Wailana Coffee House

Place is okay for where it’s located. Friendly staff. Good tasting food that’s really bad for your health. I mean the ingredient cost must be really low. Like $ 5 for 60lbs of shredded potato low. I also think they fried the ice cream then stuck it back in the fridge then served it. Lastly the crust of the ice cream had a hint of fried chicken breading. Again it’s cheap tasty, and the staff is friendly but I know what I ate was not healthy for anyone. Good thing I own a home based business and I’m at training or I would feel quite mad that I spent more than $ 10 for what I ate.

Wailana Coffee House has been a stable of Hawaii for a LONG LONG time, but I just not have the opportunity to visit. This Sunday, our friends came to visit from the mainland and were staying at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, so we walked over to Wailana for breakfast. Although it’s breakfast time, you can still order the lunch and dinner menu. It was an awesome menu where you have your local favorites of chili, loco moco, benedicts, steak, and traditional diner favorites. But the best deal… wait for it, it’s the children’s menu, breakfast for $ 2.5 and lunch/​dinner for $ 2.95. The breakfast offers the traditional eggs, sausage and toast or pancake and other items. The lunch menu offers items like spaghetti with garlic bread, fish and chips and etc. It’s a really great deal, the portion are big enough for an adult.
This is a great venue for visitor or locals alike as it can accommodate a lot of people and opens 24 hours. We will definitely recommend this place to our other friends visiting from now on.

Great teriyaki steak sandwich. Our server «Brad» was great. My wife needed chopsticks though, a white lady with name tag too small to read walked past.
«Excuse me» wife said
«Not me» the lady said. «Ask your server».

Food got better!
(for what this place is)
Today special was swordfish, best with butter sauté.
Late time they had Monchong.
That is $ 15 with all you can eat salid bar.
My fav dressing us there house balsamic.
Muesli still the Best!
with macadamia nuts, fresh apple, bananas.

Good coffee. The eggs were semi runny, for scrambled eggs. The all you can eat pancakes were yummy! The service was short, sweet and to the point.

Get the all you can eat pancakes with egg and bacon for $ 8.25! Potatoes are extra. You can also ask to substitute the bacon with spam and ask for a side of rice for s «spam silog». Service is amazing

I get to Honolulu about once a month with my job. Since I come in from the east coast of the mainland, my jet lag causes me to wake up quite early in the morning. This morning I was wide awake at 3:30am, so I got dressed and walked a half mile from my hotel (in the rain) to the Wailana Coffee house. When I arrived I found that this «24 hour» restaurant was CLOSED. This would be a minor annoyance if this were the only time it happened, but the the EXACT same thing happened to me last month. In fact, it happened several additional times to me in the last year. So, it seems that the Wailana Coffee House, despite the fact the it advertises itself as a 24 hour restaurant, is not really a 24 hour restaurant. Please be honest about your hours.
UPDATE — They did it to me again. This morning (5÷25÷16) this supposed 24 hour restaurant was closed. What a sad joke.

Charming with that 60’s coffee house vibe and certainly cheaper than anything that you’ll find across the street at Hawaiian Village.
I had the hamburger steak with 2 eggs over medium. The eggs were fine but the hamburger definitely wasn’t 100% beef. It was mushy and tasted like the Salisbury steak that you would get in those .99 cents T.V. dinners. The only comfort to me was seeing the $ 39.00 breakfast buffet at the Hilton when I returned. I felt lucky to be fed for about $ 12.00. The pancakes looked good, maybe next time.

Close to Hilton Hawaiian Village. We had breakfast and it’s like Denny’s but local. No butter, margarine, no cream but non dairy substitute. When the butter and cream are fake you get the idea, Denny’s actually be a more wholesome choice.

I am on a work trip here for 2 weeks. Went to Wailanas a lot for breakfast because of decent prices and convenience since it was outside of my hotel.
French toast guava is a must try with coconut syrup.
HOWEVER, I went in this morning for my usual coffee and French toast. The waitress brings out the coffee in a cup that had a lipstick stain on it. Grossed me out. Didn’t seem like a big deal to them though.
I have 3 days left here and will not be going back.

