Dining Room at Laniakea YWCA

Dining at the Y?!! What?!! But seriously, yeah, it’s good here. Do downtown, do lunch here!

Just finished the ahi fried rice. I bought it as takeout and ate it at my desk a few blocks away. It was just as good as others have said. The serving size may be smaller than average (my husband would want to stop at the hot dog stand after this), but seared ahi melted in my mouth and the fried rice was out of this world. I say, it is worth the higher price when each bite is perfection.

I first found out about this place nearly four years ago, when one of my former bosses took me there for lunch on my last day. On the way to the restaurant, she raved about the scrumptious ahi fried rice that was worth the $ 13 price tag. Although I couldn’t seeing myself paying that much money for something that I could easily make for myself in my own kitchen, I decided to try it anyway and was not disappointed at all!
However, before I was able to make a return trip several months later, I found out that the restaurant itself closed for renovations and would not reopen for several years. I was heartbroken — the ahi fried rice was the best one that I had ever tasted.
Fast forward to a month ago, I made a return visit when I was finally told by a co-​worker the the restaurant was open again for business. I was ecstatic! And, as I had hoped, the ahi fried rice did not disappoint! Although the price is rather steep for fried rice, the price is definitely worth it. However, I wish that the ahi was already mixed in with the fried rice like it used to be – the fried rice and ahi were served separately from each other from I ordered it – and that the portions were larger. The dish itself is very tasty and does not have an overpowering fish taste as one may expect — the combination of the two is simply divine. Unfortunately, my review is only limited to that dish, because it was the only one that I order every time that I go there.
The restaurant is located behind the Central Pacific Bank building and can be found by walking down the access road between the Jamba Juice and Starbucks on Alakea Street — the restaurant is located inside of the YMCA, but can be accessed from the side courtyard. Parking can certainly be a problem, and I unfortunately don’t know if the YWCA provides validated parking for patrons. But, if you’re a downtown worker looking for an ideal place for a business lunch or someone who is meandering in the downtown area and looking for an intimate lunch with friends or family, this is definitely a nice place to go! What’s more, proceeds from your purchase goes to benefit the YMCA’s endeavors, so you’re not only indulging you’re taste buds, but also paying it forward as well!

Great place to go to for lunch, especially if you’re looking to celebrate a special occasion with coworkers, or looking to talk business with a client.
Located inside the YWCA, Café Laniakea is one of those places you probably find out from either Unilocal,your friends who have been there before, or if you are or know someone who’s a YWCA member.
While the dining room is actually outdoors, there’s a really good breeze in there, and the natural sunlight really makes the place bright and airy. The tables are spaced far apart enough where you can hold great conversations with friends.
They have a variety of specials, and all of the food is pretty good. One of the server ladies really makes you feel at home.

For the quality of food, level of service, atmosphere and price, this is as good as it gets. And it exists at the YWCA in downtown Honolulu. In fact, I would prefer to dine at the Dining Room at Laniakea YWCA than at Downtown @ the HiSAM. I’ve eaten here at least three times in the past year and I have not been disappointed.
The atmosphere is open and relaxed with a simple elegance in its décor. The service is always friendly and they have good suggestions regarding the menu. The menu has soups, sandwiches, quiche, and entrees. With the sandwiches, among other choices, you can choose from garlic fries or sweet potato fries. A very hard decision. I would just think about where you may be going after lunch before you make your choice. And save room for dessert. Cheesecake lollipops!!! My friend and I shared three good sized cheesecake lollipops: raspberry chocolate, blueberry caramel, and blueberry cabernet. All were very delicious and all were made in house. The caramel sauce was the best caramel I’ve had in my life and I don’t go for caramel.
So, if you are looking for something deliciously different in downtown Honolulu for lunch, try the Dining Room at Laniakea YWCA.
Just try it.

I work at the yMca (had to point that M out: M, M, M, M) and boy am I jealous! We have food at several of our branches and they are all pretty good, but Laniakea is just so fancy! Comparatively, I mean.
It’s not fine dining, but it’s a fresh, local menu in a beautiful venue and very casual. The food is pretty good, but the value is very solid: quick, friendly service, nice portions, fresh food in a convenient location.
It’s nice to have a sit –down lunch in a casual environment that doesn’t make you worry about whether you’re getting back to the office in time.

