Finding the best breakfast in Kailua is one of the better ways to start a day on Oahu’s Windward side. Kailua Town sits about 12 miles from Honolulu across the Ko’olau Mountains, and it has built a reputation that goes well beyond its beaches. The town has managed to hold onto its local character despite growing popularity, and that shows up most clearly in its restaurants. Many of the breakfast spots in Kailua are locally owned, community-rooted, and genuinely good at what they do. The phrase “Keep Kailua local” is not just a bumper sticker here.
Breakfast in Kailua tends to mean something more than eggs and toast. The restaurants below serve Hawaiian-style dishes alongside locally roasted coffee, and most have the kind of relaxed island atmosphere that makes it easy to linger over a second cup. Whether you’re after a full sit-down meal before the beach or a quick bite before hitting Lanikai, there’s a Kailua breakfast restaurant on this list for every kind of morning.
What to Expect from a Hawaiian Breakfast
Before getting into the best breakfast spots in Kailua, it helps to know what a Hawaiian breakfast actually looks like. Kailua’s breakfast scene reflects the island’s multicultural history, with Native Hawaiian, Japanese, Portuguese, and American influences all showing up on the same menu. If you’re visiting from the mainland, some of these dishes will be new to you:
- Loco Moco: White rice topped with a hamburger patty, a fried egg, and brown gravy. One of the most iconic Hawaiian comfort foods and a staple at breakfast restaurants in Kailua.
- Spam Musubi: Grilled Spam on a block of rice, wrapped in nori. Hawaii’s take on Japanese onigiri and a genuinely good one. Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.
- Portuguese Sausage: Brought to Hawaii by Portuguese immigrants in the 1800s, this savory sausage is typically served alongside eggs and rice and shows up on breakfast menus across Oahu.
- Kalua Pork: Traditionally slow-cooked in an underground oven, kalua pork is most often associated with dinner but turns up at Kailua breakfast places in bowls, scrambles, and eggs Benedict variations.
- Fried Rice: In Hawaii, fried rice is a breakfast dish, not just a dinner side. Expect it to come loaded with Spam, Portuguese sausage, and egg, and don’t be surprised to see it on the menu next to pancakes and French toast.
- Acai Bowl: Not a Hawaiian tradition but fully adopted as one. Acai berry puree topped with granola, banana, and fresh fruit is one of the most popular breakfast options in Kailua.
- Poi: Made from pounded taro root, poi is a traditional Polynesian staple with a texture somewhere between yogurt and porridge. Worth trying at least once.
You’ll find most of these alongside familiar American breakfast staples at the Kailua breakfast restaurants below.
The Best Breakfast Restaurants in Kailua
Over Easy
Over Easy earns its reputation as one of the best breakfast spots in Kailua among locals and tourists alike. The menu is inventive without being gimmicky, and the kitchen executes it well. A few standout dishes:
- Kailua Eggs:Â Sunny side up eggs over a bacon cabbage broth with Portuguese sausage and rice
- Custard French Toast: Thick cut with Cinnamon Toast Crunch and an orange crème fraîche
- Kalua Pig Hash:Â Hawaiian-style shredded pork with fingerling potatoes, sunny side up eggs, and lomi tomato
The crispy egg pancakes and the vegetarian crispy eggplant sandwich are also worth knowing about if neither of those appeals to you.
Over Easy does not take reservations, but you can call ahead 30 minutes before arriving to put your name on the waitlist. It’s worth doing, because the wait can get long. Hours are 7am to 1pm on weekdays and until 1:30pm on weekends, with lunch items available after 11am. They also serve coffee, Bloody Marys, mimosas, and other brunch cocktails, which makes this one of the better Kailua brunch options if you’re after a leisurely morning.
It sits right on the route between Kailua Town and Lanikai Beach, so it’s a natural stop before or after a morning at the water.
Moke’s Bread and Breakfast
Moke’s Bread and Breakfast is the kind of place that earns a long wait. Patio seating, a laid-back atmosphere, and a menu built around local ingredients make it one of the more beloved breakfast places in Kailua, and the portions are generous enough that most people leave satisfied. Weekends can see waits of up to an hour, so a weekday visit is the smarter move if your schedule allows.