This place satisfied all of my diner cravings, which is pretty difficult. For an area that’s freakishly overpriced and a tourist trap, Wailana Coffee House actually offers good food at good prices, with super friendly service.
Breakfast here is great; the Belgian Waffle is perfectly crispy, and the Bacon is delicious. Another day I tried the T-​Bone Steak which was seasoned well and tender, complimented by perfectly-​made Curly Fries.
It has a huge menu, plenty of seats, and a wonderfully casual atmosphere despite being so close to five-​star hotels and fancy shops. Couldn’t recommend this place more.

I love coming here. The waitresses are really nice and the food is good. The wait isn’t too long even when there is a line out the door. You maybe wait 10min max when that happens. I usually get guava juice to start and the sweet portuguese bread french toast for breakfast. It’s really good. It comes with a 3 syrups that you can pour on your own and about 4 thick wedges. I also get a side of hash browns and it’s a good size. I usually can’t finish all of that unless I’m super hungry, so I do get my money’s worth here. The place isn’t fancy, but I like it. They shot some scenes of Hawaii 5 – 0 here too, so that’s cool. I would recommend this place to other people.

Wailana Coffee House caters to locals and tourists alike. Open 24/​7, head here for solid diner food with a few tropical touches like coconut pancake syrup, fresh papaya and pineapple, and guava juice.
I can eat breakfast anytime of day and the Marmalade Stuffed French Toast with Soft Scrambled Eggs and Bacon makes me happy. It’s a little greasy from the flattop, but a total diner winner.
If I’m not feeling eggs, I go for the Reuben with Fries. The greasy grilled bread, the sour kraut, the corned beef with russian dressing all combine to make a tasty hot sandwich.
The portions are generous, they can seat a group, and lunch and dinner entrees come with the salad bar. Wailana Coffee House is a good late night option when most things are closed and you’re looking for a sit down option.

It’s Winter in Hawai’i! Our weather has taken a turn towards breezy days and chilly (yes, below 68 degrees F is CHILLY for us) nights so it’s a perfect time to eat soul-​warming soups or stews. After seeing several fellow people check-​in to local restaurants for a local favorite, oxtail soup, fellow Unilocaler Ric C. suggested the ever popular Wailana Coffee House, so we jumped on board.
THIS REVIEW IS ABOUT THE OXTAIL SOUP ONLY.
Wailana Coffee House features (Hawaiian) Chinese-​style oxtail soup on Thursdays ONLY. It is so popular that they often sell-​out during their lunch service. They take reservations for the oxtail soup for both dine-​in and take out service. The full meal of oxtail soup costs $ 13.95. Amazingly, the meal includes unlimited salad bar visits (features both fruits and vegetables), a huge bowl of piping-​hot Chinese-​style oxtail soup and rice (white or brown). Our Chinese-​style style oxtail soup was a perfect, non-​greasy, clear and beefy broth. There was a hint of dried tangerine peel, star anise, ginger and garlic (?). In the broth were 5 – 6 pieces of tender-​cooked BUT not «fall-​off the bones» beef oxtails. The usual skinless peanuts, red dates, and black mushrooms (shiitakes) were packed into the broth and gave the broth more depth of flavors. Several tender-​cooked, yet, still a bit crisp stalks and leaves of mustard cabbage garnished the serving. A popular condiment of minced fresh ginger root with fresh chopped Chinese parsley (cilantro) was served on the side. We pretty much all fell silent as we downed this delicious bowl of soup.
Wailana Coffee Shop has been at the corner of Ena Road and Ala Moana Boulevard since 1969. In fact, this diner/​coffee shop replaced the Kapiolani Drive In which was owned and operated by the Francis Tom family. Even until present day, the descendants of the Tom family own and operate this coffee shop. The coffee shop is a family-​run diner that serves home-​cooked local favorites and American Classics at reasonable prices. They operate ²⁴⁄₇!
As we were leaving, we reflected on our dines that occurred during our childhood through our school days at the local university and to present day. Wailana Coffee House is still the «old school» diner that for us, brings us tasty comfort foods with good value.
#538

This is the most memorable restaurant we visited visited in Honolulu. The locals love it just as much as the tourists. The Decour hasn’t changed since the 70s. It feels like you’re walking into an old-​school diner, everything from the all you can drink coffee to the Hawaiian print dresses that the waitresses wear.
The all-​you-​can-​eat pancakes are a must. Best deal on the island! It comes with three’s types of syrup, I highly recommend the coconut.
They also have a full bar and five dollar bloody Mary’s. And if you look for their parking, it’s $.75. You’ll definitely want to go here more than once!

