Over the past 14 months, three of the most talked-about restaurant openings in Ewa Beach went to places that were never meant to be restaurant rows. One went to a wave lagoon, one to a country club on Fort Weaver Road, and one to a city-run golf course. Each brought in an operator with a name people outside Ewa already knew: Side Street Inn, a New York hand-roll bar with a Michelin Bib Gourmand history, and a chef-owner team that brought back full-service dining to a course that had gone without it.
Because each restaurant sits inside a recreation venue, it keeps hours that make sense for that venue. One opens at 7 a.m. Another doesn't open until 4 p.m. on most weekdays. The third closes at 8 p.m. most nights. Planning a meal around that is easy once you know which is which.
Three openings, none of them in a shopping center
- August 2025: Haliʻa by Side Street Inn opened at Wai Kai, 91-1621 Keoneula Blvd., in the space Kitchen Door used to hold. Aloha State Daily's August 5 story said it had "officially opened yesterday."
- November 2025: DOMODOMO Hawaiʻi opened to the public on Nov. 19 at 360° ʻEwa Beach Country Club, 91-050 Fort Weaver Road. It was the brand's first location in Hawaiʻi.
- May 2026: Fairway Tavern opened at ʻEwa Villages Golf Course, 91-1760 Park Row. Aloha State Daily reported it open on May 6, and the City and County of Honolulu announced it formally on June 5.
All three are still running as of early October 2026. Their own current pages list hours, menus and upcoming events, so this is not a list of announced openings that may or may not have happened.
Haliʻa brought Side Street's menu to the Wai Kai Wave
Haliʻa is the easiest of the three to fold into an afternoon that wasn't about dinner at all. Wai Kai lists surf sessions on the Wai Kai Wave daily from 12:30 to 7 p.m., with the last session at 6. The WaveBar at The LineUp runs pau hana every day from 4 to 6 p.m., with walk-in seating and reservations recommended for groups of 10 or more.
Haliʻa's current hours, as Wai Kai lists them:
- Monday: 2 to 10 p.m.
- Tuesday through Thursday: 4 to 10 p.m.
- Friday: 4 to 11 p.m.
- Saturday: 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.
- Sunday: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Reservations go through Yelp or by phone at 808-752-2288, and walk-ins are seated as space allows. Weekend daytime service is newer. The opening coverage in 2025 described evening-only hours.
The menu leans on Side Street classics. At opening, the signature fried rice was $25, or $29 for "The Works." Pan-fried pork chops were $33, and the tofu salad was $13 for a half and $20.50 for a full. Poke and kalbi were market price. Those are August 2025 prices, so expect some drift.
Haliʻa is also doing double duty right now. Wai Kai's dining page says The LookOut is open and sharing space with Haliʻa while the lagoon works through storm cleanup, with updated LookOut hours posted on the same page. Check that page before you go, since the setup inside may look different from your last visit.
Thursday is the busiest night on the Wai Kai calendar. The Mirage operates as a walk-up outdoor bar from 4 to 8 p.m. during the Thursday farmers market, with a limited menu and drinks kept on The Mirage patio. Wai Kai's event listings put a Thursday Night Market and karaoke at The LookOut on October 8, 2026.
DOMODOMO put a Manhattan hand-roll bar on Fort Weaver Road
DOMODOMO has the longest résumé of the three, and the least likely address for it. Chef Brian Kim and designer Jae Park founded the brand in 2015 as the first hand roll bar in Manhattan, according to Hawaii News Now. It later grew into a contemporary restaurant serving Japanese staples alongside Korean dishes such as hwe dupbap, a sashimi rice bowl with spicy sauce. DOMODOMO New York appeared on the Michelin Guide's Bib Gourmand list from 2017 through 2023. Before Ewa Beach, the brand's locations were in New York, New Jersey and Dallas.
The current menu gives a sense of the range. Yellowtail crudo is $26, Washu beef udon is $21, the chef's-choice sushi plate is $36 and the galbi platter is $36. At opening, the restaurant featured an omakase-style course called the DOMOKASE for $75, combining sushi, hand rolls and more.
