If you last walked visiting family around Kahala during the 2025 holidays, the streets will look the same this year and most of the doors will be in the same places. What's behind several of those doors has changed. The fine-dining room at The Kahala Hotel & Resort now carries Alan Wong's name. The Zippy's on Waialae Avenue has been renovated and reopened. At Kahala Mall, two shops traded spaces, and a Maui brand moved into the space one of them left. Most of Kahala's 2026 newness came from swapping and remodeling the rooms it already had.
For anyone hosting guests from Halloween through Thanksgiving, that cuts both ways. Your mental map of the neighborhood still works, but the hours, names and booking rules attached to it have changed.
Kahala's 2026 tenant swaps, space by space
Here's what moved where this year, starting with the spaces your guests are most likely to walk into:
- Hoku's → Alan Wong's. The Kahala's signature dinner room reopened under Alan Wong on April 8, 2026, and the resort's Sunday buffet moved into the same room.
- Zippy's Kahala → Zippy's Kahala, remodeled. The restaurant reopened July 7 after nearly four months of renovation.
- 33 Butterflies → Fighting Eel. Fighting Eel moved into this Kahala Mall space, across from Sephora and SoHa Living, KHON2 reported. The new store is 360 square feet larger than the old one, and it held its grand reopening April 17.
- Fighting Eel's old space → Waiwaolani. The Maui-based clothing brand opened its first Oʻahu store there on June 20, according to Aloha State Daily.
- Uncle Clay's House of Pure Aloha → Oakberry. Down the road at ʻĀina Haina Shopping Center, Oakberry Hawaiʻi held its grand opening June 13 in the former Uncle Clay's space. Aloha State Daily noted it was the brand's third store.
- New, but small: Vince's Cafe. This 307-square-foot carry-out counter next to CorePower Yoga at Kahala Mall serves Vietnamese-inspired food that the mall describes as rooted in family tradition.
The biggest name on the list is a returning one, and it brings the most rules with it.
Alan Wong's runs a five-night week
HONOLULU Magazine's opening-night coverage put the reopening this way:
"One of the most anticipated restaurant openings of the year is actually a reopening."
The original Alan Wong's closed on King Street in 2020 after 25 years. The magazine reported that by opening night, the new room was already booked two months out, with tables split between resort guests and longtime regulars. Wong brought back much of his old management team, including executive pastry chef Miya Nakashima and chef de cuisine Spencer Yamanaka.
The schedule matters most for hosts. The resort's Alan Wong's page lists dinner from 5 to 9 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. That's an hour earlier than the 10 p.m. close listed when the restaurant opened in April. Guests who fly in on a Sunday and leave Tuesday morning won't get a dinner seating at all. If the dinner is the point of the visit, plan the trip around it.
A few more details to pass along before anyone books:
- Reservations. Bookings go through OpenTable, which requires a credit card and asks for cancellations at least 48 hours ahead.
- Dress code. The resort lists evening resort wear, dress shorts, aloha wear and shoes or dress sandals as appropriate. Sleeveless T-shirts and athletic wear are not, though children up to 12 are exempt.
- Sunday buffet. At the April opening, HONOLULU Magazine reported that the buffet had moved from Hoku's into the Alan Wong's room. The Kāhala kitchen staff prepares it, with Alan Wong touches expected over time.
- The national nod. OpenTable named Alan Wong's to its 2026 Top 100 Hotel Restaurants list on July 14. OpenTable built the list from diner reviews and dining data covering May 1, 2025 through April 30, 2026. The restaurant opened April 8, so it made the list on about three weeks of service inside that window.
If your guests want the dishes they remember, the opening menu brought back the King Street classics. HONOLULU Magazine listed the whole tomato salad with li hing mui ume dressing at $14, Da Bag at $22, and the ginger-crusted onaga at $44. There was one new side, Hoʻokuaʻāina poi at $8, and one new dessert, Nakashima's banana caramel kinako custard "cream pie." Those were opening-night prices, so expect some drift six months later.
