Restaurants in Waimalu

The one constant in Honolulu Burger Co.’s burgers is the beef—it comes from free-range cows that feed on the grasses of Hawaii. From this base sprouts a dozen specialty burgers that pair everything from blue cheese and bacon to kim chee and teriyaki sauce. If you’re feeling creative, you can create your own burger by mixing and matching from the eatery’s selection of toppings and spreads, which includes homemade sauces and dressings and local produce whenever possible. Hefty burgers and sandwiches piled high with pastrami share menu space with rice dishes, house-made fries, milk shakes, and veggie burgers made from whole portobello mushrooms.

Dedicated to upholding traditional Indian recipes, Monsoon India's new management has designed a fresh menu of authentic fare such as coconut curries, house-made paneer, and juicy kebabs. Lentils, chickpeas, and eggplant anchor a large selection of vegetarian entrees, and chefs also simmer chicken, lamb, and shrimp in spiced curries. Traditional clay tandoor ovens remain ablaze through business hours, infusing heat into breads, meats, and snowmen that like to spend the summer as a cloud of steam. As soon as dishes are plated, servers whisk them to tables amid the melodies of traditional Indian music.

For more than 35 years, Kobe Steak House's skilled master chefs have fired succulent seafood, meat, and vegetarian fare on piping-hot teppans—tableside griddles—in front of captivated patrons. The chefs toss tasty eats, cookery tools, and diners' hats into the air in between searing combination dishes such as teriyaki chicken and shrimp or lobster and steak. Diners can also dig their chopsticks into sushi selections including fresh cuts of daily-caught Hawaiian maguro sashimi. While feasting on the savory fare, guests gaze upon the antique décor of a 300-year-old fisherman kimono, emperor dolls, and steak-sauce bottles from the Edo period.

For more than 30 years, the chefs at Lung Fung Chinese Restaurant have been bringing China’s freshest, most vibrant flavors to the stomachs of Oahu residents. General manager Eddie Ma regularly updates the menu with popular Hongkongese and Chinese dishes that he learns about during his travels to those countries. He's fully integrated these new, inventive dishes with time-honored classics to create a seamless and hearty menu of traditional chop suey dishes, savory noodle soups, and seafood-based specialties. The restaurant’s banquet menu, meanwhile, accommodates customers planning large events, such as company lunches or clown-college reunions.

With an eclectic childhood that took place amid the bustling cityscape of São Paolo, Brazil, in the steamy kitchen of their parents’ Chinese restaurant and on surfboards riding the oceans of Mexico, brothers Wing, Ed, and Mingo have tasted a panoply of flavors. Their intimate familiarity with the international cuisines of their youth has coalesced into Wahoo’s Fish Taco, a taqueria with Mexican specialties that brim with Brazilian and Asian touches. House-made sauces, such as the roasted-pepper cilantro sauce and the spicy Mr. Lee’s sauce, drizzle wahoo- and mahi-mahi-stuffed tacos and fork-ready entrees such as the Maui bowl, a customer favorite that combines teriyaki steak with beans and rice. The full bar serves margaritas infused with local limes, house-made sweet-and-sour mix, and straws handcrafted by artisan strawsmiths to anoint tongues during lunch, dinner, or the eatery's daily happy hours. To add to the global flavors, live musicians flaunt their fingerwork in the restaurant three days a week.

Fresh Cafe strives to kindle both healthy eating habits and creativity with a locally sourced menu and regular cultural performances, which help the eatery fit in nicely within the trendy industrial district of Kaka'ako. Its chefs whip up sandwiches, salads, and soups using fresh portobello mushrooms from the organic Small Kine farm, lettuce from the family-owned Otsuji farm, and vegetables from the pesticide-eschewing Ho Farms. The baristas, meanwhile, press each espresso beverage with handpicked beans from Sunbean Coffee.

Wooden tables and cushy chairs are scattered in the colorful café alongside bookshelves filled with reading materials. Bright neon signs broadcast colorful messages from the walls, none of which are threatening or syntactically unsound. A green awning stretches over a lengthy patio where vibrant murals beam down from the walls onto an abundance of chairs and tables. The café's large warehouse hosts slam poetry, live music, and art performances.