Best Restaurants for Brunch in Honolulu (2026)
Brunch · Honolulu · 6 tables ranked · Updated June 2026
There is a line outside Koko Head Cafe before the door opens, and that line is the honest measure of Honolulu brunch — the city eats its mornings out, and the best rooms are the ones worth the wait. The six below are ranked for the weekend table: the kitchen behind the eggs, the dish the room is known for, the size of the queue and how the floor turns a Saturday morning. The top three are chef-run kitchens where the cooking is the point — Lee Anne Wong's flips on diner classics, Ed Kenney's modern Hawaiian plates, Robynne Maii's James Beard kitchen at the bar. The next three are the reliable weekend rooms: a Kaka'ako ranch-to-table hall, a family cafe that wins on portions, and a Waikiki lanai that keeps the loco moco honest. The ranking weights kitchen quality, signature dish, weekend wait and how the room treats a walk-up table.
The ranking
1. Koko Head Cafe — Island brunch · Kaimuki
1120 12th Avenue, Kaimuki · Mains in the $16–$24 range · Lee Anne Wong, Top Chef alum; Cornflake French Toast
Lee Anne Wong's island-diner brunch in Kaimuki; the city's best morning kitchen. Arrive before the door opens.
Lee Anne Wong opened Koko Head Cafe on 12th Avenue in Kaimuki after a run on Top Chef and years cooking in New York, and it is the Honolulu brunch room that the rest of the list is measured against. The kitchen takes diner-classic ideas and rebuilds them with local produce and real technique — the Cornflake French Toast is the dish the room is known for, a custard-soaked slab crusted in cereal and served with frosted-flake gelato, and the breakfast congee and the dumplings run a Chinese-American line through the menu. There are no reservations and the room is small, so the line forms before the 7am open on weekends; the move is to arrive fifteen minutes early or to come on a weekday, when the same kitchen runs without the queue. The cooking is the reason this sits at number one — nowhere else in the city puts this much thought into a brunch plate.
2. Fête — Farm-to-table American · Chinatown
2 North Hotel Street, Chinatown · Brunch plates mid-double-digits · James Beard Best Chef: Northwest & Pacific (2022); Robynne Maii
Robynne Maii's James Beard kitchen does weekend brunch in Chinatown; the chef's pick. Book a table ahead.
Robynne Maii won the James Beard Best Chef: Northwest & Pacific award in 2022 for the seasonal cooking at Fête — the first chef from Hawaii to take the category — and her converted warehouse room on Hotel Street in Chinatown runs a weekend brunch that is the most serious kitchen on this list after Koko Head. The menu changes with what is growing on the island, but the brunch register leans on local eggs, house pastry and a rotating plate of farm produce, with the warm chocolate-chip cookie carried over from the dinner service. The room is comfortable and the bar takes walk-ups, but the dining room books out for weekend brunch, so reserve a table ahead. Fête is the choice when the brunch is the occasion rather than the morning errand — the cooking is restaurant-grade, not cafe-grade, and the wine list is built for a long table.
3. Mud Hen Water — Modern Hawaiian · Kaimuki
3452 Wai'alae Avenue, Kaimuki · Brunch plates $14–$26 · Ed Kenney; 'Hawaiian sense of plate'
Ed Kenney's modern-Hawaiian lanai in Kaimuki; the most local brunch on the list. Book the weekend lanai.
Ed Kenney built Mud Hen Water on Wai'alae Avenue in Kaimuki around what he calls a ‘Hawaiian sense of plate’ — native ingredients and old island techniques worked into a modern menu — and brunch is where the room is at its best. The open lanai and the low-key dining room make for the breeziest weekend table in the city, and the kitchen sends out plates that reach further than the usual brunch board: kalo and poi-leaf dishes, local fish, and a rotating set of small plates built to share across the table. Kenney is one of the chefs who defined the Kaimuki dining strip, and Mud Hen Water is the room where his point of view reads clearest in daylight. It takes reservations and seats walk-ups on the lanai; the weekend mid-morning window is the one to book, before the afternoon sun moves onto the open seats.
4. Moku Kitchen — Farm-and-ranch American · Kaka'ako
660 Ala Moana Boulevard, SALT at Our Kaka'ako · Plates $16–$30 · Peter Merriman group; upcountry farm sourcing
The big Kaka'ako hall for an island farm-and-ranch brunch; the group pick. Book it for a crowd.
Moku Kitchen anchors the SALT development on Ala Moana Boulevard in Kaka'ako — a Peter Merriman-group room built around Hawaii's upcountry farming and ranching, with a long bar, an open kitchen and enough room to seat a crowd that the small Kaimuki cafes cannot. The menu runs island farm produce and ranch beef through a wood-fired kitchen, and the brunch-into-lunch window is the one that suits a group: the rotisserie plates, the wood-fired flatbreads and the local-fish dishes feed a table that wants a real meal rather than a coffee-and-pastry stop. The room is loud and the cocktail program is genuine, which makes it the spot for a weekend group that would wait an hour on the street for Koko Head instead of sitting down. Reservations hold the larger tables; the patio takes walk-ups and the bar pours through the morning.
5. Sweet E's Cafe — American breakfast · Kapahulu
1006 Kapahulu Avenue, Kapahulu · Plates $13–$19 · Family-run since 2011; stuffed French toast
The family Kapahulu cafe that wins on portions and value; the everyday pick. Walk in early.