This was actually better than I expected. The dining room is pretty bare bones but at least it has lots of natural sunlight filtering in! I had the grilled vegie panini (half), soup, and salad for $ 10. I forget what the soup was. For a good $ 10 sit down meal (without tip), I think it’s a nice lunch. Nothing is bad here, but nothing is really great here.

OMG, I had their crab cakes with spinach salad ($ 12) today. Love it! The crab cakes were huge and were super tasty. The salad goes well with the vinaigrette dressing. My friend had the salmon dynamite with watercress ($ 15), the salmon was cooked just right, not too dry, and the watercress salad was mixed with unagi sauce. Yum! The service was always good.

I’m really torn with this review. I love this building and I love having lunch here. The food is consistently ‘ok’ — nothing exciting but not bad either. The setting is nice a quiet and it really is a perfect spot for a business lunch or a mentoring discussion, etc.
But over the past six months the service has been really poor. Not inattentive, but there are only two servers for the whole room and they are TOO busy. On the last three occasions it has taken FAR too long to get our check after our meal. Again, on one hand it’s great that they don’t rush you out, but on the other most of us DO have to get back to the office eventually!
I’m hoping they solve this problem, because it’s almost a 4-​star lunch spot.

I know, I know, you’re asking yourself «Where the heck is the YWCA? You can eat there?» Yes my yeeps, hidden amongst the office buildings and courthouses in downtown Honolulu lies the dining room at the YWCA. If you don’t know where the YWCA is, it’s right across from Iolani Palace on Richards Street.
Alaskan Singer/​Songwriter Marian Call was in town on tour and my friend Ryan O organized a meet-​up of local female songwriters for lunch. It was my first time inside the Laniakea YWCA and I was pleasantly surprised by the airy sunlit dining room. I ordered up a big cheeseburger and was so full by the end of lunch that I contemplated taking a cat nap on the veranda. If you’re on a time limit for lunch be warned that It took awhile for our food to come out because I guess there was another large group ahead of us. The restaurant made up for it by comping a giant canoe of dessert. No really, it was a freakin’ canoe and I could have jumped aboard for a ride in the YWCA pool. The desserts were wonderful and I highly recommend sharing a canoe if you have the chance.
Although the lunch fare is as other reviewers have written, unremarkable, it’s an affordable choice ($ 8 – 12 before tip) for a nice downtown lunch with co-​workers or girlfriends. YWCA has no parking of its own, but cheap parking at Ali’i Place is right around the corner.

Great hidden place in town for lunch. Only open from 11 to 2, this place serves a limited menu but worth the wait.
If you are there to for a meeting with client, you wont notice the amount of time you wait to order or get your food. Ill be honest, its a little slow the serve but most people I noticed where there for lunch meetings so you can cover everthing that you need to cover with a client.
The building is the historic YWCA located on Richards street. Recently renovated back to its original condition, you get the outdoor court feeling while you dine.
One of my favorie is there special… the Kalbi Steak. The moistness of the steak and the flavoring, made it worth the wait. The serving portions are large so if you think you can have soup, salad and a entrée, you might be mistaken.

I remember growing up as a little girl and passing by the beautiful designed YWCA at Laniakea. My grandmother used to go there and my Mom used to go there and swim. I always thought it was just a place to work out and hang out after school. Many many years later, I had the pleasure of participating in a lunch club group and got to try the cuisine in their dining room. I’ve been there twice and love it! I really like their quiche with salad. Its a nice portion, healthy, and tasty. The dining room is also lovely to sit in and a good place to meet. On the two occasions that I’ve been to the dining room, I have found the hostess (sorry– forgot her name) to be so friendly and nice, and actually smiles at you while speaking. If I worked in the downtown Honolulu area, I’d go there quite a bit. Nice, quiet, good food, and a mellow atmosphere.

