had the chicken luau which was really good. Chicken log rice was very good. Pipikaua is delicious, Lomi salmon was my least favorite of all the dishes we tried. The Hauptmann is really good too. The but poi and kahlua pig is good! We ordered t twice because it was so good.

Want to get your Hawaiian food fix? Stop here. That’s all you need.
The place is family-​owned. Not at all a restaurant-​type setting; It’s literally like sitting in their home while they cook for you. Because it feels that way, the people are also nice and easy to talk to. Got to know a little more about the island and living on the island from talking to the owner’s son (who was helping us).
Love this place, have to stop by every time we visit the island.

I’ve been there a few times and know that the dining room is small. There’s about 5 tables in there that seat about 4 – 6 people per table. The dining room is a bit untidy but I can get by that. The server is a nice young man that does his job and is attentive. The food is what brings me back. This past visit we had the laulau, the chicken luau, the chicken long rice, lomilomi salmon, poi, maui onions with Hawaiian salt and haupia.
The laulau was a bit dryer than normal but still very tasty. The luau was very ‘ono along with the rest ot the menu. We enjoyed our meal and so glad we found parking right in the front of the door. There’s about 4 – 5 stalls fronting the restaurant and because I think that people don’t know of this place yet, there’s usually a stall open.
Our bill was less than $ 25 and our stomachs were full. Can’t find that for Hawaiian food very often.
I’m sure we’ll be back again and already looking forward to it. Thanks again for the great meal, Kapahulu Poi Shop!

Eat a lot good price food ok

If your low on the «Kala» and you and the braddahs are ready to grind, this is the place. Ono’s and Haili’s are near by, but this little secret hole in the wall may be the alternative. Air Conditioned, reasonable prices, choke food for the price.
We had the 3 Choice and was meeeeeean.
Had the Rice (no like poi today), Laulau, Naau Luau, and Chicken Long Rice.
Ahi Limu Poke, Lomi Salmon, Onion/​Salt and Haupia comes with all combo’s.
For $ 14. bucks no can beat. $ 11.00 for the 2 choice.
Check out my pics, no can finish… too much. Winnah’s gotta try.

Been coming here since the mid-90’s, and make it a point to go back every time I go Oahu!
I grew up in Hilo, and this place reminds me of a combination of an old fish market (like Suisan) and my Japanese friends grandparents house! LOVE all the «Hawaii Fishing» magazines all over to read, and the people working there are really nice.
Mind you, the place is by no means your typical «restaurant» atmosphere (so if you high makamaka, go somewhere else!). But if you like ONO food, GENEROUS portions, and GOOD prices, THIS is the place!
Call me what you want, but this place to me feels like I’m eating at home every time I come!

I’m from the mainland (even though I visit about 3 times a year) but this place has made me fall in love with Hawaiian food. The portions are great, the folks are very nice (discovered this via my fiancé who is from here) — the poi is fresh, the poke is super tasty and fresh, and the lau lau is very meaty. The chicken long rice tastes vey homemade and is not oily like other places. If you want great tasting hawaiian food at a reasonable price and a comfortable and «homey» feel, come here!

I’ve heard about this place many times and finally tried it… and I can NOT believe that the few reviews I’ve read did not say anything about the cleanliness of this place???
Did I finally get to this place on one of the most off days ever or what?
The food was very nicely priced (aka cheap), the poke was very tasty (this was definitely above average and had lots of salt), squid luau was ok (I did get one piece of uncooked rubbery unchewable squid that I had to spit out), and the laulau was ok (better after I loaded it up with the fresh chili water).
The young man who waited on us was very nice and polite.
Now I understand this is a hole in the wall restaurant and I wasn’t expecting much in terms of décor, but I DO expect some kind of cleanliness and order in a restaurant…
I started out at our table facing the kitchen. But after my friend saw the look on my face while I looked around the place, she agreed to switch seats with me so that I could eat. Luckily she was better at keeping her eyes from wandering around than I was.
It was so dirty in there that I had a psychosomatic stomach ache after eating, thinking that I MUST have ingested something really bad…
Piles of mouse poop in the corners (I know this because the droppings were too big to be roach poop), piles of aging mail and newspapers scattered across the back table, big huge fish swimming in white cloudy water, roach poison packages on the kitchen shelves, and just plain dishevelment everywhere… a ladder sitting in the dining area next to the door, just stuff that my friend and I could not understand why they wouldn’t just MOVE it from the dining area?
Shoot me for being the ONLY person to say something, but this place was D-​I-​R-​T-​Y. Just the piles of poop in the corners are gross enough.
I really hope that the family is OK and there isn’t some major problem happening that is keeping someone from cleaning the place, but I also hope that in me posting this that someone will please go in and sweep up the poop!

