Kahai Street Kitchen

Best damn fried rice on the island!This hole in the wall place in moilili across from long a drugs makes some of the best foods!I had their traditional fried rice, it has Portuguese sausage, spam, onion, rice and shoyu and Chinese 5 spice and it was sooooo good!!! I would just order a giant tray of that and eat it all week.

THE FOOD HERE IS STILL GREAT BUT I WISH THEY WOULD HAVE ONLINE ORDERING INSTEAD OF JUST PHONE ORDERING. When I called there was so much static that I could barely understand what the woman was saying. She had to answer the phone, take counter orders, take payment and hand out the order when it was ready. If you order at the counter you will have to wait a long time ... one time I waited almost a half hour. If I lived close by I would come here often but with the lack of parking and the wait I can only come here if I had a lot of time. Service was efficient but the woman appeared to be pretty frazzled with all the activity.

Gourmet food in plate lunches? You bet! Thank you, Kahai Street Kitchen!Opened in the summer of 2006 as a catering company in the industrial area of Kalihi Street off of Kahai Street, this takeout restaurant gave a taste of its menu offerings from catered events at Kualoa Ranch, HI Polo Club, and many wedding venue locations. Owners were Naohisa Iwata, who had spent his entire life in the food and beverage industry, and Chef David Yamamoto, who has 30+ years of culinary experience. In this restaurant, Nao helps to prepare meals and keeps tract of its daily operations, and David comes up with his unique creations of its menu offerings. Locally owned and operated, diners enjoyed the take of its unique and restaurant quality foods that are consistent and offered at reasonable plate lunch prices.Note that while the restaurant was named for its original location on Kahai Street, the word "Kahai" means to tell a story. So, it's no accident that the focus of this restaurant is about talking story about food and expressing itself through the chef's culinary creations. Kahai Street Kitchen moved to the corner of Coolidge and South King streets in the McCully area in 2016. The restaurant offers an extensive regular menu of: soft shell tacos; combo plates; local style fried rice; local favorites (braised boneless beef shortribs, boneless kalbi, guava bbq beef brisket, hamburger steak, steaks, teri beef, chicken); loco moco; fish; and value menu. In addition, it offers a rotating daily menu of specials, such as: prime rib, Chinese style steamed opakapaka, baked mozzarella chicken breast, pulehu bone-in pork chops, eggplant parmesan pasta, duos, patty melt smash burger, and many others. Normally, your choice of two sides accompany the plate lunches: steamed white, brown or hapa rice; steamed broccoli or carrots, sautéed corn; toss green or potato mac salad. And on Saturdays, there is a breakfast menu (meat/eggs/rice or potatoes), beef brisket hash patties, steak and eggs, fish and eggs, breakfast scramblers, omelets, eggs benedict, loco moco) that is served all day. The menus can be accessed on its website.I've had the following:* Mini hamburger steak. Just love their tender, homemade, and thick charred two freshly ground hamburger patties that were so tasty with their flavorful homemade gravy which enhanced the white rice. Also enjoyed the enoki/regular mushrooms and sautéed/crispy fried onions topping the hamburger steak, which set the bar as compared to other places. The fresh spring mix salad went well with their house made vinaigrette dressing.* Crispy baby back ribs with garlic sauce. These unique delicious ribs (three huge ones with lots of meat) on the special menu had its meat fall off the bones and fried crispy with a light batter, with its tasty garlic sauce giving the white rice a nice taste! As with the hamburger steak, enjoyed the spring mix with the vinaigrette dressing.There is always a line of people putting in their orders, which shows how popular they are. As all orders are made to order, they may take some time, but staff is efficient in preparing its orders consistently with a friendly smile. It's best to pre-order by phone to avoid waiting for your order. And despite how busy they may be, they will answer their phone to take your order (not like other restaurants who may take their phone off the hook or not even answer their calls). Appreciate the professionalism shown by its staff!Should you wish to eat there, you can dine inside the restaurant, which is air conditioned. There are also four covered picnic tables right outside the restaurant.There is a credit card surcharge, so best to pay by cash to avoid paying the fee.Hours of operation are: Mon 10:30a to 2p, Tues to Fri 10:30a to 7p, Sat 7:30a to 2p, Sun closed. Located next to First Hawaiian Bank, limited free parking of about 3 spaces behind the restaurant building; otherwise, free street parking on Coolidge St., and metered parking on So. King St. You can park at the bank when the bank is closed.This is certainly my go-to restaurant when I'm looking for an upscale meal that doesn't break the bank. Good to know that it's high on quality with delicious flavors and getting a meal of value with a good quantity. And good to know that they continue to do catering. Support local!