Laniakea is a great spot in downtown to take clients for a business lunch, your girlfriends for a catch-​up lunch, or your boyfriend on a lunch date. they recently renovated the place, and the building is just gorgeous– the dining room is airy (open window) and i love the light fixtures. the service is professional and courteous, and the food is very good. everything that i have order is delicious. I like the ahi fried rice, burger, and ahi club. my favorite is the opakapaka– hong kong style. the homemade bread is soooooo yummy! pros– convenient to downtown, reasonably priced, service. cons– hard to park if you dont work downtown.

Nice downtown lunch spot.
Outdoor feeling (covered but open air windows) with a nice fresh tasting menu. Best part is that I think that some of the proceeds go to actually help the YWCA.
My huli chicken came out kind of undercooked – it was still translucent. I asked them and they apologized and happily took it back to grill it more. No issues. So yeah it came out a little raw, but they were really nice about it.
I think it was about $ 12. So not cheap but not too bad. Nice casual lunch spot with a nice breeze at the same time.

Nice atmosphere — laid back and covered from the elements yet the open windows give it a slightly open air feeling.
The waitress was pretty attentive but mistakenly brought out soup for one member of my party, then got the check wrong and overcharged us by $ 2. I think she was a bit overworked though — she seemed like the only server there at the time.
My grilled vegetable panini was pretty good. It could have been a little heavier on the grilled vegetables. The pesto was good. My side of fresh fruits was good, but the melons could have been riper.
Overall a nice restaurant to go to, but with HISAM being so close and so similar, one might do better at HISAM.

This building is on my top five list of beautiful buildings in Hawai‘i…I first visited this place for lunch three years ago when I was volunteering at Legal Aid. We came here for lunch and my first thought was… I want to have my wedding reception here! It has that old Victorian feel. On a historical note, it was designed by a woman Architect. (I’m a bit of a history buff)
You walk in from the front and through the courtyard, the pool is on your right and there are cute tables outside where you can sit down. The inside of the dining room is beautiful! I always forget I’m in downtown when I eat here. I can just see all these floating candles in the pool with rose petals and twinkle lights of different sizes all over the courtyard, loggia, pool area, and inside the dining room. David Tutera is there making sure all of the flowers, linens, DJ, cake, myself & my bridesmaids are all ready for a wonderful night… *sigh*… We can dream right? My friend and I love imagining our very own David Tutera wedding, and it WILL happen! =o)
To the important part: LUNCH. Katrina D. and I used to come here, before it was renovated, on thursdays or fridays for the dessert buffet. Yes all you dessert fanatics, they had their very own dessert buffet!!! Equipped with all of the essentials: mini crème brulees, red velvets, macaroons, mini chocolate cakes… you name it! Since then, they have done away with it, however, we asked our friendly and attentive waitress if they can bring it back, and we are not the only ones! So if you go here, and you should, ask for it back! It was a SWEET deal, $ 5 additional to your meal and you’re in heaven =o)
On this election day, it was pretty empty. This Dining room is located within the YWCA and is definitely a diamond in the rough concrete jungle of downtown on Richards Street across the beautiful ‘Iolani palace.
Now for the lowdown: Lunch is served from 11am-​230pm
Plantation iced tea: we both ordered this $ 4 drink. It was pretty steep in price however it was unlimited refills AND it was a perfectly balanced iced tea of pineapple and tea, just the right amount of sweet & tea flavor. (we had about four refills, yeah it was THAT good)
Seared Ahi Club Sandwich: This was one of the best sandwiches I’ve had in a long time. The Ahi pieces were huge and they were seared the way I liked it, tender and juicy. It came with a generous amount of avocado, tomato, and butter lettuce with some kind of mango sauce. I asked for the bacon on the side. The sandwiches come with your choice either fruit, nalo greens, and sweet potato fries. (There might be more choices but i got stuck after reading sweet potato fries) We both ordered the sweet potato fries. The fries were delicious, thinly sliced with just the right amount of crispness to it!
Katrina D. ordered the Kalua pork sandwich, which looked so yummy I might order that next time!
Service was wonderful, our waitress was this pretty local lady who called us «Sistas» and was super sweet. I love that! All in all I would recommend this place to anyone who has to have a lunch meeting, meeting with the gals, or even just a quiet peaceful place to lunch by yourself. We didn’t try the desserts here but i’m sure we will as soon as they bring the dessert buffet back! =o)