You want some authentic Hawaiian food without the torture of an overpriced, unexciting-​food luau, then this is your place. The concierge at our hotel recommended this place and we are so happy that he did.
This is NOT a tourist joint, but as tourists, my husband and I felt welcome. I know that sometimes when you are in touristy parts of the world, non-​touristy establishments can be a little intimidating and/​or rude. Not this place! Everyone was kind and didn’t look at us like we were lost. ;)
This is a hole in the wall. Really. If you don’t know that you are supposed to be looking for, you won’t find it. It is about as no-​frills as you can get, with papers stacked high behind the check out counter and simple folding tables. But what is may lack in décor it more than makes up for with the food and friendly staff. This is a family run restaurant and our waiter was friendly and warm.
We enjoyed every bite of our mountain of food, including the poi which I remember hating as a kid. We tasted just about everything and especially liked the pipikaula, chicken long rice (BIG yum) and the laulau. We ate just about every single bite and rolled ourselves out of there very full and very happy. Well worth the trip and we will go back next time we’re in HI.

Yep, 5 stars.
One of my favorite Hawaiian Food eateries in town. The prices are cheap! The service is local style friendly. and the food is ono, mo bettah than Ono’s. Oops did I say that?
Our table usually has:
2 bowls poi
2 Laulau
1 squid luau (yum!)
1 Kalua pig
1 ahi poke
1 pipikaula
2 haupia
1 chicken long rice
2 lomi salmon
Never any leftovers!

I thought I stepped into a time warp! It’s a bit run down, very little colors on the walls, old school chairs and tables, and a huge antique looking cash register right at the front. It is the definition of hole-​in-​a-​wall. I don’t think much has changed since when they first opened who knows when.
Their menu was very simple too. Two different combo plates with a bunch of choices to chose from and a list of ala carte items. Boy got the Combo A plate with kalua pig, squid luau, sweet potatoes, and extra haupia since we don’t eat lomi salmon (no tomatoes for us). Having no point of reference for squid luau, I thought it was very good. Boy wasn’t a huge fan since he likes it creamier or something. The kalua pig was moist with lots of smokey flavor but overly salty. Eating it with the squid luau helped. The haupia was good but not as good as Yama’s. They gave us four pieces total which I thought was generous of them.
The guy that helped us at the counter was very helpful and polite. It’s a nice choice for Hawaiian food when I’m in the area.

I would eat here more if they would extended their hours. Given that, you have to be in the area & have free time to find this place actually open.
It’s good to get the 3-​choice combo. We had kalua pig, which was juicy & tender. Not overcooked nor too salty. Squid luau was a little bland & we thought it should have some coconut milk inside. At least it didn’t make me sick like squid luau prepared by some other people. Some places like to put sugar, sometimes LOTS of sugar. That could be one cause of the sickness. At least the blandness of Kapahulu Poi Shop’s squid luau leaves you some room to improvise your own flavor. The third choice was pipikaula. Awesome!!! Not too salty. It was definately dried smoked beef & not someone’s slippers left at the beach.
Poke ahi was another winner! Sauce was perfect; not too salty; well balanced. Flavors blended well with the fish. Haupia was perfect. Firm & just the right flavor, color & texture. It was a big plus that it wasn’t too sweet & that they didn’t resort to using gelatin, which many people use. The tripe stew was also good. The broth was flavorful and the tripe was tender. They also had a bottle of chili pepper water, which appeared to be homemade (the liquid was yellowish & not red). We also got a side of raw onion with paakai (salt). Classic! Lastly, poi was ok, but it’s hard to complain since poi is so hard to get these days. Before we were told you could choose between «fresh» poi, «day-​old» poi, or «sour» poi. Rice was of decent quality & neither too hard nor mushy.
Even though Haili’s and Ono’s are nearby, Kapahulu Poi Shop is my choice for Hawaiian food. The food is well-​balanced & full of homemade flavor. The service is also friendly and attentive. The dining room is very plain, but it feels very comfortable being here. The manual cash register they have sitting on the counter is a real throwback.