Zippy's Kahala fills the nights Alan Wong's is dark
The remodeled Zippy's on Waialae Avenue fits around that schedule. According to KHON2's report on the reopening, the restaurant is back to its regular hours, 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., Monday through Sunday, for dine-in and takeout.
That's the backup plan for Sunday and Monday nights, for jet-lagged early risers, and for anyone who lands late and needs dinner. Pacific Business News reported that the location had been closed since February for equipment upgrades and dining room improvements. Guests who remember the old room will find a different one.
The mall swaps work the same way for daytime plans. A guest hunting for an island-made gift can find Fighting Eel and Waiwaolani within one Kahala Mall walk. At Fighting Eel, the spring launch was a collection called Butterfly Ginger. For a quick lunch between errands, Vince's Cafe does carry-out next to CorePower Yoga.
Halloween to mid-November, by date
The holiday season around Kahala starts with two events on the same Saturday. Here's everything posted through the third week of November:
| Date | Event | Where | Time | Cost and notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sat., Oct. 31 | Mall-wide trick-or-treating | Kahala Mall | 4:30–6 p.m. | Live DJ, participating stores and restaurants |
| Sat., Oct. 31 | Howl-o-ween Yappy Hour | Plumeria Grove and Kahala O Ke Kai, The Kahala | 4–7 p.m. | $105 plus tax and gratuity; benefits Oahu SPCA |
| Sat., Nov. 14 | Sip + Shop holiday event | Kahala Mall | 5–8 p.m. | Ticketed; early-bird tickets on sale |
| Thu., Nov. 19 | Opus One dinner | Alan Wong's | Doors 5:30 p.m. | $975 plus tax and 20% service charge |
The two Halloween events overlap by about 90 minutes, which works out well for households that have both kids and a dog. The mall's trick-or-treating wraps at 6 p.m. The resort's Yappy Hour runs until 7. That event is a partnership with Oahu SPCA and DogTown Bakery, with a dog costume contest, live music, and adoptable pets from Oahu SPCA. A silent auction tops out with a one-night stay at The Kahala, and the proceeds go to Oahu SPCA.
Sip + Shop on November 14 is the mall's single holiday event of 2026, by its own description. Ticket holders get a free limited-edition event tote, and emcee Mana Vai provides live music. It falls on a Saturday, so it works for a visit timed around a weekend.
The Opus One dinner is the Alan Wong's room at its most formal: four courses paired with Opus One wines and limited seating. The resort applies a 72-hour cancellation policy, stricter than the restaurant's usual 48 hours. One small wrinkle: the event card on the resort page reads 20/11/2026, but the event description and the OpenTable booking both say Thursday, November 19. Go with the 19th.
Two holiday schedules still unpublished
Two pieces of the holiday picture are missing as of mid-October. Kahala Mall's events listing doesn't yet include a 2026 Santa schedule or holiday hours. The Santa page that's live now covers last season, which ran from November 22 to December 24, 2025. The holiday-hours page likewise covers November 29, 2025 through January 1, 2026. Both are useful for rough timing, but don't plan a guest's visit around last year's dates. Check the mall's events page once November starts.
The Kahala's dining offers page, updated in mid-October, lists Halloween and the Opus One dinner and nothing about Thanksgiving. This is the first holiday season with the resort's main dining room under Alan Wong's name, so last year's Hoku's Thanksgiving plans don't carry over. Dinner runs only Tuesday through Saturday, and the room books up quickly. If you plan to host a holiday meal there, check that page in early November.
The reliable piece of the season sits on Waialae Avenue. Zippy's Kahala is open 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week, including the Sunday and Monday nights when Alan Wong's serves no dinner.
Hosting guests this season often turns into neighborhood questions, like where the shop from last year went or which nights a dinner seating is possible. I'm always happy to talk about Kahala and the East Oʻahu streets around it. When it's your turn to plan a visit, or a bigger move, Mavis Nellas is a call away. Schedule a Free Consultation, and let's talk story.
