Toll Free: 1-800-256-4280 Maui Office: 213-784-6143 Open Every Day Call us now for your complimentary Travel Consultation, best pricing, availability and up-to-the-minute price values. Call FREE from these cities: Click for # London - Tokyo - Mexico City - Australia - Canada Request your Hawaii Vacation (click here) (VIP Request) Click here for Client Testimonials & Resort Recommendations

Hotel Molokai
On the ocean, with a view of Lanai, torches flickering under palm trees, and tiny fairy lights lining the room and the neighboring pool area, the Hotel Molokai's dining room evokes the romance of a South Seas fantasy. It's a casual room, and since its 1999 reopening, provides the only nightlife in Kaunakakai (see "Molokai After Dark") and the most pleasing ambience on the island. Lunch choices consist of the basics; most promising are salads (Big Island organic greens) and sandwiches, from roast beef to grilled mahimahi. As the sun sets and the torches are lit for dinner, the menu turns to heavier meats, ribs, fish, and pasta. Try the fresh catch, Korean kalbi ribs, barbecued pork ribs, New York steak, coconut shrimp, or garlic chicken. Temper your expectations of culinary excellence, and you're sure to enjoy a pleasing dinner in an atmosphere that's unequaled on the island.

Kamoi Snack-N-Go
The Kamoi specialty: sweets and icy treats. Ice cream made by Dave's on Oahu comes in flavors such as green tea, lychee sherbet, ube (a brilliant purple color, made from Okinawan sweet potato), haupia, mango, and many other tropical -- and traditional -- flavors. Young and old alike line up for the cones, shakes, sundaes, and popular Icee floats served at this tiny snack shop. If the ice cream doesn't tempt you, maybe something in the aisles full of candies will. It's takeout only, no tables.

Kanemitsu's Bakery & Restaurant
Morning, noon, and night, this local legend fills the Kaunakakai air with the sweet smells of baking. Taro lavosh is the hot seller, joining Molokai bread -- developed in 1935 in a cast-iron, kiawe-fired oven -- as a Kanemitsu signature. Flavors range from apricot-pineapple to mango (in season), but the classics remain the regular white, wheat, cheese, sweet, and onion-cheese breads. For those who like their bread warm, the bread mixes offer a way to take Molokai home. In the adjoining coffee shop/deli, all sandwiches come on their own freshly baked buns and breads. The hamburgers, egg-salad sandwiches, mahi burgers, and honey-dipped fried chicken are popular and cheap.

Kanemitsu's has a life after dark, too. Whenever anyone on Molokai mentions "hot bread," he's talking about the nightly hot-bread run at Kanemitsu's, the surreal late-night ritual for die-hard bread lovers. Those in the know line up at the bakery's back door beginning at 10:30pm, when the bread is whisked hot out of the oven and into waiting hands. You can order your fresh bread with butter, jelly, cinnamon, or cream cheese, and the bakers will cut the hot loaves down the middle and slather on the works so it melts in the bread. The cream cheese and jelly bread makes a fine substitute for dessert.

Kualapuu Cook House
An old wagon in front of a former plantation house marks this down-home eatery, now takeout only. Local residents flock here, not only for the family atmosphere, but for the oversize servings. Breakfasts feature giant omelets, homemade corned beef hash, and, for those who dare, The Works -- buttermilk pancakes, eggs, and home fries (you'll either be fueled for the day or ready to take a nap). Lunch can either be a burger or sandwich or one of their humongous plate lunches of pork katsu or chicken, served up with rice, of course.

Maunaloa Dining Room
Molokai has never had anything resembling fine dining, but this restaurant changes the picture. It's in the island's first upscale hotel, The Lodge at Molokai Ranch, a 22-room lodge fashioned after a ranch owner's private home in the cool hills of Maunaloa, where you can see Oahu past the rolling ranchlands and the ocean. Fresh Molokai ingredients come in cross-cultural preparations. Breakfast features banana-stuffed Molokai sweetbread French toast or eggs with taro hash. The dinner menu includes entrees such as fresh fish prepared with ling hing mui chutney; Hawaiian snapper with tropical-fruit salsa and ginger lime butter; grilled Korean kal bi ribs with kim chee; New York steak with garlic butter; even vegetarian dishes like fried tofu in peanut oil with sweet chili sauce. Sunday night is Wok's Cooking with an all-you-can-eat buffet featuring a wok station with stir-fried vegetables, chicken, shrimp, and beef. The room's rustic, lodgelike ambience fits the paniolo (cowboy/Western) surroundings, and Hawaiian proverbs stenciled on the walls are a nice cultural touch.

