Young's Fish Market Opens Second Location in the Second City

HONOLULU Magazine

Wow, Lau Lau—Young’s Fish Market Opens a Second Location in the Second City.

Young’s Fish Market, known for its tender lau lau and crispy roast pork, is opening a second location at Kapolei Commons in early 2019, making it way more convenient for its central Oʻahu and West Side customers to satisfy their Hawaiian food cravings.

“We were always looking to open another one … and the opportunity seemed right, with all the development in Kapolei,” says Daniel Young, president and CEO of Young’s Fish Market. “We have a lot of customers that are out there on the West Side, and we saw this as an opportunity to bring local and Hawaiian food out there. It just seemed like the perfect place for us.”

Young says the restaurant will serve just about everything in Kapolei as it does in its Kalihi location, including its popular frozen lau lau that is perfect to send to the Mainland.

The new restaurant—the 16th at Kapolei Commons—will span 1,800 square feet and feature a modern décor with a one-of-a-kind mural of lau lau and kalo by Pow! Wow! Hawai‘i artist Kamea Hadar. The restaurant, which will feature a dine-in area, is scheduled to open in spring 2019.

“It’s the first step for us into the possibility of expanding further,” Young says. “We’ll just see how it goes. We’re very optimistic about the location.”

Young’s opened as a small fish market on Liliha Street, next to Jane’s Fountain, in 1951. Owners Wilfred and Charlotte Young slowly started to add other items—groceries, crack seed, Chinese food—to offset slow seasons. Later, a friend suggested the couple cook and serve Hawaiian food, which is what Young’s is known for today.

The Liliha store closed in 2003. In 1956, the family opened a second location at the Nuʻuanu Shopping Plaza until 1983. A third location in the Kapālama Shopping Center opened in 1984, then moved to City Square in 2000, where it remains.

Kapolei Commons, which opened in 2009, is already home to 15 restaurants, including DB Grill, La Tour Café and Eating House 1849.