The Lilikoi pancakes are the dish Moke’s is known for, and they live up to it. Fluffy, thick, and topped with lilikoi syrup, a sweet-tart passion fruit sauce that is distinctly Hawaiian, they’re the kind of thing you order for the table to share before anything else.
Other highlights worth ordering: Auntie Harriet’s French Toast, made from a family recipe using homemade bread, the house-made corned beef hash, and the loco moco, a beef patty over rice with two eggs over easy and brown gravy.
Breakfast is served all day.
Cinnamon’s Restaurant
Cinnamon’s Restaurant is easy to miss. Tucked inside Kailua Square rather than along the main strip, it flies under the radar for a lot of visitors, which is a shame because the menu is one of the more distinctive you’ll find at any breakfast restaurant in Kailua. The kitchen leans hard into the sweet side: homemade cinnamon rolls, red velvet pancakes, guava chiffon pancakes, and Hawaiian sweet bread French toast. They also put out special dishes around the holidays that are worth checking their social media for before you visit.
If you’re not in the mood for something sweet, the kalua pork benedict is the move.
Cinnamon’s is small and only takes reservations for parties of eight or more, so arrive early. That advice goes for most breakfast places in Kailua, but it especially applies here given the size.
Morning Brew
Morning Brew has been a Kailua institution since 1995, founded by high school sweethearts Debbie and Pete, who came back to Oahu to open the cafe they always wanted. If your morning in Kailua is packed and you need something quick, healthy, and local, this is the right call. The menu covers breakfast and lunch all day with plenty of vegan and gluten-free options, and the coffee is roasted in-house. If coffee is your priority, Morning Brew also features in our full guide to the best coffee shops in Kailua.
The espresso iced blended shakes and white mocha lattes are worth ordering if you’re not sure where to start on the drinks menu.
Local tip: Bookends, Kailua’s only locally owned independent bookstore, is a few doors down. Grab a book, bring it to Morning Brew, and you have a pretty good Kailua morning sorted.
They also have a second location at SALT at Our Kaka’ako in Honolulu if you happen to be on that side of the island.
Beet Box Cafe
Beet Box Cafe is a fully vegan and vegetarian restaurant, but that label undersells it. The food is genuinely good regardless of your diet, and it draws plenty of non-vegan regulars. The menu is built around fresh daily ingredients, with smoothies, acai bowls, and wraps as the core offerings. The Rainbow Country Burrito is the dish most people come back for.
It’s also one of the more practical breakfast places in Kailua if you’re watching the clock. The wait tends to be shorter here than at the bigger breakfast spots nearby, which matters more than it sounds when Moke’s across the street can have a line out the door.
Times Coffee Shop Kailua
If you want to understand a town, go to its neighborhood diner. In Kailua, that’s Times Coffee Shop, which has been feeding the community since 1959. This is the kind of place where regulars know each other by name and the menu hasn’t chased trends. Hawaiian-style breakfast staples are the focus: fried rice, Spam, Portuguese sausage, and the kind of honest, filling food that locals have been coming back to for decades.
It’s also one of the most affordable breakfast spots in Kailua, the wait tends to be short, and the portions are large enough that sharing is genuinely recommended rather than just a suggestion. If you’ve worked your way through the more well-known breakfast restaurants in Kailua and want something that feels less like a tourist stop, this is the place.
Kailua has one of the strongest locally owned food scenes on Oahu, and breakfast is where that shows up most clearly. The restaurants on this list are the reason people come back to Kailua Town again and again, not just for the beach. Support local, arrive early, and check hours before you go since several of these spots keep limited weekday hours or close earlier than you might expect.
If coffee is a priority alongside your breakfast in Kailua, we’ve got you covered. Check out our full guide to the best coffee shops in Kailua for everything from farm-to-cup roasters to a drive-thru espresso hut that Kailua didn’t know it needed.
