Moani Island Bistro and Bar

Waiter was always in a constant rush to go hang out with his friends at the end of the bar.
Hamburger steak, easy over ended up being rubbah slippah, over well, with extra, extra salt.
With that being said, the pork chops and kalbi were ok.

This place is amazing. It never disappoints. Food is great, service is fantastic.

If you're looking for a lively dining experience with some great live music, Moani Island Bistro in Kapolei is the place to be! We arrived to find a bustling atmosphere with a party vibe, which made our 15-minute wait feel like part of the excitement.

We ordered the steak with chimichurri, and while I usually prefer my steak medium rare, this one came out a bit more cooked than I anticipated. I think the sizzling plate contributed to that, as it continued to cook the steak after it was served. However, the flavors were still delicious, and the chimichurri added a nice fresh kick.

I also ordered the bao bao, which I absolutely loved! It was a delightful treat that complemented our meal perfectly. The loco moco was decent, but it didn't quite stand out compared to the other dishes we tried.

Overall, Moani Island Bistro offers a vibrant atmosphere and good food, making it a fun spot to enjoy dinner while soaking in some live music. I'd definitely recommend checking it out if you're in the area!

Aloha! This is a very impressive little restaurant. The food is phenomenally good. I've been here several times and have had nearly a third of their menu items, a few more than once.

The staff is exceptionally friendly, outgoing, accommodating and efficient. There's live entertainment nightly playing the kind of music you'd expect to hear on Oahu.

If you're staying at the Hampton Inn, just 150 ft door to door, consider yourself lucky. I'd like to personally thank Anna and Kolton for making my visits fun, enjoyable, putting a smile on my face and taking care of every need. Mahalo, A hui hou. -Steve

Bao burgers were the best! We will be back!!

Kolten was the highlight of my first experience here in Hawaii! First bar I hit here right next to my hotel and he was clearly knowledgeable about spirits and cares about his craft. Extremely friendly and personable, he was able to execute drinks on the spot with preferences I had and allowed me to trust him in his choices for my drinks based off of his taste analyzations of me as a patron. I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation and his suggestions of places to go on the island for what I was looking for. Definitely went above and beyond and if I’m ever back in town on the island I will be coming to see Kolten here at Moani!

Btw the music was awesome! Live R&B renditions! 🤩

Really great local spot. Good happy hour specials, delicious food, great variety. Friendly service, clean restaurant.

Good island restaurant. Food was up to standard. Nice fun island vibe. Clean restaurant.

Went Sunday around 4 pm last week. Despite NFL playoff games, was fairly empty but crowd slowly streamed in over the next couple of hours. No Happy Hours on weekends so all the pupus and drinks, in my opinion, are overpriced (automatic 18 percent tip charge because our party had 6, and they add lines for extra charges on top of that) for the portion sizes they give. Frankly, there's nothing about this place that I would consider worthwhile for a return trip. Heck, all the golf courses around this area offer better food and drinks at a better price.

Food was good (if a bit salty but it is spam based so I understand). Friendly service and order was quick to come out. 4 stars due to the long time anyone came to take our order and for me to get the check at the end.

We came here last year with some friends and really enjoyed it. So we came back with some different friends last week to show them. First the service was really good. The atmosphere was fine. The reason for a 3 star review is the value. We got the spicy poke nachos. About 6 chips and 4 tbs of poke for $24. It was good, but not a good value. We've had more and better for less in other places in town. Second, we had the kalbi beef. Again, it was good, but it was $36 and comes with a small side of Kimchi. I am used to wine mark up in restaurants, of course, but they charged $46 a bottle for wine i buy at Costco for $8. So that's really my only complaint. It's over priced for what you receive.

I would give zero or negative stars if I could. Where to start? This restaurant failed us for Sunday brunch on just about every account! Starting with how long we waited to even be greeted by our waiter. Then drinks arrived and my diet soda was completely flat. We ordered French toast, crabcake Benedict, and a side of two eggs scrambled. French toast was cold and dry, and it was served with what the menu said is maple syrup, but it wasn’t. It was just maple-flavored syrup, big difference! The butter was these tiny plastic tubs of country crock!
The fruit that came on the side of the French toast was not good. I got one decent blueberry and the rest of it was junk. I don’t know what is put in the scrambled eggs, but I’ve never seen eggs that color or texture and there was this sweet flavor to it and no salt and pepper on the table and I couldn’t get my waiter’s attention to get us some so I tried to eat it, but I gave up because I didn’t even know what I was eating. When my friends Benedict showed up, there was a sunny side up egg on it instead of a poached egg so she had to send it back to get the egg fixed. The potatoes that came with it were literally raw in spots, all of them! To top it off, the crab is canned crab and it’s just salty and gross. All she could eat was the asparagus and a few bites of the lettuce that came on the side. (See photos of what we left on our plates.) Needless to say we were both still very hungry when we left so we had to go get some food straight away. We started out with getting protein drinks at Infinitea (so yummy) and we walked to Foodland Farms to get bentos and fruit plates. I can’t even give a star for the atmosphere because it was so noisy with plenty large screen TVs playing football. If you’re looking for a nice place for brunch on a Sunday, this is not the place! I wanted to get the manager because I didn’t want to pay for food that I didn’t eat, but my friend was too shy about it. Granted after my friend pointed out the raw potatoes, her drink charge was removed. Still yet, we each paid nearly $30 for nothing. So very disappointing to say the least.
Ps. See Yelp review for photos as I don’t see where to attach here.

Atmosphere: 1

Food: 1

Service: 1

Food was amazing! We loved the edamame so much that we got another order. Spicy garlic shrimp was delicious along asparagus. Can’t wait to be back next time we’re on the island.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Fantastic food with an amazing atmosphere. Great local music when we visited.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 5

Service: 4

Recommended dishes: Kanaka Kalbi, Moani Special Fried Rice

Great place for friends and colleagues to hang out at

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 4

Service: 5