Ever wish you could go back in time and do things over? Look no further but to the Wailana Coffee House, with it’s décor and furnishings looking like July 1984, when I first got married!
We were looking for something more sensible than the $ 30+ per plate meals at the restaurants in the Hilton Hawaiian Village, where we were staying. I know –if you can afford the Hilton, you can afford to pay $ 30+ per plate per meal.
There across from the HHV on the corner is the big white neon sign for Wailana Coffee House. Now we didn’t travel 2300 miles to eat at no coffee shop, but the prices on the menu were low, and the place packed with locals –you can tell they are locals because they were husky Asians with deep tan lines, and didn’t wear those ABC t-​shirts with loud Hawaiian colors.
We are seated quickly by a waitress in full uniform, by the window, with the double left turn lane of cars turning from Kalia Road onto Ala Moana right in our faces. And you better hope that those DWA make the turn, otherwise they are going through the window!
Saturday night special 12 oz New York steak, sirloin, or teriyaki steak for $ 14, including salad bar. No brainer –I order the New York steak medium, with potato, and the wife the teriyaki steak.
We both load up on the salad bar: iceberg lettuce, carrot strips, pasta noodles, and of course pineapple –what dish would be complete in the islands without pineapple?!
We each go through three plates of the salad bar –hungry after all that walking during the day, before our entrees arrive.
My New York steak is so tough that I’m surprised some of the old timers here didn’t have a denture fall out! My wife’s teriyaki is in contrast, amazing with flavorful sauce dripped over three large pieces of beef.
We come back the next day for breakfast, and I get the $ 8 scrambled eggs with potatoes and slice of hamburger. Good value for the buck. The wife gets French toast packed with guava, a local twist, covered with coconut syrup. They’ve got to be good, as Ihop Pancakes is next door!
We come back a third time a few days later for a light dinner on a Tuesday, with me getting the Wailana burger, with lettuce, pickle on a bun with hamburger. Very ordinary hamburger, but the curly fries are amazing –the best I’ve ever tasted.
For dessert we get the stack of ice cream cake, smothered with orange sherbert and macadamia nut ice cream, requiring me to loosen my belt a notch!
The wife is concerned when I get up to pay, saying she didn’t bring her driver license on 10% senior discount night. I tell her not to worry, as one glance and nobody would mistake us for anything but seniors!
If I could turn back time, coming back to Wailana Coffee house, I would have redid my 1984 marriage but with my current wife. My first wife gave me white hairs, making sure I didn’t need a driver license to show I was a eligible for the 10% discount!

Why Wailana, you ask? Why not?!?
Wailana is my go to for when you want to go chill out, have a yummy home style bite to eat, and want to linger over a cup of joe.
Speaking of which, they have the best cup of coffee diner style on the island. And refills are free and hot and come with a smile!
Parking is super simple here: TURN from Ala Moana onto Ena Road, and then make a quick left where it says Public Parking. There are yellow stalls reserved for Wailana, and with validation you pay $ 0.75 on the way out.
Service is always great: The ladies are sweet, helpful, and quick with coffee, water, food, etc.
Their menu is expansive, and very diner esque. My favorite thing there is the Broasted Chicken — you get 4 pieces of crunchy «better than fried» chicken. Only downside on that is takes 20 – 30 minutes to make! But worth the wait. Sub the coleslaw for the salad bar (which has coleslaw as part of it!) so you don’t starve while you wait.
I really like this place, so if you get a chance, check it out! Nice homey diner feel. :-)

Even place and restaurants that have been a land mark in Hawaii need some Unilocal love.
Wailana is one of those places which has been on the corner Kalia and Ala Moana Blvd, like forever. Well at least from 1969, amazing.
We decided to eat a early brekkie here and my first thoughts walking into here again, nothing has changed, interior, counter seating not even the waitresses. Felt like I’ve been warped back in time, super old skool!
Ordered up the Hawaiian Style Breakfast, which was Two eggs, corned beef hash (canned), grilled banana and toast and a side hash brown. Felt a little disappointed that they don’t serve rice at all. Breakfast wasn’t exciting, but something more like you would expect from a 70’s, 80’s eatery.
Open 24hrs seven days a week, which is a rarity in these times where even Like Like Drive In has cut back their hours because of the slower economy. Sorry Wailana your not going to make my rotation of brekkie places, but it’s so nice to see that your surviving in Waikiki. Overall for atmosphere, experience and food this morning 3 stars.
Parking is in the same building, entrance is on Kalia Rd.

