Legendary Chef Alan Wong Announces Return With New Restaurant at The Kahala Hotel

Alan Wong, the James Beard Award-winning chef who helped define Hawaii Regional Cuisine, is coming out of retirement to open a new restaurant at The Kahala Hotel & Resort this fall, the hotel confirmed Wednesday.

The still-unnamed restaurant will occupy the ground-floor space that formerly housed Hoku’s, which closed in 2023. Wong’s team is overseeing a complete redesign of the 4,800-square-foot dining room with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Kahala Beach and the hotel’s resident dolphins.

“I never really stopped cooking — I just stopped cooking for the public,” Wong said in a brief statement. “The Kahala felt like the right home for this next chapter. The setting is spectacular, and the hotel shares my commitment to sourcing from Hawaii’s farmers and fishermen.”

Wong closed his iconic eponymous restaurant on King Street in 2020, a casualty of the pandemic that devastated Honolulu’s fine dining scene. The restaurant had been a pillar of Hawaii’s culinary identity for 25 years, earning countless accolades and serving as a training ground for a generation of local chefs.

Industry sources say the new concept will be more relaxed than the original — a contemporary Hawaiian supper club format with a shorter, market-driven menu that changes weekly based on what local fishermen and farmers bring in. Expect signature Wong touches like his famous ginger-crusted onaga and poke-inspired preparations, alongside new dishes developed during his years away.

The Kahala Hotel’s general manager, Kelly Sanders, called the partnership “a landmark moment for the hotel and for Honolulu dining.” The restaurant is expected to seat 85 and will accept reservations starting in October, with an opening target of November 1.