Molokai Drive-Inn
It is a greasy spoon, but it's one of the rare drive-up places with fresh akule (mackerel) and ahi (when available), plus fried saimin, at budget-friendly prices. The honey-dipped fried chicken is a favorite among residents, who also come here for the floats, shakes, and other artery-clogging choices. But don't expect much in terms of ambience: This is a fast-food takeout counter that smells like fried food -- and it doesn't pretend to be otherwise.

Molokai Pizza Cafe
This gathering place serves excellent pizzas and sandwiches that have made it a Kaunakakai staple as well as one of our favorite eateries on the island. The best-selling pies are the Molokai (pepperoni and cheese), the Big Island (pepperoni, ham, mushroom, Italian sausage, bacon, and vegetables), and the Molokini (plain cheese slices). Pasta, sandwiches, and specials round out the menu. Our personal fave is the vegetarian Maui pizza, but others tout the fresh-baked submarine and pocket sandwiches and the gyro pocket with spinach pie. Sunday is prime-rib day, Wednesday is Mexican, and Hawaiian plates are sold on Thursday. Coin-operated cars and a toy airplane follow the children's theme, but adults should feel equally at home with the very popular barbecued-baby-back-rib plate and the fresh-fish dinners. Children's art and letters in the tiled dining room add an entertaining and charming touch. Free delivery to Hotel Molokai is a welcome development.

Neighborhood Store 'N Counter
The Neighborhood Store is nothing fancy, and that's what we love about it. This store/lunch counter appears like a mirage near mile marker 16 in the Pukoo area en route to the East End. Picnic tables under a royal poinciana tree are a wonderful sight, and the food does not disappoint. The place serves omelets, Portuguese sausage, and other breakfast specials (brunch is very popular), then segues into sandwiches, salads, mahimahi plates, and varied over-the-counter lunch offerings. Favorites include the mahimahi plate lunch, the chicken katsu, and the Mexican plate, each one with a tried-and-true home-cooked flavor. There are daily specials, ethnic dishes, and some vegetarian options, as well as burgers (including a killer veggie burger), saimin, and legendary desserts. Made-on-Maui Roselani ice cream is a featured attraction, and customers rave over the Portuguese doughnut dessert, a deep-fried doughnut filled with ice cream. A Molokai treasure, the Neighborhood Store is also the only grocery store on the East End.

Outpost Natural Foods
The healthiest and freshest food on the island is served at the lunch counter of this health-food store, around the corner from the main drag on the ocean side of Kaunakakai town. The tiny store abounds in Molokai papayas, bananas, herbs, potatoes, watermelon, and other local produce, complementing its selection of vitamins, cosmetics, and health aids, as well as bulk and shelf items. But the real star is the closet-size lunch counter. The salads, burritos, tempeh sandwiches, vegetarian potpie, tofu-spinach lasagna, and mock chicken, turkey, and meatloaf (made from oats, sprouts, seeds, and seasonings) are testament to the fact that vegetarian food need not be boring. A must for health-conscious diners and shoppers.

Sundown Deli
From "gourmet saimin" to spinach pie, Sundown's offerings are home-cooked and healthful, with daily specials that include vegetarian quiche, vegetarian lasagna, and club sandwiches. The sandwiches (like smoked turkey and chicken salad) and several salads (Caesar, Oriental, stuffed tomato) are served daily, with a soup that changes by the day (clam chowder, Portuguese bean, cream of broccoli). Vitamins, T-shirts, and snacks are sold in this tiny cafe, but most of the business is takeout.

Purdy's Macadamia Nut Farm
This 70-year old, all natural, macadamia nut farm sits on 5-acres of Hawaiian homestead land. Owners, Tuddie & Kammy Purdy will personally give you a tour and tell you everything you need to know about macadamia nuts. They are happy to demonstrate how to crack the nuts, tasting of the macadamia nuts and macadamia nut honey. Tours are available weekdays, weekends on request by appointment.

Molokai Coffee Plantation
At the request of King Kamehameha V back in 1865, coffee was brought back to Molokai for personal consumption of his own "royal" coffee. His grove still grows wild today just steps away from this 500-acre plantation. This exceptional microclimate of unlimited sunshine, unique volcanic soil, isolated climatic conditions and misty rainfall in Kualapu‘u are ideal for coffee growing.