Button Up Cafe, the Korean-Hawaiian-American brunch spot that's been feeding Pearl City since 2016, has reopened in a much bigger home within Pearl City Plaza. The new location seats 64 customers, a dramatic jump from the original space's 19 seats, and for the first time, diners can eat their loco moco without sweating through it, thanks to newly installed air conditioning.
The cafe relocated from the front of Pearl City Plaza facing Kamehameha Highway to a larger unit on the backside of the same plaza, according to Aloha State Daily. Owner Brian Park said the move solved two of the restaurant's biggest headaches at once: the lack of air conditioning and the seating crunch that had defined the cafe since it opened. The new address is 719 Kamehameha Hwy., Suite B106, in Pearl City, per the same outlet.
Anyone who tried to grab a table at the old spot knows the struggle was real. Food review blog From Pineapples documented back in 2017 that the original counter-service setup had just four window seats and eight two-person tables, a cramped footprint that regularly pushed customers toward long waits or takeout. That scarcity, paired with the cafe's growing reputation, helped fuel demand that the old space simply couldn't keep up with.
A Menu Built on Fusion and Excess
Button Up Cafe made its name by mashing up Korean, Hawaiian, and American comfort food into something dessert-adjacent for breakfast. Leeward Community College's student publication Ka Mana'o reported in November 2024 that Brian Park founded the cafe in February 2016 specifically to merge local Hawaiian favorites with Korean flavors. That fusion shows up in dishes like bulgogi sandwiches and Korean braised short rib eggs Benedict, according to the same report.
The current menu, as detailed by Aloha State Daily, leans into the same maximalist spirit. Loco mocos come loaded with two scoops of rice, a scoop of mac salad, two eggs, and homemade brown gravy, with options including the original loco moco at $19.95, a kalua pork version at $17.95, and a braised short ribs loco moco at $20.95. Other standouts include the crab cake benny at $21.95, the corned beef hash loco moco at $18.95, and a $20.95 pork belly plate.
Eggs Benedict dishes come with a choice of rice, fries, tater tots, potato hash, or fried rice, with a $2.95 upcharge for fried rice, the outlet reports. Kimchi fried rice runs $8.95, meat jun is $19.95, and the barbecue chicken plate is $19.95. Poutine fries, meanwhile, come loaded with gravy, cheese, green onions, and chipotle mayo, with a choice of french fries or tater tots underneath.
Dessert Disguised as Breakfast
If there's one thing that put Button Up Cafe on the map, it's the stuffed French toast. Ka Mana'o singled out the cafe's oversized dessert-style breakfasts, including a Stuffed Strawberry Cheesecake French Toast topped with whipped cream, graham cracker crumbles, and powdered sugar, as a defining feature that helped build its social media following. The current lineup, per Aloha State Daily, includes a double stack of gourmet sweet bread with assorted fillings, with the strawberry cheesecake and ube versions each priced at $13.50.
Park told the outlet that tiramisu French toast is a new addition to the rotation, and he's also announced that pancakes and waffles are on the way — though it's not yet clear when those items will actually land on the menu. It remains similarly unclear exactly when the cafe will shift to its planned seven-day schedule; for now, Button Up Cafe is closed Mondays and open Tuesday through Sunday from 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., with select lunch dishes available starting at 11 a.m. on weekdays and breakfast served all day. Park's stated goal is to eventually run seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.
A Strip Mall With Staying Power
Pearl City Plaza itself dates back to 1959, when it was built as a multi-building commercial center along what's now Central Oahu's busiest retail corridor, according to commercial real estate records on LoopNet. The plaza offers 100 total parking spaces and 521 feet of frontage along Kamehameha Highway, giving Button Up Cafe's customers relatively easy vehicle access despite the strip mall's mid-century layout. Consignment shop Lucky Penny Hawaii, which operates out of Suite B100, is among the other independent small businesses sharing the plaza with the cafe.
Public transit riders have options too. Transit routing data from Moovit shows Pearl City Plaza is served directly by bus lines 40, 42, and 51 along Kamehameha Highway, and it sits near the Skyline metro system's Kalauao Pearlridge Station. That accessibility, combined with the plaza's location along the route from Honolulu toward Central Oahu, has helped turn the cafe into a stop for travelers heading toward attractions like the Dole Plantation and the North Shore, according to Fast Food Club.
That same outlet reported this month that Button Up Cafe maintains a 4.6-star average rating across more than 800 online reviews, making it one of Oahu's most highly rated strip-mall breakfast destinations. A decade after opening as a tiny counter-service window, the cafe's move into a 64-seat, air-conditioned space suggests Park is betting that reputation will keep growing right along with the dining room. Customers looking to check in on the new location or place a to-go order can reach the cafe at 808-454-5454.
