Aloha, Honolulu Highlights ʻohana!
Most people only know East Honolulu as the drive to Hanauma Bay. That is exactly why it stayed itself.
Behind the marina and up the ridges, there is a fishpond under the boats, a dairy in a place name, and a valley where Hawaiʻi's first carbon-14 date came out of a cave. Here are twenty things worth knowing out east.
Eat Like You Live Here
Moena Café, Koko Marina Center. I have had breakfast here, and it was excellent. Order the mochi pancakes. It serves breakfast and lunch only, 7:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., with no reservations, so go early on weekends.
Koa Pancake House, Hawaiʻi Kai Towne Center. Another breakfast spot I have tried, and a good place for a quick one before the beach. Walk-in only, and it opens early. The local order is the Koa Moco. Walk-in only, and it opens early. The local order is the Koa Moco.
HanaPaʻa Market, Koko Marina Center. Poke by the pound or in a bowl, pickup only. Get the spicy ahi poke sandwich. It closes at 5:45 p.m. Monday through Thursday, so this is a lunch stop, not a dinner plan.
Kokonuts Shave Ice & Snacks, Koko Marina Center. Shave ice, açaí bowls, and crepes, 10:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. daily. Carry it out to the water side of the center and eat it looking at the boats.
Kona Brewing, Koko Marina Center. The open-air room sits right on the marina. Fish tacos and poke nachos, 11:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. daily. Book ahead on weekends.
Roy's Hawaiʻi Kai. This is the original Roy's, open since December 1988, and dinner here is memorable. The food is excellent, and it is a great place to commemorate a special occasion. Book ahead, and save room for the melting hot chocolate soufflé. Happy hour is 4:30 to 5:30 p.m., Monday through Thursday.
BBQ Town Drive Inn, ʻĀina Haina Shopping Center. Plate lunch the way it used to be: teri beef, short ribs, garlic shrimp, and mixed plates big enough to split. Monday through Saturday, closed Sunday.
Hangang Korean Grill House, Niu Valley Shopping Center. The Ala Moana Korean barbecue spot opened a second room here in March 2025, next to Gyotaku. Go for the prime beef nine-course dinner, and do not skip the steamed egg. Lunch and dinner daily, and book ahead, because the tables fill.
The History Under Your Feet
The marina was a fishpond. Pukui gives its old name as Kuapā, which means fishpond wall. It was partly filled in to build the Hawaiʻi Kai subdivision, and what was left became the marina.
Maunalua means two mountains. Koko Head and Koko Crater. The crater's old name is Kohelepelepe. And Koko was first the name of a small canoe landing on the Waiʻalae side of Koko Head.
ʻĀina Haina means Hind's land. Robert Hind started the Hind-Clarke Dairy here in 1924. The houses, the shopping center, and the school came mostly after World War II.
The street name: Portlock Road. It is named for Captain Nathaniel Portlock, who commanded the British ships King George and Queen Charlotte. They anchored off Oʻahu on May 31, 1786, and he sent his men up Kuliʻouʻou Valley to find water. The surf break off the point is named after the road.
Kuliʻouʻou means sounding knee. It refers to the pūniu, a small drum tied to the knee. Pukui records that carbon taken from a cave here in 1950 gave Hawaiʻi its first carbon-14 date: A.D. 1000, give or take 180 years.
The Koko Crater stairs are a railway. The Army built the tramway in 1942 and 1943 to haul supplies to a radar station at the summit. The roughly 1,048 steps you climb are the old railroad ties.
Culture, Shops & the Local Move
Maunalua Fishpond Heritage Center. They care for Kānewai Spring in Kuliʻouʻou and Kalauhaʻihaʻi in Niu, two of the old water sources still running under the subdivisions. To volunteer, go through the center itself, which keeps the current workdays.
China Walls, Portlock. The flat lava ledge where locals watch the sunset. Take Poʻipū Drive to Hanapēpē Loop and walk out through the small park on Hanapēpē Place. When the south swell is up, waves wash right over the low ledge, so watch from higher up.
Spitting Cave, Portlock. Just around the point from China Walls, a sea cave that fires spray back out when the surf is up. Stay well back from the edge.
Koko Crater Botanical Garden. A free city garden inside the crater, with dryland plants across 60 of its 200 acres. The loop is about two miles on a rocky dirt road, open sunrise to sunset. There is no drinking water, so bring your own.
Kuliʻouʻou Ridge Trail. Switchbacks under ironwood and Norfolk pine to a summit that looks down on Waimānalo. It is the local answer to the Koko Crater crowd. Start early, before the ridge heats up.
Paikō Lagoon Wildlife Sanctuary, Kuliʻouʻou. A state bird sanctuary, not a beach, and marked trails only. Bring binoculars for the ʻaeʻo, the Hawaiian stilt, plus kōlea and ʻūlili working the flats.
The Honest Part
There is one road in and out. When Kalanianaʻole Highway backs up, all of East Honolulu waits with it. Plan around rush hour.
China Walls and Spitting Cave sit at the end of residential streets, and parking is tight. Go early, park legally, and keep it quiet. These are people's front yards.
Doors close out here too. The movie theater at Koko Marina Center showed its last film on July 30, 2023. If you have a favorite, call before you drive.
What Did I Miss?
What did I miss? Reply and tell me.
Stay local, and find the neighborhood worth calling home.
Aloha, Tehane
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