A new restaurant called Me Lu Chinese Cuisine is planning to open in mid-September at McCully Shopping Center, bringing steamed buns, dumplings, wontons, noodles, rice noodles and soy milk to the breakfast table starting at 8 a.m. The concept doesn't stop there — Me Lu is building out separate breakfast, lunch and dinner menus, each with its own distinct focus, inside the busy Kapiolani Boulevard complex.
According to KHON2, Me Lu aims to make Chinese cuisine more accessible and help people in Hawaiʻi experience and appreciate Chinese flavors and traditions. Lunch centers on a small bowl concept, with individual portions of Chinese dishes available for dine-in or takeout, while the restaurant also serves traditional slow-cooked Chinese soups. Dinner shifts gears entirely, offering what the restaurant describes as a wellness-inspired Chinese hot pot experience.
A Growing Food Court Behind the Sign
Me Lu's arrival adds to an already crowded culinary lineup at the 36,158-square-foot, two-story complex at 1960 Kapiolani Boulevard, positioned near Waikiki and the Hawaiʻi Convention Center, according to a fact sheet from Go Hawaii. The center has long been anchored by Fook Yuen Seafood Restaurant, a Cantonese-style spot on the second floor known for its late-night lobster specials that has been serving diners for more than 25 years, per reporting from Hawaii Business Magazine. Its current owner reportedly adopted the Fook Yuen name in the late 1990s at the suggestion of the shopping center's landlord.
Beyond Chinese food, the center's roster includes CoCo Ichibanya Curry House, Pho 777 Vietnamese, Carp Dori Izakaya, Bozu Japanese Restaurant and Tadka Indian Cuisine, according to the shopping center's own restaurant listings. That international mix, paired with the center's proximity to both neighborhood residents and Waikiki visitors, has made it a steady draw for both locals grabbing a quick meal and tourists wandering a block off the resort corridor.
Another New Tenant Still Under Construction
Me Lu isn't the only new name coming to the complex. Hokkaido Penguin Honolulu Bakery is currently under construction at McCully Shopping Center and is expected to open later this year, though an exact date hasn't been set. The bakery's arrival mirrors a broader wave of food business expansion in the surrounding McCully corridor — last month, We Heart Cake Co. relocated from Kaimukī into a larger kitchen and shop at the nearby Kaheka Professional Center on South King Street.
The demand for restaurant real estate in the area shows up in the numbers, too. In July, an 807-square-foot turnkey restaurant space on the ground floor of McCully Shopping Center was listed for lease assignment at $150,000, according to a listing tracked by eXp Realty — a price tag reflecting how sought-after ready-to-open dining spots have become in the complex. Ground-floor units there typically come equipped with commercial grease traps, exhaust hoods, and liquor license eligibility already in place. The parcel itself is zoned BMX-3, or Community Business Mixed-Use, under City and County of Honolulu land use rules, a designation that permits the kind of high-density restaurant and retail activity the center has built its identity around, per the Honolulu Board of REALTORS.
Part of a Bigger Shift in Honolulu's Chinese Food Scene
Me Lu's format — soy milk and dim sum in the morning, small bowls at lunch, hot pot at night — fits into a wider change taking hold across Oʻahu. Chinese dining on the island has historically leaned toward Cantonese banquet halls and dim sum service, but Honolulu's food scene in 2026 has increasingly embraced mainland Chinese concepts like Sichuan hot pot and dedicated breakfast menus, according to Wanderlustyle. That interactive, communal style of hot pot dining has been expanding across major U.S. markets in recent years as diners look for more customizable group meals, as the Los Angeles Times has reported.
McCully Shopping Center sits within Honolulu Police Department District 1 and falls under the advisory purview of the McCully-Mōʻiliʻili Neighborhood Board, one of the city's official citizen advisory bodies on local planning and business matters. Open questions remain about the exact corporate ownership behind both Me Lu and Hokkaido Penguin Bakery, as well as Me Lu's precise opening date in September — details that may surface as the restaurant nears its debut.
