On a sunny day in February, Maui’s beloved Māla Ocean Tavern in Lahaina held a Hawaiian blessing. After months of caring for the restaurant staff, helping facilitate food and supplies for the community, and rebuilding infrastructure, Māla was back. It was the first time the restaurant had reopened following the devastating August 2023 fires that led to the deaths of more than 100 people and destroyed more than 2,200 buildings, including some Lahaina restaurants.
In the months since, the community has turned to restoring the historic town. Māla was one of the first Lahaina restaurants to reopen, and its location along the north end of Front Street, while damaged, was one of the few areas left standing after the fire.
There’s still a lot more to do for Lahaina and its people, but the reopenings of a few other restaurants in recent months, including Star Noodle and Honu Oceanside, are a really bright spot.
Read on to learn about the Lahaina restaurants now open along Front Street, see how you can continue to support the community, and make a booking on OpenTable.
Star Noodle & Aloha Mixed Plate
Na Hoaloha Ekolu restaurant group’s spots are synonymous with eating out in Lahaina. They opened the original Old Lahaina Luau (now Aloha Mixed Plate) in the 1980s and have since expanded to three other restaurants in the area. Locals keep coming back to Aloha Mixed Plate for its Hawaiian lunches and sister restaurant Star Noodle is widely celebrated for its take on saimin, hapa ramen, and dim sum.
But after the fires last year, the restaurants were far from the focus. More than 60 employees at the group lost their homes and many lost family members. The first few months were all about supporting those workers.
“We were just focused on taking care of our employees and that really teaches you a lot about what’s important,” says the restaurant group’s food and beverage director Nicky Boskoff Dahlberg. “It’s not about showing up for your shift anymore. It’s ‘how do I make sure I get you food and shelter and how do I help you in any way with health care?’”
In more recent months, the attention turned to reopening the restaurants to provide income for staffers. In December, the group re-opened counter-service cafe Leoda’s Kitchen and Pie Shop, followed by Aloha Mixed Plate and beachside spot Old Lahaina Luau in March. In August, Star Noodle reopened in a new location right next to the other three restaurants. Diners quickly returned for the comfort food they missed—plates of lau lau, shoyu chicken, and teriyaki rib eye.
“We still have a little piece of paradise going on here on this little strip of Front Street,” Boskoff Dahlberg says. “You can come here and see the beauty of Maui.”
Māla Ocean Tavern & Coco Deck
Locals have frequented Māla Ocean Tavern for two decades for its oceanside views and seafood menu. Buoyed by that success, the group behind it opened the casual offshoot Coco Deck in 2021 that quickly became a favorite for families.
Though Māla Ocean Tavern and Coco Deck remained structurally intact after the fire, both suffered heavy smoke damage to the interiors and were left without water, electricity, and sewage like the rest of the community around them.
Locals rallied with a GoFundMe that supported more than 200 employees before water and electricity were restored and the restaurant group could carry out all the necessary work needed to reopen. Māla’s reopening in February was followed by Coco Deck’s in September, and co-owner Javier Barberi says he’s floored by the people that have come out so far.
“When the doors open and you have a dining room of people and there’s laughter and food’s coming out and drinks are being poured and things are kind of flowing, time stops for a moment,” he says. “You’re like, ‘this thing that we had before is back again, and we didn’t lose it. It’s operating, it’s here, we’re doing it.’”
You’ll still find all the Maui-inspired surf and turf dishes at Māla Ocean Tavern like fried opakapaka and seared ahi tuna, while Coco Deck has become even more laidback. It’s not uncommon to see children running around a newly created kids zone as parents watch football games on massive screens in the dining room.
“A little piece of Lahaina is back,” Barberi says.
Honu Oceanside Restaurant
Since its opening in 2011, seafood spot Honu Oceanside has been the go-to destination to watch the sunset with a glass of wine for date night or the place to grab pizzas and beers with friends or family on weeknights.
The restaurant sat vacant for months after the fire as the National Guard assessed if it was safe for people to return. When the team was finally allowed back in this year, they began the process of restoring—cleaning and replacing kitchen equipment, redoing the floors, and modernizing the bar.
It’s only been a few weeks since Honu’s early October reopening, but general manager Pam Elkind says it’s already beginning to feel like the old days. Arnulfo Gonzalez, an alum of Lahaina Grill, now leads the kitchen and he’s brought back old favorites like ahi bruschetta while adding new dishes like osso buco. You can also look forward to a host of new cocktails, wines, and beers from Maui Brewing and Kohola Brewing (those beermakers lost their brewing facility in the fire and have since moved to the Big Island).
“It’s just so nice for people who lost so much to come back and have something that they remember before the fires,” Elkind says.
How you can keep helping Lahaina restaurants
Several restaurants in the Front Street area and beyond in Lahaina still need support. While needs vary widely between people and businesses, here are place where restaurant owners say you can chip in:
- Continue donating to local nonprofits. Organizations like the Lahaina Restoration Foundation, Habitat for Humanity Maui, and Chef Hui are supporting efforts to rebuild structures and provide meals, respectively. OpenTable is not affiliated with the Lahaina Restoration Foundation, Habitat for Humanity Maui, or Chef Hui’s Maui Relief Program.
- Buy gift cards. Even if you’re not on Maui, consider buying gift cards for friends or family to encourage people to eat out at these restaurants more.
- Follow along on social media. Follow your favorite restaurants on Instagram and Facebook to see when they might be reopening or to see what kind of additional support they need.
- Write a positive review. Let others know what it’s been like going back to your favorite restaurants.
- Stay away from sectioned-off areas. While a small section of Front Street is now open, the large part of Lahaina is still a burn zone.
Noelle Chun is a freelance journalist who writes about food, cocktails, and wine in Honolulu and San Francisco. Her writing has appeared in Eater, The Guardian, and Honolulu Civil Beat, among other publications.