Sweet E's Cafe on Kapahulu Avenue has been the neighbourhood family breakfast room since 2011, and it earns its place on a city brunch list by doing the simple things at scale: big plates, fair prices and a kitchen that turns a full room without losing the eggs. The stuffed French toast — a thick cut filled with blueberry cream cheese — is the order the room is known for, and the loco moco and the omelettes are the reliable anchors for a table that wants a real breakfast rather than a chef's statement. It is not the most ambitious kitchen on this list and it does not try to be; it is the everyday brunch that locals return to, the value pick when the chef-driven rooms are an hour-long wait. There are no reservations and the small room fills fast, so the early-weekend arrival is the one that skips the line.
6. Heavenly Island Lifestyle — Local-organic American · Waikiki
342 Seaside Avenue, Waikiki · Plates $15–$24 · Local-organic sourcing; standout loco moco
The Waikiki room that keeps the loco moco honest with local-organic sourcing; the visitor pick. Walk in mid-morning.
Heavenly Island Lifestyle on Seaside Avenue is the brunch room to know inside the Waikiki resort zone, where most kitchens cook to the hotel-buffet register. It is built around local and organic island sourcing, and the difference shows on the plate: the loco moco is the standout — local beef, island egg, a gravy with real depth — and the acai bowls and the farm-egg breakfasts are made with produce the kitchen names rather than the generic resort spread. The patio seating reads like a neighbourhood cafe rather than a hotel terrace, which is the reason it sits above the Waikiki competition for a visitor who wants one good brunch within walking distance of the beach. It takes some reservations and seats walk-ups; the mid-morning window before the late-breakfast rush is the easiest table, and the kitchen holds its standard through a busy Saturday.
Avoid for brunch
Mariposa — Ala Moana. The Neiman Marcus dining room at Ala Moana was a long-running brunch institution, but it has closed and is no longer serving — it is listed here only so the old recommendation is corrected. For the popovers-and-a-view register it once held, the working alternative is a weekend table at Mud Hen Water's lanai in Kaimuki.
MW Restaurant — Kaka'ako. Wade Ueoka and Michelle Karr-Ueoka's New American room is one of the best kitchens in the city, but it now runs dinner only and no longer serves a weekend brunch, so it is the wrong booking for a morning table. Save MW for a dinner and take the brunch to Fête's Chinatown room, where the same restaurant-grade cooking runs in daylight.
The Pig and the Lady — Kaimuki. The modern-Vietnamese room reopened in Kaimuki in 2025 and is one of the best dinners in the city, but its weekend brunch service has not yet returned to the new space, so a brunch booking risks a dinner-only night. Book it for a dinner and keep the brunch table at Koko Head Cafe a block away.
Reservation strategy for a Honolulu brunch
The chef-run rooms split into bookable and walk-up. Fête takes reservations for its Chinatown brunch and the dining room fills on weekends, so book the table ahead; Mud Hen Water and Moku Kitchen both hold their larger tables on the platform, which is the move for a group of four or more. For all three, a reserved weekend table beats the street line every time.
Koko Head Cafe is the no-reservation room, and the only useful tactic is the clock. The line forms before the 7am weekend open, so arrive fifteen minutes early for a first-seating table, or come on a weekday morning when the same kitchen runs the same menu without the queue. There is no reservation to book and no shortcut past the line on a Saturday.
Sweet E's Cafe and Heavenly Island Lifestyle are the walk-ins. Both fill fast on weekend mornings and neither holds a long reservation book, so the early arrival is the one that skips the wait — a table before nine seats immediately, where the eleven o'clock window runs a queue. For a visitor staying in Waikiki, Heavenly Island is the one within walking distance; for a value family breakfast, Sweet E's in Kapahulu is the room.
Frequently asked
What is the best brunch restaurant in Honolulu?
Koko Head Cafe in Kaimuki. Lee Anne Wong's island-diner kitchen rebuilds breakfast classics with local produce and real technique, and the Cornflake French Toast is the dish the room is known for. There are no reservations, so arrive before the weekend open.
Where can I get brunch in Honolulu without a long wait?
Sweet E's Cafe in Kapahulu and Heavenly Island Lifestyle in Waikiki both seat early-weekend walk-ups fast, and Moku Kitchen in Kaka'ako holds larger tables on the platform. The chef-run rooms like Koko Head Cafe run a street line on Saturdays, so come before nine or book where you can.
Does Honolulu have a chef-driven brunch?
Yes — three of them. Lee Anne Wong runs Koko Head Cafe, Robynne Maii's James Beard kitchen at Fête serves weekend brunch in Chinatown, and Ed Kenney's Mud Hen Water cooks modern-Hawaiian plates on a Kaimuki lanai. All three reach well past the usual eggs-and-coffee register.
Is the brunch at Mariposa still open in Honolulu?
No. The Mariposa dining room at Neiman Marcus in Ala Moana has closed and is no longer serving brunch. For a similar special-occasion register, book a weekend table at Mud Hen Water's lanai in Kaimuki or Fête's dining room in Chinatown.
What is the best brunch in Waikiki?
Heavenly Island Lifestyle on Seaside Avenue. It is built around local-organic island sourcing, the loco moco is the standout, and the patio reads like a neighbourhood cafe rather than a hotel terrace — the best brunch within walking distance of the Waikiki beachfront.
Do I need a reservation for brunch in Honolulu?
For Fête's dining room and the larger tables at Mud Hen Water and Moku Kitchen, yes — book ahead on the platform. Koko Head Cafe, Sweet E's and Heavenly Island take walk-ups only, so the early-weekend arrival is the way past the line.
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Affiliate disclosure: RFK earns a commission on bookings made through partner platforms (Tock, Resy, OpenTable, SevenRooms) marked with a "Reserve" link. Sponsored listings are clearly marked with a Sponsored badge and are not eligible for editorial ranking. The six rooms on this list were ranked editorially and no booking partner influenced the order.