Este café se encuentra bien ubicado sobre el boulevard Ala Moana y frente al Hilton Hawaiian Village, con una onda bien de diner con cómodos y amplios asientos tipo booth y también con lugar en la barra. Tiende a llenarse, por lo que lo ideal es ir después del rush del desayuno o el almuerzo.
Como era de esperarse, el servicio es bueno y rápido, tanto para tomar el pedido, entregarlo o rellenar tu vaso de agua cuando la mesera nota que está medio vacío. Las porciones son grandes, todo es muy completo. Lo que sí, nada es particularmente espectacular. Las meseras son muy capaces, y alguna hasta parecen muy simpáticas, pero no les dan los tiempos para más.
Las únicas dos cosas que podrían mejorarse un poquito son la atención en la caja (como quería dar la propina pagándolo junto con la cuenta, porque acababa de llegar y no tenía cambio chico, sentí que estaba molestando al pedirles que agreguen el 20% a la tarjeta) y los baños, que no es que estén en muy mal estado pero definitivamente les vendría bien ser modernizados un poco más, son bastante tristes.
Más allá de eso, Wailana es un buen diner para comer sin hacer explotar el presupuesto, especialmente en grupo, pero como mencioné antes: es crucial llegar temprano o esperar a que pase el rush.

Traditional American breakfast with a kick of hawaiis best
Ordered the paradise fruit bowl — comes with half pineapple, cut up in bite sized cubes dressed it cottage cheese and variety of fresh fruits and coconut bits!
This was heavenly… My entire family thought it was the best fruit we’ve ever had!
Other plates orders were egg dishes that came with okay pancakes and Portuguese sausage (heard this was a must here) it was good, better than your American IHOP!
Fast service, friendly workers, clean and spacious, and easy on the wallets!
:) I left happy

Staying in Waikiki for the first time for a family staycation and was trying to figure out where to eat. Where do I look for guidance? Of course my handy dandy Unilocal bible lol This place had the most reviews and looks like it’s been around a long time.
Walked in and got seated right away and greeted w/​a warm smile. Our waitress Shaunna was awesome with navigating us through the menu as it was our first time dining here. 3 of us got the delicious all you can eat pancakes w/​your choice of meat. Pancakes were nice, light, fluffy and ohhhh warm You aren’t allowed to take leftovers for that menu option but you really didn’t have to since it’s so filling.
I got the shrimp fu young omelette that was delicious. It came w/​toast and I devoured that plate like nobody’s business. My hub got the French toast combo that also disappeared real quick. Total food coma afterwards lol
Nice diner for the most part. As clean as a 24hr diner can be. Staff very friendly and food delicious. I’m glad we gave this place a try. We will be back if ever in the area. Totally lived up to the hype. 2 thumbs up and a high five yah you!!!

Wir hatten ein Hotel ganz in der Nähe und hatten mehrfach gehört, dass es im Wailana Coffee House gut sein sollte. Wir haben es auch mehrfach versucht aber insgesamt waren wir doch echt enttäuscht.
Wir hatten zunächst nach einem längeren Abend in den Waikiki Bars Hunger auf einen Burger, der aber sehr pappig war. Die Pommes waren versalzen und die Bedienung unfreundlich.
Nachdem wir fair sein wollten und ja doch fast nur positives gehört hatten, haben wir dann an einem anderen Tag noch mal das Frühstück ausprobiert. Leider mit dem gleichen Ergebnis. Das Essen war nicht gut und die Bedienung war doch eher unfreundlich. Das Preis-​/​Leistungsverhältnis war unserer Meinung nach auch nicht angemessen.
Daher mein Fazit: Nicht empfehlenswert.