A year after fleeing Maui, the family behind Lahaina Tacos has turned a food court counter in downtown Honolulu into both a business and a shrine to everything they lost. Owner Pedro Haro and chef Ana Haro are serving up birria tortas and pork tostadas at Pioneer Plaza while keeping their father's memory alive through a Día de los Muertos ofrenda built from his photos and favorite dishes.
The restaurant found its new home after relocating from Maui, according to Hawaii News Now, which reported the siblings joined its Sunrise program to showcase their signature dishes alongside the tribute to their late father. Pedro Haro and Ana Haro did not start Lahaina Tacos themselves — their brother, Armando Haro, originally launched the business on Maui before he returned to Mexico, leaving Pedro and Ana to take over.
A Family Story Rooted in Tepic and Lahaina
The Haro family's roots trace back to Tepic, Mexico, where they ran a taco stand before moving to Maui in 1988, the station's earlier report noted. They settled in Lahaina in the 1980s and stayed for decades, until the wildfires of August 8, 2023 destroyed five family homes and scattered 16 family members across Oahu, per the same account.
That loss sits behind everything on the menu today. Pedro Haro has said the restaurant represents a shared family dream, one that connects their original home in Mexico with the new one they built in Lahaina. The tortillas served at the Pioneer Plaza counter are handmade using the same method the family's grandmothers used, according to the restaurant's own site, lahainatacos.com.
Recipes That Travel Through Generations
Those family ties extend well beyond the dough. “It's the exact same way that my mom made the tortillas, it's the exact same way that my grandma made her beans. It's the exact same way that my sister makes her salsa,” a family member told KHON2. The birria torta is seasoned with garlic, onions, tomatoes and spices and comes with dipping sauce based on recipes passed down from the siblings' mother and grandmother. Pork tostadas are layered with refried beans and fresh lettuce.
Lahaina Tacos opened at its Pioneer Plaza location on February 12, 2025, according to the restaurant's website, and now operates inside the food court behind the Bank of Hawaii on Fort Street Mall. The business runs as takeout only with online ordering available during business hours. Listed hours differ between sources: the restaurant's own site states Monday through Friday from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., while an earlier Hawaii News Now report had listed hours running until 3 p.m. unless the shop sold out.
Honoring the Dead While the Dishes Tell Their Own Story
This week's ofrenda carries particular weight. Pedro and Ana built the display around photos and favorite dishes of their father, who died three years before this year's report. Día de los Muertos traditionally begins November 1 to remember children and continues November 2 for adults, a period meant to honor departed loved ones, as Hawaii News Now's report detailed.
The attention Lahaina Tacos has drawn goes beyond this holiday tribute. Spoof influencer videos posted by Pedro Haro helped the shop add 37,000 new followers in about three weeks, a sharp jump from the roughly 1,000 it had gained over its entire first year, according to TODAY. A separate count from Honolulu Magazine put the Instagram following's growth at 1,000 to 42,000 followers, alongside a doubling of lunchtime-counter sales. The surge briefly outpaced the kitchen's capacity, with TODAY reporting the restaurant was forced to close early on at least one occasion after selling out of food.
One Small Business in a Much Larger Rebuild
Lahaina Tacos' relocation fits into a broader pattern among businesses displaced by the fires. More than a third of the 91 Lahaina-area restaurants, bars, snack shops and food trucks tracked by Honolulu Magazine have reopened or are working toward it, and more than three dozen eateries and bars had reopened three years after the fires — though many, like Lahaina Tacos, left Lahaina altogether. At least one other food business made the same move to Oahu, the magazine's roundup found.
Maui's own recovery math underscores what's at stake for small operators like the Haros. Before the fire, businesses in Lahaina generated more than $70 million in monthly revenue and employed about 8,500 people, according to a report from Maui Now. With 64 homes rebuilt in Lahaina and 290 under construction at the time of that report, focus has been shifting toward rebuilding the commercial district itself — a process that, for the Haro family, has already taken root elsewhere, one torta at a time.
