Sheraton Waikīkī Beach Resort has opened Hinahina on the Beach, a 250-seat oceanfront restaurant in the former Kai Market and adjacent Edge of Waikīkī Bar spaces. The opening restores the resort’s daily breakfast buffet after more than six years, according to Aloha State Daily.
The outlet reported that general manager Tetsuji “Tets” Yamazaki described the restaurant as a new culinary chapter and said guests had told the resort they missed the buffet. Hinahina is serving breakfast and lunch; dinner is planned, but had not yet begun at the time of the report.
A restaurant named for its coastal setting
Hinahina means “gray” in Hawaiian, a reference to the Gray’s Beach area. The Waikīkī Historic Trail says Mrs. LaVancha Gray established the Gray’s by the Sea boarding house there in 1912. That history offers a local frame for the restaurant’s name, but does not place every nearby historic site on the Sheraton’s own shoreline.
One distinction matters: the Historic Trail describes Kawehewehe as a sacred healing site associated with bathing in limu kala seaweed leis, while Halekulani Living locates those healing waters at Gray’s Beach fronting Halekulani—not on the shore directly in front of Sheraton Waikīkī. The Hawaiʻi Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands describes shoreline access as a common-law right shared by residents and visitors; that public access is distinct from entry to a hotel’s restaurant.
Tourism figures provide scale, not a reason for the buffet’s return
The Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority reports $21.75 billion in visitor spending statewide in 2025. That figure gives broad tourism context, but does not show Waikīkī hotel occupancy around Hinahina’s opening or explain the resort’s decision to restore its buffet.
A separate example of investment in Waikīkī hotel spaces: Aloha State Daily reported that public-space renovations at Courtyard by Marriott Waikīkī Beach began Aug. 15, 2025, while work on accommodations began Oct. 5, 2024. That was a broader project at another hotel, not a restaurant opening or a buffet revival; one example does not establish an industry-wide trend.
Breakfast, lunch and planned dinner service
Aloha State Daily reported that the breakfast buffet runs daily from 6:30 to 10:30 a.m. and costs $48 per adult and $25 per child. The build-your-own spread includes made-to-order omelets and rotating dishes; lunch is served à la carte from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Dinner service is planned for 5 to 8 p.m., with a seafood buffet scheduled for Fridays and Saturdays in November, according to the outlet. Hinahina is at 2255 Kalākaua Ave. in Honolulu. The resort has not been shown to have tied those planned services to statewide visitor-spending figures or to the history of nearby healing waters.