Yo, shoutout!!!!!!!! To KAHAI STREET KITCHEN'S by Moili'ili First Hawaiian Bank. Definitely a place to go to. My wife and I went to buy lunch there, their staff was so nice, good customer services, good communication, what got me was they always go above and beyond for their customer!!!!!!! They offer their special Garlic Baby back ribs then I ask bbq sauce instead of garlic, they said yes, CAN!!!!!!! And my wife ordered a Beef Brisket Short Ribs Loco Moco which says on the menu's DISCONTINUED but the teller told us they CAN make it. She said " It won't hurt asking if it's not there" with the Aloha way!!!! The Food was BOMB, BROKE THE MOUTH FO SURE!!!!! Definitely Going back next time!!!!!!

The food amazing and so ono, service 5 stars. If your an outdoor person then they have picnic tables outside or to the right of order window there is indoor dining as well! Today was a first for my wife and I but definitely won't be the last! Keep up the ono work!

A solid 4.5 stars. I used to live on Isenberg Street years ago, and have seen this dining spot change many, many times. Kahai Street Kitchen may be one of the best. They offer a variety of unique dishes that you certainly wouldn't expect of a corner, take out (semi hole in the wall) dining spot. The on-street parking is limited, and the tiny parking behind the bldg only has a couple of spots, so people mainly order ahead, then kinda stop in front, or next door at First Hawaiian, then run over to pick up your order. That's what I did, but today being Saturday, the FHB lot was empty. I ordered the Chimichurri steak for me and my son-in-law, and my daughter had the Hurricane chicken. They both had chimichurri on top, so the flavors were similar (other than being different proteins), and the textures were good. The chicken coating could've been a bit crispier, but it's understandable with the topping and the time to take it home. The steak was cooked to a perfect mid-rare as requested, but tasted a bit bland and underseasoned on its own, but pretty good together with the chimichurri. I'm not sure if the chef felt it would've been overly salty with more seasoning, but I think it would've benefited a bit. Still good tho.The service is fast and considerate. My order was ready in the 15 minutes it took me to drive from Manoa, park, and walk over. When paying, the cashier told me that their card system had updated overnight and reapplied a 3% fee (I guess they normally don't charge that), if paying by CC. I could avoid that by either using a debit card or pay cash, so used my debit. It was good to know in advance. I noticed they wrote little "notes" on the take out covers, which was a nice touch. The food was good as was the service, and all in all, it's a great place for gourmet food at a reasonable price.

I like to support my neighborhood business. There is a dining room. Around 4:00 pm, they are busy for dinner crowd. There is variety on regular menu and daily specials posted on their website and instagram. Starch is rice, corn, and broccoli. My favorite is boneless short ribs because meat is tender and has good flavor. I will definitely come again to try more food.

First stop from the airport on our way to the Air BnB. Parking is limited, only one person in line ahead of us. Many options to choose from and there is seating outside and inside. My kids had a cheeseburger, which they ate in its entirety (so that's always good). Brisket was tender and flavorful and so was the shrimp. I would totally get this again!

If you're craving Thanksgiving food but it's July you can order the turkey, stuffing, with cranberry sauce special on Thursdays. Hits the spot every time, super moist and delicious.

Prompt, friendly service...big portions...fresh, yummy flavors...reasonably priced. Took a chance and managed to find street parking nearby and continued good luck that there were open tables in the seating area. The menu is impressive - lots of delicious sounding choices...it was hard to choose! The staff was patient and helpful and even though it was an order window, if you tell them you're going to sit inside, they bring your food to you (promptly) and supply you with water. Even came by to check on us twice. If you're in the area and score some parking, come check these folks out!