The meaning of “Makanai” hits home for business owner Mahina Akaka. She recalls growing up at Sushi King, which was run by her family.
“My brothers and I grew up at that restaurant, right down the street,” she says. “We were on King (Street) and University (Avenue) for more than 30 years.
“‘Makanai’ in Japanese translates to family meal, or employee meal,” she adds. “Makanai was created (with memories of) growing up at the restaurant and always looking forward to what the chef was going to cook for the day. My brothers and I all curated the menu (here) based on all the things that we would look forward to eating.”
Located on Wilder Avenue, Makanai celebrated its grand opening on Dec. 21. It’s in the former space of Sure Shot Café.
“They (Sure Shot Café) were in this space for quite a while, maybe 20 years,” Akaka says. “We demo-ed the whole place and just revamped it. We’re so excited to be in this neighborhood; it’s been great.”
The food menu features a variety of sweet and savory offerings. Egg salad sando afficionados will be thrilled to see the yuzu egg sando ($10) — featuring a soft egg, yuzu kosho and yuzu aioli between toasted Mille Fete Kopi bread — along with the potato salad sando ($10). The latter features a potato, egg, carrot, cucumber and apple mixture with white pepper and creamy mayo between Mille Fete Kopi bread.
The egg salad sando’s filling is sufficiently eggy and creamy without being mayo heavy. The subtle yuzu flavor is refreshing without being overpowering.
If you prefer sweeter dishes for breakfast, opt for the sweet toast ($14), which still features a base of Mille Fete Kopi bread, but this one is topped with cinnamon-sugar butter, cheese foam and seasonal fruit compote. In this case, it’s blueberry compote.
Other dishes include grilled cheese ($13.50) — a savory medley of mozzarella, cheddar, caramelized onions and garlic aioli between pieces of Mille Fete sourdough — avo toast ($14.50), tomato bagel ($10) and smoked ‘ahi bagel ($15). The latter is the café’s version of a lox bagel, and features a plain bagel topped with cream cheese, smoked ‘ahi, Japanese cucumber and red onions with dill.
Customers can look forward to new dishes in the upcoming year, according to Akaka.
“We wanted to be seasonal, so it’s going to change at least two to three times a year,” she says.
The pastry selection, meanwhile, changes daily. During our visit, the assortment included cinnamon rolls, ginger molasses scones, matcha-politan cookies, Portuguese sausage cheddar scones, brown butter chocolate chip cookies and blueberry scones with yuzu drizzle.
“All of our food is made to order,” Akaka says. “We usually always have two to three different types of scones, two to three different cookies and some type of cake or bar. Our cinnamon rolls are pretty consistent. They’re super yummy but we only make a handful of them a day, so we usually sell out of them pretty fast.”
The drink menu comprises various matchas and cold brews. Cold brews come with two different cream tops — salted vanilla cream or honey cream ($6.50-$7 each) — and features the café’s home brewed cold brew.
“The Makiki Love ($5) is pretty popular,” Akaka says. “It’s similar to an affogato; it’s a double shot of espresso over ice with vanilla cold foam. Our earl grey matcha is really good; we make all of our syrups in house, and all of our food is made to order.
“The coffee was kind of my addition to Makanai,” she adds.
The café is just getting started — customers can look forward to more fun events in 2026, according to Akaka.
“Events happening, pop-ups, parties and liquor in the evening,” she says. “This has been a dream of mine for the past handful of years.”
The café is open daily from 6:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Customer parking is available at Makiki Shopping Village.
CONTACT
Makanai
1249 Wilder Ave., Honolulu
Instagram: @makanaihnl
Open daily, 6:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
Customer parking available at Makiki Shopping Village
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Kelli Shiroma Braiotta can be reached at kelli@alohastatedaily.com.
