Waipahu Festival Marketplace

May 2024, Asian Vegetables here definitely cheaper than the regular grocery store but way to expensive than the mainland. I thought it would cheaper here since it's homegrown. Beside the veggies, I come here for the goto or arroz caldo. I think they have the best one in the island. It's a must stop for me whenever I visit. Parking is limited and they close at 3 pm. They also sell fish and meat.

Waipahu Festival Marketplace is like a small group of stores within a building, there are Vegetable, Seafood, clothing, and food stands in there like a Mini indoor swap meet. I browsed around looking at the different stands and especially liked the vegetable stand with quite a bit of variety. Parking can get crowded as there are a number of businesses that share the parking lot.It is a great experience to see.

Fun, crowded, expensive tasty treats, great music, loud. Go early, use Uber since parking is a mess.

This is a farmers market. Many different vendors. Lots of fresh fish. Lots of fresh vegetables. Right inside the door I got a plate lunch, one choice +2 scoop rice was about 11 bucks. I had beef with gravy and onions. That plate was heavy and the food was good. There's a good bakery there too. If one of my foodie friends comes to the island to visit, this is on my "go see this" list.

Old site of the Big Way in Waipahu. Lots of parking but an awkward driving situation. Parking lot can cause a backlog onto Waipahu Depot Road. The few times I've been here there's been food trucks in the parking lot and food trucks in the old Arakawas lot across the street. Typical marketplace consisting of fresh veggies stalls, a few meat packers, a few fish stalls and one or two stalls with clothing and household goods. One fish stall had fresh wiggling catfish!!!

Waipahu Festival Marketplace is a great place to buy veggies or fish for grocery shopping. It's your typical Filipino marketplace, you got a bunch of things ranging from the vegetables, papaya soaps, seafood, Asian snacks, and even food to eat like spaghetti. I would always come here with my mom when she would grocery shop and i would get myself a thai iced coffee. It is soooooooo goooood. It used to cost $3 but they raised the price to $4, so it's gotten quite expensive for the size it comes with and they do pack your drink with ice all the way to the top of your cup which sucks because i can finish the drink within like 3 minutes of just casually sipping it. Maybe next time i'll ask for less ice if they allow it.

We got here late in the day almost closing time. There were still some fresh produce and fish available lots of them. My parents like coming here whenever we're in Oahu to by veggies that they hardly see back home and the fresh fish. The Market itself is pretty clean and they also sell already made food. From Ilocano empanadas to some baked goods. Prices are pretty decent too for the amount of veggies we got. We hardly saw any fruits though other than bananas and dragon fruit. Maybe because we got there too late.

If you want the best laing in Hawaii, this is the place for you. This place was recommended by a nurse at Tripler who told me this probably is the best spot any thing Filipino. She told me about their yummy pastries like ube and pork hopias, and turon. I told her, "let me be the judge". And so after my encounter with the nurse, leaving Tripler at lunch time, I was headed West excited to get to try this place. There's huge parking, however, because this place is very popular to all Filipinos except me (at the time), parking was crazy busy. I had to circle twice and had to wait for empty space. I walked in and this place is like indoor market, multiple vendors with produce, meats, fish etc. There's a food stand in the middle where they sell the infamous Aros Caldo. Up front, there's another stand it's called Pampanga Kitchen. This is where I went on my first visit. Their combo comes with white rice. I highly recommend trying their Laing and their Igado, perfect combination. Shoutout to the lady who was selling the Hopia. She was very persistent in a good way. She gave me discount and free bag of hopia. I will come back for more Laing and Igado.

Still busy with lots of vendors and still deal to get produce and hot meals. Now they have a chain to make a line if it gets too crowded inside but still very crowded. A hand sanitizer is right outside the entry door. A guard also watches the entry/exit. One way in and one way out. Parking is stiff but flowing since people go in and out quickly. 2 different atms are also available since most pay by cash. Masks required.

Me as a Juan; "OMG, this is it!" A market that close like Carbon/Tabo-an (local market we have in Cebu City). A Filipino farmer's market version here in the island. Good find, and a varieties to choose from. Fresh produce you can choose from. Indeed I feel more at home in this place. They also offer fresh meat and seafood, including poultry but a bit pricey though. You can also found Filipino merchandise & beauty products! Took me almost 30mins. to roam around this indoor market & just simply love the vibes. I don't care the fishy smell or other smell present on that area, I just enjoyed juandering & that's far more significant!Bought sayote leves & daludal for the 1st time despite having no idea how to cook or prepare them (mahalo big time for today's tech, easy to find recipes)! Also bought Veggies for pinakbet & kalamansi to stack for some juices & for my bihon. Comes with $40 & for me it's a bit pricey compare to Dillingham Chinatown market. I can do this once in a blue moon though, so doesn't matter. Parking is horrendous, good thing we found free street parking coz it's weekend baby. Cha-ching!Also, I noticed that this place kind'a don't care the environment. I mean, using plastic is intense. Consumers rolling here & there, including my husband! Coz of that, before we leave the place, I took off those purchases from plastics and end up using three plastics, still too much for me but I just wanna make sure that the leafy ones look fresh when we get home and not rolled by heavy ones. Just tossed other produce on the eco-bag that we have for groceries. Obviously my husband & I had a good time! Will def coming back soon! Mahalo & HAPPY JUANDERING fellow yelpers!www.juanderbandit.worldIG: hello.juanderpinay