DOMODOMO closes earlier than you might expect for a destination dinner spot. Its site lists lunch from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and dinner until 8 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, or 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. If you need a reservation, the restaurant's own site links to OpenTable, while the 360° ʻEwa Beach Country Club page links to Resy. Use whichever works, but know that two systems exist. Hawaii News Now also reported that a private dining room is available for bookings.
Fairway Tavern opens at 7 a.m. on a city golf course
Fairway Tavern came out of a different setup. ʻEwa Villages is a municipal course, and the City's Golf Division presented the opening as the return of a full-service restaurant to the golf course, with a new dining option for the surrounding community. Aloha State Daily identified chef Adam Gilbert and business partner Chris Natale as the owners.
Of the three, Fairway Tavern has the hours closest to a neighborhood diner's. Its site lists Sunday through Wednesday from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Thursday through Saturday from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. It takes online reservations, and the phone number is 808-687-3450. The evening hours have grown since May, when opening coverage described service ending at 6 p.m.
The prices are also the most everyday of the three. When it opened, sizzling sisig was $16, miso yakitori chicken was $12, six chicken wings were $14, the Tavern burger was $11 and scallop noodles were $17. Poke nachos were market price. The City describes the menu as pupus, plate lunches, local favorites and daily specials, with dine-in, takeout and catering available.
Thursday matters here too. Fairway Tavern's events page lists a Thursday Night Supper Club on October 8, 2026, and live music from Parker Hippe the next night, Friday, October 9.
Putting the three clocks together
Every one of these venues keeps a different day, which makes it simple to match a restaurant to the hour:
- Before 11 a.m.: Fairway Tavern is the only one of the three serving, starting at 7 every day.
- Weekday lunch: DOMODOMO from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., or Fairway Tavern.
- Weekend lunch: Haliʻa opens at 11 a.m. on Saturdays and Sundays, alongside the other two.
- Pau hana: WaveBar at Wai Kai, daily from 4 to 6 p.m.
- After 8 p.m. on a weeknight: Haliʻa until 10, or Fairway Tavern Thursdays until 10. DOMODOMO stops serving at 8 Sunday through Thursday.
- Late Friday or Saturday: Haliʻa until 11 p.m.
Thursday is the one night when all three venues have something on the calendar at once: the farmers market and The Mirage bar at Wai Kai, extended hours and the Supper Club at Fairway Tavern, and DOMODOMO's regular dinner service.
The shopping centers are turning over, not emptying out
Ewa Beach's strip-mall food scene is still changing too. It's just changing within the same spaces. In July 2026, Miss Kimchi Korean Barbecue opened in ʻEwa Beach Shopping Center, in the space Elim Korean Barbeque held for about 20 years, according to operations manager Joni Yoon. It is a local-style Korean plate lunch spot at 91-919 Fort Weaver Road, No. 102-A, open daily from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., with plates such as Mama's special, the kalbi plate and the seafood special.
That is the other half of the picture. In the shopping centers, one long-running Korean plate lunch counter has given way to another. The genuinely new formats, like a Bib Gourmand-pedigree hand-roll menu or a 7 a.m. tavern with a Thursday supper club, landed at the golf courses and the lagoon.
If you're coming from the Kapolei side this year
The road between Kapolei and Ewa is part of the plan for the next year. HDOT began a 24/7 full closure of Farrington Highway between the east and west ends of Old Fort Weaver Road on Monday, September 14, 2026, to rebuild the Honouliuli Stream Bridge. Traffic detours onto Old Fort Weaver Road, the closure is expected to last about a year, and the bus stop on that stretch has moved to Old Fort Weaver Road.
The closure is one piece of the $138 million Farrington Highway Widening project. That project will turn the two-lane highway into three lanes, with a center two-way turn lane, and add bike lanes and sidewalks on both sides from Kapolei to ʻEwa. HDOT now estimates completion in April 2028. That date replaces the spring 2027 estimate from when work began in May 2025. Weekly lane closures on Fort Weaver Road are posted on HDOT's Oʻahu roadwork page.
New places to eat change how a street feels to live on, and they can change how buyers and renters see it. If you own in Ewa Beach and want to know what your home is worth with Haliʻa, DOMODOMO and Fairway Tavern now nearby, or what it could rent for, HI Roots Realty can put real numbers on it. Get a Free Home Valuation.