This place is gorgeous! My friend and I always fantasize about having our wedding and reception here all planned by the one and only David Tutera… hey girls can dream right?! The dining room has been renovated to have a more contemporary modern feel. I still miss the raised middle and 1920’s feel that matched the exterior building… but thats alright onto the food :)
We started off with pineapple tea and it was just perfect! Not too sweet with a strong pineapple flavor and a lemon wedge. I was surprised when the bill came it was $ 4! but i did get my money’s worth because it is bottomless and I had about 4 refills lol Before we ordered we were brought fresh fluffy rolls with a balsamic vinegar and olive oil dipping sauce :) yumminess… the rolls were sooo soft and warm straight out of the oven… drool. I wanted to ask for more but didnt want to ruin my appetite.
I ordered the kalua pulled pork sandwich with sauteed onions and a lilikoi cream cheese with a side of sweet potato fries. These potato fries were the best that I have had! very thinly sliced crispy on the outside and perfectly seasoned. The sandwich was amazing! The pork was tender and the lilikoi cream complemented the sweet bread it was on.
My friend got the ahi club sandwich with avocados and bacon with a side of sweet potato fries too (we love sweet potato fries!) let me tell you the pieces of ahi were humungous! I will try that sandwich next time: P
Over all service was great, my $ 4 pineapple tea was never empty and the sweet hostess was so kind to check up on us and ask how everything was. I was surprised that the dining room was kinda empty, we went around 12pm. This place needs more recognition! Also ask for the dessert buffet back! They used to have it every thursday or friday for only $ 5!!! Our server said a lot of people are asking for it so everyone be sure to ask for it back because the desserts were so decadent and most importantly tasted like dessert heaven!
If you are like me and like to look at the full menu ahead of time then you can go on the YWCA Honolulu website :)

Had lunch today at the YWCA Laniakea dining room.
This isn’t the first time I’ve been there but the most impressive. (the new chef must have something to do with this) Every time I eat there it seems the food is getting better and better.
Today we started off with fresh hot rolls straight from the oven. They were so good we ordered more. (Almost as good as the popover at Mariposa). All they need is a unique butter spread to match the freshness of the roll to take it over the top. We got balsamic vinegar w oil for dipping. either way get them! They are that good.
Then I had the fresh opakapaka steamed Chinese style with Asian veggies and rice. The fish was perfect and I’m critical of fish. It was nice a moist and flavorful. The Asian veggies were a perfect compliment to the dish. I’ll be going back really soon.
I finished it off with the (they have Mango or Lilikoi) sorbet and fresh cookie.
Meal was awesome and reasonably priced…

Would I remember what I ate here if I hadn’t actually photographed it?
Probably not.
Fresh, good, unremarkable.
Recently renovated, the space feels open and breezy though I sort of miss the raised seating area in the middle.
Have never left here feeling heavy, even after eating dessert.
Service while always friendly, was a bit, hit or miss.
A great little escape, serving well-​prepared, slightly jejune cuisine.
Losties check out my previous write up

One of the best places to get lunch downtown; I must be crazy writing this.
The food here is great, and utilizes organic ingredients whenever possible. The flavors are clean, and the cooking is geared toward being more health consciousness. I would reccommend anything that is on their menu. Plus, I believe on Fridays, their is a Dessert Buffet available. Keep in mind that the menu does shift daily. However, the food’s quality never falters. Café Laniakea is a better choice than the possibly comparable Town in Kaimuki.
The décor is very nostalgic of the old days of the Royality/​Colonialism. I just love that type of architecture in Hawaii. The cages on the windows really detract from the atmosphere, but oh well. Above all of that, all of the profits of the café go toward YWCA programs for womens’ issues.
Here in the YWCA, there is great food for the health conscious that is wonderfully delicious.